My 65 Years as a Class Secretary
"AN ADVENTURE IN HUMAN RELATIONS"
THE writer of this article does not recommend that '94 be followed as an example in having one class secretary for 65 years. Rather he commends the record of '99 in having had ten secretaries, mostly for five-year periods, in sixty years.
Ninety-four was fortunate in having no fight over its post-college officers such as was so unfortunate in at least two other classes around its time. A nominating committee, representing the three senior societies and the men belonging to no senior society, brought in a slate which insured a fair distribution. Why the committee hit upon me as its one nominee for secretary (and treasurer!) I had no idea, and as to what the duties were I was equally in the dark. In those days there was no Dartmouth Class Officers Manual, no Class Secretaries Association to get out such a guide, and above all no Sidney Hayward with his amazing oversight of the relations of alumni to the College.
Here are the class secretary's duties as outlined in the Manual which Sid edited in 1956:
1. Maintain class records, including as complete information as possible on the activities of each member of the class.
2. Maintain correspondence with all members of the class as much as possible.
3. Prepare class notes and obituaries for the ALUMNI MAGAZINE.
4. Notify the Alumni Records Office of address changes and other data on members of the class. Keep the proper offices in Hanover informed of class activities.
5. Arrange for class representation at funeral services for deceased members of the class, whenever possible.
6. Cooperate with the newsletter editor, so that all class news is given proper circulation.
7. Send out birthday cards, Christmas cards, or any other communications of this type which are used by the class.
8. Work with reunion committee to be sure that all necessary arrangements are properly made.
9. Follow through on arrangements for all special events, particularly by giving them proper publicity in the class notes in the MAGAZINE.
10. Attend Hanover meetings of the Secretaries Association.
Well, believe it or not, this is just about what I have done, or gotten others to do, for 65 years! (Barring of course the references to attending the Secretaries Association, which was born in 1905, and to the ALUMNI MAGAZINE, which recently celebrated its Fiftieth Birthday.) I tried to resign in 1919 — after 25 years. The 25th Reunion was less successful than the Twentieth and I felt that the time had come for another man to take the helm. But when I found that one man who I thought was least sympathetic with my work was circulating a petition that I continue and that otherwise there seemed to
be a unanimous protest against my giving up, I yielded — on conditions: That another man should be treasurer; that a biographer be chosen to keep and write records of the men; that men be chosen at each Reunion to edit the reports for the next five years. In other words I would continue as secretary if someone else would do the work! Then and there a long step forward was taken in the efficiency of my work.
For 25 years I had gotten out what were called "Reports" consisting mainly of letters which I elicited from members of the Class. The first was issued in June 1895, entitled First Class Report. Another Merrill in the Class (a cousin, by the way) mildly suggested a lack of modesty in such a title and you may be sure that "Class" was omitted in the titles of subsequent reports! Eighty-four out of 86 graduates wrote for this first report, and nine out of 33 non-graduates also responded. This lack of success at the very beginning in hearing from non-graduates is perhaps the reason why I have failed to follow them up more thoroughly as has been the custom in later classes. This failure I now regret.
I find that during the first 25 years I issued seven reports containing letters from the class. That these were issued under some difficulty is suggested by what I said in my foreword to the 1901 report:
Jimmie Townsend was good enough, in a note he wrote me sometime since, to express the hope that "the boys' delay is not driving you to drink." Well, it hasn't, but I have been on the ragged edge several times. And just here I must be allowed to express the humble opinion that there is absolutely no excuse for its taking three or four months to extract from 80 intelligent, law-abiding men a simple reply to a civil communication which a fellow human being addresses them in a two-cent envelope.
After the plan of having other men responsible for the reports went into effect, the number of reports increased and their quality heightened. To be sure they did their work with mingled feelings. For example, Blakely, in 1922, said:
For myself, I swell with pride when I think of the boys and girls of '94, and I want to hear all about them. It has been great to get so much in the letters and while I wish that there was more, nevertheless, here are a mighty fine lot of letters. They have come hard - some of them. I do not believe that Charlie Berry ever finds it harder extracting teeth than I have found it extracting letters from some of you fellows.
Each report had its own character, and features were added which would never have occurred to me. It was undoubtedly a relief to the men not to be hearing from me so often! The climax was reached in the final report of 1938-39, which was edited by Herbert Wilson who went after his classmates in somewhat the same way perhaps that he approached offenders in his police court at Fulton, N. Y. He secured a letter from every living graduate member of the class but one, with four non-graduates in addition. He also introduced the innovation of securing letters from the wives of deceased members, and he heard from every one of these.
At the 45th Reunion, in response to the suggestion from the editors of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE that the class take a group subscription for all its members, it was voted that this be done and that the class column in the MAGAZINE take the place of the Reports. Editor Widmayer's implication in the Fiftieth Anniversary number of the MAGAZINE that I have written a column of notes ever since that periodical began to be published comes near the truth, but I have now and then had a substitute by way of assuring that the class would have something in the MAGAZINE every month.
The plan of substituting the class column for the Reports previously issued seems to have worked well. I have tried to use letters from the men, or extracts there-from, as far as possible, and I imagine that I have not received quite so many personal letters because they realize that anything they sent me was not unlikely to be published! I have been agreeably surprised to find that month after month there was material at hand for making what seemed to be a reasonably valuable column. Once in a while it appeared that I had very little to say, and then something came along which filled the bill very well.
During the first years our deaths were remarkably few. At our 25th Reunion only three men had died; at our Fiftieth 55% were living. It was possible therefore to publish rather full memorial sketches, and during the whole period I have felt that it was quite worthwhile to give careful attention to this phase of my opportunity. It has been my experience that the men of the class have been drawn nearer together when they have been led to think of those of their number who have gone. In later years a memorial service has been held at each reunion at which a brief sketch was given of each member who had gone during the preceding five years. The preparation of these sketches, and also of the obituaries in the MAGAZINE, has been shared with other members of the Class. Personally the preparation of these sketches has given me particular satisfaction in that there was always something unique and indeed exciting to find in every man's life.
But the opportunity a secretary has to draw the men of the Class together through the written word is quite secondary to that which comes through getting the Class together at Reunions and Round-Ups. Ninety-four's two most successful Reunions were doubtless the Twentieth and the Fiftieth. At the Twentieth we had present seventy out of our 84 living graduates, "with four affiliated non-graduates for good measure," as one man said. To our Fiftieth came 36 of our living graduates, or 75%, with four non-graduates in addition. Forty-four was a war year, as everyone remembers, and we did not expect that we could have any Reunion at all. However, owing to the characteristic thoughtfulness of President Hopkins, we were not only invited to come back but we were given the Hanover Inn to ourselves. It was a perfect setting and no one who was there has forgotten it.
DURING the first years we were fortunate in having a sizable number of men in and around Boston. They got together frequently and the sense of fellowship in the "Boston bunch" spread throughout the Class. But our greatest good fortune came when Matt Jones, and his wife Grace, began to invite us to their home in Newton. This continued for 26 years until Matt's death in 1940. During these years upwards of sixty different men came to their home for an evening of rare comradeship and it served the Class the purpose that Dartmouth Night serves for the College. After Matt's death we continued to meet every year at various places about Boston until in 1952 Billy and Nettie Ames invited us to their home. Since then we have been the guests of individual members of the Class. This annual gathering in a home of a member of the Class for over forty years has cemented our relationship in a way not otherwise possible. Here I might comment upon my own good fortune, due to the fact that for many years my work took me across the country from coast to coast, in having been in the homes of nearly two-thirds of the members of '94.
Here, too, is a chance to speak of how heartily '94 wives have participated in our gatherings, as we have increasingly given them an opportunity to do during the years. Quite pertinent here is what Paul Jenks said after attending the Twentieth Reunion: "Finally, the better half (or halves) of the class appeared to be fully what '94 deserves; I could pay them no higher compliment if I would." Pertinent also are the statistics of our attendance at the Sixtieth. The total was 58, distributed as follows: Class members, 14; Wives, 6; Widows, 7; Children, 10; Relations-in-law, 6; Grandchildren, 11; Other relations and friends, 4.
We have had only two class presidents. The first, Edward Hart Safford, died shortly before our Tenth Reunion. When he went we expressed our feeling about him by saying: "His years, though few as men number them, were sufficient for rare development of poise, self-effacement and quiet kindliness. Ill he spoke of no man, whatever the opportunity. Ill no man spoke of him, for opportunity there was none." His intimate friend, Frederick C. (Ted) Allen, succeeded him, and served for 43 years, until his death in 1947. So much did we think of him that we did not want to elect another "president." Instead Phil Marden, chairman of our executive committee, has been acting in that capacity. If there is any man who has been my right-hand man during the years it is Phil Marden. He has written the accounts of our Reunions, edited Class Reports, substituted in the ALUMNI MAGAZINE, and never has turned me down on anything I have asked him to do. Moreover, his ability has been as conspicuous as his devotion.
Upholding my other hand has been William M. (Billy) Ames who for forty years has held the uncoveted position of Class Treasurer. He has extracted the necessary money with a minimum of pain and he has told us about it with a maximum of humor.
I have called the experience which I have now related "An Adventure in Human Relations." I do not know how this can be better expressed than in the following words of one of our Class who left us rather early and who had attained distinction in spite of severe handicaps. Alfred Bartlett once wrote: "I think we men regard ourselves as brothers in one large family, and I am sure it makes us feel that the world is a much less lonely place." Here you have the truth of the phrase "Dartmouth men never leave college." Here is the way that men can be bound to the College.
I am one of those who feel like summarizing their lives in the four words used by William Ernest Hocking: "I have enjoyed living." I hope I have made clear how significant a part of that enjoyment has been the fact that during 65 of my 87 years I have been permitted to serve the Dartmouth Class of '94 as its secretary and so have had a hand in making the world a "less lonely place" for a most appreciative group of men and women.
Charles C. Merrill '94 with Mrs. Merrill at the class officers' meetings held last month.
