1951

Happily, I find my mail bag overflowing, so please be patient if your news does not appear this month. It will anon.

Last month I promised to update you this time on some classmates I saw this summer in the West and Far Northwest. By the latter term, I was referring to Fairbanks, Alaska, where Les Viereck works and lives. Les is principal plant ecologist of the Institute of Northern Forestry, a U. S. government operation located on the University of Alaska's main campus there. He is also associated with the University's Museum and works with graduate students.

After graduation from Dartmouth, he went to the University of Alaska on a Richardson Fellowship. He then saw service in the Korean War and, while still in the Army, climbed Mt. McKinley. Bradford Washburn's "Tourist Guide to Mount McKinley" states:

"Reaching the summit of the South Peak on May 15, 1954, almost exactly a month after leaving Curry, Thayer's party became involved in a terrific fall from Karstens Ridge on its descent of the Muldrow Route the following day. One member of the group lost his balance traversing around a steep, snow-covered icy pitch on the ridge at 12,800 feet and all four men slid over a thousand feet down the precipitous north face to a snow shelf just above the head of Muldrow Glacier. Thayer was killed instantly during the fall and George Argus dislocated his hip. Miraculously, LeslieViereck and Morton Wood were scarcely injured at all and succeeded, by superhuman efforts, in dragging Argus down to a level camp site at the head of Muldrow (11,200 feet) and then walking 29 miles out to Wonder Lake for help. This resulted in saving Argus' life, but also completed the first traverse of Mount McKinley—a fact almost completely overlooked amid the tragedy of Thayer's death and the melodrama of Argus' rescue."

Les spent the 1954-55 academic year at McGill's Subarctic Research Laboratory in Labrador. He then went on to the University of Colorado, which granted him an M.S. in 1956 and a Ph.D. in botany in 1962. Meantime, he went to the University of Alaska in 1959 as a research associate and associate professor.

Les started to work for the government in 1961. Wife Terri has an M.S. from Smith, where Les met her, and a Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Colorado. They have three children: Rodney, 13; Walter, 11; and Sharon, 5. Les is co-author of a recent U. S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service Handbook entitled "Alaska Trees and Shrubs."

While in San Francisco for the American Bar Association annual meeting, I attended a cocktail party thrown by that city's distinguished law firm of Pilsbury, Madison & Sutro. There I encountered Dick Eigner, one of the firm's partners, who specializes in international tax matters. Dick, wife Beverly, son David, going on two, and daughter Danielle, seven months by now, live in the city.

Bachelor Charlie Richardson recently left the same firm to join former colleagues there to form the firm of Lukens & Richardson, which has offices in Tiburon in Martin County to the North across the Golden Gate Bridge. The firm engages in general practice with an .emphasis on corporate matters.

Will Rowe has been named president, Fastener Group, for Illinois Tool Works, Inc., of Chicago. Before joining ITW in 1971, he was a vice president of Armour-Dial, Inc., and General Manager of that company's Rehies Chemical Company Division. Will saw service as a naval officer in the Korean War and earned an M.B.A. from Northeastern University in Boston. He and wife Mae have two children: Gail, 18, and Bruce, 15.

Bob Tyler is now corporate vice president of Clark Equipment Co. He had been general manager and president of the company's Tyler Refrigeration Division since 1968. Prior to that, Bob was marketing manager, vice president of marketing, and administrative vice president of the division. A past president of the Commercial Refrigeration Manufacturers Association, Bob lives with his wife and four children in Niles, Mich.

Do you know what a bank corporator is? I don't, but I suspect that it is peculiar New England nomenclature for a member of the board of directors. In any event, "Jock" McIntyre is now one for the City Savings Bank of Meriden, Conn.; and Merle Thorpe is one for the New Hampshire Savings Bank of Concord, N. H.

Jack Berggren, who I always suspected was Scandinavian, has come home to join the staff of Kodak's vice president for marketing in the U. S. and Canadian Photographic Division. He is now working in Rochester, N. Y., and residing in suburban Pittsford with wife Erika, son Steven, 12, and daughter Ingrid, 10.

Jack was in Europe for Kodak for eight years, starting with assignments in Switzerland and Denmark. He then organized and was the first manager of the company's subsidiary in Finland. In 1969, he duplicated that task in Norway.

Chuck Eccles is in Union Carbide Latin America. Most recently stationed in Costa Rica for three years, he moved in January to Sao Paulo, Brazil, where he is general manager and director of that country's Union Carbide Consumer Products Division.

Not quite two and a half years ago, I absconded from Philadelphia to New York, where I am going bankrupt by inches because of the incredible cost of living. Whether to escape that or the Lexington Ave. subway, which I recently escaped via a new express bus, I know not; but "Bing"Broido has made the reverse trip to go to work for The Franklin Mint, which makes a mint out of peddling commemorative medals and things like that.

"Bing's" title is director of product and program development, and he will be responsible for development of new product concepts for what is the world's largest private mint. He holds an M.B.A. from Tuck School; and he and wife Lois have three daughters.

"Bing" was most recently director of product development for The Kenton Corp. of New York, where he developed merchandise concepts and established designer/artist and factory liaison for Georg Jensen, the "Kenton Collection" and the , Kenton wholesale line of giftware, accessories and collectables. Prior to that, he was executive vice president of Hament Chromographics, Inc., and served in a number of capacities with Raymor/Richard, Morgenthau & Co.

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