1924
About the time you are reading this, I'll be seeing some of you in warmer climes, I hope. The second (winter) term will be over and the spring recess, which comes between terms now, will be with us. Margaret and I will be on our way to Florida for some sunshine, and we hope we may see some of you between here and there — and back again. We will stop at Richmond and Charleston, W. Va., for talks to Dartmouth clubs; then while we base at Clearwater from the 19th-24th or so we may find some of you at St. Pete; and then back north where I talk to the Southeastern Massachusetts club at Taunton. I'll be looking for some of you in those four areas.
As I write, early in February, we have plenty of snow and the snow sculpture is 75% completed in the center of the campus. Some of the class officers who were here for meetings late in March saw the beginnings. Nice to see Charlie French briefly, between his meetings and skiing sorties hereabouts; then the week following, very pleasant to see Lou and Phil Van Huyck and Harriet and Butts Lamson. And speaking of Butts, you will have read the Class Letter; he's done an excellent job again and I think you'll give him an extra pat on the back for getting some pictures in print. Anyone else have a nostalgic picture they'll loan for printing by ofEset? You have also seen my extensive description of plans for the fall reunion over the Penn game weekend, October 1. This is going to be the best party yet, and we already know of one or two couples who are planning on this party who have never come before; and especially because the emphasis is on bringing the wives, which is the pattern for all class parties now. Last year there were expressions of pleasure by wives who came along for the first time. Try it. Meanwhile, to get back to Butts again, we urgently need more of those green data forms completed and returned. Such information is the lifeblood of a class, and there is no class whose "life-blood" is ever filled enough with good red blood-corpuscles, so to speak. I've been adding a plea to the birthday cards to do what you often mean to do: to write and bring us up to date. There is some response, but we need to hear from each of you. One did write, and then failed to mail it for a month. Another writes me thus: "This time I'm going to do it! Each year (after the birthday card comes) I say that I shall write you a note of appreciation.... I'm not going to live with that again this year." Good man. And he wrote a very fine letter, too.
And this has another aspect, with which Charlotte Ford and her staff are constantly faced. We'll mention no names, of course, but 1924 is just like the other classes in the fact that a prominent member of the class has died and when we go to the file we find the cupboard very bare. We are then embarrassed to have to write a very inadequate obituary for a classmate we ought to know more about. We sometimes can solve the dilemma by getting help from his close friends, when we know them; we dislike to ask a widow for data at a time when she has other troubles more pressing. Finally, there are potentials for embarrassment when we do not know of a divorce and re-marriage and make innocent mis-statements because we have no data to the contrary. I know the answer some will make: This won't happen to me. But it does and to some of the most unlikely people.
One of the satisfactions of this job is to have someone, and often from another class, comment on what is written here. I hope the above paragraphs may spread a tiny bit into the thoughts of members of other classes. For ourselves, part of my plea is to help us "mend our fences" in general; and part is to back up Pete Wheatley's ideas for the Fortieth reunion that now may seem so far away.
For those who may have missed it, in the pressure of events, may I urge you to go back and read o£ the musical hobby of our gallant Registrar, Robin Robinson. See the January ALUMNI MAGAZINE. He offers, from his very considerable experience and his own record library, a "Basic Classical Library" of records. We here in Hanover are enthusiastic listeners to his WTSL broadcasts. And, as an old drummer myself, I can appreciate the fun he has playing the tympani in the Handel Society Orchestra. No blue notes there!
Going back to the earlier theme, but with a different plea: The widows of two of our classmates have recently written me of their wishes to be included in news of the class. One also writes, referring to the news of the 35th reunion: "I did not realize that widows of classmates continued to attend reunions, etc. I certainly would have made an appear- ance." Now the plea: Those of you who know such an instance, please find out how a friend of yours feels about being invited, and invite her to come with you and your wife. Tactful questioning can do no harm, and it is the experience of other classes that many widows remain very active in Dartmouth affairs: they often want to be included but may be diffident about saying so.
Distilling news from many sources, we have: Pitts McKenzie as Vice-President of the Hanover Bank, in New York, in charge of the Pension Department and other plans such as "Profit Sharing," Savings, etc. And Bill Smith, as senior Vice-President of John Harrill, Inc. out in Westbury, L. 1., but also "on the street"; and another banker: John Woodbridge, Vice President of Irving Trust, looking just the same (no wig any more than when he stood out more by contrast among us in 1924) and also active as President of the national body of Zeta Psi. Also seen in New York: Ed Willi, lawyer, whose son graduated a few years ago; Hal Springborn, publisher, and whose son went to Yale.
Last month I saluted Joe Burleigh for his many years of teaching in Franklin, N. H.; we also remember that Frank Sheehy has retired from school work and is now a "native" of his beloved Cape Cod (still the "professional patriarch of the Bass River Golf Club, Frank?). Now to outline the changes for Roily Barker, who for two decades taught English in the Upper Montclair High School; then he served a decade as Guidance Director; a year ago he was asked to be Coordinator of Testing and Research for the whole school system - until 1963 and retirement to Cape Cod, also. As one who works in this pasture "on the side," my hat is off to the hard-working teachers who have come lately into such a complex field and had to learn the hard way the tools and tricks of their trade. A near neighbor of Rolly's is Abe Kalodin, moved to North Caldwell, but attached to the Montclair Mountainside Hospital and enjoying an excellent reputation in his medical specialty.
Finally, we note that Ced Foster, "one of the nation's best-known radio commentators" (it says here), spoke to the stockholders at their banquet in Hagerstown (Md.) at a meeting of the local Fair Association. That was back on December 9. For seventeen years Ced's comments (starting in 1940 just before Mussolini invaded Greece) originated from Boston. He and his wife and two daughters now live in Washington, each daughter having both a son and a daughter to make Ced's grandpa score a four. Ced was across (for the 28th time) to cover Ike's visits in France, Germany and England recently.
Secretary, 2 Brewster Rd., Hanover, N.H.
Treasurer, 29 Woodside Rd., Winchester, Mass.
