1921

In the Hanover and Norwich areas Ralph andCaroline Steiner, a novelist, wield considerable aesthetic and literary power. In the Norwich Arts Association and also with the Parish Players, Caroline has recently directed a reading of The Cocktail Party by T. S. Eliot, focused on the language of the play.

Ralph introduced Dewitt Jones '63 at the recent Hopkins Center showing of the brilliant film with music and audiovisual tapes, The NewEngland of Robert Frost, at which with a fee of $4 ($2.50 for students) all 900 seats except a few were filled. With Dewitt, early thirties, Ralph, middle seventies, would "mostly listen to Dewitt, who has unbelievable depth for one so young." For a time he lived just across the street from Ralph in Thetford Hill and then moved on to the home of another 1921 man, Harland Manchester, in Thetford Center.

At the film, Ralph's introduction was concise and startling: "Dewitt Jones is just about the most enhancing person I have encountered in a long life. His quality shines out in his work. The title of his film is The New England of RobertFrost, but I think it should be The Things ThatMatter In This World.

While Queen Victoria was alive, a number of worthy Twenty-Oners were born in December. December 1, 1899, is the birthday of Ellis Briggs whose folder in the Alumni Records Office is bulgier than most. And no wonder, with Ellis so illustrious as ambassador to so many countries in so many different parts of the world; an esoteric hunter who has shot in places as separated as Maine and the Aegean, Peru and Korea; author of many articles and books; and hardheaded commentator on the Dartmouth scene of the Twenties and Seventies. If you missed ShotsHeard Round the World, you heard some cannonading in Farewell to Foggy Bottom.

Twenty-four hours after Ellis bowed in, bowed up Jack Hubbell whose folder likewise is bursting at the seams: vice president Simmons, Dollar-a-Year Man 1942, lieutenant colonel '43 to '45 in the U.S. Army-Pictorial Service, president of the Dartmouth College Athletic Council, director of the Dartmouth Eye Institute, general chairman of the Dartmouth Alumni Fund, trustee of the American Fair Trade Council, director of Brand Names Foundation and of Sales Executive Club of New York, and many, many more. In receiving the Dartmouth Alumni Award in 1959 he heard the citation evaluating him in part: "You have that 'well-rested look." Is this because of a Beauty Rest Mattress? Jack amazes young and old alike by still working harder, aged 76, than most men in their forties and retaining that well-rested look.

Two men saw the green light December 4, 1898. Secretary of 1921 from 1926 to 1936, Herrick Brown kept his name green on the NewYork Telegram and Sun, not surprising for the former undergraduate prominent on The Dartmouth, Proof and Copy, The Press Club, and Publicity Manager of the Dartmouth Musical Clubs. Roly Batchelder rose in the military at home and abroad to become a U.S. Army colonel. Upon retirement in 1955 he plunged deeply or elevatedly into social reform and education for which he was well-fitted because he had done graduate work in early life at Columbia, Harvard, and Rutgers.

Joe Vance, who opened his eyes December 6, 1898 in Baltimore, kept them well opened in his legal career in Detroit and Grosse Pointe Shores. During World War II he held the position as Special Counsel, Surgeon General's Office, in Washington. Prominent all his life in Michigan business and social life, he served as trustee or director of various estates, corporations, and hospitals. A Dec. 11 baby CoryLitchard, now 79, has always interested himself in gardening and fishing and especially in antiques about which he has exquisite tastes. He loomed large against the Springfield, Mass., horizon as General Agent of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, and Lovell H. ("Hank") Cook was his partner in Litchard & Cook until Hank's untimely death in 1956.

Not long after his birthday December 14, 1898, Joe Folger was scanning the Atlantic for whales and Nantucket for ancestors. Always curious about foreign tongues, he was professor of Romance Languages at Dartmouth College and taught French, Spanish, and Portuguese. Born December 15, 1895, another educator was Phil Newhall, who could hold the attention of high-school students in mathematics and science. In the 1950's he turned to a career as inspector with the United Aircraft Corporation in North Haven, Conn. A Newmarket, N.H., baby, born December 17, 1899, Joe Walker centered his career with the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company of Massachusetts where he held the position of manager of technical services. After being stationed during World War II in Akron, he was transferred to the New Bedford plant which he helped to set up in 1945.

Born December 27, 1900 in Dorchester, Mass., Red Stanley rose to the vice presidency of the New England Tel and Tel. His most brilliant achievement came in 1957 when he had to locate 200,000 telephone subscribers who had their phones taken out during a two-year period when refunds might be due. In only about a month he had to train about 300 persons to distribute $3,900,000 in 1,400,000 checks with a mailing rate of 8,000 checks an hour. His chief headache was a Harvard boy who had a phone for only three months, lived in Los Angeles, and was stationed in Korea.

Ralph Baker, a Leominster, Mass., baby, born December 31, 1898, later a close friend of Chick Stiles, also enjoys golf and has spent much enjoyable time bowling and especially playing pinochle and bridge with Sally. Bake's career finally concentrated in the inspection department of the United Aircraft Corporation, Pratt and Whitney Division, East Hartford, Conn., from which he retired on his birthday in 1963.

Say January 1, 1900 and it's Jack Graydon. But that's another story, for if time has run in, it has also run out.

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