New Canaan

Secretary, 971 West Rd., New Canaan, Conn. 06840

As outgoing president I hereby beg to report as my last official act that our annual fall-winter dinner on Friday, December 5 drew the largest turnout in our history. We invited the Darien Club to partake with us; their response was strong. Most important, perhaps, the chant of the younger alumni stood stolidly "to include wives." Result: 152 dinners were served at the Woodway Country Club ... including 17 guests that comprised local scholar-athletes and dads.

While post-dinner coffee was being poured, Secretary Brock Saxe '62 was permitted two minutes to open and shut the business of the evening. He ran down the slate of new officers that probably will be voted into their robes by acclamation at the late winter-spring dinner. As Brock Saxe sat down, Doc Pullen '22 usurped the mike. Whereupon, he delivered a concise if pithy oration concerning the outgoing president, which nearly caused my old roomie, MuttRay '37, to be overcome with the vapors. I, too, swallowed hard, especially when Markey presented me with a most handsome framed picture - a night scene of Dartmouth Row.

With the slate of officers I was privileged to work with, my duties for three years was little more than a drop in the butter tub. This committee was comprised of Dave Walton '55, Don Rosenthal and Dick Weber '56, Pete Pullen '57 and Brock Saxe '62. If our meetings were sporadic, they also got things done! My special thanks to Dick and Carol Weber. For any Dartmouth function - and we had our share - they teamed like a brace of beavers.

For the main course, Coach Robert L. (Bob) Blackman proved the toast of the night. A month or more earlier I'd stuck him with a "proper subject"... "An Ivy League Coach Looks at the Current Campus Scene." Bob was prepared. Nevertheless as he rose, I couldn't resist the question uppermost in all minds: "Tell us, Coach, what in hell did happen at Princeton?"

Blackmail's answer was thoughtful and loaded with human interest... some of it concerning the fine line between plus or minus chemistry that can inspire or becalm an entire team. "Eight straight... only to be mauled by Princeton, which following that sub-normal game against Yale, played its finest game of the year. That one three-yard quick kick put Princeton right in our back yard. We never recovered. Good breaks or bad, they wanted that game. They earned it all."

Blackman closed his warmly informal talk by discussing the campus scene... as he sees it. Above all else, he remains " 'optimistic' about today's college generation, which generally speaking, is more mature and much more concerned than any pre-World War II class." Bob's final quote was, I think, a classic. Roughly it went as follows: "You'll be interested to know this much about that knot of rioters who surrounded Parkhurst Hall last spring. While that small minority was having its inning in the spotlight, a full scale college Hum was taking place on the front lawn of Dartmouth Row. Also, fraternity baseball games were as usual going full blast on the campus. I thought it a sad commentary that the TV cameras only had eyes for that band of rebellious students."