1921

This is one of the times when the writing of this column for publication over a month hence is going to be a chore, because, come a month hence, several events will have taken place. In other words spring is going to be busy for Dartmouth and everyone concerned with Dartmouth. For instance, the 1957 Alumni Fund Campaign will be half over, and the Class of '21 will be up there giving all the other classes something to shoot for. Another event that will have come to pass will be — we presume - the publication of the perennial poem, (or does this date us as having reached the age of senility?) "Sprig had cub to Haddover." And so forth and so on. But let's get on with our business of reporting.

Your reporter couldn't make the Alumni Fund Kick-off dinner in Boston on March 27, and he was represented by his mentor, and predecessor, Reg Miner. Reg says the affair was a great success because, and get this, our Don Sawyer was awarded the James B. Reynolds Trophy as the outstanding Head Agent of a class more than 25 years out of college. This all in direct recognition of Don's work on the 1956 Alumni Fund. Eight representatives of '21 were at that dinner. They were - besides Reg and Don, Dick Barnes and Tom Norcross as new Class Agents; Russ Bailey and Chan Symmes as the veterans of several campaigns; Rog Wilde who had just airhopped up from a vacation in Florida, looking "brown and healthy"; and Dan Ruggles who served in his usual inimitable manner as toastmaster of the affair.

There will be better and more complete reporting of this dinner elsewhere, but just let me quote from the citation given to Don: "For two years now you have undertaken the almost impossible task of adding further strength to one of the strongest classes in the Alumni Fund. In the past nine years the Class of 1921 has won seven Green Derbies.... Your classmates and your College are proud and grateful for the added strength and vitality you have brought to the Alumni Fund and the Class of 1921." That's pretty nice.

In the first Fund report we find 22 members of '21 who have already sent in their contributions, (the Fund is hardly a week old, in its 1957 Campaign).

In the "new grandchildren department" - we find the Tom Norcrosses welcoming Linda Ann, the first child of son Bill who is at Parris Island on active duty with the U. S. Marine Corps Reserve. We are told that Tom and Rakey got so excited they had to take right off to drive down to South Carolina.

We hear that several '21-ers made it up to Hanover over the past month or two. The Chick Stiles, Frank Fosters, Frank Rosses, and the Bramans.

Here comes another report of grandparenting just in - the Bill Fowlers. They have welcomed a new granddaughter, Ann, born to young Dick (now with the USAF) and his wife Joan (Piane).

Had a wonderful letter from Werner Janssen who is still globetrotting in his role as guest symphony conductor. Werner said:

"It is difficult for me to speak of my conducting activities except to say that after guest-conducting the Baltimore Symphony this past week, it will be back to Europe for more concerts. Was in Canada, with Toronto Philharmonic this last summer - just a wandering minstrel."

Another recent large New England Dartmouth event, in which 1921 was represented with credit was the Dartmouth Glee Club Concert in John Hancock Hall, in Boston last month. As usual the '21 Bostonites were on hand, with Dan Ruggles even being seen in the box office selling tickets, after pretty well setting up the whole affair. There were close to 900 people present which was no mean turnout, and which certainly must have gone far to swell the Scholarship Fund.

One of the problems of news column writing is to try to keep it from becoming too provincial. As we look back over these scant gleanings we find that most of it concerns our immediate and nearby New England area. Not that we would want to attempt to minimize the importance of "God's Country," (New England, of course) as a news producing area of note and renown, still we know that Dartmouth and its loyal '21 sons — and step-daughters, and daughters-in-law - pretty well cover the globe. We know, too, that all these scattered '21-ers are making news the world over. It's so easy to pick up the 'phone and call Boston or New York, but when we start putting in calls to Timbuctoo, Antarctica, and the Fiji Islands, the bill at the end of the month would begin to look like the national debt. All of which means - come on, boys and girls, every one of you must have some sort 'of tidbits to report to your Uncle Charlie. And send along some photographs (glossy prints, the Alumni Office asks for). There are to be only two more issues this season — June and July, so let's fill them up with some real '21 news notes.

Have you sent in your reservations for room accommodations to Mr. Borden Avery at the Norwich Inn, Norwich, Vt., for our Brown game weekend, October 11 and 12? Their total capacity is 25 couples, so hurry, hurry, hurry!

The Memorial Book Program is getting well under way, under the able direction of Ort Hicks. We have been advised that a valuable first-edition copy of Herman Melville's "The Confidence Man" has been purchased for the Baker Library and given in memory of Maurice Townsend, George Forman, and Lovell Cook. The letter of acknowledgment from the Library expressed great gratitude for this valuable addition to their Melville Collection, made possible by the generous gifts from the classmates of those three men. More and more this idea is catching on, and the letters from the families of the'men memorialized - with their expressions of appreciation - are heart warming, to say the least.

Now, boys and girls of '21, North, South, East and West, let's dig down deeper than we ever have before on this year's Alumni Fund Drive. It's much more than being able to stick out our hairy chests and saying: "My class won the fur-lined cup." Franklin McDuffee said it - "...How can we be silent and remember the splendor and the fullness of her days!"

Secretary, 276 Gano St., Providence 6, R. I.

Class Agent, 200 Berkeley St., Boston 16, Mass.