1947
Here it is winter carnival time and as memory serves me, a time looked forward to by all even though most of us in dear old '47 remember, at the best, only one or two. However, I am sure most of us have made up for it in many ways since then.
Bill Knight, CPCU, has just been made agency supervisor for the Lumber Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Boston. Bill took this over on November 1, 1962 having joined the firm in 1951. I am sure, with his varied background, that Bill is aptly placed in Boston since he served with the Central Intelligence Agency after his three-year stint in the Navy; mostly in Shanghai, China, and Changchun, Manchuria, thereafter. Anyone who can learn even the semblance of Chinese dialects certainly should be able to make himself understood in Boston. He started his insurance career in 1948 as a claims adjuster with the Liberty Mutual in Boston. Since joining Lumber Mutual he has served as special agent in New England, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia and was awarded his CPCU designation in September of 1959. For the past three years he has been manager of the company's Lumbermatic Department. Bill was instrumental in getting the New England 1752 club started with annual education clinics and has served as vice president of that organization.
Sometimes it is delightful to find out that a man has combined a hobby and a vocation to at least his own benefit. Dr.John Tower has always been crazy about fishing and hunting, said hobby having brought him to Alaska some years ago. Practicing in Anchorage he naturally became an ardent aviator and has frequently been drafted by commissions to accompany them to the most remote parts of the Arctic region to investigate the health of the Eskimo. Naturally, getting in a little fishing and hunting along the way.
John recently took a three-and-a-half-day vacation from Friday to Tuesday, which really indicates he should have used his airplane somewhere along the line. After a real soaking at the Yale-Dartmouth game (along with a few other loyal nuts) he attended his mother and father's 40th wedding anniversary dinner, went on a visit to the crippled children's hospital at Newington, and then the tuberculosis sanatorium at Uncas. Dr. Tower is especially interested in the latter disease since tuberculosis of the bone is quite prevalent in Alaska. In addition to this John has at least got a vicarious act in politics since he attends the Lowell Thomas family, both senior and junior and is helping Lowell Jr. try to win back the Republican control in Congress for Alaska. Thomas Jr. is engaged in Alaska in making industrial films a thriving business. John's wife, Elizabeth, also a practicing physician, has an extra curricular activity as managing editor of the "Alaska," the medical journal there. At the time of John's whirlwind three days in Connecticut, she was in Denver attending a conference of medical journal editors. Certainly quite a life for the Towers and we are not sure, but we may have just a little hint of envy when describing their activities.
A word from Esconaba, Mich., on the activities of George Rusch shows again that our class is well up in the educational field. George has recently been nominated as trustee of the Delta County Community College and in a speech recently stated: "I believe that the college will raise the level of educational confidence and accomplishment at all levels of grade school and high school. One of the prime factors in motivation is proximity to the stimulus. Students will set and adjust their sights at a much earlier age and became familiar with the expectations of higher education and compare this with their desires and abilities." George, after getting an engineering degree in economics operated the Cloverland Commercial College in Esconaba, plus being planning and program engineer for the Air Force. He is very active in community activities.
'47's answer to Burl Ives, Jim Luce, was married recently to Beryl Arlene Becker at Lakewood Christian Church in Cleveland, Ohio. The bride is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Clare L. Becker, 1790 Wright Avenue, Rocky River, Ohio. Beryl, attended Dyke College before graduating from Michigan State. Jim attended the New England Conservatory of Music and is a music teacher, guitarist, and folk singer. We wish the bride and groom lots of happy evenings around the fireside.
The latest news on Barry Marks should please all his classmates since he was recently the main speaker at the SheratonBiltmore Hotel in Providence for the Brandeis University national women's committee meeting held on Pearl Harbor day. His topic "Leisure: work - aesthetic: anesthetic." Would be very interested in seeing a copy of that speech since it could really lead to delightful arguments between the workers and the non-workers. Barry received both his M.A. and Ph.D. in American Civilization with the University of Minnesota. He taught at Minnesota and Dartmouth and now is with the Brown University English Department.
Speaking of writers, which Barry has done extensively, another of our famous classmates, Phil Booth, poet-in-residence, an associate professor of English at Syracuse University, has given another of his original poetry readings in Cortland, New York. These are sponsored by the cultural activities committee and are quite well attended. After receiving his Master's at Columbia, Phil has been affiliated with the faculty of Bowdoin, Dartmouth & Wellesley, and is associated with the writers conference of the University of New Hampshire, plus the Tufts University workshop. Phil's poems have been published in the New Yorker, Harper's, the Atlantic and other magazines. The title poem in his book: "Letter from distant lands" was awarded the Hokin prize in 1953.
Always awaiting word of you and your activities. Somewhere, sometime there is someone who would be very interesting.
Jay Evans '49 (right), assistant to Dartmouth's Director of Admissions, conferswith Vernon Reyman of New HamptonSchool during a conference there.
Secretary, Guard Hill Rd. Bedford Village, N. Y.
Treasurer, 14 Fen Court, Madison, N. J.
