1913
Our class President, George Steele, died suddenly from heart failure early on Monday April 10, 1967 at his home, 18 Old Colony Road, Wellesley Hills, Mass. His death was unexpected since he had apparently recovered from an earlier heart attack. He will be greatly missed by our class. Ever since Warde Wilkin's death he had carried on the duties of class secretary arranging for the yearly unofficial class reunions at Hanover and editing both the Class News in the ALUMNI MAGAZINE and the Class Newsletter. Our sympathy goes out to his sister Lucy and his brother Bowman with whom he lived and to his sister, Mrs. Paul Vining of Springfield, Mass. He was an outstanding member of our class, a true gentleman in his beliefs and actions, greatly liked and respected by all of us.
We are all glad to hear that Jack Nelson has been back at his home at Manchester for some time now following his few weeks' rest in the hospital. He is feeling fine and expects to be back playing golf before too long. However, his wife, Louise is still seriously ill in a nursing home. Our first class baby, Vivian, has recently become a grandmother so that makes Louise and Jack great-grandparents. Congratulations, Jack and Louise.
Bill Towler has accepted the chairmanship of the class annual reunion at Hanover so we will look for details as to time and place later.
The following class news is contributed by Joe Barnett gathered from the replies to his letter of recent date to all class members requesting information.
As of about April 15 Andy Comstock was due to start the long drive from Santa Ana, Calif., to Clearwater, Fla. Andy is a good driver, has just proved this by passing the intensive, tough California driver examination and passing with a mark of 100. How many of us could do that? Not I, for sure and Andy has a 1967 Chrysler Imperial as his "covered wagon" for the long trek.
On May 25 Les Ashton and his Louise are attending Les' 50th Reunion at Harvard Medical School. What a man! What a dedicated doctor Les' has been! Can you draw a mental picture of 40,000 babies? That is the estimate of the number he has cared for during his 42 years in pediatric practise. When he retired as a partner and Director of the Pediatric Department of the Astoria Medical Group they invited him to remain on the staff on his own terms and on a reduced schedule of 25 hours a week. Louise and Les are now thinking of a trip to the Holy Land after Labor Day. They are planning to see Tel Aviv, Haifa, and the lost city of Petra in Jordan.
Bill Gumbart, senior partner in the top law firm of New Haven, Conn., says that in the past he has written various items for Class Notes with no acknowledgement or publication. (We will try to see that sort of thing never happens again, Bill.) He continues that last year Sam Bowlby '60 joined his law firm. The name will be familiar to many of you since Sam played first string football at Hanover. Bill makes one suggestion. He says "Don't rule out a little grownup humor in the Class News."
The qualities that make a champion athlete seem to persist - at least they do in the case of Marc Wright. At this point in time, 54 years after winning the world championship in the pole vault, Marc says he wakes up at six o'clock, does thirty pull-ups in bed, then bending exercises and a dozen push-ups on the floor. Most of us, I imagine would regard this as a day's work and go right back to bed. But Marc then goes to work. He says he finds hard work stimulating. As for hobbies Marc does pen and ink and water color sketching, has an extensive vegetable and flower garden, makes furniture and likes to copy antiques, plays tennis and still officiates at track meets. Wow! The Granite of New Hampshire for sure got into this genial old pal of ours.
1913 certainly produced a wonderful group of able doctors. Ray Schulte has been an outstanding general practitioner in Spokane, Wash., for about fifty years. He has been organizer and president of practically all of the State and County Medical Associations. Ten years ago he decided to slow down and retire gradually. But he was persuaded to take the Welfare Clinic for two mornings a week. That led to full-time geriatric work. He now attends eighteen nursing homes, holds office hours every day, has private patients in three general hospitals. He is putting in more hours and seeing more patients than he ever did. Ray writes: "I enjoy the old people and most of them seem to appreciate my coming. Many are between ninety and 103 years old. They look forward to my coming as their only cheerful moments in the day." Isn't all of this Christianity operating on the highest level? In what Kipling called "The big black book of jobs" surely such work must bulk big. Ray says he and Marion visit Ed and PhyllisStiles in Pentictin, B. C., once or twice a year and the Stileses come to Spokane every six months or so. He reports that Ed is retired from the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Co. at Trail, but continues as a board member of several corporations. Ed was not able to go to Austria this year for his usual spring vacation. He has designed and built several ski runs in the Pentictin area. Looks like that old granite mixed with Northwest air really does something for these thirteeners.
Lloyd Riford was at Hanover only for his freshman year. But he says "My loyalty to Dartmouth could not have been greater if I had gone four years." For years he has owned and operated Greystone Farm at Auburn, N. Y. An outline of his successful career has appeared in "Who's Who." He retired from active connection with the Beacon Milling Company in 1959, but has kept active and busy operating the Farm with 150 registered Guernseys and running a substantial milk business. He is trustee of a savings bank and chairman of the board of a national bank. For many years he has been active in community affairs as president of the board of Auburn Hospital and chairman of the board of Wells College for fifteen years. Son Steve who went to Princeton also lives on the Farm. Daughter Nancy lives in Rochester, N. Y., where her husband heads up the Schlegel Company. Lloyd goes to the football games in Hanover every year. He says: "Many times I have thought about going to a class reunion but something always kept me from attending." If Bill Towler is half the man I think he is he will see to it that Lloyd Riford attends our 55th reunion next year.
Class Agent, 109 N. Chatsworth Ave., Larchmont, N. Y. 10538
