1940
Recent visitors to Hanover from our class have provided the local scene with some first hand knowledge of their whereabouts, as well as giving us a chance to extol the many new attributes of life on the Hanover Plain. The middle of January Stu MacPhail came to town to attend the winter meetings of the Alumni Council. This hard-working member of the Enrollment and Admissions Committee of the Council decided to try Eastern skiing again after conquering all the slopes around Minnesota, so he came a couple of days early for his meetings and devoted them to the Dartmouth Skiway at Lyme. I had the fun of skiing one of those days with him and can report that he has remembered his lessons well. Perhaps keeping up with his four boys on the ski hills has made him look like a real skimeister. A former councilman, Don Rainie, came up for part of the meetings and the spectacular football banquet honoring the Big Green teams of 1925 and 1962.
We had only a brief chat with Mickey and Jo Miller who had brought three high school boys up for a tour of the campus and to attend the football banquet. Mickey has been a dedicated enrollment worker for the College for several years and has a line on every likely prospect in and around Springfield, Mass. Like all recent visitors to Hanover, he finds the Hopkins Center and the Leverone Field House amazing structures that capture the fancy of prospective students as well as visiting alumni.
Early in February John and Sue Knutsen drove in from Cleveland after picking up their attractive daughter, Lois, at House in the Pines. They had seen Lew Lambert in Cleveland last fall and had spent a country weekend with the Cockleys, Bracks and Davenports, at the Pennsylvania farm of the Davenports. John looked very hale and hearty and Knutsen Machine Products seems to be thriving.
Jim Kuhns reports skiing has come to Bellfontaine, O., now which must be for those who haven't conquered the Golf Course yet. Maybe with all the snow they have had there this winter they have mounded up some good hills. Jim and Faith's oldest, Peter, is a freshman at Rollins this year. Kristin, next in line, is such a stunning looking girl (this is not Jim talking but I who saw her last summer) that she has appeared in ads in teen-age magazines. Jim is probably taking an agent's percentage of her royalties!
After many years, Paul Goodwin has checked in with a nice letter telling of his work as District Geophysicist for Sinclair Oil and Gas Company, in charge of all geophysical activity in Wyoming, Mont., and the Dakotas. How's that for a far-flung territory! For recreation in the winter months Paul skis and even gets out the speed skates as of yore, but after one or two laps he is convinced things have changed since the days back on Occom Pond! He and Ruth are also active in the local Republican organization so they presumedly had a hand in getting in the governor and one senator from their party.
Brownie wrote from home base in England, after a wonderfully satisfying "shakedown" vacation month at the new home he and Diz built in St. Croix. They had some reunions with two classmates, Bob Austin who lives there and Sid Harrington who flies into the area as his job. Brownie and Joyce left the idyllic island setting soaked in winter sunshine to return to Arctic-cold England and the noise of pipes bursting in their archaic plumbing.
An interesting announcement about an exhibition of paintings done by Tom George was forwarded by the artist himself. This particular New York showing, the fifth for him, was for fourteen of his paintings done during the past two years. His works are included in many collections in this country as well as museums in England and Japan. Tom received a Ford Foundation Purchase Award in the 1962 Whitney Museum Annual.
It's been a long time since I've heard from Bill Chapin so it was a real pleasure to get an airmail from him last week, carrying an APO on it too! Since last August Bill and the family have been in Tokyo, having taken a year's leave from the San Francisco Chronicle and his duties as chief copy editor, where he had been for the previous ten years. He's on a real busman's holiday however because he's taken on a job on the Pacific Stars and Stripes, published in Tokyo for "our boys overseas." Gad! does that sound hauntingly familiar! In part, Bill says . . . "Tokyo is a mixed blessing: fascinating one moment, frustrating the next. It is expensive (our house costs $2BO a month to rent and it is no palace) and right now it is damned cold. But you take off for a Sumo tournament, or a trip to Hakone, or a fabulous exhibition of Bonsai trees and it makes it all seem worth while again. In any event, it's a place we won't forget.
"My kids (Pennell, 15, and Mark, 13) both go to a private school called The American School in Japan. We live in a quiet, verdant neighborhood called Shimouma. We have a fine garden and open sewers flanking the street in front of our house. We have a marvelous maid named Shigeko who says 'purty' instead of pretty." I'm sure Bill will have some interesting stories to tell us at the 25th Reunion.
Bill Mercer's "Hoosierizing Treatment" has been going on since last summer so must be fairly complete by now. He's been with Indiana Bell since July and has settled into the good life in Indianapolis. He has caught up with Johnny Peacock, the man for keeping L. S. Ayers, the largest department store in town, and Greek Mahoney, insurance mogul, who practically bought a house out from under the Mercers. Bill feels close to Dartmouth in spite of the many miles between Indianapolis and Hanover because of sending money to the Bursar for sophomore son Lee's bills.
Another classmate who must feel close to Dartmouth is Bu Hayden as he reads in the Daily D of the exploits of son Bill on the winter track circuit. Bill's specialty is the broad jump and over Carnival weekend, in a dual meet with Harvard, he broke the existing mark with a leap of 22 feet 10¼ inches. Since this is only his freshman year he will have lots of time to break the varsity record as well.
A welcome letter from Lew Chipmaii says that he and Janet are getting in that terrifying cycle so many of us are facing - college selection and application. Chip's oldest is a boy Bruce, a junior in high school, who is beginning to gaze with favor on his dad's Alma Mater. Martha, at fourteen, happily has important things on her mind too, just like all other fourteen-year-old girls she has suddenly discovered that boys are human beings after all. When not settling such farreaching questions, Chip leads a busy, satisfying life as a practicing physician in Wilmington, Del., where the welcome mat is out to all visiting classmates.
Before putting the "30" on this month's column I want to list the recent address changes which have come to me. As you can see the majority are west of the Mississippi which only proves 1940 has a firm hand in swelling the national trends: Chester R. Berry. 181 Devonshire Drive, Rochester 24, N Y.; Richard C. Campbell 3rd, 1850 Western Federal Savings Bldg., Denver 2, Colo.; Robert B. Marshall, 407 S. Pinto Drive, Scottsdale. Ariz.; Frederick H. Michel, 217 - 13th Place, Manhattan Beach, Calif.; James P. Scott, Leverett Ave., Fayetteville, N Y.; Karrick P. Collins Jr., 15 Tree Top Way, Kentfield, Calif.; Henry G. Dahl Jr., 4613 Baker Drive, Everett, Wash.; Comdr. Joseph F. Huber Jr., U. S. Naval Liaison Off., Box 99, Navy #961, FPO, San Francisco, Calif.; George L. Kimball, 22100 River Oaks Drive, Lakewood 16, O.; Philip J. McCoy, 7 Orchard Way, Kentfield, Calif.; Robert P. McElwain, 1000 - 6th St., S.W., Washington, D. C.; Gilbert W. Moreau, 2401 E. Atlantic Blvd., Pompano Beach, Fla.; Lt. Col. Jay R. Stout, 27 Niles St., Hartford 5, Conn.
Secretary, J 5 North Balch St. Hanover, N. H.
Treasurer, 78 School St., Concord, N. H.
