1939
Peoria was just great. You may remember that your executive committee decided to have our fall meeting there to honor the Batchelder family. We arrived from all points of the compass on Thursday, September 22. Present were Peggy and Joe Batchelder, Hank Conkle, Dot and Walt Darby, Betty and Chuck Farnum, Bob Gibson, Shirley and George Hanna, Sally and Bert MacMannis, Peggy and Al Tishman, and Betsy and Moose Wyman. This is an especially congenial group, and we might mention that it was pay-as-you-go with no charge against the class treasury for the whole weekend. Our first meeting was in an interesting old railroad car that has been converted into a plush restaurant. We then visited the Batchelders, who have the biggest and most impressive home we have ever seen. They literally have a postcard view of upper Peoria Lake from their home. Joe has a boiler room that resembles a destroyer's and windows that must require a steeplejack to clean. The magnificence of the place was only surpassed by the perfect hospitality.
On Friday Bert ran a long but taut business meeting that touched all bases. We'd like to try a "soft sell" for a Class of 1939 Scholarship Fund. We welcome any donations even before a formal drive, and we intend to complete this project by our 40th Reunion in order to honor all our classmates who have passed on.
We voted for a real fall reunion next year for the Penn game weekend in Hanover on October 14, 1967. Please make a note of this, everyone. Bob Kaiser will be in charge. The executive committee will assemble Friday for a meeting, and this should provide a solid nucleus for a large reunion with a package rate for all functions. By that time, we should have enough seniority to sit as a class well out from the goalposts.
We discussed how to designate as a gift to the College the $1,200 left over from our 25th Reunion. Interest was expressed in a D.O.C. cabin with a '39 plaque or a special case for the lobby of Baker Library. It was generally felt we should leave the donation of painting or sculpture to more art-minded classes. George Hanna will investigate and accept suggestions any of you may have.
We elected Moose Wyman to be chairman of our 30 th Reunion, and this is an excellent choice. Here is a guy who exudes good fellowship from early breakfast till late nightcap and who can mix the right prescription for bequest programs and cherry bombs and popularity and seriousness. He will select his own committee with regional chairmen from a group of names we suggested.
Routine reports from the secretary and treasurer showed everything in order, all bills paid, and a cash increase in the old bank account of $1,600. Our Class Agent was most optimistic and wants to continue our drive for greater numbers of contributors. To improve our participation percentage we are trying to eliminate from our lists all men who have written us that they are just plain not interested. This is a handful of men who were with us for a semester or so and went on to develop loyalties to other institutions.
Dick Jackson is sending a letter to all class widows asking for their interest and support. Bob Gibson agreed to become chairman of the nominating committee to select eighteen members of the Class, with the widest possible representation, to comprise our next executive committee, who in turn nominate class officers.
The remainder of our weekend was composed of golf, gourmet dining, close harmony singing, and touring in a private bus, the high point being reached at the Illinois-Missouri football game, where we cheered mightily for Joe's son, who is the captain of the Illinois team. We all met Bo and his coach right after the game and were greatly impressed with their personality and character.
To sum up, your committee all felt a great deal of respect and affection for each other. We were surprised and pleased with everything we saw of Peoria. We appreciated the excellent job done by Joe Batchelder and Chuck Farnum in organizing the weekend. We agreed to meet again in New York in late April and then in Hanover in October and then, of all places, in Cashiers, N. C., the following fall!
Herb Hirschland, vice president in charge of research and development for M & T Chemicals, Inc., has been assigned additional duties of administering their marketing division. Herb is already a director of M & T, a subsidiary of American Can Company. They are major suppliers of organic and inorganic chemicals, metal finishing processes and equipment, organic coatings, and are leading detinners of tinplate scrap. Herb has been a busy boy with this company, being active in all areas of research, production, and sales since joining them in 1941. He is a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the American Chemical Society, the Chemist's Club, the Dartmouth Club, and the Sky Club, and he and his family reside in Berkeley Heights, N. J.
Our Lou Oldershaw, who has been president of the National Blank Book Co. in Holyoke, has been elected to a ten-year term as a trustee of Mount Holyoke College. Lou is a member of the Hampden County, Mass., and American Bar Associations and is a director of Holyoke Hospital, Holyoke Public Library, and Holyoke Savings Bank. He is a past president of the YMCA and Rotary Club. We'll bet his new honor will provide more beautiful surroundings than all his other endeavors.
Our congratulations to Kent Blatchford, who has been named associate manager of Banking Magazine, the monthly journal of the American Bankers Association. Kent joined the stall in 1959 as western advertising representative, and he has been assistant advertising manager and manager of the Chicago office. He and his family live in Northfield, Ill.
We read a big spread, with pictures, in the Boston Sunday Herald in August'about our old friend, Jerry Beatty. When daughters Jennifer and Jane head for school each day, it is by boat not bus. With the old man or vivacious Mother Joan at the oars, the girls cross the waterway outside their home on Popponessett Island at New Seabury on Cape Cod to Bright Coves. Then they walk about a block and the bus picks them up. Driving from one activity to another was one of the reasons the Beattys left Connecticut for Cape Cod, and whenever they can avoid it, they do. Every other week Jerry takes the train to New York for four days of work. The rest of the time he writes at home. He writes a column for the Saturday Review, a newsletter for Limited Editions, another column for Pageant, and he's cartoon editor for Esquire. Jerry spends as much time as he can in his study, which was a stable, and Joan must spend a bit of time in the kitchen, as she says they averaged 36 guests for meals per week this summer.
Ralph Holben is living at 1 River Ridge Road in Hanover; Jim Powers at 2425 Sage Road in Houston, Texas; Bud Clifford at 43 West 61st Street in New York; CharleyGluek at Route 5, Box 260, in Wayzata, Minn., and Rod Albright at 200 East 71st Street in New York.
Members of '39's executive committeeare pictured with Bo Batchelder, captainof the Illinois team, just after the homegame against Missouri. How many '39erscan identify every face in the picture?
This is the only brick wall the smart '40 students at Alumni College came up against.(l to r) Lloyd Blanchard, Peg Blanchard, Stet Whitcher, Doug Hunter, Amy Hunter,Bob MacMillen, Crosbie MacMillen, Lenore Howard, and Harry Howard.
Secretary, Box 38, Cashiers, North Carolina 28717
Treasurer, 666 Fifth Ave., New York, N. Y. 10019
Bequest Chairman,
