1952
There's nothing to brighten up a rather dreary mid-winter day like a nice note from Head Agent Johnny Klein which begins, "Thanks very much for offering your services as regional agent. You are hired!" It makes me fee! so important to be needed! I hope lots of you fellows were lucky enough to receive similar letters from Johnny because I want you all to feel important. Then maybe we can make our Class one of the really important ones in the Alumni Fund this year. The beginning is almost upon us now so I want you all to get ready to dig in and help whatever way you can.
By the time you are reading this your executive committee will have held its first annual winter meeting in the Dartmouth Club in New York to discuss such things as an increase of one dollar in annual dues, investment of some of the class funds in a mutual fund, and to hear John Klein outline the new regional organization of the Class for the Alumni Fund. I will let you know the thrilling outcome of that conference next month.
As to news, well, I've got a little. BobMeanix reports in from Haddonfield, N. J., that he's been working since December, 1962, as Field Sales Manager for Ballymore Company, maker of safety step-ladders and hydraulic access equipment. He also makes it known that he's father of six - two girls, four boys.
Also from New Jersey comes great news of Julian Robinson. Julie has been appointed Director of Health and Welfare in Jersey City, and thus will become a department head and member of the Jersey City Mayor's cabinet. Julie has been serving since last February as a Jersey City Housing Authority Commissioner, a non-salaried position which he will resign to accept this new appointment. He will also resign as vicepresident of the National Scholarship Service and Fund For Negro Students with which he has been associated since returning from the Korean War in 1956. Julie is the first Negro department head in Jersey City history and I think he deserves a big Wah-Hoo-Wah from all of us.
On the business, or I guess legal, front I just received notice that Alan Cohen has become a member of the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. It's right down the street from me at 575 Madison Avenue and so with Al a block South and Herb Roth a block North I hope I can find legal assistance from a friendly source when needed.
I still get news from California these days - just enough to remind me we still have a contingent out there. One of them is TomEllerbe who, I believe, has not lived out there terribly long. Tom got an engineering degree from Howard University a while back and he's now living with his wife and three daughters in Los Angeles working for American Aviation.
Speaking of daughters, I have here a short note which tells me that Met Taylor and his wife have announced the arrival of a new one named Heather Anne, on December 12. Congratulations are in order.
And I guess my griping about correspondence does pay off to some extent. At least some of the wives write to me and this month I got a mighty welcome note from Phil Beaton's wife Necy. She was kind enough to send me news of many classmates, to wit: Craig Hausman, who is a neighbor of the Bentons in Birmingham, Mich., is Manager of Forward Plans with Ford Finance Staff, an outfit which also feeds the Bentons. Tom Bainbridge is also with Ford and, according to Necy, was married to a foreign girl this summer. ClayCogswell and family also live out that-a-way and the Clocker is sales manager of the Foundry Division of Artco, Inc. Clocker also footed the bill last December for a LD phone call to Jim Branch in Girdwood, Alaska, in which the Bentons figured. They had a fine chat, according to Necy, and found out that Jim is managing a ski development up there and that he's featured in an article about the development in the January issue of "Skiing" Magazine (which I didn't see). She also spoke about seeing Donand Pat MacLeod up at Cape Cod last summer, but I figure MacLeod will get enough ink in this column after he shows us his plan for speculating with class funds at the executive committee meeting next month.
It is also my painful duty this month to report the tragic loss to Whltey Fier of his wife. Jane Fier died in January in New York City and I know all of you friends of Whitey will want to join me in expressing sincerest sympathy.
I am able to end this column on a note of uplift, however, by reporting on a letter received from the Walt Grevatts of Cleveland This, too, was written by a wife and describes the new life in which they now find themselves. Walt is minister in the Hough Avenue United Church of Christ, a small interracial church in the heart of one of the most depressed areas of Cleveland. Walt and his- family live in this same area and his daughter, Marty, is the only white child in her first grade class. Walt has his own reasons for accepting this challenging position; as his wife puts it, "Unless the church speaks adequately here, it probably will not matter what it does anywhere else." And whether you or I feel the reasons are correct I, for one, can't help but admire this family's courage - the courage of their convictions. We are fortunate indeed, in this land, to have such people who will shoulder our unpleasant responsibilities for us and see our problems through to the end. So long till next month.
'53 classmates on hand to visit with theRev. Ed Boyle at his brother Jack's ('52)home in Connecticut were (back to r):Fred Whittemore, Paul Paganucci, FrankCasalvieri, Dave Florence, Bob Callender;(front) Jack, Ed, and Marty DeGennaro.
Secretary, 168 Riverside Ave. Riverside, Conn.
Treasurer, 221 Maxson Rd., Lancaster, Pa.
