1959's Advanced Fifth
"A great time," said one '59. "Really successful," said another speaking about our class reunion in Hanover, June 21-23. Puss Pettway and his crew had all systems GO throughout the weekend, fluids flowed freely; the weatherman was generally cooperative, though he tried to give us a wet cold shoulder Saturday at the picnic; and activities abounded -which enabled us to become oriented to the Hopkins Center, Lever-one Field House, and other new structures.
Randy Malin and wife Cindy now proud owners of a home in Ardsley, N. Y., made the trip up on Friday and on Saturday our class business meeting the newly-elected '59 executive committee chose Randy as class chairman for the next six years.
Debby and I opened our home to JohnBaldwin, his wife Anne, and daughter Claire who journeyed from Urbana, Ill., where John is instructing in chemistry at the University of Illinois. We were honored and happy to become Claire's godparents at a service of baptism Saturday morning.
Distance couldn't stop Greg Holthusen and his wife Sandy who drove all the way from the University of Wisconsin where Greg is finishing med school. Another emerging physician, Charlie Eytel, found the trip from San Diego impossible to make, but did send a wire full of good wishes. And also in the medical field, Barry Smith walked down from Mary Hitchcock, where he is interning, while Roger Agre and his wife took time off from Bryn Mawr Hospital to wend their way north from Philadelphia.
Greeting '59s as they arrived was DaveMarshall at the registration desk. Fresh from Red Cross Aquatic School where he prepared for his summer waterfront job up in Lyme, he looked less rotund than he had during the winter when he dropped Cynthia off at Hanover Elementary School, where she taught first grade, and journeyed on to Tuck School to pore over the books. DaveBell, who did a fine job as liquor chairman, could be seen tossing the pigskin around with Carl Schulz in front of our dorms. Dave made the short trip from Claremont, N. H., where he works for Pittsburgh Glass Company, the new field house is one of his prize accounts.
Mickey Cohen was busy passing out sun glasses at the opening dinner in the field house - the brilliance emanated from mirror-like section of his forehead which doesn't have the hair it used to. Bob Filderman ventured up from New York and had some up-to-date reports on Rudy LaRusso's life as an enterprising basketball-businessman with several successful off-season greeting card shops starting up. Good luck, Rudy, and keep up the great basketball.
Art Duggan made it up for the day on Saturday but couldn't bring Dave Gavitt along. Gav was definitely missed at the twisting spree in the '59 tent Saturday night, when, spurred on by Moose Morton on the drums, John Wadman, Bob Czelusniak, EdLabenski, Jim Taylor, and many more gyrating forms indicated that four years had taken nothing away from their agility. Bruce Andrews was probably one of the most noticeable twisters, he and others like Joe Koucky show what our expanding economy can do to the waistline. In fact, the shape of things to come for all the men returning appeared to be in a state of transition which will bring interesting results.
Back to the point, many fascinating fields have been followed by men from the class. Ted Gude has gained a fantastic background in government and economics both at the University of London and M.I.T., Sam Adams, though he could not be present, sent word through his wife Nancy that geology makes one a traveling man; reports had it that George Seielstad completed his Ph.D. at Cal Tech and was heading for the University of Alaska to teach and continue research. So the news of men who couldn't reach reunion did serve to bring them a little closer and get the class intangibly back together in a greater abundance than numbers might indicate.
Reunion activities most conducive to gathering news were the big opening dinner in the field house, keg tapping in the tent, and the picnic at Storrs Pond. It was in the gigantic brilliance of the field house that one first saw familiar faces. I bumped into StanDrazen and his wife lining up to get dinner and saw the stout form of Norm Swanson laughing its way up for another cocktail. At the picnic I talked to Pete Stern who had just become a father but came up for the occasion anyway; and Tom Wilkinson who recently became tired but famous for his 50-mile hike as staff writer of the Albany Times Union; not to mention Charlie Decker who lugged his old mobile out to Hawaii and back to Hanover still intact while serving Uncle Sam; and Doug Wise lofting rocks at the old out-house to let the gals know their time was up. At the tent, ringing with voices and musty with beer, I met OwenFiss back from London and pursuing his law degree and Shelly London anxious to know how he could get men interested in Dartmouth in to see the right men in Hanover. A reunion is exciting and throbbing with a combination of fast remarks and penetrating conversations which try to recapture all that has passed and all that means a great deal to the men who are returning to share brief moments together. In one sense it is a joy; in another sense it is frustrating, for we say "so long" all too soon and are left with fleeting impressions of what some of the guys we knew in college think, feel and do.
Snappily-dressed '58's show subtle differences five years can bring about.
CLASS SECRETARY
