1923
Illinois-Michigan House Party: Sumner andBettye Sollitt were the hosts for the 1923 reunion September 21-23 and to say the weekend was enjoyed by all would be the understatement of the year.
Several highlights stand out in the memory of those whom the secretary interviewed. First we should mention Major Bird's deer hunt. It seems that the Kimballs and Metzels presented Sumner a cast iron deer of large proportions at one of the latter's birthday parties. This was placed on the edge of the woods and could be seen from the house. Every morning our friend Major peered out of his bedroom window at this deer and was much puzzled by what he thought was an apparition.
Secondly, there are several conflicting stories going the rounds as to Sum's midnight swim while fully clothed.
Thirdly, Ted Swartzbaugh has a very interesting story for anyone who catches up with him concerning a midnight foray through Sollitt's barn yard and over the back yard fence in search of this deer.
A very popular place during the weekend was the new and very beautiful swimming pool and the Japanese Pool House renamed " '23 Teahouse of the September Moon."
Those in attendance included Ted Swartz-baugh, Bill Juergens, George and Ruth Whiteside, Major Bird, Bud and Connie Freeman,Bill and Dot Kimball, Bob Maxwell, Karl andMary Williams, and Warren and MarionCook.
Springfield Area Reunion: Babe Miner reports on this get-together dinner at the Longmeadow Country Club as follows: 1923 Fall get-together dinner at this club was held September 26. Those in attendance included: George Weston - proprietor of the Town Shop in Longmeadow where classmates passing through can pick up men and women's accessories and gifts; George Ferguson - now associated with the sales force of T. F. Cushing Co., electronic distributors; Harold McKenna - a very busy construction engineer; HowieBrown, M.D. - now medical director of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co.; GusRyan - operator of a book store at the University of Massachusetts; Dinny Pope —a paper wholesaler; and Babe Miner, M.D. - a surgeon and husband of Florence Miner, class poetess.
Fall Meeting of Officers and Executive Committee: The men with their wives began checking in at the Hanover Inn Friday forenoon, September 28. These included Charlieand Opal Marie Zimmermann, Irish and AliceFlanigan, Art and Edith Little, Ted andMarje Shapleigh, Bill and Dot Kimball, Truman and Bunny Metzel, Babe and FlorenceMiner, Sum and Bettye Sollitt, Clarence andPriscilla Goss, Chet and Barbara Bixby, PeteJones, Jim Broe, Colin Stewart, Horace Taylor, Jim Landauer, and Art Everit.
Meetings were held Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. Matters thoroughly discussed and acted upon included the following:
1. 1923's showing in recent Alumni Fund drives.
2. Future plans for the Skiddoo and the election of T. T. Metzel as editor, with S. J. Flanigan as associate editor.
3. Babe Miner's report on the recent bequest meetings in Hanover.
4. Men who have not been heard from by the secretaries for ten or more years.
5. Pete Jones treasurer's report. 6. Bud Freeman's 1923 Scholarship Report and planning for the completion of this effort.
7. Jim Landauer's watering trough report. 8. Midwinter reunion in February. 9. 1923's Memorial in the projected Hopkins Center.
Now for the extra-curricular activities: An invitation was extended to the sons of '23 and Arthur Quirk (the '23 scholarship winner) to join the men and their wives in a buffet lunch in the Ski Hut Saturday noon. A photographer was engaged to take a picture of those attending this luncheon.
A cocktail party Friday immediately following the meeting was well attended. JimLandauer issued a general invitation to all members of the committee and their wives to attend a cocktail party after the football game at his cabin which is situated on a hill overlooking the Vermont hills about halfway to Lyme. The view and the foliage were terrific and Jim again proved himself to be a very gracious host.
During the meeting Jim Broe and Art Little negotiated with Mike McGean for the weekend of February 16 for the annual 1923 Family Weekend in Hanover. Art, Jim and your secretary are heading up this reunion and will have the full program in the December issue. Keep this in mind - this February weekend in Hanover with your classmates makes an excellent midwinter break.
Through Lou Wilcox, Chairman o£ Dartmouth's National Enrollment Committee, Barbara and your secretary were named as delegates to the Eastern Enrollment Conference at Lake Morey Inn, Fairlee, Vt., September 27 and 28.
Lou in one of his speeches outlined what this admissions council is doing in states where Dartmouth's representation is poor. In Montana, where there has been no application for ten years, Lou's flying squadron found sixteen good applicants. Fourteen were accepted by Eddie Chamberlain and twelve are enrolled in the Class of 1960. Lou wonders if the free use of A. T. & T.'s telephone lines, which he enjoys through his capacity as personnel director for New Jersey Bell, had anything to do with his appointment.
Tommy Chambers came through in the late spring with some information on himself which will bring the class up to date on his goings-on. Tommy lives in Escondido, Calif., has a daughter at the University of California, has just returned with his Dad from a two-thousand-mile trip through the Pacific Northwest and attends all the Dartmouth affairs in San Diego including the visit last spring of the Glee Club. Tommy reports he saw Don Cobleigh at this concert. Don is organist and choirmaster at La Jolla Presbyterian Church in La Jolla, near San Diego.
If Walter and Martha Rahmanop think they have the perpetual honor of being the father and mother of the youngest class baby of 1923, they lost out last April ninth when Helen Baker, Dean's wife, presented Dean with a second son and heir. This young man, named Todd, will be a playmate for the other son, one "Biffy," - more formally known as H. D. Baker III. These young men are both registered for Dartmouth and will be in Hanover about the time we have our 50th. Dean issues a general invitation to men of '23 to visit the Bakers at their new home at 330 Newman Avenue, Rumford, R. I.
Howie Alcorn, a judge o£ the Connecticut Superior Court in Hartford, writes that court schedules are very confining and consequently he is unable to travel often beyond the confines of the state.
Belated information has just come to the secretary's desk of the death of Ruel Smith's wife, Helen, last May. Ruel is Eastern advertising manager for Time International.
Let's hope that when George Whiteside leaves his home in Janesville, Wis., this winter for a sojourn in Florida, he will not have a repeat experience of what happened to him last winter. George had a hip broken in an automobile accident in Pulaski, Tenn., on his way south and was flown in a Parker plane to Florida for a six-week hospital sojourn and three-month sun cure at Fort Lauderdale.
Twenty-five years of darkness is dispersed when Kit Carson wrote Bill Gratz a letter recently which brings the class records up to date. The story goes like this: Kit entered his family's business in 1923. The business is known as the Carson Hotel Supply Company and maintains complete food service equipment for hotels, restaurants and institutions. The firm is 68-years old. Kit worked through various branches of the business but has devoted most of his energies to the credit department. He was fortunate in having seventeen years of close association with his father, the founder of the business, whom he succeeded in 1940 as president.
Kit had always planned on his son, Bruce, succeeding him in this family business. But in August, 1955, three weeks after he started work on a full-time basis, Bruce was killed in an auto accident. This was a terrible blowto Kit who had seen this boy show great interest in the business. The boy spent one yearat Dartmouth but transferred to ColoradoCollege the balance of his college course.After finishing college quite creditably, hewent back to Dartmouth for one year inTuck School. Fortunately, Kit had a group ofyoung men in the business who are at presenttaking over responsibilities in a very encouraging way.
In reply to Kit's letter Bill Gratz answeredas follows and I quote:
My own life has been somewhat uneventful. In April of 1924 after finishing the second year at Tuck, I came here and started to work at the First National Bank of Saint Paul and have been here ever since. It is the only job I have had. I am now a vice-president of the bank.
Between learning salt-water fishing and then trying to become a light tackle salt-water fisherman, my spare time was pretty well employed until 1942 when I went into the Navy and spent from June, 1942, until November 1945 roaming in the Pacific. My timing was very bad and I wound up on a ship laying off Okinawa when the festivities ceased. Upon my return, having had ample time to consider my lot, I finally was able to convince a young lady that she should marry me and we were married March 1, 1947. Her name was then Margaret Leacey. Since then we have managed to get along together pretty well.
Somehow I have not found the occasion to get back to Hanover and, as a result, have not been very much in touch with class activities or the school's activities. Upon occasion i have seen Bill Kimball and Truman Metzel in Florida, but they are about the only ones outside of the local boys. I did see Eddie Lynch out in Honolulu during the navy days. Our classmates who were in this area have been pretty well disseminated. Lynch, Harold Bishop, Ches Sweney and TedGaver all have died, and Paul McKown now lives in California. There are not any more of our class around here.
A 1923 group on the Hanover Inn lawn during the New Hampshire game weekend, when the class held an informal get-together.
Secretary, 170 Washington St., Haverhill, Mass.
Treasurer, Marble St., Whitman, Mass.
Bequest Chairman,
