1951
We're now on the countdown to our 25th Reunion in June 1976. (We should thank the founders of our country for having the forethought to make our 25th coincide with the nation's bicentennary.)
As an erstwhile Directorate member of the Daily D, I am the proud possessor of bound volumes for our junior and senior years. I thought you might find it interesting between now and the 25th to be taken back to what was happening in our upperclass years on countdown to graduation. For this column, I have reviewed the issues of September and October 1949. Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Frank Gilroy '50 was editor-in-chief.
The "outside world:" The country endured lengthy steel and coal strikes. President Truman announced an atomic explosion in Russia. The Communists were taking over China. The nine-month Smith Act trial of 11 top Communists in federal court in New York ended in convictions. N.H. State Senator Hart introduced his controversial loyalty oath bill. The New York Yankees bested the Brooklyn Dodgers in a subway circuit World Series.
Undergraduate life: Over the summer, Crosby ceased to be a dorm. The Undergraduate Council replaced the Freshmen-Sopho-more Football Rush with a tug-of-war. On the weekend of the Holy Cross football game, Inspector Nelson Wormwood reported: "There was a lot of drinking, and the west side of campus was especially noisy."
Athletic holidays were established for the out-of-town Harvard and Cornell games - with nocuts permitted the day before and the day after. A new college ambulance replaced the Rand Furniture Company's hearse. (The year before, roommate Mike lovenko came to on the way to Mary Hitchcock in the hearse after a skiing ac- cident and thought someone was being a bit premature.)
Money: The "D" reported that 64 percent of alumni had contributed a record-breaking $386,611 to the 1949 Alumni Fund. Campion's advertised Harris Tweed suits for 556.50. Thayer offered a 21-meal ticket for $12, "same as last year." The Dartmouth Travel Bureau announced "Air Coach Service Extended" with a $34.04 New York-Chicago fare. The Boston alumni charged $4.55 a head for a post-Harvard game dinner dance at the Copley Plaza.
Athletics: After a 21-0 loss to Penn in Philadelphia, the football team came through to defeat Holy Cross 31-7, Colgate 27-13, Harvard 27-13, and Yale 34-13. Johnny Clayton, TedEberle and Paul Staley were starters from the beginning; and Dick Price joined them later. Bob Tyler was injured in the Penn game and out for the season. DCAC budget cuts eliminated wrestling and curtailed team vacation trips.
Culture: The Nugget then resided in Webster Hall. Among the movies shown was The Wizardof Oz. Movies got displaced for other events, including Margaret Webster's Shakespeare company, which did The Taming of the Shrew and Julius Caesar with Caesar in Nazi uniform. The Dartmouth Film Society was born. Pianist Artur Rubinstein opened the College Concert Series; and, as the "D's" music critic, I gave the maestro an ecstatic review.
Freshman life: I saved this for last because, back in those days, freshmen were regarded - and treated - as the lowest form of life. A freshman mixer at Colby had three times as many men as women. They got there by bus to White River, B&M train to Potter Place, and bus to Colby. Freshmen rebelled against a (sophomore) Vigilante-imposed Clothes Inside-Out Day and were barred from breakfast in Commons. Later, some freshmen who failed to wear beanies got haircuts from the Vigilantes.
CURRENT NEWS: Not many of our names have appeared in The New York Times, much less been quoted in that august encyclopedia which appears in daily installments - and I am not aware that any of us has appeared on the "Today" show on TV. But we have a class son who was quoted in the Times on July 18 and did appear on the "Today" show on August 13.
Don Herdeg's oldest, Paul, 16, now a junior, was one of eight American high school students whose team placed second in the International Mathematical Olympiad held in East Germany in July. This was the 16th such Olympiad, in which 18 nations from East and West were represented, but the first time this country participated. (For your information, the Russian team came in first.)
The competition started with 350,000 high school students across the country taking the Level I qualifying exam. Paul finished third out of 9,000 participants from the Massachusetts-Vermont-Rhode Island region and was one of 150 students to take the Level II test, the third annual U.S. Mathematical Olympiad.
Prior to the international competition, the National Academy of Science honored the team members and their families at a reception in Washington. Then the team went through three weeks of intensive training at Rutgers. The international contest involved six complex mathematical problems to be solved within eight hours.
With two years to go to graduation, Paul has exhausted his high school's math courses and taken a special course at M.I.T. He does well in his other courses (except history); his non-academic interests include tennis, piano, and chess.
Father Don is an engineer with USM (ex-United Shoe Machinery) Corp. Wife Esther is a former junior high school math teacher. They have two younger sons, Glenn, 14, and Mark, 11, and reside in South Hamilton, Mass.
Job Switch: Bill Monahan recently wound up a 15-year career in public school administration, the last five as superintendent of the Fremont High School District in the San Francisco Bay area. He and a colleague have set up shop as administrative consultants in education. They will advise school districts in the area of employer-employee relations. Bill developed a California-wide reputation both for his work as chairman of a superintendents' group and for a book he co-authored with his business partner on decentralized management of schools.
Secretary, Apt. 32-A, 45 E. 89th St. New York, N.Y. 10028
Treasurer, R.F.D. 1, Concord, N.H. 03301
