1927

Thanks to Ding Heap, we have the first real news of Ed Johnson that we have had in a long time. It takes the form of a Christmas letter from the Johnsons to the Heaps.

My Holiday Greetings for 1958 were sent out from Nepal, the land of the lofty Himalayas. This year I send you my Season's Greetings from the banks of the mighty. Congo River in Africa. This is a big shift in scenery, climate, distance, and even continents.

Before leaving Nepal in April, I had an opportunity to travel throughout India (also Ceylon), rom the beautiful Valley of Kashmir on the north (with its famous garden of Shalimar), down across the northern plain of the Ganges and the central plateau to the south with its many magnificent temples and tropical-like southwest coast. India is a great country in area, in scenic contrasts, in resources and in spiritual values that are deep rooted in a culture and history that go back over thousands of years. Present day India, independent for only ten years, is an interesting study of an attempt to create a modern democracy in an ancient setting.

On the way to the United States from Nepal, I had interesting stopovers in Afghanistan, Iran, Greece and Ireland.

In the United States I had the sad task of disposing of the property on 63 Pond Street which had been the central meeting place of the Johnson clan for many years. I was in Washington for some time, studying at the Foreign Affairs Institute, before coming to the Belgian Congo via Bermuda, the Azores and Portugal.

My home is now in Leopoldville, the capital of the Belgian Congo, which is an immense area in the heart of Africa. The dominant geographic feature of the area is the mighty Congo River, one of the great rivers of the world, actually second only to the Amazon in total flow of water (more than double that of the Mississippi). Leopoldville has its main reason for being here in the fact that at this point the Congo which has been a well behaved and placid river, navigable for 1,000 miles, here loses its good nature and plunges over a series of great rapids, thus necessitating transhipment of all goods going from the heart of Africa to the seacoast.

You may find news of the Belgian Congo in your newspapers and news magazines as elections are scheduled for late December. These elections are the first in a series which have the objective of Congolese independence. The Belgian Congo hopes soon to join the areas around it which are also on the move from Colonial status to that of Independent nations. This is an interesting time to be in Africa as the so-called Dark Continent moves rapidly into the fast flowing events of the modern world.

Ruel Colby has been voted the outstanding sportswriter of the year in the State of New Hampshire. The voting was conducted by the National Sportswriter-Sportscaster Awards, a group which conducts balloting of the sports staffs of newspapers, radio and television stations in all fifty states and the District of Columbia. Ruel is starting his 33rd year as a member of the staff of the Concord, N. H., Monitor, thirty of them in sports coverage. His regular sports column,

"The Sports Gallery," won for him and the Monitor a Navy Department citation during World War II. After his Army stretch he concentrated on news of New Hampshire athletes in service, and has received thousands of letters from service men all over the world.

Dr. Lowell Wormley has been elected chairman of the Arizona State Hospital Board of Control. He is also a member of the professional committee of the Arizona Medical Association, and chairman of the Committee on Aging.

Joseph W. Bartlett II, son of CharlieBartlett, a senior at Stanford University Law School, has been appointed law clerk to Chief Justice Warren of the U.S. Supreme Court. He is also editor of the Stanford Law Review, and is the fourth generation of Bartletts to enter the law field. His younger brother, Sam, is in his second year at Harvard Law School.

George Kish was the subject of a feature article in the Bridgeport, Conn., Sunday Post a few weeks ago. He started in the real estate and insurance business in 1926, and in 1933, on the day Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated, he opened his own office at 1618 Post Road in Fairfield, where he has been located ever since. George is a member of the Greater Bridgeport and New England Realty boards, a member of the advisory committee of the Connecticut National Bank, and the First Federal Loan Association of New Haven. He served for fifteen years as chairman of the Fairfield Tax Board of Review. George is a linguist, speaking five foreign languages fluently.

Larry Scammon and his fine team of Class Agents have been hard at work for some time now, encouraging all of you to do your full share toward making this year's Alumni Fund Campaign the great success that we all sincerely hope it will be. Reaching the goal that has been set up, particularly with so many still paying the balances on their Capital Gifts pledges, presents a real challenge to us all. Larry and his team are doing a superb job, but it behooves us all to remember that they are doing the job for us, and that without our full cooperation they cannot possibly succeed.

This is the last column until fall. In a couple of weeks I expect to be in Hanover for the Class Officers Meeting along with most of the other officers of the Class. I'll report on this in October. In the meantime, don't forget the Fall Reunion, which will probably be held on the first weekend in October, with the exact dates to be announced later. See you again in the fall.

Secretary, 29150 West River Road Perrysburg, Ohio

Class Agent, 89 Broad St., Boston, Mass.