1929

Last October we mentioned that DickClark had been appointed a member of the Gloucester (Mass.) Planning Board. We have just heard that he was recently appointed city solicitor and succeeded the previous incumbent on December 31, 1959.

We have received a copy of the November 5, 1959, column "Backstage" with James Lee from Worcester, Mass., Gazette, which will be of interest to many classmates and is quoted below:

Don Dudley of Dedham, who used to lead orchestras in Worcester under his real name of Dud Goldman, has been appointed assistant music supervisor of the King Philip Regional High School in Wrentham, which has 1,200 pupils. This makes him one of the busiest musicians in the business, for he continues to lead his dance orchestra three or four nights a week - mostly at Moseley's on the Charles River - and he also conducts a booking agency for bands.

Don is a graduate of Dartmouth College, where he majored in music, and did graduate work in music at Boston University and New York University. He tells me he always wanted to teach music in the schools but, when he got out of college during the depression, there were no jobs open. Thus, he organized his own band and played around Worcester for years. For several years he led the stage orchestra at the Plymouth Theater, where his singer was Frieda Lipson, who later became Georgia Gibbs. Now he's achieved his teaching ambition - 25 years later.

We have recently received word that Bob and Adrienne Sparks of Westport, Conn., have announced the marriage of their daughter, Sonia Arlene to Mr. Kenneth David Rude on Sunday, February si, at Saratoga Springs, N. Y.

Also many thanks to George Case for his answer to many questions which permit us to piece together the information that daughter Lynn was married last October to Fred Asbeck of Cleveland who graduated from the hotel course at Cornell and is now in the brokerage business with Hornblower and Weeks in Cleveland; that son Luke '54 is with Lamson and Sessions Company and has made George and Kay grandparents for the third time with the recent arrival of George Sessions Case III - the preceding grandchil- dren, in order of arrival, being Murray Hall and Amey Hall; and, finally, that daughter Joan, Smith '59, is working at R. H. Stearns Company in Boston. Some interesting sidelights were that Joan's mother was chairman of the 30th reunion class (last June) and her sister-in-law was there attending her fifth reunion and, for good measure, a relative was there attending a "forty-something" reunion. George's mother, who was also present at Joan's graduation, graduated from Smith in the Class of 1908, which was not holding a reunion. In case someone gets arithmetical about George's age and his mother's class, she quit school at the end of her freshman year.

We have heard that the University Glee Club gave a wonderful concert and songfest at the Princeton-Dartmouth Club in New York last January 28 and that it was sponsored by the Brown and Dartmouth alumni, whereas, in former years, it had always been sponsored by the Princeton Club. Frank Williams is president of the Glee Club this year and, as far as we know, John Cornehlsen is the only other '29 member although there are fifteen other Dartmouth men among the 150 men who represent fifty different colleges and universities.

A nice note was recently received from Walt Sherwood telling us that he had had a most pleasant visit, last fall, from Paul Woodbridge; that he continues to teach in the local school, as well as serve on several community commissions, councils, etc.; and that he hopes to get to reunion, though a bit late due to school closing obligations.

A brief note, too, from Herb Ball saying that he had just bumped into Larry Lougee in Grand Central station who was here, briefly, to see his ninety-year-old mother and ailing brother; also that he had had a quick one with Dick Exton who had come into New York on business but didn't have time to look up friends in the vicinity and wanted us to pass on a "hello" to them. For those of you who might be passing through, or stopping in Decatur, Ga., Dick is in the real estate business there and lives at 2124 Clairmont Road, N.E.

In reply to our inquiry as to where he was and what he was doing, we had a most interesting reply from George Fowler who is now assistant to the president of Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, Ind., and executive secretary of the Foundation for Development of St. Mary's. George resigned from an executive position with the John Price Jones Company, a professional fund-raising firm of New York City. During the past twenty years, he has had widely varied experience as a professional in fund-raising, promotion and public relations and has held key positions in more than a score of fund-raising and developmental projects which together chalked up contributions exceeding 202 million dollars and these were preponderantly in the nonprofit fields of education, health and medicine, social welfare, religion, research, and politics. For New York University alone George was, for three years, Director of Projects for Development, supervising the Colleges of Engineering, Mathematical Sciences, Industrial Medicine, and Fine Arts. Other professional commitments included work for Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Smith, and seven smaller centers of higher learning, as well as the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Association for the Preservation of Free Enterprise, the Thomas A. Edison Foundation, the National Conference of Christians and Jews, and the National Wildlife Foundation. After leaving Dartmouth, George studied at Columbia University and New York University. He is also a graduate of the Nautical Schoolship, "U.S.S. Newport," and holds a Master's License, Unlimited Tonnage, Any Ocean, the highest mariner's license issued. The development board, of which he is executive secretary, will take over direction of the college's current, nationwide campaign to raise ten million dollars and of all subsequent fund-raising efforts.

Gus Wiedenmayer has furnished the most fascinating information, especially to bankers, about his National Newark and Essex Banking Company's having been the first bank in the country to use the first machine to sort checks by use of a magnetic ink "common language." This machine, the Magnetic Character Sorter, was developed by PitneyBowes, Inc., and the National Cash Register Company, and in the bank's dealings with the companies, the companies were repre- sented, respectively, by Fred Bowes and Bob Oelman '31. In the field test at the bank, five million checks were processed by the machine without a mistake. The machine handles checks at a rate of 750 per minute, about fifteen times faster than by hand. In view of the fact that Americans wrote about twelve billion checks last year, which required the nation's 475,000 bank clerks to spend more than 100 million man-hours to sort them by hand, this type of machine appears to offer not only a physical but an economical blessing to those concerned.

In addition, Gus informed us that his son, Christopher, and Jack Ackley's boy, Johnny, are in Hanover in the Class of 1963 and that Chris had won his numerals in freshman cross country and winter track. Come June, Gus and Peggy will be at reunion if they can get away soon enough after daughter Cary graduates at Vassar.

Secretary, Center Rd., RFD 6 Woodbridge, Conn.

Class Agent, Carpenter Steel Co., Box 662 Reading, Pa.