1940
This is being written in Hanover of a Sunday morning. It's the windup of the meeting of class officers which annually provides the refreshing stimulus of a return to the fountain of inspiration - the College. I wish you all could participate in this process of rejuvenation and reorientation at the place and in the environment that was for us and is still Dartmouth, changed as it is only by the positive needs of its dynamic purpose.
A year from now you will be able, figuratively, to get your battery recharged by returning to the Hanover Plain for our 15th reunion (after sixteen years out of College). So that you can plan those baby sitters well ahead of time, our reunion weekend in 1956 will start Friday, June 16, whenever you can get there. Plans are now underway to make our 15th the greatest yet! We will be returning with '41 and '42 this time, which will mean that many of your closest friends of undergraduate years will be reuning with you. Mark that weekend on your calendar now, and don't postpone the opportunity to make positive plans for joining the pilgrimage to Hanover in 1956.
You'll see some new construction started when you return. Practically no building has taken place at the College since Butterfield Hall was built as the newest dormitory, taking its place on Tuck Drive next to Russell Sage late in our undergraduate days. Now that the financing of the initial post-war objectives of higher faculty salaries and a stronger scholarship aid program is well along, the College Trustees have authorized some basic renovations and additions to plant facilities. These expenditures will give precedence to improved housing and feeding facilities for the student population and will begin with renovating the Thayer Hall dining equipment and complete rebuilding of the inside of Middle Massachusetts. Topliffi will be partitioned and re-compartmented to provide better quarters and to rectify in part the present overcrowded conditions in three-man suites, and a new dormitory will be begun to help meet the needs for a larger number of rooms for the current student body. Finally, new attention and purpose will be focused on the Hopkins Center, a proposed capital project which was much discussed right after World War 11. An early resumption of steps toward ultimate construction of this much-needed site for social and cultural activities for the undergraduates and the College community is planned. Dartmouth's long-range scheme for plant and supporting facilities is entering upon a new episode, and you'll want to get oriented anew to this modern Hanover; so plan your reunion trip now.
Just one more reference to reunion and I'll get to other news. During this weekend I chatted briefly with John Moffatt Mecklin, who, with 22 years as Dartmouth Professor of Sociology behind him at the time of our graduation, was the one to whom our Aegis year-book was dedicated. Many of you will remember his dramatic gyrations in his socio-philosophical lectures, or his erudite, somewhat difficult-to-follow address to us in Thayer Hall during our late 5th reunion visit to Hanover. He is an older man now, some 85 years so, and still difficult (for me) to follow - but the flashes of brilliance do show through still.
Seen here in Hanover this weekend: the Don Rainies, Jack Moodys, Sam Snows, and Jud Lyons. Bob MacMillen had come on to represent the Cleveland alumni. He and wife Crosbie, who had to stay home this weekend, recently made a junket with the Karl Bruchs and the Herb Fosters to visit Jim and FaithKuhns in Dayton, Ohio. The occasion was a celebration in houseparty form to reunite a trio which had roomed at Prof. Fletcher Low's house during their senior year.
"We completely nonplussed Dayton by debarking in the station wearing our senior jackets and carrying senior canes as well as assorted 'chubber' paraphernalia, such as canoe paddles, pack boards, etc. That opening set the tone of the weekend and we laughed continuously for the next two days. Having all approximately doubled our college weight, we kidded ourselves into thinking we looked' just the same fifteen years after! It was a wonderful tonic you can bet!"
Jud and Peg Lyons were hosts for the '40 contingent last night after a fine joint Wellesley-Dartmouth Glee Club concert. The Lyons returned to Hanover last fall after a year's leave in New York where Jud was teaching and studying the curriculum of Columbia College. With this experience, he is now supplementing his regular teaching duties in the English department with the extracurricular activity of chairmaning a study-group which is recommending basic revisions in the College curriculum. For example, the students may go on a four-course schedule, with election of a major beginning in sophomore year and more intensive study within the delimited course schedule. Contrast that with your own experience while an undergraduate and throw in the modern-day (?) reluctance on the part of the students to attend eight-o'clock or Saturday classes. You end up with a rather large problem in redrafting the curriculum and course hours.
Getting down to individuals in this month's news, we must tell of a chance meeting with Bill Reardon in the Pennsylvania R.R. dining car some weeks back. Bill had been in Newark to button up some last minute arrangements for his Philadelphia firm before he and Ginny were to sail for England where they are on business at this moment. Bill has been through a rough eight months since last August when he had what amounted to a brain hemorrhage. Two major surgical operations later and minus the sight of one eye due to blood pressure drop during one of the operations, Bill has recovered sufficiently to resume an active role in the large reinsurance firm of Towers, Perrin, Forster & Crosby, Inc., of which he is a vice president. He considers himself mighty fortunate to be around at all.
Aside from the foregoing, the news of the month is cribbed exclusively from the news clips so faithfully provided by the ALUMNI MAGAZINE office. If you ever have a change of address to report, or want to record the birth of a child or any other vital statistic, just drop a line to the Alumni Records Office, or the MAGAZINE.
Ike Weed, who is a leading light in the fashioning of antique pine furniture reproductions, is reported as the new head of the League of New Hampshire Arts and Crafts. Charles S. Thomas, Denver attorney and grandson-namesake of a one-time Colorado governor and U.S. Senator, was recently a candidate for reelection to the Denver election commission. After graduation from Dartmouth and the U. of Denver Law School, and following four and one-half years' war service with the Army, from which he emerged as a first lieutenant, Charlie has been practicing law in metropolitan Denver, serving as city attorney for a couple of localities and teaching law on the side.
We had two other candidates from the class during the recent election season. Derwood R.Frost, running unopposed to succeed himself on the school committee in Stow, Mass., has been a stalwart resident of that town for ten years, where he resides with his wife, Barbara, and two children, Sally and Ray, on his fruit farm. He is director of the Mass. Fruit Growers Association and president of a similar local group. Roger B. Conant Jr. was seeking reelection as a town-meeting candidate in Dedham, Mass., where Rog is employed by the Winslow Bros. & Smith Co.
Another staunch bachelor has fallen, or finally found himself, depending on your viewpoint. Robert R. O'Brien and Miss Ann Towner Hume, of Carmel, N. Y., have announced their engagement, but no wedding date has been reported.
Have a fun summer, and don't forget the 1956 reunion date!
Secretary, 322 Canterbury Road Westfield, N. J.
Class Agent, Minute Maid Corp., Plymouth, Fla.
