1930
It might be interesting to some of you some day to learn of the variety of ways in which the news is garnered for this column. The first news item in this month's issue, for instance, comes about only through the thought-fulness of a Dartmouth man of another Class, who sent along two large special feature articles in the Tulsa papers relating to the remodeling of the National Bank of Commerce in Tulsa, Okla., under the direction of MacMcRirney, its chairman and president. The letter accompanying the articles was complimentary about the good work of the bank, but even more of its modest president.
Another clipping from the Honolulu Advertiser is a feature article on the work that Bert Gross has done in ridding the Island of communicable diseases through Bert's Bureau of Rodent Control. Still in the far Pacific, Frank McLaughlin writing to Brud Crosier says:
"The other weekend I sliced up my foot quite badly with one of those modern power electric grass trimmers, and the Dartmouth folks hereabouts are now saying, in view of the fact that four other Dartmouth graduates (teachers at Punahou) sliced themselves up with power tools, they think Dartmouth had better give a "Do it yourself' course or a mild engineering course to all freshmen. I have recovered rapidly from my injury, which could have been far more serious, and I am now able to get around by wearing Jay's size-12 shoe on the injured foot and my own shoe (size 9) on the other.
"I must now prepare to go into court to wind up a jewel smuggling case which has been going on for approximately two weeks and is getting rather dull. It will conclude today, and I hope the jury will not be put out too long, for we are having some of our unpleasant but unpublicized Kona weather."
Frank's daughter Paula, now 17, is a senior this year and looking forward to college. The last we heard, Frank, a Democrat, was not clear as to his status as District Judge with the expiration of his term and hungry Republicans clamoring for his spot. Should anyof them be successful, Frank plans to returnto law work.
One of the most interesting and certainlythe breeziest letter of the season comes fromBrud Crosier who now lives at 823 NorthLincoln, Hastings, Nebr.
"It was certainly good to get your letter. I had hoped right up to the last that I would make the 25th, but the odds proved too great. Your report that my bulk was sorely missed around Hanover at reunion made good reading, and, by my blind acceptance of same at face value, prompts this reply. Of course even a letterhead and postmark from Vermont makes good reading to any New Englander transplanted to Nebraska.
"After tossing around between Washington and Boston for the first six months of 1954 in pursuit of a job, I finally landed in the office of the Comptroller of the Army at the Pentagon. About the same time there arose the opportunity to come out to Hastings as the Deputy Comptroller for the Naval Ammunition Depot. It meant getting away from the high-level planning (and the only time I had shown much success at that was when I went out with a six-foot-six girl in high school) and back to operating the office of a manufacturing plant, albeit a government one. Also, the thought of living again is a small community (Hastings 22,000) was attractive to every member of the family.
"Most people wonder what the Navy is doing in Nebraska. This is one of four large inland depots of the Bureau of Ordnance which support the dozen or more coastal depots. They are positioned to lend support in any direction and are of course less vulnerable than a coastal depot. Also space, which we use in quantity, does not command the premium here that it does in or near the coastal cities. I'm sure the original planners also felt that if something did go wrong the country could stand the loss of a piece of Nebraska, Oklahoma or Nevada much better than a piece of New England, for example
"Bob, a junior in high school this year, worked on a little ranch (about 80 square miles) this summer putting grass in stacks for the winter feeding of 5,000 head of cattle. Connie got in two years at Connecticut College for Women before I had to pull the plug on that program a year ago. She did very well there. A little rationalizing on my part made that decision easier; I simply harked back to some of the stories your old roommate Ellis Gilbert used to tell about his stops at New London with the glee club. Connie is now a laboratory technician for the pathologist at the local hospital and is tremendously interested in that work. Come February, however, she will be 21 and eligible then for the job of her first choice - that of an airline stewardess.
"Since, according to that excellent publication of Fran Horn's, I am the only Thirtyteer claiming residence in Nebraska, I feel a little responsible to report thereon. I can think of only two things that Nebraska and Vermont have in common. Each has more cows than people and each sends about the same number of Democrats to Washington. One gets the very definite feeling that this whole midwest area is a land of opportunity and growth, industrial as well as agricultural, and of continued appreciation of land values. The fact that land costs twice as much here as it does back East would seem to be sufficient proof of that.
"During the period when I was out beating the bushes for a job (see above) I saw and had the very important support of about a dozen of our leading and most loyal classmates. I am omitting all the names lest I forget one unintentionally. Also, if I were to start mentioning individuals here, the mental, moral and physical support each afforded me, and the effort that many of them made to get me relocated, I might have an attack of literary diarrhea (Pentagonese). However, the net result of the experience was the reaffirmation of my 29-year conviction that our class is made up of a great bunch of people."
In the light of the foregoing it is interesting to read this on a Christmas card which Jack Hodges sent to Brud which says: "Just for the sake of whimsy - Upon reading your writeup in the fine 25-Year Book, it occurred to me that a small (?) or large (?) section of the ground your installation is now on was farmed by my ancestors - and descended to my Aunt and me - until the Navy finally confiscated it around W.W. IX for what we considered a small price. Clay Country."
Good news for the Class - Vic Borella reports that Charlie Raymond is going to take over as editor of the Class Newsletter. You will all be hearing from him before long and if you want to get in touch with him in the meantime, his address is Jennys Lane, Barrington, R. I.
Al Dickerson was delighted in November to receive a postcard from Ham South showing a picture of Repulse Bay in Hong Kong and the message, "Greetings from Hong Kong; Al, fabulous place for a reunion. Hated to miss ours."
The Theater Network Television, Inc. recently announced the appointment of StanOsgood as Director of Production. Previously, Stan had been with NBC where he was in charge of large screen closed circuit television for five years and for the past year with NBC as manager of television film production. It is too bad you all couldn't see the brochure recently released by William L. Blanchard Company covering in its forty or fifty pages beautiful illustrations of the banks, plant facilities, warehouses, retail stores and similar construction projects which Bill Blanchard's company has handled for a wide variety of well-known companies. I would judge that the Company's operations, while centered around Newark, include metropolitan New York and eastern Pennsylvania.
Have you noticed the size of the fish that show in the picture of the Clint Aherns in the Twenty-five Year Book? I did because I'm used to seeing six-inch trout. Consequently, I wrote Clint a note which brought forth the following letter:
"Thank you for your letter. Lollie and I caught the sails at Acapulco in 1952. The really interesting thing was that they were a double strike and we landed both of them. Mine was 10½ feet long and weighed 126 pounds. The other was 9 feet long and weighed 88 pounds. Unlike Hemingway I had first landed the shark.
"I have never fished for trout, except lake trout in the spring at Lake of the Woods, south of Winnipeg. We used to do a lot of fishing there, always with the hope of a muskie, but I never even had one on the line.
"Dartmouth is having a rough time. A lot of points those first two games - they could have been used in the Brown game. I rather imagine that Blackmail is not quite as popular as before the scart of the season.
"We did not go back to reunion because I can be away from my business for only so long and because we plan to go back to St. Croix in the Virgin Islands the first of November for three weeks. We were down there last year and enjoyed it so much that we decided to return. Lots of beachcombing, shell-hunting - real relaxation."
Frank Kindermann, president of Kindermann Fireproof Warehouse, Inc. has just been elected president of the Bronx Kiwanis Club. Frank was a past president of the New York Furniture and Warehouseman's Association and the upper New York Warehouseman's Association.
The payment of Class dues continues to bring forth interesting items. For instance, Lou Goldschmidt is now secretary-treasurer of Imperial Builders, Inc. in West Hartford where they are turning former farmlands into ranch homes. He is also president of the Regal Realty Company, owner-operator of apartments, and as he says, "Praying for the end of rent control." Lou reports Steven, 12, is in junior high and Richard, 9, plays the trumpet "as the family matures and expenses mount. With three men against one woman, our family outings have been winding up at the ball parks in Boston and New York."
Congratulations to Mike Cogan recently elected a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology. We are sorry to hear from Norm McGrath that "Peggy, my wife, had a TB breakdown recently, has gone to Mt. Morris Hospital at Mt. Morris, N. Y." He says, "Any of her friends who care to, may drop her a line there. Daddy, Ned and David are holding the fort in Buffalo."
George Parkhurst merely remarked, "Reunion was terrific, thanks to the Committee."'
Boof Perkins reports with more than a little pride:
"In August my first grandchild arrived on the scene. He is Robert Stevenson Upton and his father is Gilbert Upton of the Class of 1952. Gil is the unidentified character who appears in the Perkins family-group picture in the 25th Reunion Book. Child, parents and grandparents are all doing nicely, thank you."
Milt Fleischman living at 421 Elm Ave., Larkspur, Calif., says: "Am now working for Uncle Sam as an Estate Tax Examiner in the San Francisco office of the Internal Revenue Service. (Formerly worked under Nelson Rockefeller in Social Security; now indirectly under Fred Scriber.)"
Hail to another grandfather, Hank Embree, who writes: "I'm proud to report that henceforth you call Ruth and me Grandma and Grandpa. Sue gave birth to an 8-pound boy yesterday morning at 8:25, and his moniker is Stuart Bruce Sinclair. Mother and son are both fine. They didn't lose me in the process, though I wore out a pair of shoes pacing the floor."
Getting back to the realm of business, the Blair Manufacturing Company, manufacturers of lawnmowers and related equipment in Springfield, Mass., has been purchased jointly by Mort Collins, its president, and Western Tool & Stamping Company of Des Moines, lowa. Mort had been with the company for eighteen years and became its vice president in 1940 and its president last year. Western Tool is the world's largest producer of power mowers and lawn equipment.
Another fellow in the Class whose business career has received a lot of publicity lately is Stan Davis in Brockton, Mass. The local paper in a feature article pays tribute to his ability and foresight in developing the BPM and Comet markets in Brockton and ap- parently a new west.side shopping center in the same city.
Finally, I wish all of you could see the picture in front of me as X dictate these notes. It's of our own Fran Horn as president of Pratt Institute pouring "for four campus lovelies who seek title as snow queen." The story goes on to say, "The student body was due to parade and whomp up support for the candidates yesterday but cold weather cancelled the plans." No Carnival queen here!
A LATE FLASH from Class Chairman VicBorella announces that the next Greater New York 1930 Class Dinner will be held at the Dartmouth Club on Wednesday, February 29. Vic added that bachelors could come free of charge, and he sounded as if he meant it.
Elected to the newly created post of Vice President for Public Relations and Advertising of Pitney-Bowes, Inc., Frederick Bowes Jr. '30 is a director of the Advertising Council and immediate past president of the Public Relations Society of America.
Secretary, Reading, Vt.
Treasurer, Boxwood Dr., Stamford, Conn.
Bequest Chairman,
