1923
This is the weekend we've been waiting for: elm trees are in bud as you (I) sit on the lawn in front of Old Dartmouth and listen to the fraternities do a sometimes professional job and sometimes a not-so-hot job in the annual competitive hum. If you haven't heard a hum since we sang by classes only, you have a treat in store for you. And the boys really put hours of practice into preparation; the general level is very high and would astonish such old gleeclubbers as Jeff Adams, Frank Jetter, and myself. The other day I ran across my college "Mem" book, back in a dark corner. In it was a copy of the Glee Clubs' contest in Carnegie Hall; we won it in 1923, as I recall, and did well the following year. It brought back a lot of memories, including rooming in with Jeff Adams when we sang at Windsor, Vt., on one trip, and coming home after the dance to find Jeff stretched out on one of the antique twin beds in that lovely home munching on peanut brittle.
Speaking for myself and one or two local '24ers, I think Butts has shown rare editorial skill, now that we've seen two samples of his magic. He knows now, by bitter experience, what the phrase "squeezing blood out of a stone" really means: it means getting his expals to come through with some current events on themselves. Again, and this is the last time this year I'll mention the topic, let me urge many of you to bring us up to date in some way. For some, we would appreciate just a home rather than a professional address; for others, including some who are very active in alumni affairs, we have little of importance in our files (this was true of DavePerry, for one); for others we have mistakes, some of which could be embarrassing, such as no record of a wife's death or a divorce or re-marriage. How's to take a moment and let us have even a postcard giving current vital statistics.
Last month Frank Sheehy made the "Wah-Hoo-Wah" column of distinguished alumni. He was listed as being named Headmaster of the Waltham (Mass.) Senior High School - a position of importance. Going back into the record, you may (or may not) recall him as a golfer and hockey player of note; he was an officer of the Intercollegiate Golf Association while in College. Also Sphinx and Green Key. The record is sparse of detail, but he was teaching biology at the Waltham High School in 1939, and was also golf pro at the Bass River Country Club, on Cape Cod. He earned his Master of Education degree from Harvard, went up the ranks at Waltham, completing his 25th year there in 1953. Reading what we do have in our files, it appears his headmastership came at the very end of 1953 or January 1954, and so the short-cheer seems a bit tardy, but very much deserved and genuine.
The birthday cards have given better-than-usual returns, but don't let that stop anyone from writing more. For example, StewShimonek corrects an old address; he is Dr. at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Shreveport, La., now. In his words: "Spent 1950-1952 back in the Navy as Chief of Orthopedics at Great Lakes Naval Hospital." Going back to private practice didn't appeal at the moment, plus the cold winters of St. Paul (I Know what he means, having spent almost an hour there one near-midnight trying to get the train unfrozen to proceed to Minneapolis), and so he headed for the warmer climes of the South, suh. Finally he says: "Have started a retreat (place-name deleted to protect the Dr. from milling thousands) to welcome debilitated northerners" — to all of whom he sends his "best."
Another long-silent voice - silent to me, at least _ was that of Win Nazro. Former overhill-and-daler when in College, then king of a banana ranch in Honduras, he came back to our industrial civilization in 1940 and has been with the Turner Construction Co. since then as a field accountant. That moves him about, within a general area, for he spends a year or less on a job in Massachusetts or Connecticut. His latest assignment has been to work on two new buildings for Smith College: a dormitory for eighty students, and a chapel. His son, Win Jr., is a corporal at Elgin Air Force Base in Florida; just starting, and three years to go. He claims there are no 1924 men in Northampton; seems odd - times surely change.
Another change of address, but without the story back of it. Dick Teel had been in Maine since 1950, and as recently as January was in Portland. But now he is in Lynn, Mass. Anyone have more facts? I don't recall seeing Dick since he was sleeping in almost anyone's room but his own in New Hampshire Hall.
Final tid-bit for this month is incomplete as my information seems to be inaccurately reported. A good angel in another class reported that Harry Mills has recently been elected as vice president in charge of General Merchandise, for the J. C. Penny organization. I gather that this is not too far off the beam but will have to wait for word from him when he returns to "his desk," as his secretary puts it. He rates an unofficial Wah-Hoo-Wah and so here it is; we go to press too early to have the official word for an official cheer.
The same angel sends me a tear sheet from Fortune for March; on Page 40 you see a good likeness of our Fred P. McKenzie, who is included as one of the "leading 'prudent men' who invest $450 million a year for pension funds." We all know him as a V.P. of the Hanover Bank, of New York (1952).
Secretary, 2 Brewster Rd., Hanover, N. H.
Class Agent, Cherry Lane, R.F.D. 1, Morristown, N. J.
