1936
The big '36 news this month is the acceptance by Al Gibney of the chairmanship of our 25th Reunion. This is a big job. Over 1,000 classmates, wives, friends and children are expected at our 25th, the greatest reunion ever planned for any Dartmouth Class. It's the greatest class, so expect the greatest reunion. And Al Gibney was the first choice of your Executive Committee to organize the entire program. We're fortunate he is willing to accept. Al, who is president of Gibney & Barreca Advertising Agency in Springfield, Mass., is eminently qualified for this assignment not only because of his executive ability, but also because of his interest and knowledge of the Class, which has never diminished from the day he arrived on the Hanover Plain in 1932.
Do you know what "organic intermediates" are? Well, that is what Spike Daniels sells. According to a house publication someone thoughtfully sent me from American Cyanamid Company, Mr. R. Wellington Daniels has, since his graduation from Dartmouth, developed this department of the big chemical corporation into a major producing unit with sales and service branches all over the country and a plant at Bound Brook, N. J., where Spike makes his home. Formerly salesman, recently sales manager, now Spike is manager of the Intermediates Department. Bridge fans will be interested to know that our class champion, Gil Balkam is playing his usual expert game for the Dartmouth Club of New York.
Bill Niss was in New York recently on business for the Bath Iron Works of which he is secretary and treasurer. Bill is a director of the Boy Scout Council that includes the northern half of Maine, which gives him plenty of room for working with the boys both in planning and in outdoor activities which he loves.
Dick Spong writes from Washington, D. C., "The change of address I sent you was merely a change of business address, and it's already obsolete. The new one is 1156 Nineteenth Street, N.W. Editorial Research Reports recently merged with Congressional Quarterly News Features, which was part of the occasion for the move. I do a daily feature piece for E. R. R. which is sent to about 275 daily newspaper clients. They can do with it what they want, and a good number are flattering enough to use it with my byline on the editorial pages. It's an interesting, educative, and comfortable job, which is fairly high praise these days, I guess.... Our latch is out, or whatever the expression is, if you or any classmates should happen to descend on the District." Dick and his wife Nicki recently moved into a new home in Westmoreland Hills, Md. That's where the latch is out as well as at 1156 Nineteenth Street.
"You Can't Take It With You," that grand farce by Moss Hart and George F. Kaufman, came to life again in Danvers, Mass., where Don Sutherland played the lead part of Grampa Vanderhoff, the eccentric head of the family. Don has been active in amateur theatricals and so has.his wife, the former Virginia Lawton of Melrose, Mass. Virginia did the ballet dance in "You Can't Take It With You." Don is leader in the Boy Scouts and other youth and church activities along the North Shore. He was recently named Personnel Director of Craig Systems, Inc. of Danvers. Craig Systems is a manufacturer of air traffic controls and other automatic devices for aircraft. Don had been associated with the National Pneumatic Company of Boston where he was personnel director and, prior to that, was on the personnel staff of Sylvania Electric Products, Inc. from 1942 to 1952. Don and Virginia have three children, Donald, James, and Virginia Jr.
Leonard Florsheim Jr. of Glencoe, Ill., has written, "The culmination of fifteen years of heretofore unrequited effort" and sent an explanatory photo showing the results of his wildfowl hunting. "Having shot heaven knows how many wildfowl without ever being able to get a 'honker,' I finally made it the other morning. Hence the photo. It was quite a thrill, and when he crashed through the trees, I thought I'd shot down a B-52!!"
With the photograph of Len Florsheim and his quarry in this month's news, I thought it very fitting to have a letter from a game warden. By coincidence Sarge Underhill, whom we have not heard from in years, wrote me a nice letter that brings us up to date on his activities. Sarge has the title of Director of the State of New Jersey Department of Conservation and Economic Development. He writes that game supplies in New Jersey are the best in years. Pheasants, quail and waterfowl are especially plentiful from wild broods, and these have been augmented with almost 100,000 birds raised on the state farms by youth co-operators. Sarge has combined the academic and the practical in his work with fish and game. He has conducted surveys for New York State and the Tennessee Valley Authority to determine the relationship of hunting preserves and potential to the water supply and other more technical factors. His natural interest in fish and game was first directed into practical research in the summer of his junior year when he received the Carolyn A. Fox Research Fellowship to survey the effect of forest cover on the acidity of impounded waters especially as it affected fish and other aquatic life in New Hampshire. This was part of his botany major. In 1943 Sarge married Lucille Diamond of Helena, Mont. They have five youngsters, three girls and two boys, aged nine to one and a half.
Stan McCoy is sales manager of the wine division of Galsworthy, Inc., Newark, N. J., a large importer and wholesaler of wines and liquors. Ray Reitman has recently been made president of this company as his father, Frank H. Reitman, was moved up to Chairman of the Board. Stan McCoy is a wine specialist. His sales division has the exclusive distributorship of Petri Wines as well as many German, Spanish, and other European brands. Stan has four children, Kathy thirteen, James ten, Susy eight, and Peter six, and lives at 659 Colonial Avenue, Union, N. T.
Two items of "foreign" class news are thatJack Squires is in Honduras supervising photography for films to be used by the United Fruit Co. Jack is president of his own company, Willard Pictures, Inc. in New York that does commercial films. In Toronto, Canada, Ralph Butler has been made director of Canadian T. V. and radio for Benton & Bowles, Inc., a large advertising agency.
It is interesting to learn from John VanB. Sullivan that radio, as an advertising media, has realized a complete renaissance in the past three years to reach its greatest audience in history. As an account executive (a Madison Avenue term meaning salesman) for W.N.E.W. in New York, John has played his important part in this trend. Spot radio sales is the key to the situation, and this is particularly true for independent stations. In private life, John, with his wife, the former Joan Dillon, is raising a family of four children: Rosemary seventeen, Amanda eight, Sheila six, and Michael five. All are growing up in Larchmont, N. Y., where the Sullivans and the Phil Gilberts are active in the Larchmont Democratic Club. John says the Democratic Club at present is "bloody but unbowed."
Have you heard about the epitaph of a hypochondriac: "See, I told you I was sick."
Len Florsheim '36, owner of prize Labrador retrievers, has photographic proof that he finally bagged his first "honker" after 15 years of effort in wildfowl hunting.
Ben Stein '36, operator of the Shields ValleyRanch near Livingston, Montana, was electedState Senator in his first bid for public officeagainst the Republican incumbent.
Secretary, 287 Rutleclge Ave. East Orange, N. J.
Treasurer, 753 Upper Blvd., Ridgewood, N. J.
