1916
The whole Class mourns the death o£ GilTapley. I had hoped to report a happy meeting with him and Mabel, which we had planned, and of which I had spoken in my February notes. Instead came the sad news of his passing on January 23, after a most valiant fight. The College has lost one of its outstanding sons and the Class a dear comrade. Our sincerest sympathy is offered to Mabel, to their daughters and their families. StirlingWilson wrote the tribute which appeared in the March issue.
A card from Rog Evans from Tokyo says that he is returning byway of Manila and Seattle, in which latter town he hopes, between planes, to see Perc Burnham and Porter Blaney.
My sincere thanks to good old Mac Macartney. He is the first of the Class to answer my plea that during the current year the Newsletter or the ALUMNI MAGAZINE get some word, direct or indirect, from every member of the Class. Mac's contribution: "My wife and I are baby-sitting (and enjoying it) for our two grandsons while their parents, lan '48 and his wife Carla, are spending a month skiing in Austria and Switzerland. Late news reports say that Zermatt, the town in which they are staying, is about to be destroyed by an avalanche, - so the skiing should be good!"
I got over to New York for the February dinner meeting of the Class, and should liked to have been there a day earlier to have heard Ros Magill's address to the Dartmouth Club, which, I am told, was most interesting. Incidentally Ros is having a busy schedule of speeches. The New York Times of February 6 quotes him in defense of President Eisenhower's proposed 1960 budget. Addressing the New York Chamber of Commerce he called the budget a step in the right direction and a vigorous attempt to halt the steady rise of federal spending and the increasing domination of federal activities over our lives and pocketbooks. Ros warmly commended the President's request for authority to veto or reduce items in appropriation bills or in bills authorizing expenditures without vetoing the bill as a whole. He declared that this should be a great economy weapon in the hands of any president. Burt Lowe spoke at the Class dinner on the subject, "A Publisher Looks At Tomorrow's World." As the publisher of a chemical engineering catalogue Burt must sit with the mighty in this great field and he is thus well posted. His informal talk was a dandy. He warned of the terrific trade competition we shall soon have from Russia, where the prices of goods for export have small relation to the cost of production, but rather are fixed with the political slant always in mind. Burt also described some of the late developments in the chemical field and the wonders that are at our very doorsteps.
If you had an idea that an engineer's job is in the least prosaic, attendance at the January dinner meeting would soon have dispelled that notion. Ken Ross spoke on the subject, "Upstream Engineer." Dutch Doenecke dubbed him "chief dreamer of the Federal Power Commission." As chief engineer and consultant Ken is constantly searching for projects to care for our country's future need of water power. One of the fascinating projects which he told about is a seaway which would run from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. Such a waterway would be built several hundred miles east of the Mississippi and would be an important factor in flood control, as well as in time of drought. Another, only in the dream stage, is the filling in of the comparatively shallow Lake Erie, thus adding millions of acres of valuable arable soil to the country's resources. Among those at the above meetings: John Ames, Art Conley, Jack Curtin, Dutch Doenecke, Charlie Jones, Mac Macartney, Leigh Rogers, Freddie St. George Smith, Phil Stackpole, Mil Streeter and Irving Wolff.
Andy McClary's daughter, Susanna Arm strong McClary, has become engaged to Bayard Webster Smith. Both are students at Boston University. Susanna, whom the New York Times shows to be a mighty attractive young lady, also attended Milton Academy and Smith College. A June wedding is planned. The Class extends felicitations and best wishes to these young people.
A. Llewelyn Howell announces the removal of his offices to 453 South Spring Street, Room 1040, Los Angeles 13, Cal.
Gran Fuller was in Lexington, Ky., recently and spoke under the auspices of the First National Bank of that city. As you may know, Gran is the director of Title I dealer activities of the Federal Housing Administration, and he spoke on the government home improvement loan insurance program and its relationship and benefits to lenders, dealers and homeowners.
Charlie Brundage's sojourn at the Mary Hitchcock Hospital has been reported in the Newsletter. Just to give you added assurance that he is quite all right again I quote from a letter which Ernie Earley, former secretary of 1918, wrote me recently. "Bless your soul, the old rock is all mended and vibrating to beat hell, - (expurgated) -. All of you who are terribly concerned about Charlie must realize that he'll probably plant all the rest of 1916, and will still be going strong on the farm." And that, my lads, is that.
Class Notes Editor, 7 Swarthmore PL, Swarthmore, Pa.
Secretary, Box 1998, Ormond Beach, Fla.
Class Agent, Box 151, Sagamore, Mass.
