1931
Instead of waiting until the end of the column for the usual Memorial Fund plug, let's start off with a pitch in that direction. As announced in last month's column, CharlieMcAllister and 1 kept a breakfast date with Spence Miller and Red Rolfe at the Biltmore and discussed (a) results to date (which are not entirely scintillating); (b) the effectiveness of the present Fund set-up (which has been a terrific strain on Charlie); (c) possible reorganization (to accent local contact and to get a one-man organization back where it belongs as a class operation); and (d) there isn't much time left!
The sum and substance of it is this ... by habit and by desire, the various classes have built up a fund to be given to the College at the 25th Reunion. There in no need to burden this column with all the reasons for such a fund because we all know that without alumni support, privately-endowed colleges can't exist. There isn't a man in our class or any class who doesn't want Dartmouth to prosper; nor is there anyone of us who doesn't feel a sense of obligation to the College. However, there are times when we feel that another call for dough is going to be a proverbial last straw on the proverbial camel's back. There isn't any sense trying to wrap this thing up in a sugar coating. The Memorial Fund is another demand for money and each of us has to decide which of these demands must come first. We can't support them all; and I guess this is the time to decide whether something else gives way or whether the Memorial Fund is shoved to one side so that our bucks can be "invested" in some other place.
It's been mighty interesting to me to look over the list of Memorial Fund contributors and see the number of those who are contributing on the installment plan ... five bucks this month, ten bucks a couple of months from now, etc. It adds up! Some of those who are currently registered with major contributions have arrived at that point by laying a few greenbacks on the line at fairly frequent and regular intervals. Those boys are like you and me: we don't have a lot of spare dollars to toss around at any one time but between now and June 1956, we can make a very substantial contribution by putting one dollar on top of another whenever we think we can spare it. I feel sure that if I walked up to any one of you this very minute and said that I needed $5 for an emergency I would walk away with at least one of those government etchings of Lincoln. This is about what we are faced with now ... an emergency. Charlie McAllister can't do it all (although he has been doing a most tremendous job) and I am more than delighted to announce that other fellows feel the same way. When the first cry for help went out, Shep Wolff said that he would take over the New England territory, and just to tell you that Shep has agreed to handle the job is sufficient warrant that the job will be done superlatively. Others will be approached to take over any local or sectional responsibilities, and all of us feel very sure that the Class of '31. will do this job the way it's done every other job ... with enthusiasm and pleasure.
The ever-faith£ul Ernie Moore writes that the annual dinner in Boston brought together Ken Sampson, Dave Borkum, Johnny Benson,Johnny Booermeester and Dave Kelley. The ebullient Booermeester was being congratulated all around for his recent promotion in the John Hancock organization. The Boston papers reported that Adrian O'Keefe, First National Stores' Prexy, has taken over the heavy responsibilities of chairmaning the Bay State Cancer Crusade. Busy guys somehow or other find time to take on the big jobs. One of the "Bean Town" business sheets flashes a front view of Dick Chase over the announcement that he has been elected V. P. and Director of the New England Coal and Coke Company. It brought back old memories to see a picture of Bunny Bertram as he. looked back in 1931. This picture went along with a feature in the Valley News about Bunny and his operation of the Suicide Six ski operation at Woodstock.
We haven't run across Bill Phinney for a good many years so a picture in the Manchester Union Leader showing the former attorney general in full courtroom magnificence reminds me again that the guy always looked more like a king than an ace (pun over). I have just finished reading a long article in the New York Herald Tribune about some kind of Shakespearean festival that was held at Yale. About the only part of it that made any sense was the announcement that Charlie Prouty, professor of English at the Big Blue, was chairman of the event. Jim Rice has just been named administrative assistant to the senior vice president of Boeing Airplane Company. An all-too-brief typed notice from Hanover announces the marriage on February 19 of one Hank Govsline to Mary c. Knapp in Pittsford, N. Y. It seems to me that a guy taking such an important step could at least funnel the announcement through this pillar of publicity so that those of us who knew him when could join in the hurrahs.
Getting back to that Biltmore breakfast, it's always a pleasure to break bread with a railroad president, but I know Spence will understand my saying that I get a special kick out of seeing the big Redhead. We talked of many things but mainly about his new interest and responsibility as Athletic Director of the College. It will be heartening to all of you who have been concerned in recent years about the athletic picture at Hanover to hear that Red has taken the stand that Dartmouth alumni should go out after good athletes among the schoolboys "as long as they meet our academic requirements." There is no indication that Prexy Jack Dickey has countermanded this point of view or in any way disagrees with it so I guess we can assume that it's the college policy. Let's hope so anyway.
Spring is in the air and the sap is beginning to rise in the creaking limbs and makes a guy feel as though he is '31 again. Come to think of it, that's what we are. See you next month.
A ROUNDUP of resident and visiting '30 men in Hanover on February 26 produced a ten-man reunion at the Hanover Inn for lunch. Seated (I to r) are Lee Chilcote, Cleveland; D.ck Bowlen, Reading, Vt, Eddie Jeremiah; Class Secretary Alex McFarland, Boston; Bill Putnam, Lyme N H.; George Lord, A Dickerson. Standing: Charlie Widmayer; Bud French, New York; Horace Aliyn, West Orange, N. J.
Secretary, Lambert & Feasley, Inc. 60 E. 42nd St., New York 17, N. Y.
Class Agent, 720 E. Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee 11, Wis.
