1911

This will be one more reminder of many more to come, of your double date for June 1966. The events will be two days at the Mountain View in Whitefield plus two more days at our 55th reunion in Hanover. The dates are June 8-10 for the first and June 10-12 for the second gathering. We have been waiting fifty-four and one half years for the latter occasion. Let's not fail now to keep this rendezvous. But more of this later.

The two latest books on Dartmouth, "The College on the Hill" by Ralph Nading Hill '39 and "Dr. Tucker's Dartmouth" by Robert French Leavens '01 and Arthur Harding Lord '10 are magnificent and should be must reading for all Dartmouth alumni, and of special interest to our generation who had the privilege of being students under Dr. Tucker and in college when President Hopkins was an assistant to him. You cannot read these books without recalling many reminiscences.

I have never forgotten one incident which concerned both of these men and 1911's informal reunions at the Mountain View. Frank Dodge had long been anxious to entertain the Hopkins when 1911 was there on one of its informal reunions, but Hop was always too busy at Commencement time to accept the invitation. Finally however it was arranged that my wife and I were to drive the Hopkins to Whitefield and spend the day there. It was a beautiful fall day, September 29, 1926, when the mountains were completely free of haze and stood out clear in all their glory. We played golf in the afternoon and were planning to return to Hanover after dinner but Frank and his father and mother, after much urging, persuaded us (meaning the Hopkins principally) to spend the night. They produced spare night clothes, tooth brushes and so forth and we all settled down for a pleasant visit in the lobby. This was interrupted by an urgent telephone call for Hop. It was from Hanover with the sad news that President Tucker had just died.

This of course changed all plans and we hastened to start for home. Unfortunately one of our famous heavy fogs had set in filling the Ammonoosuc and Connecticut River Valleys with real old fashioned peasoup. This was in the days before the roadways were marked by fluorescent white lines and it was almost impossible to know whether you were on the road or approaching the underbrush. In fact we made frequent stops for Hop to step out of the car to get our bearings. It was after midnight before we were back in Hanover. What had started as a day of pleasure and recreation had become a day of mourning for Dartmouth's great president.

It is a sad duty to have to record the death of Hal Halstead suddenly on September 5 this year. Although he had retired from business in 1952 because of ill health he always continued his active interest in and support of the college. He was an attendant at almost all of our reunions including the Fiftieth. For many years he represented the Dartmouth Club of New York in the interclub bridge tournaments along with classmates Jack and Guy Steeves and Mac Rollins. Our sincere sympathy goes to his wife and sons.

Red and Marge McLaughlin have returned to God's country to take up residence again in Glens Falls at 26 East Washington Street.

Harold Card has been described as being the "movingest" man in 1911, having lived in more states and cities than any other. This time he is not to be gone long but is temporarily in La Porte, Ind., where he is running a friend's "farm."

This secretary like all others is delighted to hear from the wives and widows of his classmates. They are the fountain-head of more news than the men. Grace Crooks is one of those. She is already planning to go to Whitefield with the class next year, and adds "I do not stay put too long but my mail is sent to Winthrop and then forwarded to me. I expect to spend Thanksgiving with one of my grandchildren in Darien, Conn., and then on to Miami" where she and Jack have spent so many winters.

Jack Randall has joined the "watch your ticker" club which has a lot of members in 1911. He spent the summer at his home in Putney, Vt., but is back in Staten Island for the winter. Had we known he had spent some time in the hospital in Hanover he surely would have been visited by some member of the class.

Begging John Scotford's indulgence, the following quotation is taken from his letter because of our interest in him and his interest in Dartmouth: "For a couple of rea- sons my attachments are to the college rather than my class. I beat the college out of a degree in three years and spent my senior year in New York. My close college friends - Earl Karr, Newt Russell and Billy Flint '12 all died young. The only men still living with whom I went at all in college are Clyde Locke and Fletcher Clark '12 On the other hand, the number of good friends I have had during the years because of the Dartmouth connection is astounding. They have a way of turning up in the strangest places and often when you really need them. One of the mysteries is how we manage to identify ourselves as Dartmouth men. This has happened both in Luxor, India and in a police station in New York City where we were looking after the widow of an Indian dinner guest who had fallen dead on 34th Street. This Dartmouth angel appeared out of the skies and took the widow home with him. . . . Last night we had dinner for the 21 men and their fathers entering college from Westchester. I was regarded something as a curiosity. Somebody wanted to know what we did for light and heat in Hanover in 1907. Some of our rugged myths die hard."

Secretary, Box 171, Hanover, N. H.

Treasurer, Seaside Ave., Saco, Me.

Bequest Chairman,