1932

Dr. Bob Dickey, director of the department of dermatology at the Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pa., has been elected president of the Center's Institute for Medical Education and Research. The Institute is chartered to engage in education, research, and scientific development in all fields of medicine, basic as well as clinical.

At least one election night (which is when we were going to press) TV commentator, in an- nouncing that Tom Curtis had not succeeded in his try for Thomas Eagleton's Missouri seat in the U.S. Senate, speculated that Tom was one of those likely to be tapped by President Ford for high-level Washington administrative duty. The actual speculation was that Tom would be asked to head up the General Services Ad- ministration. We have no idea how Tom would respond to such a call, but his feeling's may have become public property by the time you're reading this.

Howdy Pierpont reports a good and cheery gathering of the '32 Clan for the Princeton game weekend in Hanover. Those occupying the official quarters at White River's Holiday Inn included Jim and Amy Corbett, Sam and Helen Englander, Paul and June Fox, Jim and Kay Gardner, Ken and Mary Kendall, John and Babe,, Kingsland, Don and Ellie Marcus, Wallie and Pauline Modarelli (with son and daughter-in-law), Jim and Connie Moore, John and Ann Palmer, Ed and Eleanor Smith, Max and Gladys Wolff. Joining these for dinner Saturday night were Art and Dobbie Allen, Ben and Dorothy Burch, Bo and Peggy Daniels, Whit and Dorothy Daniels, Peggy (Mrs. Red) Drake and son (the spitting image of Red but twice as big, reports Pierpont), Greydon and Ethel Freeman, Howdy and Dorothy Pierpont, and Win Smoyer, who came the furthest -clean from Alhambra, Cal.

In September Peg and your correspondent were pleased to have Toto Hosmer, Bob's widow, drive down from Cazenovia for an overnight visit. Joining us at dinner to celebrate the occasion were Dick and Betty Hazen, Chuck and Connie O'Neill '31, and Howdy and DottiePierpont. And that reminds us that it was just the other Saturday night that we were in Stamford for a highly pleasant dinner and evening with Jerry and Dorothy Altman and friends.

Art Mayes has been elected a trustee of the College of Insurance in New York. We have heard by scuttlebutt, without confirmation, that Bill Morton has retired from his top post at American Express. And we pick up these bits of circumstantial evidence (some c. e., said Thoreau, is very convincing, as when you find a trout in the milk) from the College's notices of change of address: that Dr. Ed Holbrook, now resident with Gwen in Sun City, Ariz., has retired from his Brooklyn medical practice; that Don Allen, now resident at Churchill College, Cambridge, England, is on a sabbatical from Eisenhower College; and that Jim and PegNorth, now resident in San Francisco, have carried out their reported intention to move to the West Coast.

We have, you will be pleased to hear (either out of interest or boredom), cracked the Noddy Nixon case. A previously reported clue from Rod Hatcher that he recalled Noddy being the bad guy in The Motorboat Boys Series, and another from John Keller, who started the quest, that maybe it was the The Motor Boys, led to Jack Cuneo, our barrister, going down into his cellar and coming up with a copy of The MotorBoys in the Clouds by Clarence Young (Cuddles & Leon, 1910, ninth in the series), and sure enough, there it was in the author's "Dear Boys:" summary preface: "... All was not smooth sailing, literally as well as figuratively speaking. They had a number of difficulties, not the least of which were caused by their old enemy, Noddy Nixon ..."

By now it has all come back to Keller: "My memory is that Prof. Snodgrass caught butterflies from the contraption (wings, motor, balloon) with one of the motor boys always coming on deck asking - for me, one of the memorable lines defining the 20th century - Are we going as an airplane or as a balloon?' "

Rod at first was loath to surrender his Motorboat Boys theory, but when he and Katie were here the other evening, he examined the copy in evidence of The Motor Boys in the Clouds. Then he remembered that he had read one of the series' previously listed volumes, The MotorBoys Afloat, or The Stirring Cruise of the Dartaway. The Dartaway was a motorboat. Which just about wraps it up, there remaining only to report the comment of Bob Ireland '36, who worked with us on the case. He postcards from El Paso:

"I have always felt that I have had a misspent life, but now I know it. I must admit that I never even heard of the 'Motor Boys.' Noddy was probably no good, but I hope that President Taft pardoned him."

Secretary, Orchard Hill Road Westport, Conn. 06880

Treasurer, 6517 Atwahl Dr. Glendale, Wis. 53209