1921
With a new wife, aged only thirty, from North Africa and her two young Frenchspeaking children, Bob Wilson, aged sixty, now in Japan for two years, will converse only in French, although Mrs. Wilson can express herself in English and is fluent in Arabic. The ceremony took place in Washington, Sept. 16, 1959. Bob's first marriage to Virginia Chalmers terminated in divorce in 1948. French Tunisian, the bride, Nelly Helene White, was previously married at the age of sixteen to an Arkansas hillbilly whom she met in 1946 while American occupation troops were stationed in Africa. Shortly after when she first set foot on American soil, she could not speak a word of English. Two children were born in Texas within two years, daughters, Jacqueline and Claudia; and within six years the marriage was on the rocks. Bob Wilson and Nelly had only a week's honeymoon before he had to take off for the Far East, but she and the little girls were to follow as soon as possible. At the time of all this strain and stress Bob's mother in Fitchburg, Mass., to whom he was devoted, finally died, but not until she had had both legs amputated and recovered to live on with that intensity of drive inherited by her son. Putting in some 10,000 miles by car between Fitchburg, Washington, and California, Bob writes, "At least I cannot be called static." Then, his marriage in mind, he observes, "Thank God for my genes and for my neuroses." With proud defiance he describes himself as "a stirrer-up of 1921 men dedicated to the bovine life." Every nerve strained to the utmost, Bob, who found something better than gold at the end of the rainbow, is happy to become what he himself calls a greater gambler than he has ever been before in his gambling life. And with that throwing down his philoprogenitive glove at the feet of Chuck Moreau, Bob warns him about the transitoriness of paternal laurel crowns.
Bob Wilson is not the only new bridegroom. The year 1959 has been exciting too for Marshall Exnicios. On February 25 he married Catherine Rogers, Smith '23, and escorted her on a four-month honeymoon in Italy, France, and England. Returning, they took up residence in Wind Rose Cottage, Watch Hill, R. I., and expect to spend the cold months at Blythwood, Warrenton, Va. The reason why Marshall has not been able to keep up his friendships vith 1921 men since World War II is that from 1948-50 he was stationed in Greece and Germany as a Department of State representative and then some three years in charge of the Economic Section of the American Embassy in Korea. The present marriage is Marshall's third. His first wife, Elinor Wheeler, whom he married in 1925, died in 1940. His second, whom he married in Washington in 1955, a widow, Mrs. Juan M. Ceballos of New York, was the former Evelyn Dun Douglas. Catherine Roger's marriage to Charles Greif Raible '19 terminated in divorce in 1951.
On the Eastern seaboard for nearly nineteen years, Bunny Gardner now has settled on the Western, via the building business, R. H. Macy's, and the Army. His home is now Kingsburg, Calif., originally a Swedish settlement,, a cow town in the early days, and now an attractive community, all peaches and grapes. Better than a hogshead of gold in New York is what Bunny now has. Within 100 miles he enjoys a complete variety of landscape: desert, valley, mountains, and ocean. He owns a corvette complete with sleeping bag, fishing tackle, and 30-30 gun, and its high-speed rear axles permit him to spin off 355 miles in an evening. Terrific town loyalty brings out 6000 persons to a football game in the town of 2800 with a variety of racial backgrounds, Swedes, Armenians, Mexicans, and Japs, who produce children big-boned and beefily solid. The high school line averages close to 200 pounds. As Vice-Commander of the American Legion, Bunny has charge of the poker room, and the flush that is in his hand is reflected in the ruddiness of his cheeks. He takes Boy Scouts out fishing in mountain streams 6000 feet in big pine and sequoia country and helps them collect opals and petrified wood. Divorced in 1947, Bunny has no children of his own. What about the job? Yes, Bunny does have a position: District Manager for Glesby Bros. Grain and Milling Co., Inc., with its mill and head office in Monrovia, two miles from the Santa Anita Race Track. His district is the San Joaquin Valley. In California Bunny is known as Val. As nickname, Bunny was O.K. for the rabbit race in New York, but not for the owner of a corvette with a high speed axle who fishes and hunts in sequoia forests 6000 feet up in chesty mountains.
But no corvette for Kent. That newspaper man with a flair for the dramatic, Kent McKinley, back in the U. S. after three months in the Middle East and parts of Europe, is happy and proud with his new Mercedes Benz with its 220 ES fuel injection which does 26 gallons to the mile, a sensational vehicle. Kent found everyone in Europe sick of Khrushchev; only gullible Americans fell for Khrushchev's American tour. In Cannes and Deauville, Kent discovered a new race of women, the Amazon Bikinis. In newspaper articles sent back home, Kent reported that Europe seemed prosperous: Paris and Rome, Frankfurt and Madrid, Lisbon and London.
Joe Lane Jr. '57 has made not only Joe Sr. '21 a grandfather but also a contribution to father folklore which is so heartfelt that its emotional waves may spread beyond Tennessee. Gazing through the nursery window at the hospital at the miracle, his charming daughter, aged eight hours, Young Joe was heard to murmur in a beatific vision, "I am really embarrassed for other fathers." Tave and Joe Sr., now four years awav from retirement, are contemplating a sort of breaking-in trial in England next spring.
Vance Clark still likes New England, but because he spent four years in Springfield, Vt., and fifteen in Brockton, Mass., he and Marie have been exploring elsewhere in their vacations. This year it was an automobile trip to the West Coast. Last year it was Europe, chiefly Southern England. In 1957 it was a cruise to the West Indies; in 1956, Mexico. Vance's son Peter, William and Mary '58, has just completed a year of architecture at the University of Cincinnati; and his daughter Anne, manager of a record shop in Oxford, O., spent the summer in Europe on a spree with a girl friend.
Burton Chapman, in real estate since 1921, has a suburban sales office at Lake Minnetonka and spends as much time as possible winters at Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., in the inn run by Dorothy and Wes Hadden '41, "a credit to Dartmouth." This fall Burton played golf with Pick Ankeny, Gene Leonard, and Clark Bassett. ... Because oil paint- ing takes less skill than playing the flute, Hugh McKay on retirement hopes to unscrew his tubes of color. ... Newell and GinnySmith spent ten weeks earlier this year in Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland. ... Art andRuth Ross have a new enthusiasm: Hawaii.
... Dick Rolfe received a cablegram from Malaya October 22 announcing the birth of a son, Andrew Richard Jones, to his daughter Cynthia Roland Auger whose back has prevented him from playing tennis is now so prominent a bridge player that his name appears in Bridge World. His daughters Pauline and Nancy year after year win Wellesley tennis tournaments even though Pauline now has six children and Nancy tw0.... Kaddy Kadison whose wife Diane explored Europe alone last summer has been persuaded to go with her this spring....
Guy Wallick's daughter Alice Jean, aged 38, died October 4. A cerebral palsy case, she had been an invalid since birth and faced the world with courage, hope, and patience. Guy's daughter Betsy in Istanbul, Turkey, has welcomed a new baby Guy Renato, her second. Guy had a pleasant autumn vacation at Bob McConaughy's ranch in Jackson Hole with Ed Felt and George Stoddard, both '18, and their wives, but he missed Bill Embree and his wife, there the week before. Bob is back on his feet after a vile case of shingles. On a trip to the Yellowstone, Guy bet that the number of bears they would see would be 21, a number revered by all classes between - say — 1912 and 1930, but not by bears, 22 of which appeared. Guy lost $11, which he paid despite his protests. Then Guy played poker ... but that is another story.
Peter Kiewit '22 being presented to Queen Elizabeth at the ribbon-cutting ceremony that opened the Deas Island Tunnel, the $23,000,000, half-mile-long traffic tube under the Fraser River at Vancouver, British Columbia. The tunnel was built by a combine headed by the Canadian subsidiary of Peter Kiewit Sons, Inc., of Omaha, whose globe-spanning activities make it one of the biggest construction firms in the world. After meeting Queen Elizabeth, Kiewit became a King in his own right, being chosen to rule over Ak-Sar-Ben, annual climax to the Omaha social season.
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Treasurer, Rm. 1200, 195 Broadway, New York 7, N. Y.
