The Class Officers Weekend

A record-breaking group of 263 Dartmouth class officers and 193 of their wives assembled early in May for the annual Class Officers' Weekend. A 70-year span of classes, from '02 to '7l, sent delegates, with only two firstdecade classes and 1969 unrepresented.

The Class of the Year, 1931, with eight members on hand and all class offices represented, shared honors with '23 and '42 for the largest delegation, participation of co-chairmen in some categories and reunion chairmen bringing totals above the full complement of seven offices. The Classes of '28, '29, '36, '37, and '63 were represented by seven members each.

The first official gathering was a meeting for class officers and their wives Friday afternoon, May 5, in Alumni Hall, with Edward W. Lider '43, president of the Class Agents Association, presiding. Chauncey C. Loomis Jr., Professor of English, and Jesse J. Spikes '72, the year's Rhodes Scholarship winner, presented special reports on their recent overseas research in Africa.

Receptions for the Classes of 1902 through 1920 in the Drake Room and for younger classes at the Top of the Hop were followed by the annual banquet, held in Alumni Hall and also in the Hanover Inn Dining Room and Tavern because of the size of the crowd. Webster Hall was the site of an after-dinner program, presided over by Bertram R. MacMannis '39, head of the Class Presidents Association. George Kalbouss, Professor of Russian Language and Literature, was master of ceremonies for Dartmouth Open House, with several students participating.

The officers were off to an early start Saturday, with 1972 Reunion Chairmen and Reunion Giving Chairmen, Class Agents, and Class Presidents of 1973-reuning classes meeting for 7:45 breakfast sessions. At 9 o'clock the various class officers associations met separately to hear reports on the year's activities, to elect officers, and to honor their officers-of-the-year: President, J. Spencer Morgan '60; Secretary, Russell C. Dilks '51; Treasurer, Edward S. Brown Jr. '34; Newsletter Editors, Sherman L. Lewis '17 and Howard Wilson '41; and Bequest Chairman, H. Sheridan Baketel Jr. '20. The Class Agents Association presented an Alumni Fund Committee Award to William M. Alley '21 and the first Roger C. Wilde Reunion Giving Award to William B. Minehan and John Cogswell, current and immediate past Class Agents for 1931. Citations which accompanied the awards will be found with the class notes.

At an 11 a.m. meeting in the Center Theater, officers and their wives heard reports from Edward T. Chamberlain Jr. '36, Director of Admissions; Robinson Bosworth Jr. '37, chairman of the 1972 Alumni Fund; Prof. Marilyn Baldwin, Assistant Provost; and Harland W. Hoisington Jr. '48, coordinator of the Dartmouth Plan. Arthur W. Hoover '62, president of the Class Secretaries Association, presided.

Alumni Awards and the Class-of-the-Year Award were presented following a luncheon in Alumni Hall. President Kemeny was the principal speaker at the luncheon. Since he had just written a special issue of The Bulletin, mailed to all alumni and covering such topics as admissions, the budget, faculty tenure, women on the faculty, the Trustee vote on ROTC, and some matters of College financing, he said that he would deviate from the usual presidential remarks to class officers and would describe three weeks in the life of Dartmouth's president.

President Kemeny first reported on his visit to Dartmouth alumni clubs on the West Coast the week before. Record attendances and the participation of many young alumni were especially encouraging developments, he said. His detailed account of what he had been doing the week of the class officers meeting and of what he was scheduled to do the following week—an amalgam of teaching, conferences, faculty meetings, speeches, open office hours, and student meetings—provided the audience with a vicarious exhaustion, although Mr. Kemeny himself seemed to take it all in stride. A novel appointment for the following week, he reported, was a promise to spend a full day with an undergraduate, attending classes and meals with him and sharing in all his social and extracurricular activities. The class officers gave him a standing ovation and appeared willing to vote him "the very model of a modern college president."