1949
Six years have drifted by since we last met as a class on the Hanover plain, and no matter how you slice it they have been six years filled with a great deal of change. This coming reunion on June 19-21 is an occasion to freeze time in its place and to renew ties with the college and old friends. The face of the college has changed. It is not as much a face-lifting as a maturing beauty reflecting the times. The faces of your classmates and their wives have changed, too. They are even more handsome in their maturing beauty and there is in most cases six years of catching up to do on what has happened in their lives. I just hope that most of you feel as I do that being there is really quite important. To suggest that reunions are only beer busts and nostalgic nonsense is rather insulting or at best simplistic if one has a shred of real interest in our dynamic college and savors the many friendships gained there.
Two of our classmates not only were written up but photographed in the New York Times only a couple of days apart. Charles "Jay" Urstadt, New York State Commissioner of Housing, made a speech before the State Senate Committee on Housing and Urban Development wherein he proposed using Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn for a gigantic 1.4 billion dollar development of over 46,000 -units of housing. Urstadt is of the opinion that the housing problem in New York City is critical and that the solution must be. massive and comprehensive rather than purely tokenism. I saw Jay last evening at the annual Tuck School Alumni dinner in New York. He is president of the association and Herb Gramstorff is on the board. As toastmaster for the evening, Jay did a bang-up job. With his usual wit, he introduced the president of the General Motors Acceptance Corporation as the only passenger to come out unscathed in a recent yachting accident, because the sharks left him untouched out of professional courtesy. He has always had a million of them.
The second familiar face belonged to John Adler who is pioneering a television market research program which the Times took four extensive columns on a Sunday to explain in detail. John's Ad Tel program is a tool to find out in detail not simply whether a consumer likes his product but whether he or she is actually backing up a preference with purchases. Cable television subscribers record their purchases weekly and these are analyzed constantly for national buying trends against a control group which watches television but doesn't see the same ads through what is called a split cable set-up. For a mere $60,000 your product can also be sales tested and given a real depth study by John and his tube sleuths.
Bob Treat has been promoted to assistant chief cost engineer at Stone & Webster Engineering Corporation in Boston. A member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, he has been with Stone & Webster since the fall of 1951. He managed to earn a master's degree in civil engineering only a year after our Class's graduation. Bob and Norma live on Lowell Road in Westford, Mass., where Lydia, Julia, Sarah, and Charles keep them stepping.
My old Army buddy, Ed Grant, just returned from a honeymoon in Bermuda. He is still a manufacturers agent after all these years with a growing business primarily in electrical appliances and housewares. His oldest daughter graduates from Endicott Junior College this June. His boys are seventeen a nd eleven. Ed and Carol Ann plan to be in Hanover for reunion. Their address is 469 Boston Turnpike, Shrewsbury, Mass.
In an announcement by Dean Lamar Soutter, John Stockwell was appointed director of the University of Massachusetts Hospital at Worcester, as well as head of the Department of Hospital Administration and associate dean for administrative affairs. The school continues to attract men and women of the finest calibre from all over the country in both teaching and administrative capacities.
A news clipping from the "Terre Haute, Ind., Star" brings us word of Don Burch. Don, his wife, and four children live in Granville, Ohio. He has been named executive vice president of the Cookware group of the General Housewares Corporations Terre Haute plant, the Columbian Enameling and Stamping Company. Don had been vice president of marketing and retail sales for the tableware division of Anchor Hocking Corporation. He had previous connection with the Elgin National Watch Company and the Gillette Safety Razor Company and received his master's degree at Wharton. Don, if you are out there and read this, please flick the headlights on your car. We don't want to lose you again. We've lost a few classmates over the years, and it is a very serious concern of ours not to permit any more of you to give us the slip.
An example of fine news release coverage is Nathan Gottschalk, executive director of Hartt College of Music, University of Hartford. He was recently elected to his second term as regional chairman of the National Association of Schools of Music and was cited at the November National Conference of NASM for his continuing efforts to bring the all-important region into major involvement in educational activities.
Bob Rooke has been elected to the board of trustees of the Pingry School in Elizabeth, N. J. An alumnus of the school, he will serve a three-year term. In the business world he is general manager of Robert C. Rooke & Co. in Morristown, N. J., and chairman of the Professional Insurance Co. of New York City. He and Natalie have two sons, Thomas and Christopher, at the Pingry School, plus Robert, 19, and Marianne,
A corporate press release calls our attention to the fact that Dick Higley now heads the Irving Trust office at Madison Avenue and Forty-Sixth Street. Dick has been with the bank since graduation and was named assistant secretary of the bank in 1955 and rose to become vice president early in 1969. He lives in Chappaqua, N. Y.
We note with sadness the passing of classmate, Dr. Walter M. Klein, whose complete obituary will be found in the In Memoriam section of this or a subsequent issue.
Secretary, 15 Twin Oak Rd. Short Hills, N.J. 07078
Class Agent, 62 Highland Ave., Roslyn, N.Y. 11576
