A Tragic Month

THE past month has dealt heavy blows to the Dartmouth family. On February 21, while returning from an errand of mercy to the northern part of the state, Dr. Ralph E. Miller '24, Professor of Pathology, and Dr. Robert E. Quinn, Instructor in Medicine, were caught by a sudden snow squall while flying from Berlin to West Lebanon airport in Dr. Miller's single-engine Piper Comanche plane, and at this writing, one month later, no trace has been found of the missing pair. On March 5, Professor Stephan J. Schlossmacher died of a heart attack near Robinson Hall, following a Germania meeting (see In Memoriam), and on March 17 the whole Hanover community was shocked and still further saddened by the sudden and wholly unexpected death of Provost Donald H. Morrison, 44, at Princeton, N. J. (see page 15).

The search for Drs. Miller and Quinn was carried on day after day by an army of volunteers and was one of the most extensive in New Hampshire's history. Involved in it were many Hanover colleagues and friends, Outing Club crews, north country citizens, Air Force helicopters, and over thirty planes of the New Hampshire and Vermont Civil Air Patrols and the National Guard. A heavy snowfall two days after the plane crash greatly handicapped the criss-cross search of 10,000 square miles of countryside from Hanover north to the White Mountains. Scores of reports and leads, however slim, were checked out by planes and ground crews, but all to no avail.

With official searches long since called off, Dr. Miller's son, Ralph E. Miller Jr. '55, second-year medical student, and the Dartmouth Outing Club, under John Rand '38, have refused to give up. It is their hope that with the melting of the deep snow cover the plane wreckage will be sighted.