1943
News has filtered in from all over the country thanks to friendly response and a little spadework by your secretary while in Houston. Prize winner of the '43 Letter of the Month is our own Doc Fielding:
Your ardent plea for news is so close to my heart as a former secretary that it ill behooves me to neglect it. Enclosed is a picture of the family - the first one that has ever been taken - and if it will fill space for you, be my guest. As you can see, the only elderly one in the group is the larger of the two males on the right. The big boy is Jed, aged seven, who speaks better English than his father, which is embarrassing. The younger is Andy, aged four, and even he uses words I'm not familiar with. The female is the mother of the two, the child-wife of the aged patriarch. She is Sue, looks happy, but it is only a sham and facade. Her practiced smile is one that has been learned over many years of television, and can be turned off like a light bulb, especially when she thinks of my age and infirmity. But of course despite my practice, she is the reason I can even afford this paper to write on (the typewriter is borrowed). She has just finished a damned good jazz album in N. Y., and ready for publication. It will appear under her stage name, Sue Bennett. And let's see, 640 men at $.25 royalty per album makes - well at least enough for my class dues [and Alumni Fund contribution, Ed.].
As for me, and this makes very dull reading, I am teaching at Tufts Medical School and practicing obstetrics and gynecology to the limit of my nurse's ability. . . . Not too long ago I was in the attic looking for some papers and came across newspaper accounts of old and forgotten Variety Nights - a discovery making for nostalgia and shudders, especially by my wife. But, and this is enough to make you take a drink, two days later Warner Bentley called me and asked that I come up to Hanover and M.C. this year's Variety Night. . . . Well, to say that I was surprised is mild, and to say that I was flattered is mild, but to say that I could say no is ridiculous. So I hauled my ashes back to the stage of Webster Hall and put in a most interesting three hours of sweat and toil, all washed away in the "woman taking a bath." I found that the new beat generation has pretty much the sense of humor that our group had - in other words they didn't find me funny either. Seriously though, it was a successful evening and very heartwarming for me. Also it was the first time Sue had seen this type of thing with me involved, and at the end of three hours, she ran up to me, threw her arms around my neck, and whispered in my ear "Phooie." But while I was on stage, I did mention that it had been 21 years since I had first done a Variety Night. Then it dawned on me - I looked down on a kid flute player in the band and said to him " were you 21 years ago?" Bewildered he said, "Hell, man, I'm only 19!" So if you or anyone else who reads this has any illusions, forget them. It's later than you think.
Thanks so much, Doc, for taking a busy OB's time to write your friends. Such a loyal '43, you even have your Boston address at 330 Dartmouth Street. Hope you like your prize.
THE HOUSTON STORY - a firsthand report .. . Bill Thaxton, father of six, fastmoving insurance man and investor, yachtsman, former roommate of Ed Tuffly and Jack Stinson. recalling revelry with Killer Kane, Binney Tower, Tim Donovan, and other truth-seekers late one afternoon in the Shamrock Hilton. Bill's experience in World War II's American Field Service included duty on many foreign fronts. Bill dropped everything to come see me in the hotel - a really hospitable Texan .. . Carey O'Connor, with us freshman year, later graduated from Oklahoma, surprised that I should call. Don't all classmates call when they're in town? Roomed with Jim Heenehan. After WWII service with the A.T.C., Carey lived in Brazil for ten years as technical advisor to the National Petroleum Institute, and now is very active in Texas gas and petroleum production. Family: two girls and one boy .. . Warren (Tex) Dale left Dartmouth after one year for the University of Texas, spent sixteen years with Reed Roller Bit Company and now is with Trans-Western Pipe Line Company.. .. Frank Slingluff, formerly with Gulf Oil's Houston District Exploration Department, just recently transferred to a similar position in Jackson, Miss. His former Houston secretary told me he is still a bachelor .. .Ed Tuffly, guardian of freshman hockey nets, now president of Krupp and Tuffly, Inc., one of Houston's oldest and finest stores. Ed was glad to see your traveling secretary once assured that I wasn't selling or collecting anything. Plaques and citations adorning his office wall attest his solid position in Houston. Jane and he sadly lost their oldest son last year after a long illness. Their second son, Bobby, is bright enough to make Dartmouth, and I think he should be encouraged to attend when he graduates from high school. Dartmouth needs men like Ed Tuffly and their sons too. I was very glad to see Ed again, if only briefly.
Van Lloyd and wife Ginny have returned to 16 George St., Saratoga Springs, N. Y., after having left Skidmore College in January, 1959 for a year's sabbatical in tralia. Van was appointed visiting lecturer in psychology at the University of Melbourne for the Australian academic year - February through November. The Lloyds traveled extensively in Australia during vacations including side trips to New Zealand between terms. Flew home via Asia with stops in the Philippines, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Cambodia, India, Pakistan, and Turkey. Sounds as though Van had a good intellectual recharging with this sabbatical - something we all could use.
Correction department: Our goal in the current Alumni Fund drive is $9180. Early givers have moved us, at this writing, about one-seventh of the way, and it's about time the rest of us joined the push. Approximately 550 of us call '43 home - sufficient number certainly to achieve and surpass our goal in this drive. Let's get with it - now!
LEST WE FORGET: A friend told me recently that the Yeadon, Penna. (Philadelphia suburb) high school's athletic field is named for Remsen H. R. Crego, one of the finest fellows in our class, whose modesty and patriotism brilliantly shine through the years. Rem was a Yeadon all-time athletic great, and he was just coming into his own in Dartmouth athletics when Pearl Harbor struck; he left immediately for service, later to be killed in Navy flight training. Remember the roving center he played against Cornell in the historic fifth-down game?
Charles S. Feeney writes:
To be quite honest with you I am a trifle confused on the subject of nicknames myself. I have my ear tuned now so that I answer almost to anything .. . . One of our real regrets in leaving the East is that we don't get a chance to make at least an annual pilgrimage to Hanover. And it doesn't seem very fair for the football team to wait until we moved all the way to the West Coast before winning a championship. Incidentally, there is a fellow named Robert Clark, who claims to have been in our class and who keeps calling at all odd hours from Keene, N. H. Any information you can supply on this obvious impostor will be gratefully received. . . . Best to all in the class. Chuck.
I think we all know who this Clark chap is, and frankly Chuck is fortunate that Clark doesn't call him collect. Can't resist commenting that Chuck Feeney has joined the butcher and the baker as the candlestick maker!
Just before the deadline: John O'Connor, occupant of the '41 column, helps a fellow scribe with the news that Dan O'Connor, another redheaded Irishman, is running for nomination as Democratic state senator in the Indiana primary against the incumbent. Politics runs in the O'Connor family with their late father, John J. O'Connor having illustriously served as a New York representative in Congress for many years. Dan lives in Bloomington, where he is a faculty member of Indiana's radio and television department... Norm Probstein, host of the Bel Air Motor Hotel in St. Louis, sending out a warrant for Ruedig, Dewey, and Tuffly, whom Sparky Adams and he reportedly carried through Tuck School.
Mail in your Alumni Fund gift now!
The May meetings of class officers in Hanover brought together several members of the class of '42, together with wives and children. Included in the picture are Ad, Kiki, Leslie, Sally and Peter Winship; Warren, Maggie, Ricky and Stephen Kreter; Dick and Debby Lippman; Harry and Nancy Bond, Ira and Gabey Berman; Dick and Dot Baldwin and Charlie and Diddy Brown. The gathering was at the Winship home in Hanover.
The Silver Anvil Trophy, awarded annuallyby the American Public Relations Associationfor top performance in its field, was presented this year to Bob Conway '42, publicrelations director for the Fisher BrothersCompany, a Cleveland food store chain.
The talented Fielding family (L to r) Sue, Jed 7, Andy 4, and Doc '43 pose in their NewtonCenter, Mass., home. Well known in New England television, Sue has just completed a jazzalbum under her stage name, Sue Bennett. Doc has an extensive practice as obstetrician andgynecologist from a Dartmouth Street address in downtown Boston.
Secretary, 1445 Cherry Lane Pottstown, Penna.
Class Agent, Apt. 6-N, 315 Central Park West New York 25, N. Y.
