Friends of Robert Frost Plan National Membership

Bill Gahagan '35, who founded the California Friends of Robert Frost nine years ago and now serves as president and executive head of the nonprofit foundation, announced last month that the organization is going national and, if successful, will drop the "California" from its title.

On March 26, 1974, the 100 th anniversary of Frost's birth, the Friends will dedicate a plaque in memory of the poet in San Francisco, his birthplace. Funds for this were raised by selling a special Frost medallion. Other projects of the Friends include development of a major Frost collection in the San Francisco Main Library, annual award of a Frost prize to students for creative writing and poetry reading, an annual lecture on the poet's birthday, and distribution of an annual Frost keepsake to the Friends, the most notable being a facsimile of Frost's My Butterfly, the first published poem for which he was paid. Most recently, Gahagan has produced a 38- minute documentary film, Once by the Pacific, dealing with Frost's San Francisco childhood. This has had a BBC showing and is now djstributed by Pyramid Films of Santa Monica.

Gahagan hopes to keep all the foundation projects going by enlisting 1000 national Friends who will contribute $10 annually. Headquarters of his campaign are Room 409, 251 Kearny Street, San Francisco 94108.