Class Officers Weekend
The annual May gathering of Dartmouth class officers has grown into one of the biggest alumni weekends of the college year, numerically below only June reunions and informal class reunions in the fall. And this year, with more than 250 officers and 180 wives, the attendance at the May 4-5 meetings in Hanover was again remarkably high. With one exception, every class in the span from 1905 to 1973 was represented.
The maximum number of officers any one class could have present was eight - president, secretary, treasurer, class agent, newsletter editor, bequest chairman, reunion chairman, and reunion giving chairman. Four classes had seven officers present - 1923, 1929, 1933 and 1934 - and seven had six officers present - 1922, 1924, 1931, 1936, 1937, 1939, and 1960.
This year's program was expanded to include Friday morning and afternoon panel discussions prior to the Friday afternoon general session with which the weekend has opened in previous years. The morning panel, with '73 class president John R. Hauge as moderator, had the subject "What Does Dartmouth Mean to Me." Three members of the faculty and two other undergraduates were participants. At luncheon, Prof. Marilyn Baldwin, Assistant Vice President of the College, presided over a discussion of "Input/Output Models," in which the speakers were the husband-wife team of Burton I. Wolfman, Director of Institutional Research and Analysis, and Brunetta R. Wolfman, urban studies professor and Assistant Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
The fast pace continued that afternoon with 2 o'clock and 4 o'clock sessions for the class officers and their wives. At the first, Peter Blodgett '74 was moderator for a panel discussion of "Future Priorities for Dartmouth." Three undergraduates and four professors spoke briefly and fielded questions. The 4 o'clock meeting heard reports from History Professor Jere R. Daniell '55, faculty representative on the Alumni Council; Dean of Freshmen Ralph N. Manuel '58, and Director of Athletics Seaver Peters '54.
Receptions for the Classes of 1905 through 1922 in the Drake Room and for the other classes in the Top of the Hop were followed by the annual class officers banquet, which overflowed from Alumni Hall into the Hanover Inn because of the more than 500 persons to be fed. For the after-dinner program the crowd moved to Webster Hall, where Louis V. Gerstner Jr. '63, president of the Class Presidents Association, was the presiding officer.
A special event of the evening was the presentation of Dartmouth Alumni Awards by the Alumni Council to two of the class officers attending the meetings: Robert L. Manegold '38 and Bertram R. MacMannis '39. The story of their awards, with citations, appears separately on the following page.
Three vice presidents of the College spoke to the audience in Webster Hall. "Dartmouth 1973" was the general topic for George H. Colton '35, Vice President of the College; Prof. Donald L. Kreider, Vice President and Dean for Student Affairs; and Rodney A. Morgan '44, Vice President for Administration.
Reunion chairmen and the presidents, class agents, and reunion chairmen of classes holding 1973 reunions had to be up bright and early Saturday morning for 7:45 breakfast meetings. All hands gathered in Alumni Hall at 9 for the main general session of the weekend. Prof. Alexander G. Medlicott Jr. '50, head of the Class Newsletter Editors Association, presided and introduced as speakers J. Michael McGean '49, Secretary of the College; Edward T. Chamberlain Jr. '36, Director of Admissions; Seth D Strickland '60, vice-chairman of the 1973 Alumni Fund; Josiah Stevenson IV '57, vice-president of the Dartmouth Alumni Council; and Albert T. Cook Jr. '62 of the Secretary's Office, who discussed job placement under the Dartmouth Plan for Year-Round Operation.
The general session was followed by the annual meetings of the separate associations, where both the past year's work and plans for 1973-74 were reviewed. A highlight for each association was the honoring of its class officer of the year. The class notes section of this issue carries the citations for the top officers of 1973: President, Wellington F. Barto '29; Secretary, Paul R. Mahoney '65; Treasurer, Willard C. "Shep" Wolff '31; Newsletter Editor, Mark Short '32; Bequest Chairmen, Thomas V. Cleveland '21 and Roger C. Wilde '21.
The formal program for the weekend ended with a luncheon for officers and wives in Alumni Hall, presided over by Judson T. Pierson '33, president of the Association of Class Bequest and Estate Planning Chairmen. Mr. McGean follow ed his customary tantalizing proced [missing text] mentioning all the runners-up befor [missing text] nouncing that the 1973 Class of the Year was the Class of 1935 (see item on this page).
President Kemeny, as the luncheon's principal speaker, dealt primarily with College finances. He took the occasion to brand as ridiculous a nationally publicized study by two Cornell economists claiming that reports of operating deficits by the Ivy League and other colleges were misleading because of large annual increases in total worth, as represented by endowment and plant assets. If a college is expected to use up all the year's gain when the stock market goes up, President Kemeny asked, what does it do when the stock market goes down and assets shrink? He also pointed out that finances must be managed for the welfare of the College in future years as well as the College of today. In short, he said, the naive ideas put forth in the Cornell study might eliminate all the financial problems of the present time but they would certainly produce a third-rate institution for the future.
1973-74 Officers
At the association meetings, the following officers for 1973-74 were elected:
CLASS PRESIDENTS ASSOCIATION: President, John French '30; Vice President, George E. Peters '55; Secretary, Albert T. T. Cook '62.
CLASS SECRETARIES ASSOCIATION: President, H. Donald Norstrand '26; Vice President, Wayne G. French '59; Secretary, J. Michael McGean '49; Executive Committee, Walter S. Yusen '58, Joseph R. Boldt Jr. '32, Kevin G. Lowther '63; Editor-in-Chief of the AlumniMagazine, Dennis A. Dinan '61; Member of the Alumni Magazine Advisory Board, William A. Scherman '34.
CLASS TREASURERS ASSOCIATION: President, Albert W. Frey '20; Vice President, Richard D. Barker '54; Executive Committee, Thomas J. Brock '60, Merle L. Thorpe '51, and William Barnet '64.
CLASS AGENTS ASSOCIATION: President, Richard C. Harrison 3rd '60; Vice President, William B. Hale 2nd '44; Secretary, Clifford L. Jordan Jr. '45.
CLASS NEWSLETTER EDITORS ASSOCIATION: President, H. Reginald Bankart '35; Vice President, Alfred F. Bremble Jr. '56; Secretary, Dennis A. Dinan '61; Executive Committee, Milton G. Mclnnes '30 and John W. Timbers '64.
ASSOCIATION OF BEQUEST AND ESTATEPLANNING CHAIRMEN: President, Paul R. O'Connell '27; Vice President, Arthur J. Leonard Jr. '34; Secretary, Robert L. Kaiser '39; Executive Committee, Thomas E. Wilson '35 and Judson T. Pierson '33.
