1936
Little theater productions have highlighted the lives of two of our class families. JackSmith, president of the Dartmouth Club of Southern Connecticut, brought down the house at the scholarship benefit and the following night wife, Jessica, wowed the audience in a presentation of "Janus." Then from Dick Morton comes news that BlakeHughes had a restful part in "Gideon" at Hastings-on-Hudson. After five well-spoken lines he gets killed early in the second act and remains on the stage, cadaver-fashion, for the rest of the play.
After twice circling the globe by freighter, Bob Ireland writes he is "now perched precariously in the Canaries, while investigating other long freighter trips.
"The Canaries are an ideal retirement spot, to put it mildly. One would have to have a narcotics habit to spend more than $500 per month here and a couple could make it on $l5O per month or less. The climate has been recognized since the time of Herodotus as the best in the world and the people range from exceptionally friendly to bearable. This is most important in living abroad with the plethora of 'Yankee Go Home' propaganda in so many countries. Prices range from the fantastic (electrocardiograms, $1.50; best Scotch, $1.65; excellent servants, $13.50 per month) to the bargain (American filter cigarettes, $1.55 per carton; permanent waves, $2.95; American canned goods, appliances, etc., at slightly lower prices than at home due to the free port status here; excellent custommade suits of the best British fabrics, $50) to the mediocre (reasonably bad meat at only slightly lower prices, on the average, than at home is the prime example in this category).
"Las Palmas is a city of 200,000 but with considerably more to do than in an American city of the same size. There are the usual run of concerts, movies, mediocre television, legitimate theatres, etc., plus many excellent and ornate clubs with extremely low membership rates, English libraries, dog races, jai-alai, gorgeous beaches, and next year major league soccer. 'We' won the minor league title this year and move up in classification in 1964-1965. This to me is quite sensible, as I rather doubt if the New York Mets could win the International League title, for example."
The third move in ten years, so far as his plant is concerned, has just been completed by ten Florsheim, who, in addition to being very busy with his business, has been thoroughly engaged "watching his three daughters grow up, and in building a new home on our farm, northwest of Chicago.
"Out here," he writes, "we have established a small but select herd of Charolais beef cattle."
In the business community, Ken Wilson is pushing forward the conversion of Avco Corporation toward a higher proportion of civilian work; Bill Ferguson, formerly assistant controller of the Carborundum Company has been, appointed director of purchasing; Steve Dietz, Kenyon and Eckhardt ad exec, is plunging around the country urging other admen to point their efforts more toward clearly defined segments of the population rather than limiting their production to appeals to the entire spectrum of the nation; and radio station vice president and general manager, John V. B. Sullivan wants to know "Why is it that letter-writers who misunderstand or misinterpret or quote out of context or otherwise show a bias, intentional or otherwise, seldom sign their names?"
Ed Dreschel, one of our West Coast correspondents, came through with the news that class chairman Pete Fitzherbert with his family was in San Francisco on a business trip. "The Fitzherberts came out through Denver and Pete's daughter talked to my son, just arrived there at Lowry AFB after completing boot camp in Texas. ... Pete and family also stopped off with Brew andMarge Towne, owners and operators of White Stallion Ranch near Tucson."
Latest to join the ranks of the retired-but-working-harder-than-ever is Bill Stimson who has settled his family in Seattle.
"Last year we tired of living in government quarters and moved across Lake Washington to an older home with plenty of yard work to do. I suppose I am the only one in the class looking for yard work but I thought all of jus needed a bit. We got it all right and have been cutting hedge with a chain saw it is so overgrown. I cut grass with a riding tractor at five miles an hour if I can hang on in the turns. It has meant much in good mental and physical health to the whole family. By the way the family still consists of my wife, Emily, younger and prettier each day, Rich, 14, and seriously studying, Barbie, 12, who doesn't have to study to get marks, and John, 9, who just doesn't care but is always busy with something important.
"Last fall to make sure of remaining in Seattle where we have so many fine friends, I agreed to accept the position of director of Medical Education at Providence Hospital and announced my intention to retire from the U.S. Public Health Service effective July 1, 1964. This retirement has just been approved so now this letter. I put in 25 consecutive years in the Public Health Service and enjoyed much of it but just couldn't face the probability of further transfer. We like it too much here.
"The only classmate in Seattle is DickWakefield. We rarely see each other but I am still as fond of him as ever. We had a pleasant surprise a couple of weeks ago and discovered that while he works with figures at Boeing he also runs the best aquatic catering service in the Pacific Northwest. Hs showed up at our dock in his new to him 30-foot ketch with dinner all prepared. We spent a most pleasant evening, eight of us, trying to eat his personally-caught salmon without smearing his cabin. ..."
Len Florsheim '36 and eight-ton camera his company produced for the Air Force.
Secretary, 536 Washington Bldg. Washington 5, D. C.
Class Agent, 153 Tahlulah Lane, West Islip, L. I., N. Y.
