1916
'16 Up! Charlie Brundage reports April 26 that nine Executive Committee members and officers canvassed by phone unanimously recommend an interim reunion in Hanover in either June 1969 or early autumn 1969. A committee to arrange and run it is therefore being formed and Charlie and JohnSteams are confident of securing suitable accommodations even in that Bi-Centennial year.
Bases for this decision: Although only 76 men through April 29 have returned questionnaires with the information invited in the Balmacaan Letter of March 15, 31 of them (54 persons including wives) express serious interest in attending an early autumn weekend reunion at Hanover in '69 or "any year." And the as yet silent 79 include three officers and many regulars who should swell the interested total as of now, substantially.
In order that plans for this reunion can be made intelligently, everyone protected, lifeline strengthened, and a worthwhile new address list issued, prompt cooperation is therefore asked as follows. Please note carefully: 1. Everyone with any thought or chance of attending reunion: please hold as open as possible both June 1969 and early autumn 1969, pending the Committee's definite announcement. 2. All who have replied without expressing reunion interest but who now wish to be counted as interested: need only write to the Secretary. 3. Everyone who has not yet replied: please complete and return to the Secretary the lower half (only) of the questionnaire at once. Keep the upper half for reminder and guidance since, to activate our lifeline, your end must take the initiative. Thanks.
SOME TRAVEL: Dan and Jean Dinsmoor are crossing the continent again for June-July-August. Address: Box 498 A, R.F.D. #4, Laconia, N.H. 03246. Heading home from Florida, the McKenzies stopped off at Cocoa Beach to see the Ralph Parkers who were "brown as berries." Bill and Ralph were roommates for four years in Hanover, you know. Skeet Tibbetts could hardly do better than that. Jake Mensel from sunny Sarasota says that he and Anita will probably be back home in Woodbridge in early May. Ken Ross reports with an engineer's brevity: "Part-time occupation in rivers with the Federal Power Commission. Sept.-Oct. in Italy, Hotel Boston, Rome. Otherwise operation and maintenance in the garden." Rod Soule writes from the Maine Coast: "Audrey is now on a 26-day Grace Line cruise to Jamaica, Colombia, Canal Zone, Ecuador, and Peru. My next-door neighbor Larry Siemen and I are taking the month of June for a trip to Alaska via plane, train, car, and steamer." From Ken and BarbaraStowell from Firenzi in mid-April has come a picture postcard of my favorite Paradise Doors by Ghiberti, on the Baptistery, with the message: "The doors are still being repaired but most visible signs of the flood have been eradicated everywhere, a great comeback to normal! Most that we cherished was not harmed. Not an extensive trip this time (only four months—RFE). Back to Friendship in July. Best to all." The Streeters seem to have found Ponce de Leon's Fountain of Youth around Fort Lauderdale, Fla. At least Mil reported April 8 that they had bought a small home there (201 Gordon Road, Zip 33301); that Josephine is recuperating nicely from her light stroke of last Labor Day, and that they enjoyed a winter featured by various Dartmouth events - the annual dinner with Coach Blackman, weekly luncheons and a fine Glee Club performance - also by the regular big luncheon discussions of the Fort Lauderdale Forum pioneered by Mrs. Jay Runkle '13. Mil's letter actually was written from a South Miami retirement village where they stayed a week looking ahead perhaps five years, then were proceeding to St. Martins and St. Vincents for a few weeks ere returning temporarily to Connecticut. The above Fort Lauderdale events were also shared by Honey and Connie Abraham - "What a young-looking couple they are!" - who suddenly drove in from the Burlington blue.
SOME STAY AT HOME: When loyally doubling the usual amount of his Alumni Fund check, Leonard Bradford from Dallas wrote Ev Parker that he had retired as an active vice-president of The Southwestern Life Insurance Company in 1954, then from its finance committee and board only in 1966 After 52 years however the Company still holds him as an Advisory Director-Investments. Josh Dunbar still remembers the poker lessons Leonard gave in Hitchcock. Earl Cranston continues to commute two days a week, teaching history at the Riverside campus of the University of California. "Our home is a residence we built in Pilrgrim place, a Retirement Community for Christian Workers' in Claremont. I have just been re-elected to a three-year term on its Board of Directors." Shorty Hitchcock sends his best regards to all Balmacaaners. Though good-natured he doesn't like his own cooking, nor rattling around in the big Altadena house. He therefore now has Grandson #1 and his wife installed in the big house, pending its sale, and Shorty has moved himself into a small apartment near Bob whose wife is, one may assume, a good cook. Address: 261 Grand Street, Orange, Calif. 92667. That's the way things are done in the Navy. To sense the satisfaction that an engineer can derive from his work, note this from Rupert Perkins to Phil Nordell: "Since I retired from salary status in 1958, I have now and then picked up the odd buck doing property surveys. I never played golf but find chasing a chain around the countryside as good exercise as chasing a white ball could be, and get paid for it besides. The thrill of closing a circuit with minimum error can be no less than the thrill of sinking a birdie." Perk and Phil independently have discovered how helpful a jog to memory the alphabet method can be in recalling names, but are beginning now to realize that if they forget the alphabet they'll be in real trouble. A trip to Massachusetts and back last Tuesday let me see the Cravers, Marbles, and Butlers - all well. Ed and Jim Colton had recently visited in Southbridge with Herb Kimball and his daughter who is back home while her husband is in Vietnam, a happy arrangement for all concerned. With the Butlers, Edna and I now hope to get to Vassar 1918's Fiftieth in early June.
We regretfully have this month to report the deaths of two classmates: of Stuart Dudley Hallagan at Rochester, N.Y., on March 23; and of Harry Tucker Flanders at Harvard, Mass., on April 9. The deep sympathy of the Class goes out to both families. In Memoriam data for both will be found in that section of this or a later issue of the MAGAZINE.
Charlie Cressy, Jack Cremer, DutchDoenecke, Charlie Jones, and Karl Shedd are among those who probably would welcome occasional letters from old friends who know their addresses, know what would interest them, and would expect no replies.
The Class sends its hearty felicitations to two more couples who celebrated their Golden Wedding anniversaries in the last year: John and Dorothy Creamer on December 22, 1967, when their children and grandchildren gave a small dinner for them at the Shaker Heights home of Paul Swenson Jr., the oldest grandson. Leo and Florence Rosen on July 23, 1967. When confirming this and sending greetings on getting home to Buffalo recently from a winter sojourn in the South, Leo said that their son Dexter, 50 (A.B. Michigan, M.A. Buffalo) has three lovely children 2, 16, and 15; that all the family is enjoying good health and that he himself is working at law harder than ever. Many happy returns to all.
Reunion postscript: Rupert Perkins, Bill Biel, Larry Davidson, and Zach Taylor are among those who have expressed serious interest in the interim reunion now being scheduled. Wonderful. Long time no see.
Secretary, 2-C Swarthmore Apts. Swarthmore, Pa. 19081
Class Agent, 50 Rugby Rd., Manhasset, L.I., N.Y. 11030
