1939
Back once again to the newspaper clippings and the henscratches on cocktail napkins!
Great honor hath come, saith the Mamaroneck (N. Y.) Bugle, to Ole Bill Bailey. At least, I think it's our Bill Bailey, because the picture looks like him. But then, this fellow may be a ringer, for the Bugle says that he received his goatskin from some outfit called Dartmouth University. (It was, Bugle, a small university, but those who loved it lost out in the last of the ninth when John Marshall hit for the circuit with Choate, Webster and Mrs. Roosevelt aboard.)
To get back to our little story, after many years spent underground and underwater in the interest of the Raymond Concrete Pile Co., Bill has been called to the surface and made chief engineer of that internationally renowned firm of foundation diggers. Bill joined Raymond as a civil engineer after graduating from Thayer School in 1940. Among his accomplishments during the ensuing years are the refineries that were built so rush-rush and hush-hush at Curacao, N.W.I., during the '41-'45 police action. Serving as chief estimator for the company during recent years he has directed the preparation of many proposals for construction in this country and abroad. A member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Thayer Society of Engineers, he now lives in Larchmont, N. Y., with Doris and their two children, George William Jr., 7 years, and Robert Marshall, 7 months.
The walls of the Dartmouth Club bulged, creaked and groaned on the evening of January 6, last, when The Class of 1939 in New York foregathered for its first social evening of the winter season. Space does not permit listing all those who were not there. The ten (10) good-looking middle-aged gentlemen who did crowd into the first floor telephone booth to make the welkin ring were: Hugh McLaren, Al Tishman, Sam Thurm, Bob Kaiser,Dune Farr, Fats Harrison, Curt Anderson,Charlie Neer, Bill Carter, and this reporter. The group, though small, was select, and when, along toward midnight, the last Eclair was eaten, all agreed that it had been a real dandy party.
The following secret information was obtained at the meeting: McLaren, out of Syosset, L.I., is a slide-rule and blue print wizard for Vermilya-Brown Co., Inc., also internationally renowned constructors. When not changing dydies or building bridges, he is treasurer of the Dartmouth Society of Engineers and V.P. of the Syosset Civic Association. Tishman, in his turn, also is an erector, being vice president of the internationally renowned Tishman Realty and Construction Co., Inc. Among his many other duties, he is intimately concerned with the renovation and management of the famous old Indiana watering spot, French Lick Springs Hotel, which his firm recently acquired.
Thurrn is associate media director at Young & Rubicam, an advertising agency in New York City. Kaiser, as we reported to you recently, is jack-of-all-trades for Magnus Chemical Co., and Farr is an expert management consultant for the Allen, Hamilton Booze Co.
Anderson is still raking it in as president of his own company, Mechtronics Inc., manufacturers of advertising displays in Mamaroneck, N. Y; You know all about Harrison and Neer, except, perhaps, that the pair of them has become stage-struck. Charlie is playing the lead role in the sophisticated little drama, The Cashmere Front, written, produced and directed by Harrison for the Englewood (N. J.) P.T.A.
Carter is still a member in good standing at the N. Y. bar and makes his home in Madison, N. J., where he is now engaged in building himself a new house. (Many citizens of Westfield, N. J., have written to me complaining that in a previous issue I listed Carter as a resident of their fair city. Understanding their feelings in this matter, I offer my sincere apology.)
Writer of the month is Miss Florence Lowe who, on December 26, 1954, devoted many inches in the Manchester (N. H.) UnionLeader to the story of her visit with the United States Information Agency's cultural affairs officer from Madras, India, the cultured Dr. Everett M. Woodman. Ev's postDartmouth history, I learn second hand, includes a Ph.D. in education at Boston University and then the realization of many a man's youthful ambition, appointment to the faculty at Colby Junior College. After some exposure to the various aspects of our American culture discernible at New London, Ev joined U.S.I.A. and went to Paris to explain us to the natives. Then followed travelling all over southern Injuh, "lecturing at most of the area's 120 colleges" (a very cultured place, Injuh!) and "speaking before all kinds of groups . . . spreading the American story to counteract the barrage of Communist propaganda with which that country is deluged." Miss Lowe reports that none other than Nehru himself was among those who came under Ev's spell. Ev is now in Washington, reporting on his experiences, and awaiting reassignment to some other part of the world. Waiting with him are wife Ruth, and daughters Betsy (8), Lee (6) and Jane (2), who was born in Madras.
Denver may have lost a football coach, but it has gained a distinguished new law firm. Edward G. Knowles, Richard H. Shaw and Clayton D. Knowles have announced the formation of a partnership for the general practice of law under the firm name of Knowles and Shaw, effective January 1, 1955.
Every now and then Bill Cunningham, public relations man for the Bronx Savings Bank, calls to keep us posted on current affairs north of the Harlem River. Latest news is that Bud Clifford is the high mogul for the Bell System in the Bronx, responsible for all the wires, polls, conduits, telephones, and probably telephone operators in that teeming borough. Because of the nature of Bill's call, the man in charge up in the Bronx arranged for it to come through without the usual ten cent charge.
Indicative of the thoroughness with which this column is read, is the vast number of letters which I did not receive from classmates when I reported herein that one, John Hoasdi, was among those '39ers affluent enough to have rocked on the Hanover Inn porch recently. My invisible correspondents will be happy to learn that further research has indicated that Bro. Hoasdi is not now and apparently has not been during the memory of living man, a member of the class of '39.
I shall now report to you that during the last previous full lunar month, Colin Churchill came up from Baltimore and Ken Weidaw came over from Portland, Me., to rock on that same porch, despite the subzero temperatures.
It will not be necessary for you to write me; both gentlemen are, I assure you, members in good standing.
Secretary, American Bankers Association 12 East 36 th St., New York 16, N. Y.
Treasurer, Irving Trust Co., 57th St. at Madison New York 22, N. Y.
