1927
This is the last call for the big Father and Son's weekend in Hanover, which, as you probably all know by now, will be held' on the weekend of April 29 to May 1. An interesting program is being planned by the committee, and while the details haven't been all worked out yet, due to the fact that this is being written early in March, the Speakeasy will carry news of the complete program. Watch for it. If you are planning to attend, drop a line to Jay Willing, 23 Leslie Road, Winchester, Mass., so that he will know that you're coming, and write directly to the Hanover Inn for your room reservations. A block of rooms have been set aside for us, on a first come first served basis. Remember that this is planned for everyone in the Class who can attend, whether you have a son in College or not, and that all members of the family are invited. We hope that it will turn out to be a great 1927 gathering, second only to reunion in attendance.
For some time the Chicago Tribune has been running a weekly series of articles entitled "The Road to Success." Each of these is a biographical story about a Chicago businessman. On February 26, the story was about Sykes Hardy. While most of us know at least the salient points of Sykes' career in the steel industry which led to his present position as president of Ryerson Steel, this article brings out some details about his pre-Dartmouth days which seem to me to be interesting. Inasmuch as the Tribune has a considerably larger circulation than this MAGAZINE, they can hardly be considered as personal secrets any longer, so perhaps Sykes won't mind my repeating them here.
If you have ever wondered where he acquired his nickname, here is the explanation offered by the reporter for the Tribune:
"Many years ago when he was in high school. Hardy played the roll of Bill Sykes in a play titled Oliver Twist, based on the novel by Charles Dickens. Most readers will recall that Mr. Dickens' Sykes was an extremely mean person, in fact he could have been rated as a first class 'skunk.' The youthful Hardy was so good - or bad depending on the qualifications of the viewer as a drama critic - in the role, that he has been known ever since as Sykes instead of Chuck as might be expected. Actually Hardy has nothing in common with Dickens' Sykes for he is a kindly and pleasant giant of a man, liked at once by everyone he meets.... When the youngster wanted anything he worked for it. There was the occasion he had a great yen for a cart. He got it by selling packages of bluing, but the persistence displayed in his door-to-door calls won him no favor with the neighbors. Later his father financed his purchase of a dozen hens and he made some money by selling eggs. He had a newspaper route and took on various odd jobs. He entered Dartmouth in the fall of 1923 and played on Dartmouth's championship football team in 1925."
I realize that this last item isn't news, but it looked so good to see the words "Champion football team" used in connection with Dartmouth that I couldn't resist.
An interesting letter from Bob Mix enclosed a picture of the Barde family, which Bob's son, Bob Jr., had clipped from the Stars and Stripes and sent to him, assuming, correctly, that his father would be interested in anything to do with Dartmouth 1927. Bob Jr. has been stationed on Kyushu Island in Japan since September of 1954, at Itazuki Air Force Base, just 50 miles across the water from Korea. Bob says that last year they bought a couple of acres with a new ranch style house thrown in at Woodbridge, Conn., which is one of the suburbs of New Haven. The Don Colbys have lived in this same suburb for several years, so Bob now sees Don much more often than in the past.
Lee Greenebaum, on February 2, was elected vice chairman and a member of the executive committee of Hertz Corporation, following the acquisition by Hertz of Lee's company, Metropolitan Distributors, Inc.
Bob Page, who will not sell you any insurance, but will counsel you on what you should buy from others, reports that while in Hartford recently he. attended a Dartmouth dinner, and while he saw some old Hanover friends, there were no members of 1927 in attendance, though Red Cleaveland and RonMichelini are pretty regular attendants at these affairs. Red runs a prosperous looking (according to Bob) department store in Torlington, and Ron teaches at Westminster Academy in Simsbury, including football and baseball coaching among his numerous duties.
George V. P. Marks is vice president of Iva Knitting Mills, manufacturer of tricot fabrics, with offices at 10 East 39th St., New York. (Is this the reason for the V. P. in the middle of your name, Van?)
Red Elliott paid a surprise visit to me last week, which was as welcome as it was unexpected. He and his wife Marjorie were in Toledo for a few days visiting his son Bob, who is taking a training course with Owens-Corning Fiberglass Co. Unfortunately Red waited until the last day before he let me know that he was here, so our visit was all too brief.
Twenty-one members of the Class of 1927 were in attendance at the annual dinner meeting of the Boston alumni late in February, which is a pretty good turnout, but evidently not as good as we have had on some occasions in the past, as there has been no news of our having won the attendance cup, a feat which we have achieved previously.
Hanover visitors in the recent past, so far as disclosed by the records at the Inn, included Kern Folkers, and Bill and Betty Cusack.
There are a few address changes to report: Hooker Horton, 275 Court St., Plymouth, Mass.; Ray Ring, 322 Beacon St., Boston, Mass.; Van Marks, 37 Winslow Rd., White Plains, N. Y.; Jim O'Leary, 45 East End Ave., New York, N. Y.; Frank Polachek, 11 East 87th St., New York, N. Y.; Bunny Barde, Navy 3923, Box X 64, FPO San Francisco, Calif.; Leon Loeb, Wellcome Farms, Rt. 2, Frederick, Md.; Frell Owl, Fort Hall, Idaho; Dr. Jim Mullen, 216 Glendale Ave., Lexington, Ky.; Joe Murphy, 12014 lowa Ave., Cleveland 8, Ohio; Ed Webb, P.O. Box 998. Lynchburg, Va.
It's that time of year again, and you will soon be receiving a call or a letter from one of our long-suffering and hard-working Class Agents. Last year we had 345 contributors. If we had had 395, only fifty more, we would have won the Derby. I'm sure that there are at least fifty of you who intended to give last year, but put it off for so long that the end of the campaign sneaked up on you before you had done anything about it. Why don't you make it a sure thing this year, and take care of it before it's too late? If you can't spare all that you want to give right now, send in whatever you can, and send some more later. That's the best possible insurance against missing out entirely on this great cooperative effort by all loyal Dartmouth men.
HEART FUND LEADER: Charles W. Bartlett '27 (r) is shown with Governor Herter ofMassachusetts, at the opening of the February Heart Fund Drive. He is board chairmanof the Massachusetts Heart Association.
Secretary, Pine Hill Farm, West River Rd., Perrysburg, Ohio
Class Agent, U. S. Steel Corp. 1221 Locust St., St. Louis 3, Mo.
