1937
The occasion most worthy of note on which I can report this month is the joint Class Dinner which will be held April 13 at the Dartmouth Club of New York. This year we are joining forces with the Classes of 1938 and 1939 in an effort to create broader interest in Class get-togethers. All in the metropolitan area of New York will have been alerted by mail of this event by the time you read this. And we certainly hope you will be on hand. Additionally we trust that any classmates who happen to be in New York that Friday night will feel welcome to join us.
This year we are inviting our wives to be with us, although the fact that la señota may not be able to make it should not deter you from being present. Our program will consist of cocktails from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. — which sounds like an alarmingly long drinking period - followed by a buffet supper and dancing to the strains of the record machine. We hope to have, all told, some 120 souls on hand.
As chairman of your Executive Committee and hence one who is charged with some overall responsibility for Class meetings, I thought it might be appropriate at this moment to make some comment on the subject. What we are doing in New York this year is in the nature of an experiment, but well worth a try, since our past records of attendance at Class dinners, even in an area as populous as New York, have been lamentable. I realize that there are relatively few cities in the country where anything resembling a Class meeting is even possible. Therefore, probably the best hope in most parts of the country is cooperation with the local Dartmouth organization, whatever it may be, in helping to arrange some sort of get-together once or twice a year. In the meantime, I will give you a further report on the affair of April 13.
And so, on to the personal items of the month: I nailed Dave Taylor when he was in my office recently. Dave had just returned from a trip to the West Coast where he visited San Francisco and then attended an industrial economics conference in Los Angeles. Dave told me he met Phil Swain at the conference. Phil is chief of management training for Boeing Aircraft in Seattle. I noted from the Aegis that Phil was a Mercersburg alumnus, a claim I share with him. But if he wonders why we did not graduate together, I should point out that I originally was a member of 1935, made derelict by the depression.
And to speak again of Mercersburg, I shall steal somebody else's stuff by lifting an item from their Alumni Quarterly on Sam Dillon. He and Beckie are reported to be the parents of four: R. Samuel III, Priscilla, Anita and David Harding. I also learn that Sam's father celebrated his 85th birthday last December. The Dillons are the owners of one of the largest orchards and packing and storage centers in the East.
Mort Berkowitz has hit the news again in the advertising world. Mort joined Woman'sHome Companion, one of the Crowell-Collier group of magazines, as advertising manager on February 1. Prior to his new assignment, Mort had been manager of national advertising for the New York Post.
Another nice note from Bibs Bankart reporting on the Boston Alumni Dinner, February 8, when '37 had five in attendance. Bibs reports Art Tucker as looking very fit, part of this fitness I gather being attributable to a weight-losing campaign. I could do a little waging in that direction myself.
Crawf Hinman said he had no news of note except that the baby business is good. Not planning any more European skiing junkets. Mark Amon was there, too. Among other things, he's just been named town counsel of Reading, Mass., Johnny Handrahan made the dinner, but Bibs says he did not pick up any notes from John since he and Monk talked incessantly. Albie Chester was supposed to make the dinner but was prevented by other business. He is now living in Lexington, Mass. Albie dropped me a card to say that all was well, and promised more details later.
I had a nice letter from Dr. Collie MacCarty, who is in the neurological surgery section at the Mayo Clinic. Collie, wife and two of the children spent January and part of February in Florida. He hopes the day will come when either or both of his two boys will be interested in going to Dartmouth, especially since they are both pretty good skaters and skiers. Collie is able to keep fairly close tabs on Hanover since his brother is a radiologist at Hitchcock Clinic.
Another young man, Don Miller, has a boy Bruce, 11, who is reported to be as good a skier as father. Don went up to Stowe, Vt., over Washington's Birthday with two of his children.
In the letter I had from Bibs, he made a reference to the political activity of DickCooper. I asked Dick for more and he confirms that this year his name will appear on the New Hampshire state-wide ballot as a candidate for delegate to the Republican National Convention. This marks a new high point in Dick's political career. For the past ten years he has been continuously engaged either as a county or state chairman and most recently as state finance chairman. Dick and Tom Mclntyre are also associated in a community television business. Politically, though, they are miles apart, because Tom has been a campaigner for Kefauver.
I called Jon Coggeshall a few nights ago because I had heard that he got up to Carnival this year. True enough, Jon and his wife and two children made it. They stayed with the Russ Stearns and their three children. Russ is a professor at Thayer School. Jon's brother, Allan Coggeshall, is continuing the practice of surgery in Greensboro, N. C., and still prefers bachelorhood. Jon is currently a consulting electrical engineer in Pleasantville, N. Y.
A news note about Bob Turner. He has just been named the finance consultant for the marine propulsion study of G.E.'s atomic power equipment department. Prior to that Bob was manager of finance for the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory. The Turners have three children.
The Hanover Inn welcomed a couple of '37ers in February: Phil Robertson and JackDevlin and wife.
I got a whole raft of address changes from the College recently - about fifty since last fall. Which serves to prove that America is always on the move. For instance, Lt. Col.Charlie Wolfe is in Bangkok, Thailand, "for a year or two."
For a windup, I have just two little items about money. You'll be thinking about money now anyway, since it's income tax time. The first: our Class Memorial Fund now stands at just under $5100! And the second: A message from our Class Agent Rowley Bialla, who asks that we carefully read the first explanatory mailing from Hanover about the Alumni Fund, and then that we make things as smooth as possible for the Agents by contributing as promptly as we are able.
As Assistant Director for Radio and Television of the U.S. Information Agency, Robert E.Button '36 (center) acts as host to two foreign Ambassadors visiting the Voice of Americastudios. G. L. Mehta (l), Ambassador from India, recorded a program in the Gujarati language; while Sir Percy Spender, Australian Ambassador, was a guest on a forum program.
Secretary 869 Hardscrabble Rd. Chappaqua, N. Y.
Class Agent, 120 Broadway, New York 5, N. Y.
