1940
It's a long time from June even to October, but congratulations are still very much in order. Even now, the glow remains. You won the Green Derby again, topping the six classes, 1937-42, with which we were in school and with which we are still teamed in the friendly rivalry of the Alumni Fund.
It was a real horse race with '37 for a while but in a typical '4O stretch drive, you did it, and handsomely - also doing Art Ostrander and his class agents proud (while adding some grey hairs to their heads) and Dartmouth a very real and tangible service.
Every one of the. 312 contributors - 61 per cent of the Class - should share in a sense of pride in the achievement orchestrated by Art and Company. It's not often a class tops its goal by 25 per cent, and the total of $74,110 given by the Class will help keep Dartmouth among the leaders in higher education in America. To me, it says something important about the meaning of our college years that still, in our 36th year out, most of the Class cares enough to help. Next year, hopefully, we'll hear from those scores of others who also care but who for one reason or another let the deadline slip by.
It's always nice to learn when a chip off the old block does well, so it was a pleasure to send out a release in late summer announcing that Howie Tallmadge's son, Allin, was one of only 12 students in 1975 winning a Marcus Heiman Award for outstanding work in the arts at Dartmouth. Allin was recognized for his work in drama. He had been active with the Dartmouth Players, appearing in productions of Coriolanus and Lysistrata, and also spent a term at the National Theater Institute and worked as an assistant stage manager for an off-Broadway Play.
Nostalgia of many kinds for several moments in time was evoked in a couple of summer letters from Jack Fitzgerald writing from his home in Boston's Back Bay.
For instance, a book he read about steamships recalled to him the "several trips" he made with Laurie Herman from Boston to New York via the old Eastern Steamship Line when they were both students at Boston Latin prior to entering Dartmouth together.
"We stayed at a Times Square hotel, long since demolished," he wrote, "during each April vacation and on opening day at Yankee Stadium we would walk from 42nd Street up to 161st Street for the game, observing each neighborhood as we passed through. Once we saw the Red Sox clobber Ruth and Company."
Would that one could walk the same route through Manhattan today with the same safety! Incidentally, Laurie, as many will remember, was the host at the Eliot Lounge near Copley Square for several post-war years until he went into business for himself operating a discount cosmetics chain.
Jack also sent along a column from a local paper recalling the Big Band era, which also was "our" teenage era, with particular attention to Morey Pearl's "Tent." The column cited the dancing which those of us brought up in the Greater Boston area shared at such other places as Roseland in Taunton, Nuttings on the Charles, and Moseley's in Dedham, to which I add Starlight in Reading for those living north of Boston in our pre-Dartmouth years.
Finally Jack cited a column recalling when the Italian Line freighter Etrusco ran aground in March 1956 on the shore at Scituate, Mass. It had special meaning to him because, he remembered, the freighter actually grounded in front of the summer home of Jack O'Brien. Not only did the two Jacks also go to Boston Latin together, they rode together from Boston through the 1938 hurricane to get to Dartmouth for the start of the junior year. I have to add to that memory that it was as a result of the same hurricane that I got my first newspapering job with the old Boston Herald. But that's another story.
Meanwhile, the Boston Globe reports that Tom Braden's wife Joan recently taped a pilot show for a possible new TV series with World Bank President Robert McNamara and Sen. Gary Hart over the NBC-affiliated station in Boston. As of this writing, it is unknown how the venture has been received or when it will be aired.
In the annual report of General Electric, DaveDance, vice chairman of the corporation, had some interesting things to say about energy problems.
"The energy crisis," he wrote, "will result in a re-thinking of the most efficient use of our energy resources, and this will accelerate the nation's transition to an electric economy. We have got to plan now for the time when electricity will supply over half of the nation's energy needs, instead of today's 25 per cent. If we don't, we will be shortchanging America, not just ourselves."
Still in the context of the nation's economy, Bill Mercer, president of the New England Telephone Company, who incidentally gave the commencement address at Franklin Institute last June, has told his stockholders that "reasonable and timely rate increases" would be the key to the corporation's performance this year. Inflationary pressures clearly are still strong.
Meanwhile, Jim Thomas reports from Houston that he's still with the Coca Cola Company Foods Division "and enjoying it." In a note to Don Rainie with his class dues, Jim commented that "it has been so many years since I've written that I guess you'll have to look me up in the Aegis to see who I am." I doubt that was necessary for Don, who seems to remember everyone of us, but nevertheless you guys who have put yourselves into the "pale" of silence for years are just the ones we want to hear from once in a while. Do drop us a note now and then.
Meanwhile, let it be recorded that HughDryfoos has gained a lovely daughter-in-law as the result of the recent marriage of his son Mark to Amy Jill Schonenberg, both graduates of Gettysburg College. Also in the realm of Civic service, that Earle Reingold has been named chairman of the Greater Concord, N.H., United Way Campaign for 1975-76.
Secretary, 4 Parkhurst Hall Hanover, N.H. 03755
Treasurer, 64 North Main St. Concord, N.H. 03301
