1920

These notes are written in the face of a dearth of news and under the pressure of taking off on the long trek to Hanover for the Pennsylvania football game. I have seen very few Penn games for one reason or another, but I recall distinctly the game at the Polo Grounds in 1919. It was a real Donnybrook and I have vivid recollections of commandeering a taxicab, standing on the running board holding aloft a Red Cross label, and thereby getting safe conduct through red lights and so forth all the way downtown to get the splints with which to set Jim Robertson's leg which was broken in that game. As I recall, we won 21-20, but it was a bruising affair and several of our top boys were hurt badly and could not play in the Brown game the following weekend.

Dick Kimball and his charming spouse are on from California and we look forward to seeing them in Hanover at the Penn game.

Leo and Alice Ungar were on from Council Bluffs, Iowa, recently and it was our misfortune to be out of the city at the time. Their lovely daughter Barbara, a student at Skidmore, spent the summer in New York and dropped in for a visit.

On a recent visit to Chicago a group of Twenties, through the thoughtfulness of Laddie Myers, got together with me for luncheon at the University Club. Those present included Wally Schinz, Ed Curtis, Laddie Myers, Frank Corbin, Frank Mayer, Hank Spero and Nate Whiteside. Don MacKay was to have been present but last minute conflicts prevented. Stan Newcomer likewise was to have come on from Monroe, Mich., but other matters interfered.

The Kankakee, Ill., Journal, under date of July 20, gave Ed Curtis two columns as one of the outstanding business men of the area. The story reads almost like a Horatio Alger tale. Incidentally, it's the first time that I ever knew that this banker-financier had planned to become a writer at the time he was in Dartmouth.

You'll be glad to know that Frank Mayer's lovely Kay reached the semi-finals in the Chicago District Golf Championships this year.

I report with great sorrow the recent passing of Stan Newcomer's little granddaughter. I am sure I speak for all of us in extending our sincerest sympathy.

A note from Tommy Thomson, who coached the Armed Services track team which toured Europe this past summer, indicates a reasonable degree of success for his team, Tommy has finally become a tourist, bought a color camera and goes around snapping pictures of Brigitte Bardot, Gina Lollobrigida, Ingrid Bergman and people like that. The guy still has an eye for the artistic, or maybe should say for architecture!

An event not without significance to the world at large, as well as to Twenties, was H. Sheridan Battel's crossing of the 60th meridian. To those of us now reaching for the 62nd, the event may not possibly carry the same aura of importance as to the younger" set. In the case of Sherry, the event did not go unobserved. Elizabeth, often voted wife of the century, put out a blockbuster that will go down in history. Her invitation was couched in poetic meter set to the story of Hiawatha. So, in the good old Indian tradition, "Hiawatha" Baketel was the object of a surprise party. The clan garnered from near and far at the beautiful Baketel acres in Bryn Mawr and the last of them were still departing as the sun came over the horizon.

I presume that elsewhere in the ALUMNI MAGAZINE you will be brought up to date on the progress of the Capital Fund Drive. I think it is a source tremendous pride for all of us Dartmouths that the drive is right at the $10,000,000 mark (late September). This is far and away more money than a Dartmouth drive has ever raised before although it is still short of the $17,000,000 goal. However, everyone I talk to seems confident that the ultimate goal will be reached and exceeded. All this guarantees a finer, better equipped Dartmouth in the future.

As everybody knows, Sherry Baketel is Chairman for our Class in the Bequest and Estate Planning Program. This program has been moving along quietly but most successfully and is becoming a most important source of funds for the College.

In the overall program almost $2,000,000 has been received, of which $1,514,228 is in the form of bequests. Only the fiscal years 1927-1928 and 1940-1941 brought in bequests with larger ultimate realizations. In the number of new bequests (rather than the dollar total), the past year with 21 new bequests was the second highest in the history of the College, being surpassed only in 1956-1957, when 22 new bequests were recorded. Only in the past two years have more than twelve new bequests been recorded in a given year - this over a 188-year span.

The Bequest Program is beginning to bring in definitive results and proof of the great potential future. Of the 43 new bequests in the last two years, no less than 32 have been tied up with the Classes of 1900 to 1935. The other eleven have been bequests from Classes before 1900. Scores of Dartmouth men and their wives and relatives are now each year making provision for Dartmouth in their wills or in their life-time estate programs.

In looking at last year's figures we again find Dartmouth women taking a very major and important part in the results. Six of the 21 new bequests were from Dartmouth wives and daughters, and two of the six additional realizations were from a Dartmouth wife and a Dartmouth mother. In dollar total, the amount received from these Dartmouth women was over $383,000.

By the way, try to include a trip to Hanover in your plans this fall or winter. Time is marching on and it's later than you think!

A 1921 group in Hanover for the last meeting of the Dartmouth Alumni Council included (l to r) Don Sawyer, Pick Ankeny, Guy Wallick, Ort Hicks and Dan Ruggles.

Secretary, 350 East 57th St. New York 22,, N. Y.

Treasurer, Tuck School, Hanover, N. H.

Bequest Chairman,