1939

It is with regret that we once again open with a report on the death of a classmate. Al Balboni passed away on March 27 after a long illness. Class sympathies have been dispatched to his wife Betty and notice will appear under obituaries in this or the next issue. On the more cheerful side, your secretary has just returned from a stimulating class officers' meeting in Hanover, where we joined President Bert MacMannis, Bequest Chairman Bob Kaiser and Newsletter editor, WaltDarby. We all agreed the highlight on the business side was a superlative unscripted address by Dartmouth's new president, John Kemeny. His audience, obviously weighted by the more senior statesmen of vintage classes, expanding girths and receding hairlines, had only the night before reacted violently to a college presentation centered about the pros and cons of coeducation on the Hanover Plain. The air was electric, creased brows the order. By the end of the Kemeny address, to a man the audience was on its feet, afire with unabashed applause. It was the unanimous opinion of your officers present, that Dartmouth's new president is an extraordinary leader. You should see, to better believe. It is with pride that we recount the election of Bert MacMannis as vice-president of the Class Presidents' Association. For the second year in a row, our class was selected as one of five classes to receive honorable mention as "Class of the Year." A little extra effort, and who knows about next year! Easily the highlight on the social calendar was a superb evening of camaraderie and wild debate at the Kaiser homestead where we let down our hair and had a helluva time settling the problems of the world. We were able to catch but the first of a doubleheader with Cornell on Saturday afternoon, but were mightily pleased to form a solid cheering claque for the team's outstanding performer in the 3-2 victory. Tom Hanna '71 was the object of our affection, and George, Shirley, and the youngest Miss Hanna joined us in whooping it up for the centerfielder's sterling performance afield and his two solid hits abat.

On March 10, as reported by Dot Darby in " '39 Out," your Executive Committee held its annual spring meeting in New York. In attendance were the aforementioned GeorgeHanna, and Walt Darby, as well as MooseWyman, Robb DeGraff, Dusty Rohde, SamThurm, Bert, and your secretary. Thurm reported having some business conversations of late with Bob Willheim who is with Sunset House, a mail order firm in California; also, attending a directors' meeting of the Marketing Service Institute with fellow director Bob Howe. And another typical anecdote that you might enjoy developed around a golf match Sam experienced with old Michigan great Tom Harmon. Harmon was lamenting the continued loss of money on the golf circuit at Belaire to a guy who constantly took his measure. The guy, aptly enough, turned out to be Bob MacLeod. At the same meeting George Hanna told us about a case in which he was recently involved in Manchester, N. H. It was with Stan Brown's office, and he dealt with a young lawyer named Robert Upton II, an attorney in the office of McLane, Carleton, Graf, Greene & Brown. George points out every name mentioned is Dartmouth, and further (if you hadn't guessed) that the Upton represented is the son of Freddie Upton.

We are indebted to our son's Loomis Alumni Bulletin for the news that RussFette's oldest issue, Rusty was married on January 30, 1969 after returning from 13 months of Marine Recon in Vietnam. Russ became a grandfather on Dec. 15. Son Randy is a freshman at Whittier College and his daughter Cammy is in junior high.

Bill Bachman, president and operating officer of MacManus, John & Adams advertiser's, International Operations, has just stepped down from a third job, that of managing the agency's Bloomfield Hills headquarters.

"Surgical Business," a trade journal carried a February profile that spoke in glowing terms of Bill Borsdoff, president of J & J's Jelco Laboratories.

And speaking of magazines, the slick resort trade mag, "Bermudian," did a long article complete with illustrations on DickBrooks in their March issue. Although it gave space to Dick's comic strip, "The Jackson Twins," it saw fit to illustrate the article with products of an avocation, a number of dry-pen sketches depicting landmarks of Bermuda.

New workers in the Dartmouth vineyard are Bill Webster, and Cornie Miller who are toiling for the Third Century Fund in the New Haven region, and O'Brien Boldt in New Jersey.

March brought a change of address to Jim Parks, but same country and same company we understand. Jim can be reached at Calzada Lomas 105 A, Mexico 10, D.F., Mexico, and the company is Mobil Oil. John Parkhurst hopped from Goshen, N. Y., where the trotters are, to 117 Highland Ave., Middletown, N. Y. 10940. The old ski-jumper, John Litchfield, leapt from 1699 Maple Ave. to 1446 N. Kellogg, both in Galesburg, Ill. 61401.

We received two cards bearing the names of Hank Hastings and Morgan Price Jr., with a college notation "lost" on each. Come home, men. Anyone knowing the whereabouts give us a word. Could be they've moved in with Walt Darby's notorious BobStone on the Canary Islands.

Perhaps you noted the space given to EdOppenheim in the May issue of this journal. It seems appropriate to pass on official kudos from the Class in this column to properly dignify his reception of the Dartmouth Alumni Award, which is the highest honor that the Alumni Council bestows.

Since this is the last issue until October - at least that will bear our class notes - we thought we'd give you something to chew on over the summer. At the Class Secretaries meetings just concluded, lengthy, but inconclusive discussions were launched pertaining to the make-up of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE. Suggestions were heard that 1) called for abolition of all class notes; 2) cutting down the length of same by 20%; 3) deleting completely the Club Notes section; 4) alternating each class so that '39 notes would appear every other month; 5) cutting out obituaries; 6) cutting down obituaries; 7) making class notes more meaningful with less "trivia" (the Class of '6l has opted for editorial-like pieces sans news tidbits - read it and see if it moves you). Beyond increasing the size of the MAGAZINE and naturally an accompanying increase in costs, the editors are concerned with relevance. This is particularly true with the great degree of change on campus, both present and predicted. Editors see their primary job as informing alumni as to college developments. They fancy more space will be needed to do this job satisfactorily. Any thoughts?

Have a good summer! Don't forget the Fall Reunion over Princeton match.

Edgar R. Oppenheim '39 (r), who received a Dartmouth Alumni Award atthe March 24 dinner of the DartmouthClub of Western Oklahoma, is congratulated by Director of Athletics SeaverPeters '54, who was the guest speakerfrom Hanover.

Secretary,777 West St. Pittsfield, Mass. 01201

Class Agent, 392 Greenley Rd. New Canaan, Conn. 06840