1921

When Oliver Wendell Holmes, Associate Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court, was 90, two of his ex-secretaries found him reading Plato. "Why?" they asked. He replied, "To improve my mind." On board the "S.S. France," Harold Geilich, only 65, under the influence of Justice Holmes and Jim Landauer '23 in an adjoining deck chair, decided that next year he will attend Dartmouth Alumni College in Hanover. Harold and Martha were heading for the Paris Leather Fair with a week in England. They own a tannery not far from the little Norman village of Orton about which Vice President Orton Hicks of Dartmouth showed profound ignorance. Can you imagine that he did not know it was in Westmoreland, northeast of Liverpool? Perhaps Harold does not know that four plain little towns called Hicks are located in Illinois, lowa, Mississippi, and Texas, not to mention Hickox, Hicksbaugh, Hicks City, Hicks Ferry, Hickson, Hicks Store, Hicks Wharf, and Hicksville in three different states. All '21 men know why they know where Taunton is. Harold, once of Chestnut Hill, lives and works there.

Intellectually aroused also, Fred Benton was so impressed with Hopkins Center and its plays, music, moving pictures, lectures, and exhibitions that he was tempted to pull up his Philadelphia stakes and follow the 1921 trek back to Hanover. The cold New Hampshire climate and warm New Jersey and Pennsylvania friends deterred him. A specialist in French medieval history, his son has accepted a lucrative position from Cal Tech trying to build up its humanities program to balance its science. For Professor Benton its library is inadequate, and the Huntington, almost unrivalled in English history, has vast gaps in French.

You think of Nels Barker as a specialist on peripheral vascular diseases, or an expert on the birds of Southeastern Minnesota. The Minnesota State Horticulture Society and the Minnesota Dahlia Society recently honored him as a founding member of the Rochester Flower and Garden Club, an expert in dahlia culture, and a creative force among gardeners, amateur and expert.

Also a gardener and ornithologist, JohnHerbert cultivates flowers and Massachusetts birds. He likes Rockport (and so do Dave Bowen, Abe Weld, and Don Sawyer), where he visits a friend crippled with polio, a portrait painter. Simple and effective, her motto has stimulated John. "To trust is not to worry; to worry is not to trust." He has explored Sturbridee, that restored Colonial village with original old houses moved in from various places in New England. Despite tourists peering and poking, he found there the serenity and beauty of an oldfashioned town rather than an industrial center of tanneries, factories, and cotton mills.

The war in the Far East affects HubbellFitzgibbon, for his son Jack '62, First Lieutenant of Artillery, is stationed in Korea until January. After a 30-day leave he will finish his military service in Frankfurt. Retired from du Pont, Hubbell plays the organ and bridge and serves as treasurer of his church.

Korea ... how about the Taiwan of Charlie Gilson? According to Harry and Caroline Mosser, the economy is booming, and the island admires the USA. They described the church designed by Charlie as "beautiful." After two weeks in Japan they proceeded to Hong Kong, Bangkok, Manila, and Hawaii.

Hermie and Betty McMillan of Nokomis, Fla., escaped that awesome hurricane (never mind her name) by a narrow margin. Gulf water inundated their lawn, but, snug in a motel, they did not care. Betty is almost recovered from her 1964 accident. Escorting friends to breakfast on the McMillan boat, she fell, and broke two bones in her heel and four ribs.

Summer and autumn, Hugh and BettyMcKay have whirled about. In Maine they inspected the summer home bought by Doug, his son. Friends lured them to Lake George. Twice in Rochester they solaced Hugh's 91-year-old mother with a broken hip. Betty's children welcomed them on Cape Cod. The California expedition to visit Helen and her family, twice postponed, was realized in September.

Retired from Grumman Aircraft, AndyValentine of Cold Spring Harbor, L. I., has a small travel trailer, and he and Harriet expect to be cheerfully mobile. Their sons keep them in touch with the outside world. In Colorado Springs, Jim works on nuclear power. After years with American Airlines, Dave, now co-pilot with Kerr McKee Oil, ships out of Baltimore. Back from Europe, Paul is an architectural designer and builder.

Partially retired, Dudley Robinson is still doing marketing .and consulting for two manufacturing divisions of the Dynamic Corp. of America, Anemostat Productions Division in Scranton and the Anemostat Controlair of Los Angeles, and also for a small company in Torrington. Consequently he is traveling even more than when he was working full time as vice president of Torrington Manufacturing Co. Helen and he enjoyed their usual two-month vacation in Naples, Fla., visited Ken and Eloise Thomas in Orlando and Joe and Virginia Schultz in Clearwater,, but they missed Harry Chamberlaine. The Robinsons with Nelson and Terry Smith hope to see Dartmouth beat Yale.

Gene Leonard prefers books to sightseeing because on his job he spends so many hours on planes and trains that he has no desire to travel.

Ken Thomas's son, Dr. Ken '56, who interned at the University of Minnesota and planned to specialize in internal medicine, is now Chief Surgical resident at the University of West Virginia Hospital. Next year at Stanford he will concentrate on chest surgery and then for two years on open heart. With limited activities because of arthritis. our Ken is secretary of the Maitland (Fla.) Alumni Club and attends lectures at the University Club, Winter Park. Recently in Winnetka and Chicago, he spent time with Bill and Alberta Embree.

The title is enough to make one's eyes and mouth water: "Woodsmoke and Watercress." One expects original titles from Dana Lamb (remember his "Bright Salmon and Brown Trout"?) and well written books. His latest has elicited praise from D. B. Colquhon, a British sportsman and writer: "I should be delighted to retire from the world with an old highland malt for 48 hours with any of Lamb's books in the knowledge that I should certainly emerge a better man afterwards." With printing and binding by Roderick Stinehour of the Stinehour Press, regular copies of "Woodsmoke and Watercress" at $10 and limited editions at $20 may be ordered from Barre Publishers, Barre, Mass.

Joan, daughter of Coil Beattie and wife of Bob McLaughry '32, Tuss's son and former Hanover Precinct Commissioner and Selectman, has been designated as Mother of the Year by the New Hampshire Chapter of Multiple Sclerosis Association of which she is chairman. Bob is well over his skiing accident, as tough and crippling as RandyChilds'. Ask Pick Ankeny about his. He can be eloquent as he points to a scarred forehead.

Savoring Europe, Connie Keyes has airmailed to the States witty and flamboyant post cards. One from Monte Carlo fascinated the Hanover post office. Jack Hurd should touch up Bill Alley for $2,500, Connie's intended gift to the Dartmouth Alumni Fund, which he hoped to earn by betting $25 at the gambling casino. The $25 did not win. What a rotten break! Next time with Lady Luck smiling benignly, the $2,500 could easily roulette into $25,000 for the Fund and put Bill Alley and 1921 out front in the 1966 Green Derby. But Lady Luck grinned sardonically. Bill Alley was out of town.

Secretary, Box 925 Hanover, N. H.

Treasurer, 12 W. Mystic Ave., Mystic, Conn. 06355

Bequest Chairman,