1921
In our college days when Prof. W. K. Stewart influenced so many of us in Comp. Lit., Ben Tenney wanted to write. Mr. Stewart told him that he had promise but that first he had better learn about life. That, Ben has certainly done during forty years of hard work: Harvard Medical, Massachusetts General, Boston Lying-in Hospital, Chief of Surgery in the South Pacific during World War II, private practice before and after, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Boston University and later at Harvard. Promoted in 1956 to Rear Admiral in the U. S. Naval Reserve, he is the first doctor in the First Naval District to be so honored. Already an author, Ben has written a book on his speciality. Retired within a year, he hopes to have a lot of fun, for growing old is going to become increasingly pleasant with further work in the Navy, traveling, and writing. What about? Pokerface, Ben says only, "Many things."
That man with a perpetual sense of adventure is off again, Bob Wilson. Having spent three years in Naha, Okinawa, as a lawyer engaged in the most romantic and sordid, the most melodramatic and routine lawsuits, now in Japan with no permanent address, he is letting his gaze range over horizons in four hemispheres. To Bob anything can happen, anywhere and any time; and the more dramatic the crisis, the younger and happier he feels.
Do you want to know why Don Smith no longer drinks coffee at 6 a.m. and goes to bed at 9 p.m. and no longer worries about the Air Force wanting tolerances of plus or minus six-millionths of an inch? (A ten-thousandth of an inch was enough to give Don ulcers.) He retired Sept. 1 and took off for Boothbay Harbor with Prue. It was high time. The Asian flu lit into Don last February, and he lost the hearing in his right ear (the left was none too good), and the result was that he lost also his sense of balance, which only recently has been restored sufficiently so that he can bend over with a comfortable feeling of security and walk with level-earedness. But what is a bad ear or two compared to Don's splendid farewell party given him by his loyal co-workers along with a beautiful wrist watch suitably engraved?
Phil Noyes has written to the Chairman of the Board of 1921 Grandfathers, Inc., to inquire if the birth of Andrew Wentworth Noyes to Edward W. Noyes '5O does not make Phil with twelve grandchildren Grandfather Supreme of 1921.
Five years out of Dartmouth, Joe Lane '58, son of Joe Lane '21, has soared dramatically to the top. Trained in a Chattanooga bank, he has accepted the invitation to become president of a hosiery manufacturing business not far away. You have heard of bankers' hours; hosiers' hours are different. President Joe Jr. works 16 hours a day seven days a week.
In 1956 it was Mexico; 1957, the West Indies; 1958, Southern England; 1959, the West Coast. Vance Clark continues to show laudable curiosity about countries foreign and domestic. In 1960 he and Marie sailed for Europe. Met by their son Peter in Le Havre, they drove leisurely in a rented car through France, Belgium, along the Rhine and through the Black Forest in Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and back to Paris. In 1961 they ticked off 6,600 miles of the Pacific Northwest. In 1962 they crossed on the "S.S. New France" to England and Scotland where Peter and his English wife toured with them.
Dur DeGroff drove to Hanover this fall to help settle his son Jim '62, now out of military service. Jim saw Norway (and other places) and distinguished himself in radar.
Bill and Teeter Alley had tough luck on their late summer trip to Nova Scotia: too much rain. Some of that rain fell also on Hal and Doris Braman who drove about Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick as well.
In Hanover at the opening of College, Mac Johnson talked enthusiastically about the book on money and banking he is writing. Eloquent about gold and the gold standard, he supports the position, he says, so ably represented by Merrill Shoup.
On the road most of his waking hours, Bill Kearns chases jobs in New York State, Connecticut, and Massachusetts at such a fast clip that TV in Dover has more appeal for him weekends than football games and football parties, no matter where played or given.
Before Cape and Arlene Payson took off for Florida last month, they had a party with Bob and Polly Mayo, who looked a little aghast at Arlene's wheel chair. An innocent but depraved flagstone had given her ankle a wicked twist way back in August. Result: a triple fracture and a complete dislocation of the right ankle. Crescent City, Fla., was simply too far for her to drive to in a wheel chair, the doctors said, and so they put her into another cast and gave Cape the nod to drive her the whole long haul in an automobile.
Florida is where Ken and Eloise Thomas are: new address, Box 493, Winter Park. You will admit that the weather of Northfield, Ill., is a bit rough on arthritic hips and weak hearts.
If you like blueberry pie, you may envy Gordon Merriam. From his farm near Damariscotta, Me., he picked 3% tons of blueberries from 5 acres. Because of his children, Gordon feels close to the academic world. After two good years at Worcester Academy his daughter Eleanor and her husband, a teacher there, Peter Kuniholm, Brown '58, sailed on the Greek steamer Olympia for Istanbul where Peter has a three-year contract to teach at Robert College. Gordon and Ellis Briggs taught there never mind how many years ago. At Worcester Peter completed his M.A. thesis for Vanderbilt on Chaucer's forerunners. At Harvard Summer School he had two days before sailing to have it professionally typed with numerous carbons. His typist with a French background cracked up under the strain. Peter discovered that she had handled perfectly the medieval French but had averaged four spelling errors a page in English. Another typist who was clicking away as Peter climbed the gangplank would probably spell English perfectly and mess up the medieval French. And now for Gordon's son John. At Ricker College in Houlton, he fell in love with Kathleen Howard, daughter of the president, an old friend of Gordon since Cairo days. Blessed and married, the young couple took off for the University of Indiana to work for doctorates in Government. In the summer on only $5 a day they toured Europe at a breathless pace. It can be done, you know. You did it when you were young and loved it. If you did not and stayed home, you have since cursed your timidity and procrastination.
Secretary, 33 East Wheelock St. Hanover, N. H.
Treasurer, 2728 Henry Hudson Parkway New York 63, N. Y.
