1941
1963 is less than two months old, yet I will wager that most folks have already broken all of the New Year's resolutions. But not so with Bob and Mae Thome. Both of them recently combined forces to compile the newsiest letter I have ever received from any classmate. Bob puts Richard Halliburton to shame. Since 1959 there is hardly a place on the globe that he has not visited, without the aid of any Mercury capsule. The places he missed will be covered by 1964. In 1959 and 1960, Mae and Linda accompanied Bob, one of the nation's leading botanists, abroad for two years on a Fulbright and National Science Foundation senior post-doctoral fellowship to Australia, the Orient, and England. They spent a year and a half at the University of Old in Brisbane and the remainder of this period exploring and collecting in tropical Old Tasmania, and other parts of Australia, New Guinea, New Caledonia, and the Northern Territory. Then they spent a month visiting botanical gardens and collecting in Java, Singapore, Ceylon, south India, and Iran; and the last five months working at major herbaria in England and on the Continent. Poor fellow, he has not been around much since then, spending only a few weeks in Hawaii in 1961 to attend and lecture at the 10th Pacific Congress and taking "a few" lecturing trips to Missouri, North Carolina, and points east. Future travels will take Bob to South Africa this fall and to the Botanical Congress in Edinburgh in 1964. After 13 years in the Department of Botany of the University of lowa, he left lowa City in September to assume the position of taxonomist and curator of the herbarium at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont, Calif., migrating to Southern California via Denver, New Mexico, Arizona, the Colorado Desert, and Minnesota. Bob's new affiliation carries with it a professorship of botany at Claremont University College. Attention, Charlie McLane — If you are in need of a capable assistant, Mae is continuing her Russian language studies at Pomona College.
That is the best beginning I have had for monthly articles in "many-a-moon." And that is not the end of our cosmopolitan educators. Last spring Chet Williams reported from Horn of Africa, where he was then stationed with UNESCO as Educational Planning Advisor, that he expected to return to the states soon on leave, and perhaps for good, and that he would like to be reassigned to UNESCO if this happens because of the excellent secondary educational facilities afforded to his children by virtue of this assignment. It looks like his hopes were realized, because Chet is now with the UNESCO Educational Planning Mission in Apia, Republic of Western Samoa, after enjoying that long-awaited and well-deserved stateside leave, which he apparently spent in Texas, of all places.
Dick Jachens has also returned "home" from his assignment with Headquarters, United States Army, Europe. He has settled in Arlington, Va., at least temporarily and I have a sneaking suspicion that he is a civilian once again, as "Major" no longer prefaces his name. I also surmise that FredBegole is back in the United States after his long tenure in Frankfort on-the-Main and Bad Hamburg, Germany, with the American Express Company, as he now resides in Riverside, Conn.
While many of our "prodigal sons" have returned, others are still seeking new fields to conquer on foreign shores. Fred Spencer is now based in Essex, England, instead of North Andover, Mass.; and Chuck Carleton in Seine et Oise, France, instead of Minneapolis, Minn., the proving ground for future Carnival Queens. Bob and GretchenKrieger's two oldest daughters are sure-fire bets as heirs apparent to the coveted coronation to take place in Hanover this month, both having reigned as homecoming queens for their Minneapolis High School.
The class of 1941 stubbornly refuses to relinquish its claim to a share of the plethora of appointments and promotions emanating from Capitol Hill since Election Day. Thus Bill Durkee recently captured the welldeserved Department of Defense appointment of Deputy Assistant Secretary for Civil Defense, in which vital role he will coordinate programs for federal assistance to the states and for technical operations. Bill has been serving for a year as Director for Federal Assistance in the Office of Civil Defense. Prior to joining the Department of Defense, he was with the State Department, forsaking his San Francisco law practice to enter government service.
Two other Washingtonians are "big wheels" in the Dartmouth Club of Washington. Its new President is attorney George Flather and Pete Scott is its new Treasurer. Elsewhere in the alumni circuit, Earl Cotton is the new President of the Dartmouth Club of Nashua, N. H., in which capacity he recently presided over a dinner meeting of Dartmouth Alumni in New Hampshire. At the the new President of the Dartmouth Club of Berkshire County, attended by Ab Combes and Dr. Tony Guerrieri, George Denny was elected vice-president for the coming year.
It seems like food and '41'ers are like two peas in a pod. Bob O'Brien, President of the Mystic Valley Dartmouth Club, organized and presided over a very successful old-fashioned clambake. The New Orleans gang was feted at the palatial home of Jim andBunny Keating. Ralph Johnson served steak and corn to the members of the Chicago Alumni Association at its annual outing held on Ralph's apparently newly-acquired farm in suburban Barrington. George Baine was a prime mover behind a very successful cocktail party held by the Dartmouth Club of Monmouth County.
Before my mouth waters any further, I had better retire to the local beanery for that fifteen cent hamburger. So, see you next month!
Secretary, 84-39 126 th St. Kew Gardens 15, N. Y.
Treasurer, Room 2820 525 Wm. Penn Place, Pittsburgh 30, Pa.
