1939

We're mighty proud of the class of '39. As far as the Alumni Fund is concerned, we've emerged from the horse latitudes. We're not great - yet, but we're improving. We ranked 42nd out of 60 in percent of dollar objective. (We achieved 88% of dollar objective. Half of the classes made over 100%; half fell short.) Participation-wise we ranked 54th out of 70 classes for 79%. Junie Merriam, the Head, asked that we give recognition and thanks to all participants and to the class agents. We goaded you with diatribes and persimmon in the June class notes which brought forth complaints and kudos. At least we got mail.

One letter that burst our buttons, a panegyric from Mike Ellis (Mayer Abrahamson), director of the Buck's County Playhouse, made us think we're getting some place. Unaccustomed modesty prohibits a complete reprint, but we quote Mike's last two paragraphs:

I live in New Hope on a year 'round basis and have operated the Playhouse for eight years. I started out in New York as an actor and then became a stage manager. Between 1948 and 1953 I produced five plays on Broadway, all of them flops. However, I currently have a hit going called "Come Blow Your Horn" and expect to have another one this winter if some of my tryouts go well this summer. I am married and have three children. I have also recently been appointed to the Advisory Board of the Hopkins Center. John Hess lives here too and is a very successful television writer. Henry Glovsky and George Darr were here for a visit two weeks ago with their wives, and Bill Deal came out from Philadelphia for dinner one day last summer with his wife. Ernie Heidt makes one visit a summer to the Playhouse from suburban Philadelphia.. And that is about all I can think of in the way of news of other people in the class. Oh yes, I went to see Walt Magee's widow Dorothy, after finding in your column that she lived only ten miles from here and was delighted to meet her.

Since New Hope (Penna.) is a place to which many people come at one time or another, I hope that old friends will stop in from time to time and renew acquaintances.

Johnny Page is manager of the new Kidder, Peabody and Co. office in Harrisburg, Pa. He has been active in the investment securities business since 1946 and until recently was associated with the firm of Coffin and Burr, Inc. As you all know, Dartmouth affairs have also played an important part in Johnny's life. Not only is he currently a member of the Alumni Council, but he is a former National Enrollment Committeeman and past president of the Dartmouth Club of Central Pennsylvania. The Pages, including wife Ellen and three children, reside in Mechanicsburg, Pa.

Then, a good long newsy letter from Col.Bob Loughry, commanding officer of the 552nd Airborne Early Warning and Control Wing (ADC), United States Air Force, McClellan Air Force Base, Calif., written before the latest or current crises. (Whatever they may be by the time you read this.)

"We have informal gatherings on a monthly basis of about fifteen Dartmouth graduates in the Sacramento area. Fortunately four of us are '39ers. Bob Van Slambrouck, currently advertising manager of our leading newspaper (Sacramento Bee), and Al Green, our buyer and seller of sheep, have been regular participants. Dr. HarlandDeos is interested and should be attending future meetings. ...

"My wing here has approximately 430 officers and 2000 airmen - not a Dartmouth graduate among them. The mission has been the same for the past six years, continuous radar coverage off the West Coast of the United States. This is a part of the Air Defense Command and Norad operation that does not permit any laxities 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The wing over-all expends about 60,000 flying hours a year in radar Super-Constellation aircraft. Put in common terms,. this is equivalent to about forty trips around the world each month. Needless to say we are busy all the time. Safety-wise, we just passed 160,000 flying hours without an aircraft incident or accident."

That great rock of the Prudential Insurance Co., old million-dollar-round-table Wayland Avery, whom we tried to call unsuccessfully from the Los Angeles airport last spring, writes us about a business trip to Montreal during which he physically bumped into Ernest Martin Hopkins in an elevator at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel. This resulted in a nostalgic chain reaction that carried Ave back to Hanover on his first return trip since graduation. His letter mentioned certain obvious changes in the campus ( we guess Tanzi still sells beer) along with the bitter pill information from Eddie Chamberlain '36 that Ave's son will find it twice as rough as Ave did to enter Dartmouth, both financially and academically. Undaunted, Ave flew down to New York to visit old roomy Dan Dyer and wife Yvonne who courageously abandoned suburbia to rake him through Greenwich Village and the theatre. He reports the Dyers have three fine kids, among them son Chip, potential class of 'BO (five times as rough as), already doomed to carry on the Dyer Dynasty in Wall Street's Sugar Empire. Then I guess Ave returned to Santa Ana, Calif., to sit at his expensive circular table and contemplate the ways of a wayfarer.

Hank Griswold, 133 Lowell Road, Wellesley Hills, Mass., has been commuting to Washington lately to serve on the Advisory Group and Chief Counsel for a Special House Subcommittee on State Taxation of Interstate Commerce. (Probably known as AGCCSTIC, or Serutan spelled inside out.) Apparently the states have been taxing interstate commerce their way which is not the Harvard way and something's got to give. So Hank, who is both an attorney and a CPA and widely recognized as an expert in the tax problems of small business, is the guy to extract the overheated chestnuts. He has been a partner in the firm of Scoville, Wellington and Co. for the past fifteen years, has a wife whom the newspaper flamboyantly refers to as Mrs. Griswold, son Neal, thirteen; son Scott, eleven. The newspaper used a picture of Hank obviously clipped from the Aegis, and he hasn't changed a bit.

Red Fuller has rejoined the CBS Radio Network as an account executive. He was director of creative sales and a board member of the Robert E. Eastman Co. His deductions include wife, former Jane Clark, three children, all residing in South Salem, N. Y.

In closing we are happy to report that news clippings are still coming in about Armando Chardiet and the widespread coverage he is giving the lecture circuit on his knowledgeable disillusionment of the Castro regime. In many many divers fields we have classmates doing interesting and sometimes great things. Let's keep the scoops coming.

Secretary, 1908 Coolidge Drive Dayton 19, Ohio

Treasurer, 15 Meridian PL, Huntington Station, N. Y.