1944

It is with sorrow that we report that Russ Baldridge suffered a fatal heart attack in November.

When Joe Vancisin took his Eli basketball team to Raleigh for the Dixie Classic he realized he faced some formidable opposition, with four of the invited eight teams ranked within the first ten in the nation. His charges didn't win, but acquitted themselves in admirable fashion and won the respect of the partisan North Carolina crowd. Joe was even smiling when his boys took the floor against N. C.!!

Fritz Hier and family are back in Europe, this time in Geneva, Switzerland, from where Fritz will operate as European Director for the International Rescue Committee. We'll have to foment some international crisis to take place in Hanover in June for him to come over and rescue, like secreting Mikoyan's attache case in a keg of Haffenreffers. I received a kind word of praise for Norm Simpson from Dr. Robert Fairchild '29 who enclosed with his letter a bulletin from the Park Central Presbyterian Church of Syracuse, on which program the anthem authored by Norm was first sung by the choir. Dr. Fairchild writes, "We in the church are very indebted to Norm for his work with the choir over the years. He was very active when the Dartmouth Glee Club visited Syracuse last year, and was recently honored at a dinner of local Dartmouths for serving ten years as secretary of The Dartmouth Club of Central N. Y."

And speaking about church choirs, Dr. Dick Sholl is one of the stars up in Janesville, Wis. Aside from his surgical practice, teaching "clinical surgery" one day a week, medical studies at the U. of Wisconsin, and serving as president of the local YMCA Men's Club, Dick still gets in his singing and in addition to his church work is a member of a local quartet. He and Cynthia and the four youngsters are real mid-Westerners now after five years in Wisconsin, but still slip East to Cape Cod for vacations and route themselves through Hanover.

And now since we're on Wisconsin, Maria and Johnny Lesher recently moved in when Weyerhauser Sales Company transferred John from Tacoma to Appleton. Naturally, coming from the wilds of the Pacific Northwest, they settled down on Lake Winnebago where the duck and goose hunting is good (John potted a Canadian honker the first day of the season) and Ihe skiing playgrounds only twenty miles away. But like the Sholls, when vacation time rolls around they point the iron east for the Lesher camp in Maine.

And on the topic of woodsmen, Forester Bob Hyde seems to have been tamed since being appointed Ass't to Forestry Director for St. Regis Paper Co. and suffering the plight of the successful romantic has been subjugated to the horrors of the commuter, from Plainfield to 42nd St. I'll bet he's got some pretty fancy landscaping to tend, tho.

Snooky Hughes, the boy with the Silver Star for holding the Ramagen bridgehead, is teacher-coach at Melrose High, trying to get his athletic charges to do as well on the playing fields. Snook and Irene boast four youngsters, aged one to seven.

Dr. Bill Stahl was recently elected Fellow of the American College of Surgery. He is also a diplomate of the American Board of Surgery, attending surgeon at Danbury (Conn.) hospital, surgical consultant at Fairfield State Hospital, and on the surgical staff at Beekman Downtown Hospital in NYC. In addition, Hill is president of the Danbury Branch of the American Cancer Society and the Danbury Area Health Council.

I forgot to mention when we were speaking about the Sholls being in Janesville, Wis., that Merle Hagen is making his home there, too. He's marketing research manager for the Parker Pen Co. After the dreary Princeton game that Hose Craig and I meandered 700 miles from home for in '57, we flushed it this year. At least Bill and Joan Barrett kept the faith and split a couple of buckets of sours with the Win Martins, Tom Miners, Dave Wilsons, Tom Trott, and others as the Green picked up their over-due title. I suppose this ties in lumbermen Lesher and Hyde, but Bill working out of Berwyn, Penna., is in the wholesale lumber business, the Lawrence R. McCoy Co. of Worcester, Mass.

You can be sure that Baltimore Al Barrett wound up '58 in good style with his Colts coming through in sudden death as they did. If you're a Browns or Giants fan, get your case well documented with facts and figures when you try to convince Al in June why his team was lucky. Either that, or he'll change the subject and sell you an additional 20 G's of insurance. Al and Pat have four offspring, three of them demure little girls.

It's been a long time since we've written about Rolfe de Leuw, but he's safe and sound in St. Louis, associate to the Gen. Counsel of International Shoe Co. I hope that the good people from Wisconsin that we wrote about earlier keep their Radio-TV sets tuned to WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee and catch Bill Davies doing his bit. He's made quite a name for himself up in Brave-town.

The next time your lawn mower breaks down and you have a warranty problem with the dealer, contact the friendly controller of the Toro Manufacturing Co. in Minneapolis, none other than Wally Benjamin.

Any of you who read the "Anatomy of Murder" observed the author's acknowledgment to Ezz Hale's legal publishing firm. And with the better publishers is Dick Ettinger, president of Wadsworth Publishing Company in San Francisco. Dick and Barbara and their five favorite dependents make their home in Atherton, Calif. Dr. Monte Duval is Associate Professor of Surgery, at the U. of Oklahoma Medical Center and the man to contact if you want liaison with Bud Wilenson for a seat to a Sooner's game. Dan "the Bear" Donahue is now in Chicago with one of the nation's top management consulting firms, Booz, Allen, and Hamilton, makes his home in suburban Barringion.

Among our more enterprising young men is Wayne Eves who in Omaha owns both the Mid Continent Tabulating Card Co. and the Mariotte Insurance Agency. And for our good constituents in the South who might not be too inclined to buy insurance from Baltimore Al Barrett since his town took a rather shady position during the hostilities of the 60s, you've got Big Rog Antaya in Atlanta representing New England Mutual and presenting the case in a honey dripping fashion that would knock over Scarlett's daddy, even after Sherman came.

Early indications are that we'll have a whale of a turn-out at our June Reunion. The Easterners, scribing a giant circle from Hanover to Pittsburg, will be there en masse. A lot of Hinterlanders are planning to make the move, we've got a few from the Coast on the ledger already, and there is every indication that we'll outstrip the great assortment that congregated on the Plains for our Tenth.

I think you'll be pleased with the Directory we're making up. Aside from the names and numbers of all the players, you'll be able to spot all the '44s in the towns you pass through, spot those in any line of work you're in, and give your wife a correct Christmas mailing list. We'll have this out to you before the June Reunion.

Secretary, 1105 Center St., Milford, O

Treasurer, Ballwood Rd., Old Greenwich, Conn