1942

A REPORT TO THE CLASS OF '42 By William W. Parmer Retiring Class Secretary

This final report to the Class will serve double duty as my last '42 Column after five challenging and rewarding years as your class secretary.

The honor and task of writing the report of the Class of '42s Thirtieth Reunion activities will rest with a talented incoming class secretary to be elected at the Reunion, June 12-14.

Your retiring secretary has maintained a complete up-to-date set of records relating to living class members, deceased classmates, widows, addresses, job and residence changes. He has communicated with and has frequently exchanged information about classmates and families with Class President Dick Lippman, Newsletter Editor Milt Williams, Treasurer Dick Burns, Head Class Agent John Nauss, Bequest Chairman Guy Swenson and other class officers. He has also maintained a closeworking relationship with dedicated and ever-helpful Ad Winship and the College's Development Office, the efficient and considerate people like Nancy Elliot of the Alumni Records Office and the hardworking staff of the Alumni Magazine.

Nine monthly columns per year, October through June, have been prepared for the Alumni Magazine during the past five years.

During this period of time, also, letters of condolence have been prepared promptly and sent to the immediate families of deceased class members. Your secretary has also prepared the obituary writeups which have appeared from time to time in the back section of the Alumni Magazine.

The secretary has been faithful in his attendance at the October and May meetings each year of Class Officers and the Executive Committee, at which times he has assumed the responsibility for writing, duplicating and disseminating the minutes.

The incoming class secretary should, and will, you may be sure, have the desire and the ability to communicate well in writing because during his five-year term he is going to be writing about 70,000 (seventy thousand) words in behalf of the Class of '42 and Dartmouth College.

Probably his most important function is that of circulating news of classmates through the Class Notes section of the Alumni Magazine. He is assisted in this effort by the clipping service employed by the Alumni Records Office.

Another vitally important source of information is correspondence from members of the Class. The class secretary relies heavily upon the sources of information nourishing it. Hence we cannot emphasize strongly enough the need for cooperation of classmates in sending newsworthy items to both the Class Newsletter editor and the class secretary.

What kind of class have we been these last five years?

This would seem to be an appropriate time to review some of the things we have done under the inspirational leadership of our Class President, Dick Lippman:

Contributed $1,000 to the College following our 25th Reunion in 1967, as an offset to the expenses of producing a most magnificent 25th Reunion Book which has been used as a model for other 25th Reunion classes since that time.

Participated in Baker Library's Memorial Book Program, designed to memorialize deceased classmates.

In 1968 Dartmouth College presented to the Class of '42 the first "Class of the Year" award, "In recognition of an outstanding all-around program through the superior organization of Class interest and participation to the benefit of the College and the cause of Higher Education."

Sponsored as a Class Project a dialogue series, "Careers and Conscience," as a part of the Dartmouth Experimental College, with "eloquent communicators" from the Class of '42 meeting with groups of undergraduates.

We can claim four College officers, Bond, Dingwall, Fanelli, and Winship, and the extension of honorary Class membership to one Myron Tribus, then Dean of Thayer School who joined Dartmouth in 1960, and who, as a member of the Class of 1942 at University of California at Berkeley was already one of us chronologically.

Financed to the tune of $1500 an "earth-shaking" 25th Reunion class film production done by our Bob Campbell of Campbell Films.

* Received 25 responses to a questionnaire related to Bequest giving with 13 of the 25 having made some provision for Dartmouth College in their wills and 12 indicating "an indication to do so." As of October 29, 1971 there was one life income gift and several others in process.

As our Class Project in 1971, contributed $1,000 as the first in what may be a series of annual contributions to the College's Instructional Development Fund, designed to enrich teaching at the College and to further experimental development in the curriculum.

Set a new record for attendance at an informal fall reunion (October 1971) with about, as we recall, 150 including wives ... Switching to the topic of formal class reunions, the record for a 30th is 318 people including wives ... one more record for '42 to break!

In 1972 we received a verbal citation for the "Early and good work done in the Dartmouth Alumni Fund Reunion Giving Program." We have continued to support the College with distinction and have established a benchmark of $150,000 as our goal in the Dartmouth Reunion Roundup ... and as of April 24 we had reached 39 per cent of our objective, with over $58,000 in pledges and money collected.

In March of 1972 we published and distributed to all class members a '42 Directory with up-to-date lists of names and addresses, a geographical cross index, and names of the deceased (of the latter a total of 81 since graduation, 18 since our 25th).

Distributed to all '42ers "The Road to Reunion," a 33 173 RPM disc designed to ignite additional interest in attending the "30th," scripted by our own JimFarley and narrated by "72's Bill Aydelott.

... Not to mention the detailed dollar specifics of a Class, "The Great Class of '42," which has set a number of records relating to financial giving to Dartmouth College and has reached a "total dollars" figure to be found, by June 30, 1972, somewhere between a million-and-a half and two-million dolars.

* Special kudos to John Scotford '38, the College's designer, for creating our 30th Reunion logo, which, in addition to its utilization in printed material relating to reunion, became our theme for the huge and quadri-colored banner which became the official one for the 30th ... and to Mrs. Wilma Bacolas of Tenafly, N. J., who in "Betsy Ross" fashion sewed this creative reunion masterpiece!

And finally, to all those class officers, executive committee members, classmates and wives of this ... (in the inimitable words of Dartmouth's "obedient servant" Jim Farley") ... "veritable ring-tailed, lallapoloozing, ever-loving-blue-eyed, flaming youth of a class" who have helped to make this class secretary's five-year stint a rewarding period of service to College and Class we say, "Well done, oh kind and faithful fellow servants!"

...'The CLASS OF '42 OF DARTMOUTHCOLLEGE was born during World War II, has made its share of sacrifices then and throughout the years, but has maintained its sense of humor, its zest and enjoyment of things spiritual and material, and has "kept the faith" ... and SUPPORTSTHE COLLEGE THAT GAVE IT BIRTH.

Secretary, 184 West Clinton Ave. Tenafly, N. J. 07670

Class Agent, Seward and Kissell, 63 Wall St. New York, N. Y. 10005