1924

This is written on the 30th of December; the students are home or in Florida or otherwise at ease; we have just had a foot (approximately) of snow to bring skiers flocking; the trees are still lovely and the snow still clean - and my office desk is almost (never quite) clear of unfinished business. I had to keep alert with the birthday cards because there are many who first saw light in the last week of the year - no fewer than six, count them, six on the very last day, December 31. Some day I may find the time to make an analysis of birth trends on this small sample of our class. But now to more important news.

First of all, arrangements are being completed later in the day for our fall football-game reunion. As you should know by now, we are trying to secure an out-of-town place where all can be under one roof to sleep, visit, and enjoy the usual after-the-game drinks together before we have a formal dinner Saturday night. After polling the Executive Committee, I have made what seems to me the best arrangements to satisfy the largest number. Getting a place for the weekend of the Penn game has been hard and cut one desirable place out of further consideration. With Penn, the new Ivy League champions, this ought to be THE game in Hanover of the four so scheduled for 1960. It will be early for the foliage peak but this is a time when everybody else is also on the road clamoring for the same facilities we seek to make our own. So put down Friday-Saturday, September 30-October 1, 1960, for Penn in Hanover. That ought to be a must for more than we have ever had up here together in the fall. See the next issue of Butts Lamson's Class Letter for the details. You can send me your advance reservations anytime after you read this with no cash deposit until requested sometime later on. It ought to be an inducement to some to travel a bit when I tell you that Bevo and Quecha Beers are already registered for that event; all the way from Colombia, South America.

And perhaps we'll have another traveler with us, although I have no word from him as yet: Red Newell is said to be in the States on furlough from the Orient. How about it, Red?

Information sometimes becomes mis-information, and sometimes unpleasantly so. Readers will recall that I said Tony Cipollaro, the famous dermatologist in New York, was prevented from accepting a considerable honor from Boston Italian-Americans because of an alleged heart attack. He was prevented from making the trip, sure enough, but I'm delighted to pass on to you Tony's own assurance that there was a lesser upset than stated. Says Tony, understandably, "Phooey on your mis-trusted spy!" And I hereby promise to be a better editor of news by checking any such with the classmate in question, in the future. The only hitch, on past experience, has been that requests for information-checks have as often as not gone un-answered. This one got "a great deal of undeserved publicity." Tony has been 100% occupied with his medical organizations, medical writing and teaching - particularly in connection with the New York City Cancer Committee; medicine is his work and his hobby, both.

One kind of direct information I both appreciate and enjoy reading comes with the Christmas cards - for which I do very heartily say thank you, for Margaret as well as for myself — in the form of family letters. I won't name names, except for one - Joe Burleigh. This year's was the twentieth annual such letter or "report of the Burleighs," Webster Place (Franklin, N. H.). It is informative, clever but not corney, and written well and in very good humor. Joe has been shifted from teaching in the Franklin High School to become the Guidance Director for the high school, full time. This he enjoys very much, and, although he misses the classroom after 25 years, he has more contact with more of the students and hopes he can be of greater help to them. I know Joe still devotes a lot of time to two community projects: the Rotary Club and Scouting. He has company with many others in this kind of vocation and avocation, as I know from your letters.

I had a phone call the other day from Larry Stone, who was recovering in our Hanover hospital from a back operation (a removed disc). It was a pleasure to see him and his wife there for a short visit, and to know they are blessed with a nearby summer place now becoming year-round down the river a ways and opposite Bellows Falls; also blessed (?) with two Yale sons-in-law as well as the two daughters obviously involved. Grandparents report. What is happening in your expanding families?

Many will be interested to know of a local project that also honors Bob Strong. His great interest in the New Hampshire Arts and Crafts group in its earliest days, which included raising wool from which he and Dot wove suits, is fairly well known. The League is now building a new home on Lebanon Street and has just raised a budgeted sura for that purpose. The new building is to be named the Robert C. Strong Memorial Crafts Building. (Red Rolfe's '31 wife is currently chairman of this chapter of the League.)

Finally, the New York Times almost five weeks ago (as of now) featured Paul Ford as the co-star in the coming "Thurber Carnival." By the time you read this, Paul will have left the "Music Man" show where he scored heavily. He is cited as a typed actor because of his terrific portrayal of pompous senators and harried Army officers ("Teahouse of the August Moon"). Now he hopes he has found a play in which he can show his varied skills. In the Thurber play he will play six roles and also narrate some of the sketches. Most of the parts will have comic overtones, which is his preference. Watch for the opening in February, as you read this.

And a PS: Fred Weyburne, who joined Bendix Brake Co. in 1926 in the experimental engineering department, has become Assistant Group Executive of the Eclipse Machine Division of the Bendix Aviation Corp., in Elmira, N. Y. This places him in charge of the six divisions. He is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers and is well known in the large automotive industry.

Secretary, 2 Brewster Rd., Hanover, N. H.

Treasurer, 29 Woodside Rd., Winchester, Mass.