1949

You expect from me maybe a "September Song" or after my first column a "Swan Song," but I'm bound and determined to cover the rest of that Funderful Fifteenth our class held in June. Reunion Committee Chairman Paul Woodberry and his associates did a masterful job, and the entire weekend schedule was not only well run and on schedule but most important of all with the interest of the great majority always at heart. Their selection of events had wisely been researched out.

As with all reunions Saturday was the busiest and most eventful day. The '49 class tent which was situated behind Dartmouth Hall was the scene of a continental breakfast Saturday morning after which we had a short class business meeting in 105 Dartmouth. No little wonder that the old wrestler Bob Zeiser was picked by the College this spring as Class Chairman of the Year. We know how devoted a worker he has been for the class as an officer ever since graduation, but let me tell you friends, his meetings run smoothly and with dispatch. Obstructionists and long-winded characters run the risk of having a double arm lock put on them. And so it came to pass that this sixteen and one half minute session saw some lively action. Zeiser warned us that the class dues might be forced up a dollar or two to defray the rising costs of operating the ALUMNI MAGAZINE and mailing it to our entire class. Then John Stearns, chairman of the nominating committee for class officers, asked for and received approval on a recommended expansion of the class executive committee from the present thirteen to nineteen which will include class officers as ex officio members. This committee now includes as hold-overs King Ball, Mike McGean, Ray Rasenberger, Bert Rodman, Carl Struever, Al Wagner, and Bob Zeiser. New members are Dean Cameron, Clark Church, Herb Gramstorff, Bob Muenzberg, Bob Rooke, Gordon Thomas, Sew Weber, and Paul Woodberry. The committee had been polled ahead of time and responded most favorably to the slate of new officers as follows: Class chairman Bob Alden, secretary Tom Swartz, treasurer Herman Muller, Memorial Fund chairman Dick Bandfield. Alden in turn chose Elliot Baritz as his new Class Agent and Bud Hughes as the Newsletter Editor to round out the selections. Alden then asked those present for a well deserved vote of thanks to Zeiser, and the meeting was adjourned.

At 11 a.m. a good many of us joined with '50s and '51s to attend a faculty panel on "Fifteen Years of Change" sponsored by the three sister classes. This was a panel with Leonard Rieser '44, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, presiding and panelists Prof. Morton, Prof. Kemeny, and Prof. Chan representing in order the departments of History, Mathematics, and Far Eastern Culture. It was a most interesting program, each man reflecting the thoughts and attitudes of his particular educational sphere. Prof. Kemeny, the brilliant mathematician, pointed out that in the fifteen-year interim since our graduation the entire world has been convulsed in scientific change. He pointed to the fact that the college now owns an excellent computer and that undergraduates work out problems to feed this hungry monster from relay stations located in key spots around the campus. Many hours of student research and programming effort is rewarded by the computer's split second gum machine answers from the dust-free bowels of College Hall. Then Prof. Chan stood up and told us that as far as he could see the Hanover Plain had eroded very little in fifteen years. Faculties had lost their students and vice versa since Eleazar's day, and the life process of a college education may involve a small amount of frenetic activity but an awful lot of routine breathing and thrashing just to keep one's head above water. We did come away with the definite impression that the college is relentlessly striving for excellence in education. Most of us secretly wondered whether we could have hung in there for four years at today's competitive clip. My personal feeling is that while secondary school competition for college entrance has steadily tightened through the sheer weight of increased numbers so has college preparedness drastically improved within these same schools. So take heart, Forty Niners, even in the computer age cream still rises to the top.

After the class picture was taken, the big outdoor affair of the weekend took place. King Ball and Thad Seymour hosted a sensational clambake hard by the shores of Storrs Pond complete with delicious New England clam chowder, fresh lobster, and corn on the cob. We held our '49 Sweepstakes drawing while everyone was eating. There were fourteen handsome prizes contributed by classmates plus two round trip "Second Honeymoon" air travel tickets to Bermuda won by Joe Sullivan and his lovely bride. Bud Hughes has detailed the winners and their prizes in his Newsletter. Realizing for the first time that it was not to be all fun and games for me if I were to discharge my full duties as your new class secretary, I bought some file cards and started pestering people for news. In my next column I will devote the entire space to these conversations with classmates and wives.

After the gods mercifully smiled on us by washing out our old timers Softball game on campus, we put on our only white shirt of the weekend for cocktails at the tent followed by a superlative class buffet banquet at the Hanover Inn dining room. Ort Hicks was selected for the 1965 Reunion Gold Pick Axe Award by the committee of BurtProom, Bob Rooke, and Rollie Becker. You read Proom's citation in our last issue which details Ort's impressive career as an ambassador of good will and better understanding of the American way of life among people of Denmark, Norway, and Germany culminating in his appointment a year ago as Director of America House in Cologne, Germany. The committee reports that the competition was excellent tor the latest award and encourages you to send in your further nominations to Burt Proom, 150 Morlyn Avenue, Bryn Mawr, Pa., for our annual fall award to be held in connection with our class informal reunion, the weekend of the Penn game October 8-9. MikeMcGean still has a few rooms set aside for classmates with accommodations ranging from two to four people, so phone him immediately if you can possibly make it. This is definitely programmed as an annual affair, and it is growing steadily in popularity. If you can be there, you'd be a fool to pass up' Hanover in the fall well stocked with classmates and poignant memories.

The big wrestler may not have been pinned but he certainly was floored when after introducing our popular new class chairman Bob Alden and taking a spectator's seat for the first time since graduation he was called back and presented with a magnificent silver Dartmouth bowl as a token of class appreciation for his years of loyal and earnest effort.

Alden pledged the unwavering effort of all of the new class officers and executive committee toward preserving the good, building the better, and always aiming for the best for our fine class. The old wrestler's shoes and those of his associates look like gunboats to all of us right now, but with encouragement from all of you we're going to stuff them with paper and try to put them on.

Honorary classmate and Undergraduate Dean Thad Seymour kept us in stitches as guest speaker of the evening recounting some of his experiences with students and their problems. As Prof. Chan had told us only that morning, nothing really changes. These boys are still getting into the same bizarre scrapes and brushes that many of us can recall, flavored with computer age twists.

Secretary, 15 Twin Oak Rd. Short Hills, N. J. 07078

Treasurer, 530 East 86th St., New York, N. Y. 10028