1949
I guess the most appropriate words that can be written this month are "encouraging" and "inspiring." From that first class fall weekend in 1960 when my wife was large with child and I rather ungallantly took the night rattler to White River, I have attended an unbroken string of nine consecutive such outings, enjoying them all both wet and dry whether in defeat or victory. However, this past one was appraised by all as the most outstanding. Bear with me if you live in faraway places or can't leave the family pharmacy, but I must go on.
There were at least 28 classmates present, most with their spouses and an ever growing number with children of all ages. The encouraging fact is that twelve of them showed up for the first time. Heading the list has to be Paul Erwin who finally made it on the third try after cancelling out two years in a row due to assorted broken legs, mumps, and other indispositions. The list includes Bob Amirault, Bob Hill, Charlie Holtzman, Charlie Eaton. Harry Ungar, Bob DeForest, Dean Cameron. Pete Gish. Bob Baum, Dick Mallary, and Bill Ballard. Those who'd been there before were Bert Rodman, Elliot Baritz, Al Wagner, Bob Alden, Dick Bandfield, Gordon Thomas, Herb Gramstorff, Brud Becker, Mike McGean, Al Quirk, Dean Merrill, Bob Muenzberg, Carll Tracy, Thad Seymour, Terry Hamilton, and myself. Apologies to anyone whose name I missed. Bob Alden, GordonThomas, and Mike McGean had worked diligently to make this one the best yet in terms of constructive executive committee deliberation, social activities, and fine accommodations. The results of their efforts were obvious. By Saturday afternoon even a downpour at the football game didn't dampen our enthusiasm. Thad and Polly Seymour had held a very nice open house for us on Friday night. The usual class meeting Saturday morning was followed by a luncheon before the game at the Tom Dent Memorial cabin. I shall not go into the matters taken up because President Bob Alden plans to write the class a letter bringing you all up to date on that.
The Gold Pick Axe dinner held at the Hanover Inn was extremely enjoyable. The Class first heard from a recent ABC (A Better Chance) program graduate from Hanover High via Alabama, Jesse Spikes, now a freshman at Dartmouth. This fine young man spoke eloquently on the difficulties he and his friends have experienced in adjusting to an essentially white academic community and the aspirations he holds to extricate his own people from ignorance and indifference to better opportunity through education and self-help. He made our new class project of helping ABC students by defraying half the cost of their books seem very worth while. The Pick Axe Award was presented by Dean Cameron on behalf of his fellow committee members Carter Hoyt and Dick O'Reilly to artist Peter Gish. The citation reads as follows:
In recognition of his service to the public and the honor he has brought to the College while expressing himself through art, at a time when sensitive insight into the problems of one's fellow man are especially to be prized.
As an undergraduate classmate, he majored in art history and studied with Paul Sample, then artist in residence at Dartmouth. After graduating cum laude, he began his graduate art education, studying and working in Paris, Salzburg, Madrid, and finally returning to New Haven where he received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Yale in 1964. He has taught at Dartmouth and Yale, as well as in Salzburg; he has served as artist in residence at Dartmouth during one summer, and he has seen his work exhibited at art galleries and museums, in addition to a special exhibit on the Vietnam War.
A fighter pilot in World War II, a helicopter pilot in the Korean War, a reservist for more than twenty years, a Lt. Colonel commanding a helicopter squadron based at Floyd Bennett Field in New York, he was an obvious candidate for action when the Vietnam War was recognized as a reality. This time, however, the assignment called not primarily for his skills and leadership as a pilot but for his skills and perception as an artist to paint combat scenes as part of the Armed Forces combat art program. He has since returned from that period of temporary active duty, during which time he not only accomplished his primary assignment as an artist but flew as a helicopter copilot in more than twenty combat missions.
While recognizing and commending his admirable military contributions, the Class makes this Award principally in recognition of his high achievement in helping others to better perceive the world in which we live through his mastery of artistic expression and teaching.
To wind up the scheduled weekend activities, Charlie Breed '51 and his fabulous five played great music for both our listening and dancing-pleasure in Alumni Hall of the Hopkins Center until a wee hour when our own "Skip" Ungar took to the piano himself and showed us why he was and still is a great jazz pianist and arranger. At 2 A.M. tired danced-out feet were given a welcome ride to the ground floor on a padded freight elevator along with an assortment of drums, cymbals, trumpets, and saxophones, and to all intents and purposes our "inspiring" and "encouraging" weekend was over. My wife and I stole out early on Sunday before very many heads were off their pillows, and by nightfall I was in Atlanta where my muffled telephone voice had Sam Kilner, local praline purveyor, believing that his last minute room cancellation at the Hanover Inn for the weekend just concluded had not been received and that this might just cost him a few bucks. Sam was much relieved when I broke up the conversation with an unforgettable backwards laugh in mimic of our mutual pal Jay Urstadt, who had just been elected chairman and chief executive officer of the Battery Park City Corporation Authority of New York. It is his function to recover and carry out development of 104 acres in lower Manhattan, most of it submerged lands along the Hudson River, into needed commercial, recreational, and residential space.
It is my unhappy task to inform you of the tragedies as well as the joys and great moments in the lives of our classmates. You may recall my comment last spring to the effect that Bob Swift was the first classmate to have a son accepted to Dartmouth. Then came the thrill of hearing that Bob's wife Phyllis had been selected as Mrs. Massachusetts and had travelled to Minneapolis for the finals of the Mrs. America contest where, although she didn't win the first prize, she did walk off with some of the supplementary awards. Just last week a Northeast Airlines plane slammed into Moose Mountain, a few miles from Hanover. Miss Barbara Swift, seventeen, was on that plane. She was killed less than an hour after her dad and brother had left her at Logan Airport bound for Middlebury where she was to be interviewed for entrance. Tragedy had stalked down this delightful Dartmouth family robbing it of a daughter who from all I can read had everything going for her. Thanks to Bob Zeiser and Ed Tuck '50 for sending me those clippings I know we all wish had never been written. Our hearts go out to the Swifts in their loss.
You may also be as startled as I was to read of the passing of classmate Rank Lashmet in early September. An obituary will appear in this or a subsequent issue. We shall miss this good friend with the easy smile and a determination to walk through both the sun and the rain with his chin up high.
Artist Peter Gish '49 was the recipientof the 1968 Pick Axe Award presentedby his Class at their annual Gold PickAxe dinner. Also shown at the head tableis Lois McGean, wife of Mike McGean'49, Secretary of the College.
Secretary, 15 Twin Oak Rd. Short Hills, N. J. 07078
Treasurer, 530 East 86th St., New York, N. Y. 10028
