1927
I wonder how many of you have had an experience similar to the one I had last evening, when something that you see makes you feel that you are back in your undergraduate days and that the last 28 years must be a dream that never really happened. This occurred during a concert by the Glee Club, while the Injunaires were doing one of their specialty numbers, and suddenly AI Welty stepped forward to do a solo. If I hadn't suddenly remembered that Al never sang in the Glee Club, even when he was at Hanover, I would have been sure that time had been turned back at least to 1927. Of course it was Al Jr., as you doubtless have guessed by now, who along with the rest of the Glee Club does a magnificent job, and the illusion resulted from the fact that he looks exactly like his dad did when we were undergraduates. RegHorton's son Bob was also with the club, but evidently the father-son resemblance isn't quite so strong in this case, because I wasn't able to pick him out. If any of you haven't had a chance to hear the Glee Club lately, either in person or through the medium of television, you have missed a real treat - this is one organization that is doing a real public relations job for Dartmouth.
Over the past weekend I had occasion to be in Boston for a meeting of the American Gem Society, and in between the sessions of a very busy meeting I managed to see Bob Williamson, Les Battin, Jay Willing, Doane Arnold, and Rog Salinger. I'm glad to report that they were all well and happy. Jay reported very good advance reservations for the father-and-son weekend, which will be history when this gets into print. I'll have a report on it in the next issue of the MAGAZINE, for those of you not fortunate enough to have been there.
Dr. Lowell Wormley has just been named by the governor to the board of control of the Arizona State Hospital. After he graduated from Dartmouth, Lowell attended the Howard University Medical School, and received his M.D. there in 1931. He practiced for nine years in the Bronx, and during the war served at the Boston General Hospital. In 1946 he established a practice in Phoenix, Ariz., and at present is a member of the staffs of St. Joseph's, Good Samaritan, Memorial, and Maricopa County hospitals. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.
On February 22, George Washington Friede held a large cocktail party at the Hotel Multnomah in Portland, Ore., to celebrate his 50th birthday, and the 223 rd of his namesake, George Washington. Among the 300 guests was Dud Sercombe, along with many Dartmouth men from other classes.
Karl Herwig writes from Pueblo, Colo., where he has recently moved from Los Angeles. Karl is vice president of the Arkansas Valley Bank where he specializes in real estate matters, and is doing his best to help Pueblo grow by financing the construction of new homes. He says that he and his family are enjoying the climate and scenery in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, and that the welcome mat is always out for any members of the Class of 1927 who are traveling that way. Karl's address is 32 19 Quintin St., Pueblo, Colo.
The Class has a new representative on the Alumni Council, with the recent election of Bo Head to represent the Southwestern states. I'm looking forward to seeing him at the meeting in Hanover in June.
A letter from Win Rodormer written on March 19 announced that he was soon leaving for Sea Island, Ga., to open the Undergraduates Night Club which the Rodormer family has been operating very successfully for the past several years. In case any of you get any ideas about dropping in, I recommend early reservations, as Win says that they have been running to capacity and generally wind up with standing room only. He doesn't say whether or not it is a paying proposition, and I wouldn't be surprised that this is one business where the more volume you have the more you lose. However, Win is a department store man, and perhaps he has learned the secret of making up your losses on any item by increasing your volume. He has recently attended the freshman father-and-son weekend in Hanover, which he reports was more strenuous than he expected, but very enjoyable.
There was a Class Dinner at the Dartmouth Club in New York in March, which drew GusCummings, Hank Copeland and MarshallLovegrove from out of town, as well as the usual local contingent of faithfuls.
Dick Mather sent a card from Hot Springs, Va., where, as advertising manager of Pratt and Lambert, he was attending the convention of the Association of National Advertisers. Whether or not it was his intention to gloat over the underprivileged half, his card arrived in the midst of a late March snowstorm, so I decided that he had sent it maliciously.
I had a surprise visit from Bill St. Amant this afternoon, and wanted nothing more than to bend an elbow with him this evening, but due to my trip to Boston this column was already three days late and I just didn't dare put it off for another day. Now that you know the sacrifices that a secretary makes for the sake of his classmates, maybe you will loosen up with a letter now and then. Bill is very busy as Midwestern representative for Field andStream, with headquarters in Chicago, though I should think that anyone who was going to work for a magazine like that would get a job in the editorial end, where all you would have to do would be to dig up material by hunting and fishing, rather than in the business end where you have to work like anyone else. Bill said that he sees a good deal of Hank Orth who is doing a great job with automotive safety belts, those things that are designed to keep you alive if you have the bad luck to smash into something going fifty or sixty miles an hour.
Frank Cloran took a few minutes off from preparing income tax returns to drop me a line, which for an accountant to do at this time of year is a new high in devotion to duty. Frank says that in spite of the tempering influence of the Gulf Stream, which is supposed to make Cape Cod a winter paradise second only to Miami, they have had a winter of cold and snow like most of the rest of us. I wonder what he would have said if he had written his letter this week, after two or three days without electricity, following the snowstorm they had last Sunday.
Chuck Baker writes:
"I really was delighted to receive your birthday greeting on behalf of the Class of 1927. The 50th does seem to be quite an important event. You look back at all the water that has gone over the dam, and you think of all the things in the world that remain to be done, and say, well maybe this is only the halfway mark (if you have steam enough left to try and kid anyone)."
Most recent visitors to Hanover, according to the registrations at the Inn were CharlieBartlett, Andy Rankin, Bill Prescott, and John Wolf, the latter two with their wives.
A few new addresses: Thurlow W. Davis, 66 West 7th St., New York; Edwin H. Fowler, 233 Shawnee Rd., Merion Golf Manor, Ardmore, Pa.; J. Edward Knight, Superior Court Judge, Essex County Court House, Newark, N. J.
A short time ago I heard what seemed to me at the time to be a very good description of the Alumni Fund. As I have thought about it since, it seems even more to put into a few word's the true spirit of the Fund. It's this - the Alumni Fund gives us all an opportunity that comes to us all too seldom in our life-times, and that is the chance to repay something' that has been given to us in the past by giving the same thing to the generations that follow us, and in giving it to retain it, and in fact to increase our share in what we have already been given. When we remember that our own Dartmouth experience was only possible because of what the generations before us had given, and that we can't possibly pay it back to those who gave it, what better way is there for us to demonstrate our gratitude than by carrying forward the work that our predecessors began.
Secretary, Pine Hill Farm, West River Rd„ Perrysburg, Ohio
Class Agent, U. S. Steel Corp. 1221 Locust St., St. Louis 3, Mo.
