1949
The long hot summer is just about closed out, and I begin my fourth year of secretarial effort with the high hopes that you and your families enjoyed a happy time of it smothering yourselves in road maps and indulging in a rainbow of ice cream flavors. The College is by now well dug in on its fall term. The class fall reunion in Hanover should be just about upon us, and I hope that hospitality chairman Gordon Thomas has every room spoken for.
A great deal will surely be made at our class meeting of the class contribution of over $25,000 to the latest Alumni Fund drive and the healthy $68 average from 372 men. Newsletter editor Bud Hughes brought you up-to-date on these fine accomplishments in his July notes, but they bear repeating here. Five classmates anonymously matched increased gifts dollar for dollar up to $1000 apiece, and when this kind of willingness is demonstrated the response can be electric. We covered 123% of our dollar objective, placing us ninth out of 59 classes measured in this respect, but our participation index dragged at 69.9% putting us well under the performance of the five classes which are our immediate juniors. The same thing occurred with class dues which was most unfortunate. We need steady dues payers to keep our class organization functioning and to defray the cost of mailing the ALUMNI MAGAZINE to all classmates.
There are sixty hard-working class agents who put in a lot of time and effort phoning, writing, and ringing doorbells for the Alumni Fund, but there is a hard corps of nonparticipants year after year who can be moved neither by rational discourse nor thunder from Mount Olympus. Most of these die-hards have pet gripes about the College which the average class agent often finds difficult to discuss without a thorough working knowledge of the true sentiment of the college administration. A favorite complaint heard is failure of the College to accept a son, relative, or friend for the freshman class often whether his marks warrant full consideration or not. I can only answer this one by saying that even if the boy's marks are excellent and he has top qualities right down the line, the admissions office has a brutal task trying to select the right 800 from over 4000 applicants and readily admits to the fact that it does make a few mistakes. Other complaints run the gamut from criticism of architectural design of new buildings to an administrative laissez faire attitude in the face of student rebellion to caustic remarks about the constant appeals for money. Full explanation of these and other phenomena would require more lines than I can afford to give here, but they are fully explicable and moreover made logical in explanation.
For the resolute nonparticipants among you I have a suggestion. Your class is currently blessed with two members of the Dartmouth Alumni Council in Bob Zeiser and myself. This august group meets in Hanover twice a year for several days at which time a thorough exchange of ideas among fifty men from all walks of life and all geographic areas is made possible. If you will spell out to either of us your sincere convictions which have alienated you, we will conscientiously seek out members of the Council and as many college administrative officers as will listen to us as sounding boards and report back our complete findings. Frankly, we are eager to bring you back out of the rain and under the class umbrella once more; and we are appealing herewith to your sense of pride in an institution which fostered you and now in turn needs your vital concern to sustain its dynamic growth. I think you must admit that it is hardly fair to expect the same men to support both the class dues and the Alumni Fund drives year in and year out while roughly one quarter of our class members won't even open their checkbooks. I'd say that the steady three quarters who carry the class load have a legitimate gripe themselves. Think about it!!
A few quickies picked up during last minute phone calls on behalf of the Alumni Fund follow. Joe LeBlanc has left New Jersey to assume teaching responsibilities at the Barstow School in Kansas City, a fine co-ed school which runs from kindergarten through the twelfth grade. Jim Sullivan really made me feel old. Jim met his future wife Joan on the slopes at Oak Hill, and I was happily involved to the extent of having their engagement announced at the Green Key dance in 1950. Jim informs me that their oldest daughter is now driving. BibFitch has been teaching chemistry since last fall at the University of Connecticut having moved east from North Dakota State. EinerGrell is now Director of Science for the public schools in Huntington, Long Island. He also teaches courses in botany and zoology at Adelphi College. Einer is a spare time salt water fisherman. President Alden's old roomie Fred Smith is Deputy Administrator of the Bureau of Security and Counsellor Affairs in the United States State Department. Dr. Jay Woolridge lives in the small town of Clearfield, Pa., and is in general surgery. The family consists of Jay, his wife Nancy, and Ginger, Betsy, Kit, and Steve.
In making my first call to the Far West I spoke with the wife of one of the true sportsmen in the class. Ralph Melville owns not one but two ski lodges. The original Mountain Chalet was in Aspen and a second was recently added at Snow Mass, a new ski area nearby. Ralph and Marian have four girls and two boys who all ski but the one-year-old. Not having enough to handle, he is also racing catamarans between Long Beach and Waikiki with a nine-man crew. My final call and also the most distant Was to Walker "Frosty" Williams in Davis, Calif. "Frosty" is working on his Ph.D. in geography and definitely plans to teach. He has one child, a girl eight months old. He is a skier and also a trout fisherman.
Brud Becker and his family have recently moved from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts since he has become manager of market planning at Avco Bay State Abrasives Division in Westboro. In his new position, Brud will .evaluate current sales and distribution programs and recommend and initiate new marketing approaches to improve the company's competitive position. Brud was formerly vice president and general manager of two Avco Bay State subsidiaries, Theo. C. Ulmer, Inc., in Philadelphia and Boykin Tool & Supply Co. in Atlanta, and he continues to be responsible for their general supervision.
As previously mentioned, by the time you read this our class weekend in Hanover will be upon us. Dates set are Friday, October 18 and Saturday, October 19 with a class luncheon before and our annual Gold Pick Axe Award dinner after the football game against Brown. With superhighways now complete through to New York and Boston it is entirely possible to enjoy a full day with your classmates and either make it all the way home or a good part of the way after the dinner in the event that you hadn't planned to stay in Hanover with us. We can always set a few more places at any table, so you won't catch us off guard. Contact the Sunset Motel which will be taken over by the class for the weekend when you hit town as the owner will have our schedule of events. He might even have a spare room for you.
Commander Eugene I. Finke '48 observesthe fall of five-inch shells from his ship,the Seventh Fleet guided-missile destroyerUSS Henry B. Wilson, during a fire mission off the coast of Vietnam. CommanderFinke's ship conducts combat operationsagainst enemy troops, supply lines, andweapons positions in Vietnam.
Secretary, 15 Twin Oak Rd. Short Hills, N. J. 07078
Treasurer, 530 East 86th St., New York, N. Y. 10028
