1934

The most beautiful (to us) of college hymns - "Dartmouth Undying" - says it best of all:

"Dartmouth, the gleaming, dreaming walls of Dartmouth "Miraculously builded in our hearts!"

We have witnessed such a miracle - an abiding love of Dartmouth "miraculously builded" in four short months in the happy heart of the young man who lives at our house. Not even the love of college of the oldest Dartmouth grad surpasses that of the young man of '67. All of the revered traditions, all of the fervent loyalties, all of the finest meanings of the word Dartmouth already are deeply rooted in him.

To be sure, many of us experienced much the same kind of "miracle" after we, too, had been but a few months in Hanover. But you come to realize the fullness of Franklin McDuffee's immortal words when you sit before a glowing fire and listen while the young man of '67 talks about his new discovery — the glories of Dartmouth. You felt for some time that you had correctly sized up the young man's feeling for Dartmouth. You become certain of it when he describes the campus after the season's first snowfall and, eyes aglow, he exhilarates: "Why, it's even more beautiful white!"

Now, you find yourself reliving your freshman days, with all of the joys and some; of the agonies, too - the terror of your first finals; the gnawing doubt whether you'll pass; the bleak and melancholy journey back to Hanover after the Christmas holidays.

No one has captured the mood better than Freshman Dean Albert I. Dickerson '3O, in his "Parents Letter #4," one of a priceless series. Describing what he calls "The January Wish-I-Were-Somewhere-Else Syndrome," Dean Dickerson writes:

"...The campus-bound freshman as Jan- uary approaches is not a happy man. Home had never looked so good to him. You were never so liberal with the keys to the car. The brothers and sisters, if any, were never so indulgent. As for the girl, either (a) she never looked so good, or (b) they broke off, or (c) the worst happened and both of these things occurred. (The latter is known as being 'shot down.') None of these three eventualities tends to cheer the student in January as he sets off to return to his college campus. The sense of adventure and discovery which dominated the September departure is missing. In its place is a sort of delayed homesickness. So ... the freshman, having vastly enjoyed the all-too-brief hometown exhilaration of being The Returned College Man, goes back to college to face, under most college calendars, the culmination of all his academic insecurities as the dreaded finals approach. Even the Dartmouth freshman, with that particular ordeal behind him, turns his face toward Hanover with a sobering sense of still having his way to make as a college man."

But, we might add, he faces it with a feeling that Dartmouth is "miraculously builded" in his heart.

HOUDAY REMEMBRANCES - From Amy and Henry Martorano; Floss and Laurie Herman; Gerry and Bill Scherman; Lizand Hank Werner (with clipping announcing that the late Alvin Marks' daughter is now Mrs. Richard Michael Felner); Lois andMoe Frankel (with news that daughter Debbie will be Mrs. John Brickell Reese Jr., by the time you read this); Norma and Bill G.Gilmore (a two-page green Christmas letter reporting that young Bill is now at Arizona State College; Tom is training show horses; Keven is a junior at Scottsdale High, and Tracey is "still going strong in her swimming"), and from our esteemed ALUMNIMAGAZINE Editor, Charlie Widmayer '30.

DOCTOR'S TRA VELOGUE - Dr. FrankLepreau just back from a second one-month stint at Dr. Larimer Mellon's "Hospital Albert Schweitzer" in Haiti where Frank did "more surgery than I thought was possible with one nurse as my only assistant." He and 10-year-old daughter Mimi stopped off for overnight visit with Doris and ArtGrimes (recently returned from an assignment abroad) at the Grimes' 26th floor New York penthouse. Frank is on the staff of Truesdale Clinic in Fall River, Mass., a name that conjures up memories of one of our first big reporting assignments - famed "upside-down stomach" operation performed by Dr. Truesdale in 1935 on a pretty little girl named Alyce Jane McHenry.

Mel Gunst, vice president of Gunst, Kanow & Gassin, Inc., was recently named to the board of trustees of Morgan Park Academy, a college preparatory school in Chicago. Native New Yorker Gunst served as Midwest sales manager of the Gruen Watch Co. before becoming vice president of Gunst, Kanow & Gassin in 1956, a firm formed in that year to serve as sole distrib- utors of all products manufactured by Speidel Corp. Mel is presently serving as president of the Morgan Park Academy Fa- thers' Club.

ELOQUENT DISSENT — AI Hewitt, 1934's stage great, writes with deep conviction about British actors' invasion of Broadway. Writes Al: "The American actor, whose unemployment problem has never been worse, has had no protection from his government and, in recent years, none from his union."

WINTER CARNIVAL MEMORIES - That Carnival Saturday 30 years ago, dawning a crisp 42 degrees below zero . . . just a dry cold! .. . Olympic champ Jack Shea, class skater of the Carnival competition. . . . The 40-31 basketball loss to Yale despite efforts by 1934's contingent - Hank Kraszewski, Jake Edwards, Goose Goss, Bob Miller, Jocko Stangle.... The 4-1 hockey victory over Harvard. . . . Great day for Capt. JimMcHugh and his team. . . . Other '34s on the team - Hafey Arthur, Bob Bennett, Don Crowther, Rollie Morton, Stan Neill, Art Nissen, Ike Powers, Jim Walter. ... The heartbreaking 36-35 swimming loss to Princeton despite near record-breaking effort by the late Capt. Dick Banfield in 50-yard freestyle. . . .

OLD ROCKIN' CHAIR - John Foley's Mary writes that Ye Olde Sec "is fine and relaxing with no monthly write-ups to think about." (Foley - you know how much scratching is required for a column Write!)

Secretary, 681 Overhill Rd. Birmingham, Mich.

Treasurer, Thayer School, Hanover, N. H.