1954

This, if you can believe it, is the final issue for the season and it has been a struggle getting you clowns to send in stuff to write about. I'm beginning to think that maybe I should change my soap, but if next year is anything like this one, it's going to be a very dry column. I hope and trust that each of you will use the next several months to drop a line or two about your doings so that next year you won't have to read about the latest slim pickings.

The most deserving letter this month comes again from Richard Collins. On the strength of a one liner last month I wrote of Dick's now being employed by Frank H. Taylor Real Estate of Wayne, N. J., Dick recently wrote that he thought his brief communique was just for the record and that he didn't expect to see his name in print. Well, Dick, I'll now fill 'em in on the rest of the story. Dick had spent the past five years in the real estate business and now makes his home in Kinnelon, N. J., with his wife Carolyn and 18-month-old daughter, Anne.

Our erstwhile secretary, Richard S. Davidoff, also gets a star this month for remembering the poor bloke who succeeded him. Dick practices law under the firm name of Davidoff, Levinson & Davidoff, NYC, and writes that he was just elected secretary and a director of Boothe Data Systems, Inc., a computer software subsidiary of Boothe Computer Corp., one of the largest computer leasing and brokerage concerns around. I'm sure Dick's training as secretary of the Class of '54 wasn't wasted, and it certainly gives me some hope about what happens to old secretaries.

I received a note the other day from Dave Metz who managed to take a few hours off from his Alumni Fund chores to do a little work for Readers Digest, his regular employer. The Digest recently ran a luncheon at The Four Seasons (NYC) with James Michener as a guest speaker discussing his book, "Kent State: What Happened and Why." Dave sent along a picture with the following description: "I am sure you recognize the handsome fellow in the middle as hustling Tom Myers. At present the executive vice president of Norman, Craig & Kummel, a very influential New York advertising agency. This marks the first time I have seen Tom in 20 years. It appears he has been preserved in a time capsule. The same cannot be said for me."

"The New Haven Register," on Feb. 15, ran a story on Robert Adnapoz who has started a new business called The College Management & Investment Co. Bob had formerly been co-owner of the Yantic Beef Co., a wholesale meat distribution firm for the previous ten years. The new business specializes in commercial real estate management, leasing and sales and group investment in commercial properties. Bob, who lives in Hamden, Conn., is district enrollment director for Dartmouth an secretary and past president of the Dart mouth Club of New Haven. He is also president of the alumni association of Hopkins Grammar School, a director of the Hamden-North Haven YMCA and a member of the Race Brook Country Club Graduate Club, and the Ridge Top Club Bob continues as a director of the Yantic Grain & Products Co., Inc.

Dixon Bain, for the past three year executive vice president of Westbeth, the New York artists' community, plans to study artists' housing programs here and abroad this summer and spend next year doing related research at the Joint Center for Urban Studies at Harvard and MIT. Dixon will continue as urban affairs consultant to uie jvapian runa which co-sponsored the $13-million project with the National Council on the Arts. Thirteen buildings were rehabilitated providing some 380 living and working units for both visual and performing artists. Dixon, a Rufus Choate Scholar at Dartmouth, pursued graduate studies in philosophy and religion at Union Theological Seminary, where he was a Rockefeller Fellow, and at Columbia University. His wife is the former Elizabeth MacDonald, and they have three children.

Finishing out the news for this final issue of the year are two hitherto unrecorded facts. Benjamin J. Bowden was elected a senior vice president of the First National Bank of Boston. I visited Ben not too long ago to swap notes on our mutual specialty-factoring—and I was most impressed with his operation and organization as well as with the cordiality with which he received us. Lastly, from the Connecticut Commercial Travelers Mutual Insurance Co. comes word that Chester N. Edlund was elected president succeeding the late Frederick A Nichols. Chester joined CCTM in 1956. was named secretary and a director in 1960, and executive vice president in 1966.

Well, that's all folks! And I do mean All. Have a good summer, support the Alumni Drive, and write!

Secretary, 58 Birchwood Lane Hartsdale, N. Y. 10530

Class Agent, Reader's Digest Assoc., Inc. 200 Park Ave., New York, N. Y. 10017