1944
I mean, if you'd really stopped to think about it, how could it be otherwise? I mean that Dave Eckels' wife Patti would be chosen New Hampshire librarian of the year for 1974. She's been holding forth at Hanover's Howe Library for the past seven years and is now spearheading the drive for a new Hanover library, with a 1976 completion date. Incidentally, the old historic Howe Library building will be kept alive and well in its present location, exact future tenant unknown at the moment.
That recorded, isn't it logical to report that of course it was Dr. Walt Blackadar who helped pull Evel Knievel out of the Snake River when his Sky-Cycle spun in? Walt, as you know, is one of the top kayakers in the country, and while others were paying $25 a head to watch Evel do his thing, Walt was paddling around below with a fish-eye view of the proceedings. When Evel hit the water, Walt was soon at his side. "I quickly checked him over," he said. "He was bleeding but o.k. - unhurt except for scratches but in shock." Walt went on to say that he found Evel to be a brave, gutsy guy.
Among our budding authors this month is none other than Leonard Rieser. He and San-born Brown '35 have written a book on the evolution of the physics department at Dartmouth, from the old natural philosophy down to today's sophisticated classroom and laboratory model. It's titled "Natural Philosophy at Dartmouth: From Surveyor's Chains to the Pressure of Light," and it is published by Hanover's own University Press of New England. Make a nice Christmas present ...
And I mean, if you'd really stopped to ponder on it who else but Yale coach Joe Vancisin would have won the fourth annual NCAA basketball coaches golf tournament last spring in McAllen, Texas. With rounds of 79 and 77, Joe led all the way. First prize was a trip to Las Vegas; no report on how he made out at the gaming tables, but there's been no word of his early retirement, either.
There was a long feature article in TheChicago Daily News this summer on DonSheriden who is president of the family real estate business there. Don has been in a wheelchair for the past 25 years as a result of polio, but he nonetheless "drives 25,000 miles a year on business and pleasure; he spent his 40th birthday in the Yukon in a tent; his wife's 40th in a hunting camp in Montana, where he shot a deer; and his 50th in Rhodesia."
Finally caught up with oil businessman PaulCray, half way between his oil trucks and trotting horses in North Walpole, N.H. Paul says he's been racing trotters ever since his father got him started as a kid, and he competes throughout the East, especially in New York State. The Grays have four children: Martha, a Wheaton grad, now teaching school; Gail, Garland grad, married and now living in Maine; Mary, a freshman at Univ. of N.H.; and Eugene, a high school freshman.
Obstetrician John Baker deserted the big city and Pelham, N.Y., for up-country living and group practice in Canton, N.Y. That's Potsdam and Ogdensburg country, near the Canadian border. Daughter Johanna is back for her senior year at Occidental after a year at the Univ. of Edinburgh in kilty old Scotland; Maura is a "happy sophomore" at Dartmouth; and 9th-grade Andrew is sharpening his skates for the hockey season in Potsdam.
Nice, Walden-like note from Don Warner after a week at his country place in Michigan: "The bugs are big and bountiful. As a result, so are the birds. Barn swallows are poetry in flight when catching their food; lightning bugs in the trees, meadows and swampside pale the Fourth fireworks and the bullfrogs are nearly as loud. We hope to make 1,000 to 1,200 bales of hay this week. One day maybe we'll put in wheat or corn or maybe even beans on all 15 acres we plant."
The PR boys have sent me two releases this month. Gene Kinney, senior v.p. at Zenith Radio Corp., was elected to the board of directors of Lake Shore National Bank in Chicago; and Ezz Hale has been elected a v.p. of the Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Co. in Rochester, N.Y. Ezz has been a member of the firm's board of directors since 1955 and corporate secretary since 1960.
NYCity banker Marty Shea says he's busy doing voluntray work for the local archdiocese; he stayed with the Buck Mansfields after a Labor Day wedding ("We played golf but mutually agreed not to keep score after the first few holes"); and he hopes to skip over to Rome after Thanksgiving for a bit of business and a lot of holiday.
It's just come to my attention that Univ. of Hartford physics prof Dick Allen had a piece in a 1971 issue of the American Journal of Physics titled "Laser, Crossed Diffraction Gratings, and Smoke Box." I understood it for a while but then got lost when Dick wrote: "The position of the horizontal spots for a zero order Y is given by the conventional equation x = D tan (sin-1nλ/a) where x is the horizontal coordinate when measured from zero-zero spot ... " etc., because I find that probably the most unconventional equation I've seen all week.
I have two very sad pieces of news to report: one of Dick Ettinger's twin daughters, Pamela, was killed in an automobile accident in September. And Harry Hood died during the summer; heart attack, no further details. Class sympathies in both directions.
On the brighter side, 13 sons and daughters of '44 were accepted in the Class of 1978; 10 are coming (names elsewhere in this issue), three chose to go somewhere else. Nine didn't make it.
Our unlikely quiz for this month: With what letter of the alphabet do most '44 members last names begin? Give up? Well, it's M with 77, from John McAllister to Bob Myers. Not far behind is B with 72, from Dick Backus to Hap Bush, and S with 69, from Harry Salmanowitz to Dick Sweet. And besides, who cares?
That's it. Blessings.
Secretary, 309 Crosby Hall Hanover, N.H. 03755
Treasurer, 815 E. Schantz Ave., Dayton, Ohio 45419
