1950
For the first time in three years our annual spring pilgrimage to the North Country started under favorable conditions. As April's forsythia had bloomed in March, so had May's lilacs and apple blossoms bloomed in April. There was no question of looking for a faint sign of greening beneath winter's brown mantle. In Vermont not only the meadows but also the mountain peaks had long since lost their snow and bore a verdant hue. Tulips abounded.
But the promise failed. The sun played more hide than seek for the whole weekend, and a cold wind nipped out of the Northwest. No snow-flurries. Just nasty. One set of tennis was all we could watch; D's number one played superbly to win, although Harvard's superior team dominated the other matches. Brown's 440 hurdler caught our favorite at the tape, but the Big Green went on to win the meet handily. It was more comfortable to watch the baseball team mount a winning rally from the car parked beyond the left field fence. And out on the Lyme road we cruised along the river as various crews matched strokes in rhythmic sweeps. We remained warm; the river was chilly, running full from winter's run-off and April's rains.
On a still moving and exciting campus, one sad note. More Stately elms have gone. Several with trunks five feet in diameter had been cut to sidewalk level. Others stood tall and gaunt with branches stubbed to the trunk. Those elms, full and graceful in our day, had grown for another quarter century. It is hard to imagine anything replacing some in critical locations, particularly the Inn corner. A saving grace: our class maples are filling out and asserting themselves on the south side of the campus.
Our long weekend started early Friday morning at Sanborn where we had hoped to check the view from Joe Medlicott's office. We missed the precise view but caught one two offices down. His description is accurate. Envy him. Moments later we caught up to Joe outside Crosby for the first of several visits.
Then We hurried off to a series of three conferences - Past. present, and future views of Dartmouth by administrators, professors, and students. Some were self-consciously critical; others, unabashedly enthusiastic. They probed and questioned in defining what the College might become. There was evident concern in structuring the means to achieve her goals. The task of out-guessing the future remains difficult. The process continues.
By evening Eric and Eileen Miller had arrived to join Joe and Sue Medlicott with us for dinner. We continued to enjoy the weekend together, except that the Medlicotts ventured off without us for a trek up the mountains. The spattering of rain offered neither solace nor encouragement. We missed Jack Harned and Sandy McCulloch. Their work for Dartmouth was briefly interrupted by visits with their children on other campuses. My report is thus packed in its nutshell. It hardly expresses the warmth and joy of returning to the campus and simply being there.
Donald F. Brown is still being tracked. When last sighted, he was in the oil fields of Oklahoma. Donald 0. Brown was corralled in Winnetka. Don reports first that he is still a produce broker specializing in pickles. His tantalizing problem is to predict in February what Mother Nature will do in July. Since he survives, his predictions must be good on the average. Don is busy starting life over with his new wife Ina and step-daughter Cynthia. He feels that his most important recent honor occurred in late 1971 when Ina decided to leave friends and home in Eastern Virginia to join Don in a new land filled with strangers.
Don's favorite recreation is curling. For you uninitiated, that sport is not performed on a sofa on a lazy rainy afternoon. It is played on ice with stones and brooms. By adults! Usually by adults in thick soled rubber boots. Don relates that JackMeehan came down from Burlington, Ontario, to join in the curling. Furthermore, Don adds, after 23 years Jack retains both his sense of humor and his taste for beer. Jack had shuffled from city to city until his company transferred him once too often. So he chucked it. Now he is happily on his own as a major distributor of building material such as brick and stone. Besides being a curler, Jack is also an ardent golfer, all in its proper season, and currently presides over the Burlington Golf and Country Club.
The Dartmouth is a pale shadow of its former self. It is sad to see, but sadder perhaps for former editor Frank Gilroy. Yet Frank was featured in an article recently after discussing the nurturing of his film "Desperate Characters" in Cohen-Bissell Commons. Since Frank pretends to know nothing about a camera, he might well be coached by Don Hyatt. But his low budget film received two awards at the Berlin Festival and was financially successful. It fared well in New York art theaters until Paramount decided to exploit it and its heroine, Shirley MacLaine. The result: pans by Time and general withering away. Although many viewers react to his film with boredom, he insists that he was only trying to tell a story. Frank noted, "Almost without exception the critics who liked "Characters' were the ones who saw it twice."
The lure of the siren is pervasive. Our Newsletter editor returneed to campus and sang of its virtures and glories. Len Matless heard the call from his Pirates Cove Marina in Florida and was persuaded. In short order he scouted the plain, bought the Variety Shop on Main Street, purchased a home on a wooded hillside east of town, and sold the marina. Moving day is mid-June. The first step will be to modernize the store and restock it with contemporary gifts. Len, Sue, and daughter Sally are anxious to move back north and to enjoy four seasons again. Len also looks forward to seeing you at his shop when you return to Hanover. Stop by to browse and renew old acquaintances.
Tidbits here and there: old neighbor JohnDwyer asserts that his tennis is no better or worse than it has been, which seems to be telling him not to expect much more (and me not to challenge him yet). The mystery in Gerry Sarno's letter has been unravelled: he ran into Bob Perry, JerryMensel, and Bill Frenzel all at the same time because all four were visiting daughters at Skid-more. Periodically, Gerry bumps into Nob Hovde on the more familiar grounds of Park Avenue. Osterman's Inc. has promoted Milt Diemer from controller to vp of finance. Bud Gleason leaves Westchester County to become superintendent of schools of the Corning/Painted Post (N.Y.), Area Schools District (more later). A late filing from the vicinity of Patuxent River, Md., locates BobHartshorn.
Chuck Gardner has been doing okay since he left Madison Avenue and formed his own advertising agency in New Canaan, Conn. The firm, Charles Gardner, Inc., is at 140 Elm St. and President Chuck details its four-year history, "We began with one client: Diners Club ... today, we have a full cast of creative and media specialists serving firms in food, shelter, finance, travel, and leisure.... Being an ad man in the midst of all these growing Fairchild County firms is personally very rewarding. For you not only see your own efforts improve, but see them helping other businesses grow, too."
The 1973 recipient of the Alexander Meikle-john Award for Academic Freedom was TomO'Connell. With a daughter on campus FritzJewett now returns more often; he saw NewcEldredge and Don Ayres during Freshman Fathers Weekend. The Garden of Eden for BillOed is Florida. Don C. Hall juggles three firms simultaneously in the vicinity of Philly. His twins opted for Penn State. A neighbor of Don's is LudTruscott who is stimulated by his work as vp and associate counsel for First Pennsylvania Corp. Jud visited John and Maggie MacDonald during a short vacation trip to Florida. Another guest - Alex Hoffman, who was in Hanover last weekend. We had a long chat about tennis, skiing, and the comparative virtues of Vermont mountains.
The deadline for the Alumni Fund is nigh. The Class of 1950 is headed for its best year ever. If you have been procrastinating, please delay no longer. Write that check and pop it in the mail. Dartmouth needs your help.
Over the next year some of you will be promoted or honored. Usually news releases and pictures announce these events. Please add Joe and me to your mailing list for these important announcements.
This year of 1973 remains unkind. Each loss has touched me deeply, but this one is still special. Robert C. Kelly was our Newsletter editor for five years. He sent us a bit of laughter and a touch of gaiety with his reporting of the College and our friends. He was the toastmaster at our class dinner at the 20th Reunion. No more. Bob died of a heart attack in April. We mourn his passing.
And suddenly it's over. Too quickly another year has passed. A few brief words encapsulate our progress and our history. Until the fall my pen shall rest. Enjoy a long and restful summer. Let's stay intact. Fall and its new beginnings will be here soon enough. We plan to see you in Hanover in October at the '50 mini-reunion.
And suddenly it's over.
Secretary, Hillcrest Rd. Ridgewood, N.J. 07450
Class Agent, Bedford Advisors, 230 Park Ave New York, N.Y. 10017
