1932

Dr. Robert F. Dickey, M.D., of Danville, Pa., was named recipient of the National Bronze Medal Award of the American Cancer Society on November 12. The highest honor given to a division volunteer, the award is made annually by the Society's board of directors to individuals who have given outstanding service to the cause of cancer control in their state and nation. Bob is assistant chief of staff at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville and director of the department of dermatology and syphilology and has served the Cancer Society in many volunteer capacities. He is a past president of the Society's Pennsylvania division.

A longtime curiosity about what BobBlack was up to in places like Bangkok and Cape Neddick, Me., is at least partially satisfied by a postal from the latter place that states: "Retired from Foreign Service July, 1967, but went out to Bangkok on 2 year job as executive director of U.S. Educational (Fulbright) Foundation in Thailand. Now I have retired again - this time to Maine."

Dr. Frank H. Westheimer, professor of chemistry at Harvard, gave the annual Dreyfus lecture at Hanover, sponsored this year by the College's department of chemistry, speaking on "Methods of Determining the Mechanisms of Enzyme Action." From the College news release we learn that Frank was recently awarded the 1970 James Flack Norris Award in Physical Organic Chemistry, was appointed to the Presidential Science Advisory Committee in 1967, chaired the Committee for the Survey of Chemistry of the National Academy of Sciences, and was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1962-3. Recipient of Dartmouth's honorary Doctor of Sciences degree in 1961, he has been a pioneer and leader in the investigation of the mechanism of the complicated sequences of chemical reactions involved in many of the important procedures of synthetic organic chemistry.

A postal from John Weston of Fryeburg, Me., designating the world situation as "unbearable," continues with a cheerier note on the local situation. Son George is in business with him, daughter Grace is married; and John and Billy have "5 lovely grandchildren." And Dr. Ralph Elias of Oakland, Calif., suggests that we add to our postal queries: "What has '32 done about Vietnam, except pay, or perhaps refuse to pay, taxes?" Ralph adds, "My actions have been prolonged but slight: letters, marching, money for the protestors."

You don't have to be a doctor to make this month's column, but it helps. From Philadelphia comes a letter from Dr. GeorgeHahn, about whose Project HOPE work with the Navajos we told you last month. George reports a quiet schedule of teaching diagnosis and management of malignant disease at Jefferson Medical College, where he is professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, directing the Pelvic Malignancy Service, and acting as consultant to Southeastern Catholic Medical Center, a two-hospital complex of about 1,000 beds. He continues as secretary of Philadelphia's College of Physicians, "a most interesting institution with a renowned medical library and museum, founded in 1787, carrying on many of the soundest and best medical traditions of this country." And he was recently elected president-elect of the Philadelphia County Medical Society. He notes, with what almost seems relish: "There are over 6000 physicians in Philadelphia, so I am sure that there will be many, many problems which will be encountered."

We note from the galley proof of our January column just arrived that we made John Zimmerman president of the General Motors Corporation. That's a good job too; but for accuracy, insert "Acceptance."

As Mark Short has reported, Ping Ferry is suing the Fund for the Republic Inc., president Robert M. Hutchins, and vice-president Harry Ashmore for some $663,000 for breach of contract. Ping, who lost his post as vice-president of the Center for the study of Democratic Institutions at Santa Barbara in a reorganization last June, charges that Hutchins and Ashmore acted with malice in discharging him for their own benefit, and that he was dismissed despite an understanding that permanent senior fellows, of which he was one, would be retained "for such period of time as the Center itself should continue to exist."

We close with the Letter of the Month, slightly abridged, from Dr. Cal Fisher of Denver:

You have the temerity to ask what's new. I shall fill you in. Everything's new. I'm a schizophrenic mess. The only thing constructive I ever did was to graduate from Dartmouth and I don't know how I managed that. I live west of the Alleghenies — enough said. Nobody knows what's there and they're not really eager about finding out.

I live in a little shack where two roads meet and there are three trees on the corner, all dead. This last week all the telephone wires went down and the lights went out. My grand-pappy got a coronary and now we gotta take care of him. Father isn't well and he's taking care of Mother, who's a complete invalid. My children, bless their souls, have had children. All my boys graduated from Dartmouth. I am unable to talk to any of them because their larnin' was different from mine.

I've been looking forward for years to retiring. Now I don't want to and can't. I was never elected president of the U.S. and all of my stock things have been miserable failures. The only lucky break I ever got was my wife and she's beginning to limp. I don't live in the same world that the rest of your correspondents do. If any of the boys want to stop by at the crossroads I've got a rest room. But that's it. And you say, "What's new?" Regards. Your ever humble servant, Cal.

Secretary, Orchard Hill Road Westport, Conn. 06880

Treasurer, 2914-44th St., N.W. Washington, D.C. 20016