1927
When I last sat down to write this column, which was just before I left for the Class Officers' meeting in Hanover on the first of May, September seemed a long way off, and the long, beautiful summer loomed ahead. But time has a way of flying by, and September is already here, and back to work we go.
If 1927 holds two fall reunions this year it will be no one's fault but your Secretary's. Somehow or other I had the idea that our reunion had been scheduled for the first weekend in October - the second and third, and so announced it in the last column. I also knew that it was the weekend of the Brown game, and no one was more surprised than I when the football schedule arrived a month or so ago and I discovered that the Brown game is to be on October 10, which places our reunion a week later than I had announced it. For the sake of the record, and in the hope that at least some of you will read this in time, I would like to state that the dates of the reunion will be October 9 and 10, the place the Hotel Rogers in Lebanon, that it will be a great affair, and that everyone who possibly can should get a letter off to the Hotel Rogers reserving a room. My sincere apologies to all who made plans based on the misinformation in the June column.
Pittsburgh continued to dominate the 1927 news in June, when Howie Mullin was appointed vice president - sales of the United States Steel Corporation. In his new capacity, Howie has total responsibility for the sales performance of Central Operations, which was formerly known as the Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corporation. Howie has spent his entire career since graduation with the "Corporation," having started as a sales student in the Gary works. He became a salesman in 1934 in the Chicago district, went to Milwaukee in 1938, then became assistant to the manager of sales in the St. Louis and Kansas City offices. He went to Detroit in 1941, in the same capacity, then returned to St. Louis in 1946 as sales manager of that office. In 1955 he moved to New York as manager of sales for the New. York district, and was transferred to Pittsburgh as assistant vice president in '955.
Bruce McKennan, on a visit to Hawaii in May, made contact with our two representatives in the 50th state, Nick Voorhis and BillNielson. Bruce made contact with Nick (or Bob, as some of us know him) after seeing his picture and a write-up concerning his talk in observance of Law Day in the Honolulu paper. Nick is Staff Judge Advocate of the Army in the Pacific, and has his headquarters at Fort Shaffter in Honolulu, where he has been since last fall. Prior to that he was in Japan for several years. His duties require much traveling to our bases in the Pacific and Far East Areas. He and his wife, Virginia have a son who had just enlisted in the Air Force; a daughter who is taking nurse's training; and a younger daughter who is starting college this fall.
The McKennans went from Honolulu to Kona, on the island of Hawaii, then on to Maui, where they had a visit with Bill and Dot Nielson. Bill operates the airport facilities on the island of Maui for the Hawaiian Aeronautical Commission. The Nielsons have two adopted children, Tim aged eight, and Margie, seven. It seems that until the McKennans' visit, neither Nick nor Bill knew that the other was in the islands, but both plan to correct that soon.
Bruce's daughter, Peggy, graduated from Colorado University on June 5, and on June 13 was married to J. Marshall Link. They plan to spend three years in Panama with the United Fruit Co.
Another San Franciscan, Brugy Bruguiere, was heard from this summer. He is editor of Western Advertising magazine, which he says doesn't offer much excuse for travel to the East, and as a result he hasn't had a chance to see how the other half of the nation lives for a long time. One of his daughters is starring in summer stock in Denver, the other is a vice consul with the U. S. Embassy in Rome, and his son is with the Army in Japan. He sees Roily Howes occasionally, and says that he seems fine.
Hank Murray is the author of a new play "Proposals at Geneva," which had its first presentation at the Dorset Playhouse, Dorset, Vt., on July 16.
The sailing Hitchcocks have been spending the summer again in Scandanavian waters. When last heard from, they were near Stockholm, having sailed from Copenhagen. You may remember that Hitch had a boat built in Denmark, and a couple of years ago went over to bring it back. However, they enjoy the sailing in that part of the world so much that they have left the boat there, and go over each summer to sail it.
Much of the news this summer seems to have been of marriages — of daughters, this time. Chuck Field's daughter Ethel was married on July 25 to Eldon W. Norton, in Westchester, Ill. Chuck's trip down the aisle was slightly hampered by a triple fracture of his ankle, suffered in a fall on the ice last February. Gordon Smith's daughter Elizabeth was married on May 2 to Donald F. Hunt. Andy Rankin's daughter, Laurie, was mar- ried on August 22, the name of the groom unknown to me at the moment.
The Class Dinner in New York on June 11 was a great success, to judge from the reports that have come my way. Unfortunately for me, my daughter's graduation from Connecticut College was at a time that didn't quite make it possible for me to be there. Cliff Randall's talk was interesting and inspiring, with much information about India, Taiwan, Egypt, and the Far East. There were somewhere between forty and fifty in attendance, and only the fact that so many of the Class were involved with graduations in their own families kept the number from being much higher.
To those of you who have written to me during the summer, thanks — to those of you who didn't, won't you, soon?
Secretary, 29150 West River Rd. Perrysburg, Ohio
Treasurer, Apt. 10C, 3908 N. Charles St. Baltimore 18, Md.
George W. Provost Jr. '27, president of the Doubleday-Hill Electric Co. of Pittsburgh, has been elected president of the National Association of Electrical Distributors. In June some 200 industrial leaders of Pittsburgh attended a testimonial dinner honoring him for this election and for his contributions to the industry. Before joining the Doubleday-Hill Electric Co. in 1948, Provost was engaged in banking for twenty years, serving in Dayton, Baltimore and New York. Among many non-business activities, he is a trustee of Western Theological Seminary.
