1949 Pick Axe Winner

Ezekiel Albert Straw, chairman of the board, president, and chief executive officer

of The Manchester (N. H.) Corporation and Bank, was given the Class of 1949's famed Gold Pick Axe Award at Hanover festivities October 9. Zeke's citation reads: Quarried in the north country, son of Dart- mouth, New Hampshireman by choice, your background for your

role today could not have been better scripted.

Scion of banking conservatism, your "liberal arts" education, including Tuck school postgraduate studies, kindled your innate abilities and stirred you to impatience with the stifling limitations of New Hampshire banking. Relief from these restrictions could come only through legal channels and you found yourself impeded at every turn by unsympathetic parochial banking interests.

You stood your ground, however, over a long two and a half years, and finally emerged victorious, winning for your state and her citizens the right to full service banking. The victory seems suited precisely to your character and mirrors the prophetic aura of your given name; what more meaningful expression of individuality than to "relieve the children of the burden of their fathers' sins?"

You have not gone unrewarded! Your chal- lenge to the savings-bank suzerains won for you from the president of the National Association the distinction of being named "the Benedict Arnold of the savings-bank industry." The ineptness of this appellation delighted your col- league, Jim Chandler, to the point of phoning you to say, "I'm glad to see New Hampshire banking has another bastard!"

We envy you, since you obviously have come to know the meaning of John Sloan Dickey's words: "Only out of commitment is any man fulfilled with his fellows, whether in the em- brace of fellowship or loneliness of leadership."

We honor you tonight, Zeke. It is more than pride in the fellowship of 1949, and of Dart- mouth, that moves us. Your classmates are indeed proud of you; additionally we offer our admiration and affection in presenting to you the Gold Pick Axe Award for 1971.