The Class Officers Weekend
DARTMOUTH class officers spanning 70 years, from Class Agent Oscar Tabor '98 to the not-yet-graduated 1968 class executive committee, were in Hanover on the weekend of May 10-11 for their annual spring meeting. The 240 officers and 165 wives who were guests of the College had the pleasure of one of Hanover's choicest spring weekends, but despite the enticement of the sunny outdoors, working sessions were the order of the day and serious effort was put into learning how to improve class organization and how to be more effective officers.
In addition to general gatherings at two joint meetings and at Friday evening's reception and dinner and Saturday's stag luncheon, six separate sessions were held by the Class Presidents Association, Class Secretaries Association, Class Treasurers Association, Class Agents Association, Class Newsletter Editors Association, and the Association of Class Bequest and Estate Planning Chairmen. Separate meetings were also held by the reunion chairmen of classes returning to Hanover in 1968, 1969 and 1970.
The general meeting that opened the program on Friday afternoon was presided over by J. Michael McGean '49, Secretary of the College. Speakers at this gathering in the Hopkins Center Theater were A. Alexander Fanelli '42, executive secretary of the Bicentennial Planning Committee; Charles F. Dey '52, Dean of the Tucker Foundation; Dr. Carleton B. Chapman, Dean of the Medical School; and the Rev. Paul W. Rahmeier, College Chaplain and Adviser to the Dartmouth Christian Union.
A cocktail gathering in the Top of the Hop gave class officers and wives a chance to meet with College officers and faculty members. More than 500 persons then attended the annual dinner in Thayer Hall. This year the customary post-dinner program was omitted so everyone could attend the Oliver Wendell Holmes Lecture in Spaulding Auditorium. There the Honorable Henry J. Friendly, United States Judge for the Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, spoke on "The Dartmouth College Case - The Public-Private Penumbra."
A reception for Judge and Mrs. Friendly in Alumni Hall followed the lecture. Then an informal social hour, with songs by the Injunaires, rounded out the first evening for the class officers.
Saturday morning opened with a joint meeting for all officers, presided over by John E. Moore '23, president of the Class Presidents Association. Speakers were Trustee Rupert C. Thompson Jr. '28 chairman of the Third Century Fund campaign, and William M. Alley '21, Class Agents representative on the Alumni Council, who gave a progress report on the 1968 Alumni Fund.
A coffee break for officers and wives in the Top of the Hop separated this general meeting and the sessions of the various class officer associations. While the wives went off on a tour of some of the outstanding houses of Hanover and Norwich the men headed for the working sessions of the six officer groups. Presiding over these annual meetings were the six association presidents: John E. Moore '23, presidents; Ernest L. Barcella '34, secretaries; Edward W. Roessler '25, treasurers; Samuel Z. Wormser '27, class agents; Robert S. Fox '33, newsletter editors; and John F. Rich '30, bequest chairmen.
These meetings were adjourned in time for the stag luncheon in Alumni Hall, where Mr. Barcella presided and the principal speaker was President Dickey. Seated at the head table were the awardwinning officers of the year (see photograph), as well as the three distinguished alumni to whom the Dartmouth Alumni Award was presented (see adjoining story).
President Dickey devoted his talk to student rebellion against authority on American campuses from coast to coast, and undertook to answer the alumni's simplistic question, "Why don't you do something about it?" by putting the problem in perspective. The student tension of today is but a part, he asserted, of the mounting postwar rebellion against "the authority of experience" around the world, not only in the universities but in the Church and other institutions of society. To look upon this phenomenon simply as a student aberration and as something easily and quickly put down is to misunderstand what is happening, he said. President Dickey added that youthful rebellion against the imperfect institutions of society could become even more intense before the needed answers are forthcoming.
Association officers elected for the coming year were as follows:
CLASS PRESIDENTS ASSOCIATION: President, Robert E. Alden '49; Vice President, Fred C. Scribner Jr. '30; Secretary, David E. Orr '57; Representative on the Dartmouth Alumni Council, George B. Munroe '43.
CLASS SECRETARIES ASSOCIATION: President, Charles N. Blakemore '42; Vice President, Robert C. Bankart '37; Secretary, J. Michael McGean '49; Executive Committee Members, Henry Conkle '39 and Thomas J. Swartz Jr. '49; Alumni Magazine Advisory Board Member, Brock Brower '53; Reprecpntative on the Dartmouth Alumni Council, Ernest L. Barcella '34.
CLASS TREASURERS ASSOCIATION: President. Edward S. Brown Jr. '34; Vice President' Theodore R. Miner '23; Executive Committee Members, Willard C. Wolff '31 and Robert E. Fendrich '32.
CLASS AGENTS ASSOCIATION: President, Edmund C. Chinlund '29; Vice President, Charles A. Rowan Jr. '45; Nominating Committee. G. Warren French '30, chairman, and John W. Newton '53.
CLASS NEWSLETTER EDITORS ASSOCIATION: President, Thomas Van A. Kelsey '54; Vice President, Roger G. Allen '37; Secretary, Dennis A. Dinan '61; Executive Committee Members, Mark Short '32 and Eugene H. Kohn '60; Representative on the Dartmouth Alumni Council, Dero A. Saunders '35.
ASSOCIATION OF CLASS BEQUEST AND ESTATE PLANNING CHAIRMEN: President, Thomas V. Cleveland '21; Vice President, Charles F. Bruder '28; Secretary, Robert L. Kaiser '39; Executive Committee Members, Gilbert N. Swett '17, Thomas E. Wilson '35, and John F. Rich '30; Representative on the' Dartmouth Alumni Council, John F. Rich '30.
Honored as class officers of the year were (I to r) treasurer Fletcher Clark '12,newsletter editor Win Batchelder '19, bequest chairman Truman Metzel '23, andpresident Wes Beattie '33. Secretary Joe Mathewson '55 could not be present.
