1932
"That's a skilfully blandished arm," the doctor said admiringly when he looked me over the day after Howdy Pierpont called. "I know," I said. You may recall that JildoCaCappio's wrap-up on '32's reunion, reporting on the election of officers, carried the line: "The secretary will be named later." If memory serves, this sort of thing has happened before. There is now ample basis for the warning that a consequence of not getting to reunion can be suddenly to find oneself conductor of this column. No doubt a number of putative candidates who were on the Hanover scene when Art Allen and his nominating committee were trying to round out the slate had - and seized - the opportunity to file demurrers. The job, as Cap did not say in so many words, seems to have gone begging. It was a nice, relaxed, day-is-done kind of summer evening when the'telephone rang and I found myself, guard down, on the other end of the line from our esteemed new class president. I am hazy on what happened then. All I know is that had Howdy chosen to go into the selling end of the life insurance business instead of those areas in which he has distinguished himself, he would have been an annual cinch for the Million Dollar Round Table. So, dear classmates, here I am. I hope it's legal.
One effect of succumbing to those Pierpontian blandishments was a prompt compounding of a sense of guilt about that request-for-news return postcard from Cap that I had so long carried about in my brief case until, as such neglected things will, it ultimately disappeared. Please know, Cap, that my intentions were always good, and my conscience was pricked in depth. A decent respect to the opinions of my fellows requires this public confession of my own past sins of omission. Please do not do unto your correspondent as he has done unto others when, as now, he exhorts you to dispatch tidings of you and yours post haste to this corner.
The fact is that to date I have not heard from anyone except the good people in the Alumni Office. There is, however, some material that reached Cap too late for publication in the spring. I am particularly delighted to have at hand a communication, with enclosures from Iva T. Holway. The reason for my delight will be apparent when I tell you that one of the enclosures is a clipping from the Honolulu Star Bulletin of Sept. 14, 1967, reporting the wedding of Mrs. Iva Till-man Claverie and Captain Richard T. Holway, USN. There is a picture of a clearly happy couple, one of them a clearly comely bride.
Mrs. Holway, who is an attorney on the faculty of the University of Hawaii, provides interesting information about her husband along with documentation that quite supports her asseveration that Captain RichardHolway is an outstanding medical entomologist highly regarded in his field. Dick, whose station is Preventive Medicine Unit #6 at Pearl Harbor, heads all entomological activities in the South Pacific Basin and is the Senior Medical Entomologist for all the armed forces in the Pacific. From several professional papers of his authorship - one of them on the mosquito control activities of our armed forces in Vietnam - I learn that he is an authority on mosquito-borne diseases and their control. In June he presented a paper as a delegate to the SEATO Conference at Bangkok. That would be, by the way, across the Bay of Bengal from Ceylon, where — if circumstantial evidence means anything - it was a buzzing malefactor that brought Dr. George Hahn down with dengue fever early this year. Apparently those mosquitos are old hands at a latter day concept: With them the medium is the message.
Dick, I further learn, has four daughters Caroline, a Phi Beta Kappa at the University of Hawaii; Jennifer, now a freshman there; and Ann and Amy, who live in Auckland, New Zealand. Thank you, Iva Holway.
John and Irene Keller and daughter Kathie stopped overnight on their way home to Toledo from Hanover in June, and so we had a good and early report on the reunion we so regretted missing. John also had interesting things to tell about his work in air pollution control for the city of Toledo. A few weeks later I phoned him from the Toledo airport, and was happy to be able to compliment him on the bracing quality of the ambience. Kathie was planning to enter Bowling Green University this fall.
Already hailed in the Wah-Hoo-Wah column of the July issue, Marv Chandler was a winner of one of this year's Horatio Alger Awards, presented to persons who have overcome handicaps of their youth to achieve success in their field. His fellow winners included the then UN Ambassador Arthur Goldberg, Bob Hope, Chicago Bears-Owner George Halas, and seven other distinguished citizens - not to mention past recipients Dwight D. Eisenhower, Herbert Hoover, Bernard M. Baruch, and a long string of other persons of great distinction. Marv has been president and chairman of Northern Illinois Gas Company since 1954.
Dated June 5, a postcard from AmbyCram capsulated Amby's post-'32 story: University of Chicago Law School '35; associate of Col: "Wild Bill" Donovan, 1935-40, 45-7; currently partner in Patterson, Belknap and Webb; unsuccessful candidate for New York State Senate in 1940; officer in U. S. Army, Field Artillery, 1941-5; married Mary Frances Bestor 1941; three children: Arthur, 2nd Lt. U. S. Marines now in Vietnam; Chris, Utica College sophomore, married and expecting; Louise, entering Goucher this fall; live in Bronxville, N. Y.; Amby and wife active in various non-profit organizations.
A poignant aspect of this task is a perusal of the list of those classmates who are no longer with us, sending me back to MarkShort's most recent letter to read again George Blaesi's moving words at the reunion memorial service. And now comes the sad duty to report the death of Bob Cowden after a long illness, and to extend the Class's deep sympathy to his family.
The 1968 Alumni Fund ended with '32's contribution totaling $37,650 - a new high, I believe, and some $2000 more than last year. The class was one of nineteen that did not make its dollar objective; was 55th among 59 classes in per cent of objective (87.9 as against 83.9 last year); 59th among 72 classes in participation.
One of the important reasons I took this assignment is a sense of gratitude to the guys like Cap, who did a great job here for five years, and his predecessors. Whatever doubts may attach to the credentials of the secretariat, I believe the Class will approve my setting down on its behalf thanks not only to Cap, but also to our erstwhile leader BoWentworth, treasurer Bob Fendrich, reunion chairman Bob Buckley, and kept to last in order to stress that he is not least, Al Boncutter, who strove long and hard as head class agent.
Secretary, Orchard Hill Road Westport, Conn. 06880
Treasurer, 2914-44th St., N.W., Washington, D. C, 20016
