1942
Does it seem like yesterday that you were cavorting about Hanover? Far be it from me to want to spoil your fond reminiscing, but last month Dartmouth College welcomed the Class of Nineteen hundred and fifty-nine. That's right, '59! Which is just another way of leading up to a reminder that the reunion for the Class of 1042 next spring will be our Fifteenth.
Despite their advanced age, '42's have been actively making news at a great rate. Mike deSherbinin, managing editor of the ValleyNews, the Leb daily, has been named to the Board of Proprietors of The Dartmouth. The Board of Proprietors is the governing body for The Dartmouth and represents the alumni, the faculty and the college administration in the operation of the nation's oldest undergraduate newspaper.
As anx undergraduate, Mike was assistant managing editor of The Dartmouth. After three years as an Air Force navigator, he became editor of the American Veteran's Committee Bulletin for two years. Then at the University of Geneva and the Graduate Institute of International Relations, he studied political science. DeSherb later was public information officer for the International Refugee Organization until it ceased operation in 1951. Upon returning to the U.S., he first became city editor and then managing editor of the Valley News. Mike and Polly and their brood recently moved into a brand new home in Hanover and we are told that they are holding perpetual open house.
The new president of the Edgcomb Steel and Aluminum Corporation, Hillside, N. J., is Harry Edgcomb. Harry joined the company in 1945 as a salesman and subsequently became general sales manager and then vice president in charge of sales.
Dick Fairman has been named product manager of stationary and marine diesel engines of ALCO Products Incorporated, formerly the American Locomotive Company. Dick has served in various sales and managerial capacities in New York, Kansas City and Schenectady since joining the company in 1946.
In California, Jack Harriman has joined the legal department of the Security-First National Bank of Los Angeles. However, Jack is only an outside choice in the '42 fecundity sweepstakes with three offspring (ages 10, 6 and 1).
The '42 doctors are much in the news, as usual. Bill Dorrance was released from the Air Force last summer and has opened his office in Wayne, Pa., to practice pediatrics. Jim Dietrich is practicing otolaryngology on Delancey Street in Philadelphia. For the benefit of the great unwashed among you who just don't know - don't bother to look up otolaryngology in Webster's Collegiate Dictionary ... 'cause it ain't there.
In Newton Highlands, Brad Thompson last summer opened an office for the practice of general surgery. For the last couple of years, Brad has served as assistant chief of Surgical Service at the Manchester V.A. Hospital. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Surgery, a member of the Charles River district of the Massachusetts Medical Society and a Fellow of the American Medical Association.
This past summer also saw more degrees being bestowed on our more learned classmates. Ed Leonard received his Master of Arts in Education from Tufts University. JohnWright, assistant professor of history at Transylvania College, got his Ph.D. from Columbia. The subject of his dissertation was RobertPeter and Early Science in Kentucky. Dr. Peter was a faculty member in the early years of the medical department at Transylvania.
Boston politico, Ed McLaughlin, currently a City Council member, has his eye on the mayor's spot in 1959 according to the grapevine. It seems that Mayor Hynes would be a little hard to handle this year.
New Hampshire diplomat, Bob Hill, ambassador to El Salvador, made an unusual trip last spring. He and his family drove about 3500 miles from San Salvador to Washington on the Inter-American Highway. Bob, a descendant of James Bowdoin, early governor of Massachusetts and founder of Bowdoin College, was named Ambassador to Costa Rica in 1953. Last year he shifted to his present El Salvador post.
Bill Hart, account executive with Batten, Barton, Durstine and Osborn. Inc., in Buffalo has been transferred to the Pittsburgh office. There he will be in charge of the United States Steel Homes, Inc. account. BBDO is an advertising agency whose home office is in New York.
Entrepreneur Jake Davis is well on his way to cornering the market for Cape Cod weather indicators. Bate Ewart was back from Africa and in Detroit shopping for an automobile. No more jeeps for him. Gardie Bridge still doing yeoman service for the College in admissions-administration.
The 1955 Alumni Fund campaign was a big success. The official total was $774,859.87, establishing a new record and topping the objective by $75,000 and 11%. About 80% of the total has been applied against current operating expenses. The Trustees have also applied $60,000 to the Daniel Webster National Scholarship Program and $52,300 to the Alumni Fund Scholarship Reserve.
Dartmouth didn't quite manage to break the "world's record" for alumni participation percentage. But our 1955 mark of 69.4% did tie the mark Princeton set earlier this year. Wait 'til next year!
Dick Lippman and his 45 assistant class agents did it again in '55. They squeezed out another Green Derby victory. That must make it three in a row for '42.
This year was the closest yet, however. Sixty of you came through with your Alumni Fund contributions in the last 48 hours before the deadline. The Lip's nerve pills gave out just as he found that '42 was the winner by only two points. In 1954, we won the Green Derby by seventeen points. Our number of contributors in 1955 was the same as in 1954. No improvement there. But the total dollar contribution was up about 10%.
The 452 contributors all deserve to share the credit with special bouquets for Dick and his 45 hard working assistants.
Last spring at the annual meeting in Hanover, the Alumni Council Committee on Class Organization came up with a new plan for Dartmouth Class Organization. It has now been officially adopted by the Alumni Council. Briefly it means that next spring at our reunion the class will elect an executive committee. Then this committee will choose a chairman, secretary and treasurer of the class. The chairman in turn will appoint the Class Agent, Memorial Fund Chairman, Bequest Chairman, Reunion Chairman, etc. This plan basically is designed to spread the work load, permitting more class activities to be efficiently carried out without becoming a burden. More news on this plan at a later date.
Let's be thinking about that fifteenth reunion next spring. Now's the time to start writing your long, lost buddies to get them organized for the big trip back to Hanover.
Three alumni in Hanover this summer for the annual Graduate School of Credit and Financial Management conducted at Tuck School were (l to r) Earle Robison '39, Larry Thompson'41, on the faculty, and George Mason '43. Paul Davis '46, also on the teaching staff for thetwo-week course, missed the picture.
Secretary, 1369 Stanley Blvd. Birmingham, Mich.
Treasurer, 385 Puritan Rd. Birmingham, Mich
