1925
If ever a class secretary sympathized with our forebears whose experience gave rise to the motto "vox clamantis in deserto," it was your secretary this month. Apparently he has not shouted long or loud enough. It behooves him, therefore, to reiterate with all possible emphasis that the clipping office in Hanover cannot be depended upon to furnish all the information which appears in these notes. We must look for news of ourselves from ourselves.
Progress and time inevitably are accompanied by address changes of which several have been reported recently. Jack Packard, recently assigned management responsibility for Treadway Inns' Resort Division, a new venture for this well-known company, has returned to his usual winter residence at Royal Park Inn, Vero Beach, Fla.; Holly Taft, Hemphill Noyes & Company, 744 Broad Street, Newark 2, N. J.; Gene Callis, 2131 Locust Street, Philadelphia 3, Pa.; Phil Evans, 576 Whitney Avenue, New Haven 11, Conn.; Lang Moffett, 27 Locust Street, St. Augustine, Fla.; and Al Wilson, 3100 Rodenhaven Drive, N.W., Atlanta 5, Ga.
Jock Brace, who already holds many directorships, recently was elected to the board of Stone & Webster, Inc., the well-known engineering firm. Dick Nye gained further national prominence as a yachtsman recently when his photograph appeared in Sports Illustrated with the following comment; "Richard S. Nye, ruddy-faced Greenwich, Conn., broker-yachtsman who skippered his 5314-foot yawl Carina to victory in Newport-to-Santander, Fastnet Rock races, last week became first foreigner to be awarded Sweden's Helmsman Medal, in New York."
Of particular interest to every '25er was the dinner for Dartmouth alumni from everywhere to honor Prexy Hopkins at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York on February 5, 1958. Serving on the national sponsoring committee, whose aim was to make it "the greatest Dartmouth occasion ever held outside Hanover," were Tom Gedge, Pete Haffenreffer, Preston Kelsey, and Stan Smith.
It seems to this incumbent that every member of the class should be informed (at least within certain limitations!) about classmates who help to guide the destiny of the class and Dartmouth. It is planned, therefore, to include in these notes, when space permits, a biographical sketch of a member who falls in this category. Ford Whelden, whose spirit and devotion to all that pertains to Dartmouth is so widely appreciated, gets the first nod in this program.
Ford Hopkins Whelden
So great is his devotion to the College, that if any man could be said to have a tinge of the Dartmouth green in his blood, it would be Ford Hopkins Whelden of the Class of 1925. Ford, who majored in English and was a member of Phi Gamma Delta, married Gertrude Darden in SufEolk, Va., on June 18, 1925. About fifteen Dartmouth men were in attendance at the wedding. Gertie and Ford have had four daughters. Gertrude Antoinette was born on June 15, 1926, and was the first girl baby born after graduation. A graduate of Connecticut College in 1948, she married Charles B. Hull III of Grosse Pointe, Mich. The Hulls have two children and live in Lancaster, Pa. Roxane Hopkins, the second Whelden daughter, was born December 17, 1928. She graduated from Smith College in 1950 and married Edward K. Isbey Jr., of Grosse Pointe, Mich. Ed, who graduated from Dartmouth in 1951, starred on his freshman football team and was a letter man the next three years. He received his M.D. from Wayne University in 1954 and is presently a resident at Detroit Receiving Hospital and a fellow at the Kresge Eye Institute. The Isbeys have two children. Gwynfa Viola, Ford's third daughter, was born in 1931 and graduated from Smith College in 1953; and the fourth daughter, Priscilla Darden, was born in 1942 and is in her second year at Dana Hall.
From 1925 to 1947 the Wheldens lived in Grosse Pointe. Shortly after graduation Ford became associated with the firm of Watling, Lerchen & Company, members of the New York Stock Exchange, and he remained with them until 1942. In April of 1942 he was commissioned a lieutenant in the United States Navy, and for three years was assigned to Gulf Sea Frontier Operations in Miami, Fla. After his discharge as a lieutenant commander in November, 1945, the Wheldens decided to move to Norwich, Vt. The move came in October of 1947, and in 1948 Ford was appointed special assistant under the Dartmouth Development Program. He served as director of research from 1951 to 1956, and since the latter year has been executive secretary of the Bequest and Estate Planning Program.
For 30 years, with the exception of the war period. Ford's chief avocation has been Dartmouth. From 1927 to 1938 he was secretarytreasurer or president of the Dartmouth Club of Detroit, and was chairman of the Interviewing Committee from 1928 to 1940. He served two terms on the Dartmouth Alumni Council from 1932 to 1935 as a representative from the Central States, and from 1935 to 1938 as a member-at-large. During these years he was chairman of the Bequest Survey and Bequest Program committees.
In the field of class affairs Ford served on the Executive Committee from 1935 to 1940 and from 1945 to the present. He was assistant class agent for Michigan from 1934 to 1941 and for the North Country from 1947 to 1950. From 1937 to 1940 he was class secretary, from 1946 to 1950 editor of the Twenty-Fifth Year History and Report, and from 1950 to 1954 class treasurer. Since 1951 he has been chairman of the Class Bequest and Estate Planning Program; and since 1954,. after four years as assistant to Milt Emerson, he has been head class agent with a superb record of accomplishments. He has been on the Executive Committee of the Friends of the Dartmouth Library since 1954, and has been chairman of the Membership and Finance Committee since 1955. He was chairman of the Sponsors Committee of the Dartmouth Summer Concert Series from 1951 to 1956, secretary of the Dartmouth Treasurers Association from 1951 to 1954 and vice president of the Hanover Graduate Club in 1954, refusing the presidency in 1955- He is presently a member of the Board of Stewards of the Dartmouth Rowing Club.
In Detroit, previous to the war, Ford found time for two other organizations. The Detroit Boat Club is the oldest boat club in America, and from 1938 to 1942 Ford was a director and chairman in various years of the Membership, Finance, Insurance, Findings, and House committees. He was treasurer from 1940 to 1942 and was about to be elected president when he was commissioned in the Navy. He was chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Grosse Pointe Unitarian Church in 1939 and became the chairman of the first Board of Trustees in 1940.
In fraternity affairs he was chairman of the Alumni Committee of the local chapter from 1946 to 1950 and raised the money necessary to repair the house after the war years. Ford has said "My first love has always been Dartmouth." This brief review of his activities since graduation certainly confirms it.
Ford H. Whelden '25, class leader and holderof many offices, is the subject of a profile in the 1925 class column this month.
Secretary, 225 Wyman St., Waltham 54, Mass.
Treasurer, R.D., Old Mill Rd., Chester, N. J.
Bequest Chairman,
