1898

It is a pleasure to us all to hear about a few of our '98 feminine members whose men are no longer with us. Fred Bennis' sister Ida, whom I saw in Hanover recently on her way south from her home in Sullivan, Me., is now at Lakeland Terrace Hotel, Lakeland, Fla., which was their winter home until Fred's death in June 1954. Her coming adds one more '98'er to this region, a source of comfort to your secretary.

Charlie Duncan's wife Charlotte has lived in Concord, N. H., since her husband's death in 1936 and has much to show for those later years as Dune would have been happy to see. Their three children show a professional bent. The oldest, Laurence I. '27, is an Associate Justice of the N. H. Supreme Court, lives in Concord and has two sons. His older son, Stuart '55, is in automotive business in Concord and the other son, James, at seventeen years of age, is busy at Proctor Academy. Eleanor, the Duncan's second child, like her mother, a Radcliffe graduate, is now Mrs. Walter P. Brockway. Her husband is a life minister for the N. H. Congregational Conference and they have four children: (1) Duncan, a graduate of St. John's, Annapolis and the Divinity School of Princeton University, lives in Windham, N.H., is connected with its Presbyterian Church and teaches in Sanborn Academy in Kingston, N.H.; (2) Barbara is now Mrs. John H. Perey and a Colby graduate; (3) Alan P. is an undergraduate at St. John's; and (4) Gerry, younger daughter, is now at Gould Academy, Me. Margaret, youngest daughter of our classmate, a graduate of Colby College and Hartford Seminary, is a pianist and wife of Howard E. Short, also a graduate of Hartford Seminary, who teaches Church History in College of the Bible, Lexington, Ky. They have two daughters, Charlotte, 14 years old, and Catherine, seven.

The death of Jack Spring's wife Eunice preceded that of her husband in 1953. There are four children: (1) John D. '25 is an active physician in Nashua, N. H., his father's home town, and is married and has two sons, John B. (Jack) - the 5th John of the family — who is now a senior at Dartmouth, a student in the Tuck School and headed for business; and David, twelve years old. The Springs second child, Elizabeth, unmarried, lived in the old home with her father through his last years, and is librarian in the Nashua Library (much in her manner reminds me of Jack). She is a part of her church and community, as befits Jack's daughter. Eleanor, the third daughter, is married and living near the old home. She has three daughters, Eleanor, Sylvia and Betsy. Eleanor is the mother of two very young boys, Jack's first great-grandchildren (the first was born just after he died); the second daughter with her draftee husband, is now located in Guam; and Betsy, eight years old, presumably still plays with her dolls. Richard, Jack's fourth child, non-grad. at Dartmouth in the Class of '37, lives in Rockland, Me., where he and his wife have a family of one girl and one boy. It begins to look as if a 60th reunion of '98, including all descendants, would require a larger space than Hanover Inn's old Ski Hut, so ample for our Fiftieth.

News has just reached me that Mary Mastin Crane, wife of Ich Crane, died December 18 in Brattleboro, twelve years after her husband's death. She was born in 1878 in St. Johnsbury, Vt., attended its Academy and was married to Ich in 1903. They had two daughters and a son, Elizabeth, Mary and Edward, all of whom most of '98 knew well as the entire family often came to our reunions. Mary Crane, active in the life of Brattleboro, where she lived, not only came to our class reunions, but she also visited Hanover with Ich, who came frequently in the business he carried on for the College. For many years after Ich's death she would take a look-in. This was a happening which your Secretary and Jeanne looked forward to annually, until recent years when health kept her from travelling. Few couples could have been more devoted to Dartmouth than the Cranes and they are and will be greatly missed.

Secretary and Treasurer 960 Broadway, Dunedin, Fla.

Bequest Chairman,