1934

This is the month when ye sec usually sits in deeper stupor over the Jim Dandy #1 writing machine, trying to stretch the dust in the empty file sufficiently to keep the franchise.

But this must be "Be kind to class secretaries week", or perhaps "Can he be that bad week" - for many several very fine people have risen, relatively speaking, in mass to give us a hand.

For instance, from a sister-in-law in Norfolk, Va., to BUI Adams in La Jolla, Calif., to here, a clipping about Gay Milius.

"A Navy Legal Officer with radio 'hamming' for a hobby has been awarded a certificate for his world-wide contacts with radio amateurs in foreign countries ranging from South America to the Soviet Union. ... Cmdr. Milius, whose call letters are W4NJF, is a man of considerable talent, appearing recently in Little Creek Players productions."

As a dividend from Bill's sister-in-law - "Gay and his wife Martha are proud parents of a baby girl about three months old" - and from Bill himself, "Recovering nicely from cataract operation and wearing a contact lens. Saw Bill Knibbs at Dartmouth dinner here last week - everyone was remarking on what a dead ringer he is for Astronaut John Glenn."

And from Laurie Herman at The Detroit News an "article showing Cam Day's son, Lou, as league scoring champion picked for the Bergen County all-star team. Says Laurie, "Later talked to Cam - his son is probably going to Lafayette. Another coincidence — my son winds up rooming with Ching Ong's boy at Michigan." Not entirely a coincidence, but perhaps of some interest to those of us who used to meet occasionally while keeping an eye on the Class of 1962, the scion of the Foley family, after a slight difference of opinion with the revitalized Math Dept., decided to get his service time behind him. The difference of opinion wasn't too earth-shaking, just a question of whether or not one should study in the senior year, and Tom is now on a very important assignment for the U. S. Navy in Memphis, something about removing all potential bacteria from mess tables three times a day.

NAMES IN THE NEWS, this month, Frank Sweetser, professor of sociology at Boston University, has received a Fulbright award to lecture on his specialty at the University of Helsinki, Finland during the academic year 1962-63. He will be accompanied to Finland by his wife Dorrian and his son, Frank III. . . Unpublished material of Ernest Hemingway recovered by his wife from storage in the back of a bar in Key West, Fla.. and bank vaults in Cuba has been brought to New York for study by his publishers, including Mr. Hemingway's editor, L. Harry Brague. . . . The lone New Engender (and you can say that again) on the Biatnik House subcommittee investigating the Federal highway program with specific attention given to little things like why can't any of Boston's fire engines fit through the entrances to the new under-the-Common garage, is Perk Bass ... and speaking of other sharks, Dr. Perry W. Gilbert, professor of zoology, Cornell University is head of the Shark Research Laboratories on Bimini Island, off the Bahamas. Perry is widely known for his studies aimed at finding an effective repellent for sharks ... and Harry Espenscheid, president and owner of several Rockford, Ill., businesses, recently returned from a three-week safari in the wild game country of North Kenya in East Africa. He says, "mine was not a hunting expedition, but one of photographing animals in their native habitat, returning with about 600 feet of movies. ... My purpose in making this trip was to see this wild life before it disappears. It was most interesting to see the nomad people who inhabit this area With white men being forced to leave there will be more slaughter and less conservation. ... My recent trip of three weeks cost me three times what my two-year travel around the world cost me during 1935-37."

THEN NOTES ... from Dick Wells to say that Ray Vickland has been district vicepresident since February 1 for McKesson and Robbins, Inc. in Chicago ... and the annual needle from Stu Barber in Washington, as always keeping certain complacent characters from becoming more-so, "The Alumni Mag ... an over-copious tome which I still don't have time to read. Come to think of it, I don't know quite why I even pay dues. Put it down to habit and the occasional rise of a streak of public spirit through the cussedness." And a Merry Christmas to you, too, Stu ... then to BudYailalee who is back in the East, working with Vita Milk, and checking through the Dartmouth Club often enough to meet his friends and pick up miscellaneous messages.

AND QUOTES ... from Dr. Bob Smith, "Have kept my nose fairly close to the grindstone, as usual. Have had invitations to take part in two anesthesia seminars in Bogota and Maracaibo - where I was supposed to enlighten the untutored, but as usual wound up in the reverse position - and had an impressive lesson in hospitality and inter-American relations as well" ... and Marty Johnston from Reno, Nev., "After moving to Reno in 1947, opened and operated a consumer finance business for twelve years, selling out in 1959. Since then have been in the general investment business, managing a family partnership. Son, Robert, is a junior at Webb School of California, straight A student, captain of football, on the track team, a class officer, and has applied to Dartmouth for the Class of 1967, under an Early Decision Plan" ... with a note of encouragement to all of us who have the weight of educating the youth of America still hanging around our necks, Phi! Eckels, "Just had a short one, because we've mailed in the last remittance to cover John's education at Dartmouth! Also consider ourselves over half-way through the total load of educating four. For those who. face what looks like an endless job, I can urge you to take heart. Somehow you get to see over the pile of bills. Then suddenly they begin to leave the nest. Katie was married February 10 to a nice guy from St. Louis who is apprenticing as an architect."

To all of which, being in almost the identical spot, we can say, Amen. We can also, thanks to so many thoughtful people, say Amen to this job here which consists mostly of keeping apart the classes of 1933 and 1935. Hardly seems worthwhile, because neither one of them could ever battle their way out of a wet paper bag.

Secretary, 12 Berwick St. Worcester 2, Mass.

Class Agent, 1650 McDowell St., Sharon, Pa.