1923
For the past eight years Jim Hennessy has been making annual trips to the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Haiti. Usually he spends a month there but sometimes three months and on one occasion six months. Jim writes:
"This hospital is a great project. It is about 90 miles from Port-Au-Prince in the back country of Haiti and is headed by Dr. and Mrs. Larry Mellon, two grand and dedicated people. It is entirely a voluntary, non-government undertaking which was opened in 1956. A tremendously busy hospital and the only medical facility for an estimated 250,000 natives.
"We have Dartmouth atmosphere what with Frank Lepreau '34, as medical director and surgeon. Frank also has Harvard and Yale associations. He is one of the permanent staff, having pulled up stakes at the Truesdale Clinic in Fall River, Mass., and moving his whole family there about five years ago. Mrs. Lepreau is a Hanover girl to boot! Her father used to run the Nugget.
"Another Dartmouth man was Chuck Wiggin '33 who headed up a U. S. agricultural mission several years ago. Dr. Jim Feeney '49, Dartmouth and Harvard Medical, was there in January 1967. So you see you can meet Big Green Guys wherever you go.
"I was able to go with the Good Ship 'Hope' to Nicaragua in 1966 and to Colombia in 1967.This project is also most worthwhile and interesting. It is different but as equally worthy as the Albert Schweitzer Hospital. I have hopes of being aboard again when the 'Hope' goes to Tunisia in September 1969."
It's a dedicated and generous man who will leave an established and successful surgical practice to spend months in remote and unfamiliar places, helping those who need help so badly.
The March 16 issue of the New York Times Book Review carries a letter from Pete Howe attesting to his continuing and active affiliation with the paper back publishing industry. Pete's plea - and it's a valid one —is that the public is being deluged with a plethora of trash that confuses people who are looking for worthwhile reading material. He advocates a publishing birth control plan that would plow under every second or third book before it reaches the dealers' shelves.
In my report last month on Clary Goss I neglected to say that he broke an ankle in February and was in a cast for six weeks. The Goss family's troubles also included a hospital session for Priscilla who recovered nicely thanks to Jack Booth's good care. Clary was dependent on the neighbors for transportation during Priscilla's illness. All is back to normal now and Clary reports a pleasant mini-reunion with the Babe Miners and the Bill Corrigans.
In a letter from Dick Kershaw headed "The 17th of Ireland" comes word of John Allen. Most of the intelligence concerning John has been reported in Skiddoo, however, so I'll omit that part of it. Dick goes on to say that it appears as though almost the entire class had migrated to Florida for the winter months, which isn't very far from the facts. In mid-March Charlie Zimmerman and Bob Maxwell hosted a 1923 cocktail and dinner party in Delray Beach attended by Roy Brown, Irish, Art Everit, Gardner Akin, Sam Home, Ken Quencer, and their spouses. The Charlie Rices and the Ted Caswells have been at Clearwater and Ted reports that George Weston now has a winter home there. The Kershaws - a rugged couple are abstaining. Again, from Dick's good letter, they seem to favor the New England weather and the eventual prospect of green grass.
Continuing on the Florida theme, Irish tells me that Charlie Zimmerman recently gave the finest talk on Dartmouth he has ever heard. The occasion was an alumni luncheon at Palm Beach. Mark Whitman was there as was Art Event, Sara Home, and Roy Brown who with his new wife had driven over from the west coast. She's a grand gal according to Irish but due to my failing eyesight or Irish's handwriting I'm unable to give you her name at the moment.
Babe and Florence Miner's son, T. Richardson Jr., Middlebury '58, has been steadily progressing in the field of administrative education. He first had a two-year hitch on the faculty of the International School at Frankfurt, Germany. He then taught at Kingswood Country Day School at West Hartford, Conn., and is presently head of its lower school, coaching skiing, tennis, and soccer as well. All of this was preceeded by four years Navy service during which he rose to the rank of lieut. commander. On July 1 of this year Rich will become assistant to the president of Middlebury College. This is a fine position in any college administrative structure and the Miners are rightly very happy about it.
Babe Miner has sent me several fine letters from the widows of departed classmates, thanking the class for our gifts of memorial books to the college library. They come from Lydia Peters, Ruth Powell Monger, Vivian Morse, Edith Beggs, and Bill Jurgen's sister, Louise Smyth. I am returning these letters to Babe for his permanent files. I wish you could all read them and know how deeply appreciated is this tribute from the class.
For years Connie has reminded me that she has never even remotely experienced any part of the glories of a Dartmouth winter carnival. Each year we have sort of planned to get up there in February. Always something has prevented it. This year while many of you were getting a sunburn we did it. I don't know exactly what either of us expected to see but we did look for a little feminine glamour. I'm sure we didn't look in the right places and naturally (?) we didn't get to any of the dances or other social events and we didn't stay the whole show out but we were severely let down. The boys and girls, except for the beards of course, looked very much alike and from the rear were particularly indistinguishable. An occasional courageous mini skirt, one fur coat, some unbelievably impressive snow sculpture - that was it! The whole affair was definitely more outdoor oriented than the ones I remember. The net result was our conclusion that we had attempted to bridge the gap from the twenties to the sixties without sufficient transitional exposure.
Jim Broe has sent me five snapshots taken by John Paisley in 1923. Included in the groups shown are Vic Cannon, Bill Catlin, Bart Connelly, Ike Coulter, Frank Doten, Ralph Duffy, Mox Hubert, Pete Jones, Lou Lewinsohn, Paul Morgan, Doc Roberts, Ed Rowe, Dick Rubin and Cub Strong. If any of you would like to see them I'll mail them to you. And if any of you have any similar material you would be willing to put out on loan I'll be glad to hear from you. It occurs to me that old pictures like these might be a welcome exhibit at our fiftieth.
In my recently acquired role as Town Selectman I am, as is required by New Hampshire state law, currently engaged in a head count of all local cattle over two years of age, and all fowl over four months old. As you may imagine this responsibility demands a lot of hairline decisions. I have however been enjoying my exposure to new environments and experiences and best of all to the activity it all entails. Next month comes property assessments. Wish me well!
Charles J. Zimmerman '23 (r), chairman of the Connecticut Mutual Life InsuranceCo., receiving the medallion of the Insurance Hall of Fame on March 20 in Boston.Conferring it is Robert G. Smith, vice president for university development at OhioState University. The Hall of Fame was established in 1957 by the Griffith Foundation for Insurance Education, with Ohio State's cooperation, to honor outstandingcontributors to insurance thought and practice. Mr. Zimmerman was named to theHall of Fame by a Board of Electors representing 32 countries.
Secretary, Box 2, Francestown, N. H. 03043
Class Agent, Dogford Rd., Etna, N. H. 03750
