1942

Ho hum! and I do mean just that. Who can be expected to turn out copy at a time of the year when spring is bustin' out all over. I say "bustin' out," but by the time you read these short (with due deference to the work load in Hanover where they get springitis too) notes, it will be May and even the 49th State will feel the same way.

Since the March report of Mike de Sherbinin's resignation from the "Valley News" we have waited for the follow-up story on his new association which now comes from Toledo, Ohio. Here, Mike joins two other associate editors in writing editorials and feature articles for the Toledo Blade, an evening daily and Sunday newspaper with 190,000 circulation. Pauline and the three children remained in Hanover when Mike left on March 30. and plan to join him some time this spring in the new location.

Last month we noted that Oily Quayle had been named vice-president of Louis Harris and Associates, Inc. and have since learned more about this rapidly growing firm which we will elaborate on at this time. It was organized in 1956 and today has a nationwide field staff of interviewers and has conducted surveys in 46 states. Besides having clients such as Johnson and Johnson, Yale and Towne Manufacturing Co. and Puget Sound Power and Light Co., the company has an outstanding reputation in the political research arena. This also happens to be an area of immediate interest to Oily and has already proved to be an important asset to political campaigning. In an editorial by Peter Edison of the Washington News in February, he writes in part: One of the "now it can be told" stories about the last election reveals how Democratic candidates for governor and U.S. senator in eleven states used scientific public opinion polls to shape winning campaign strategy. In oversimplified summary, the technique was to find out what issues were bothering the voters most and then harp on them in campaign speeches. Issues in which the voters showed least interest were ignored There was no publicity about these surveys during the campaign. They were closely guarded secrets . . . The Harris polls in California were preceded by extensive analysis of election returns for the past eight years. Then a cross section or northern, central and southern voters was made at the precinct level. By careful preparation or this kind, by using trained pollsters and by carerul interpretation of the results, the Harris organization made its surveys on the basis of 750 to 1500 interviews per state.

And there you have it, the answer to successful public campaigning until something better is devised by Harris and Oily Quayle.

Bob Hill, executive director of the North Shore Children's Friends Society in Salem, Mass., since 1955, resigned his post in March to become director of the Child and Family Service of Syracuse and Onondaga County in Syracuse, N. Y. Bob's valuable experience in the child service field developed during his years with the Rhode Island Department of Social Welfare followed by employment in the boys' department of the Children's Aid Association in Boston, a division of which he was the supervisor. The North Shore Society is an agency offering experienced confidential counseling service to troubled parents and children in their home, foster home care case work with unmarried mothers and adoption services. Besides the full time work of the agency, Bob was most active in Greater Salem community affairs where his interest in and knowledge of local problems will be missed by his associates.

The Hanover School Board recently granted a leave of absence for the 1959-60 school year to Ed Leonard, high school teacher of science, in order to take advantage of an academic year fellowship at Harvard University. Ed also has been given an institutional grant by the University of New Hampshire for the coming summer which, as the above referred to fellowship, came under the grants of the National Science Foundation.

On the memory trail so typical for our class, was a feature article in a February copy of the Orlando Sentinel giving the fourteen-year old story of Jack Zimmer and his F Company of the 25th Marine Battalion, Fourth Division at Iwo Jima. This was the company with which the veteran photographer, Joe Rosenthal, went ashore and five days later took his most famous picture of the planting of the flag on top of Mount Suribachi. Jack was 25 then, unmarried and as he said, "had plenty of luck. One other company commander and myself were the only ones who came off Iwo in good shape." Today he is the owner of a successful Orlando poster sign firm which he started in 1952 and is a confirmed Floridian with Juanita and their three children.

As I said earlier, "Ho hum!" Can summer be far behind?

Secretary, 209 Beech St., Cranford, N. J.

Class Agent, 6 Cross Gates Road, Madison, N. J.