1925

Fearing to try beyond endurance the patience of an already much tried editor, your secretary can stretch his deadline no further but must turn, instead, to the unpromising task of writing a news column with no news at hand. The monthly envelope from Hanover had so few clippings in it that it needed only a three-cent stamp, boreboding, even before it was opened, another try at making bricks without straw. A few letters would be welcome indeed.

Ed Kirouac has been appointed to the newly created position of New York bank sales manager of the Burroughs Corporation. He was previously manager of the company's Springfield, Mass., branch Jud Large is president of the Central Telephone Company, with offices in Chicago. ... Bob Palmer is president of the Springfield, Mass., Rotary Club. ... Francis Brown was the speaker at the annual Founder's Day celebration of the Jones Library in Amherst. ... And a final clipping shows a picture of a chair in which, on closer inspection, it is seen that Parker Merrow is seated, exercising his functions as a member of the Governor's Council of New Hampshire. His father, Lyford A. Merrow, served in the same office in 1908-10, and in those days it was the custom for councilors to take their chairs home with them after having completed their terms. Parker brought this one back to Concord from Center Ossipee after a lapse of nearly a half century. He looks a trifle grim in the picture; the Council must have been debating pretty serious business at the moment, or maybe the old chair needs a new cushion.

And here are a few new addresses: Curtis A. Abel, 1695 Knoll wood Dr., Pasadena 3, Calif.; Edward C. Dodez, ] 102 W. Berry, Fort Wayne, Ind.; Howard W. Megee, General Motors Corp., 3044 W. Grand Boulevard, Detroit a, Mich.; Henry J. Octavec, 726 Green- briar Lane, Dallas, Tex.; Ralph E. Shineman. R.F.D. 1, Nassau, N. Y.; Eugene M. Callis, 2204 Walnut Street, Philadelphia 3, Pa.

Your attention is called to the Report of the Secretary in the "Fifth Report to a Great Class" recently distributed, and in particular to the problem therein raised as to what should or can be done by the Class in the way of helping its members who might find themselves in need. A committee has been appointed to look into this and report to the Executive Committee at its next annual meeting in November 1957. Prior to its first meeting, this committee is anxious to have as many opinions as possible from the class at large. Your correspondence is, therefore, solicited and you may write to any or all of the following: the Secretary of the Class; Jack H. Per-Lee, 1 Dudley Lane, Larchmont, N. Y.; Robert C. Rhoades. 51 South Pleasant Street, Hingham, Mass.; Frank B. Wall is, 21 Estabrook Rd., Swampscott, Mass.

A few days before these notes were written, and too late for the inclusion of obituarynotices in this issue, came sad words of the deaths of Neil Williams on December 29, 1956, and Buck Jones on January 2, 1957. The loss of two such men within a week is hard to take, but what they were to us in life cannot be erased by death.

Those of you whose memory goes back to Freshman English may recall that Wilder Dwight Quint's "The Story of Dartmouth was required reading. Its final chapter, entitled "Why men go to Dartmouth," provides an interesting example of how things have changed since 1914 when it was written and, at the same time, of how some things seem not to change at all. "Dartmouth's claim to the title of the national college is well founded," wrote Quint. "She has more students from outside New Hampshire than has Harvard from outside Massachusetts." A canvas of 381 students admitted in the Class of 1916 showed that 4.6 had chosen Dartmouth because of its location, from which the author deduced that "the glories of 'Dartmouth out-o'-doors' are beginning to impress themselves far and wide." That impression seems to persist; but then he adds "... fathers and mothers appreciate the situation of a college that has no easy access to the flashy fascinations of metropolitan evil." The fact is that Dartmouth's place loyalty derives from something more than mere inaccessibility for it has survived the loss of what was once called its magnificent isolation. The north country draws us because of what it is, not simply as an escape from "flashy fascinations." In fact, it competes with them successfully right in Hanover. Returning to the Class of 1916 (note to Bill Cleaves — no extra charge for this plug), of its 381 members, only 22 had fathers who had been to Dartmouth, but 141 had made their choice under the influence of Dartmouth graduates and undergraduates. And this is one of the things that has not changed: that whatever else mayspeak for Dartmouth, the men of Dartmouth speak best.

Secretary, 58 Winfield St., Needham, Mass.

Treasurer, R.D., Old Mill Rd., Chester, N. J.

Bequest Chairman,