1952
It is not unusual to read of accomplishments of our classmates from press releases sent out by companies and it is always a pleasure to report on facts of this type. Frankly, however, it is even more interesting to read about members of the Class who are reported doing things of an unusual nature. I wish we had more of them. This month we are fortunate to have several such items from a variety of sources.
From the Christian Science Monitor and the New Hampshire Sunday News of late October we learned of the successful diving efforts of Dort Bigg and two associates off the coast of New Hampshire. Dort and his friends have been scavenging underwater for years as a hobby and they recently uncovered a 250-year old English merchant vessel which has brought them a vast amount of treasure, possibly very valuable. The story is most interesting and details the complicated efforts required to properly identify the ship location, the difficulty of retrieving items from the ship and the large task of classifying their finds. Dort and his . associates are reportedly turning all their results over to the state of New Hampshire. In real life, by the way, Dort is an attorney in Manchester, N.H.
An early October issue of the Kansas CityStar featured a story of the unusual career of Brud Leiter. Some of the ladies in the audience may already be customers of his and, if so, you will know that his business is Leiter's Designer Fabrics. Brud and his buyers purchase fabrics from all over the world and sell throughout the U.S. through more than one thousand agents. The whole system of buying, selling, and controlling is naturally tied into a computer system that keeps each agent up-to-date on hot moving items so they may give the best service to customers in their area. Brud really backed into the business about ten years ago when selling fabrics to local colleges was a by-product of his Kansas City retail business. Gradually, the mix changed, the retail business was closed, and the nationwide agency business grew to the success it is today.
Two items from the world of advertising. Some time ago we had the pleasure of reporting the promotion of Pete McSpadden as president of Dancer, Fitzgerald and Sample, the nation's 12th largest agency. The early November issue of Newsweek documents the most interesting battle which recently took place for the $30 million a year Toyota account. The key to the D-F-S victory over nine other agencies was the McSpadden approach of coupling their consumer advertising success with Toyota's market. The two jelled and D-F-S now has the account.
The second ad item comes from The NewYork Times reporting the publication of a new book How to Advertise co-authored by KenRoman, senior vice president of Ogilvy and Mather. Ken and his associate spent six years and five re-writings to get the book completed. It is designed primarily for the nonadvertising business executive and we hope it will be a great success. Ken has been with O&M for the past 13 years.
The football season has passed us by for '75 and probably just as well. A number of years ago another class sponsored an annual post-Harvard game party in Cambridge that gradually grew to proportions resembling Saturday night of Winter Carnival. It was a great event of friends getting together and something similar may be coming back. This year the Classes of '52-'53-'54 arranged for a post-game party at the Harvard Club and, by all accounts, it was a fine evening. Among those from our Class we counted at the cocktail party and dinner were Bob and Pat Brace, Ted and SallyHaskell, Charlie and Rosemary Clough, HowieSmith, Jay and Edie Anderson and several others whose names appear in this column so often I am not certain they do anything but go to Dartmouth functions.
Earlier in the day, at the game, it was a little difficult to identify everyone because of the bad weather. However, we did get positive identification of Bob and Lois Holmes, Ed and GailLyon, Jim and Janie Cooke, Frank and DrewryLogan, Jack and Dodie Boyle (more on them later). Marcel Durot and Pres and BeckySaunders. During the half time ceremonies (read chaos) several of the classmembers had a chance to mingle and get brought up-to-date on each others activities. Some we noticed were Jackand Priscilla Wall, Gil Upton, Bill and JudyBreed and Mendy and Laney Balkin (or maybe it was at the dinner we saw them).
Although he did not make the Harvard game, Karl Thielscher did have representation through his brother Dave ('54) and we are happy to report that Karl, his wife Netti and their son Jeff are doing fine out in Bakersfield, Calif where Karl is vice president-marketing for Bear Mountain Winery. You may recall Karl moved west several years ago leaving a management position at P. Ballentine and Son to join E. and J. Gallo in Modesto, Calif. After several years there he moved on down to join Bear Mountain in his present assignment.
Another note for the month is to report the nromotion of Steve Lazarus as president of the Artificial Organs division of Travenol Laboratories. The company, headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois, is the principal operating subsidiary of Baster Laboratories. Prior to his new assignment Steve was executive vice president of Travenol's international division. Steve had served with the Department of Commerce in Washington prior to joining Travenol.
Charles (Chuck) Liddle is president of Austin & Co., Inc., insurance brokers, in Albany, N.Y., and he was recently reelected as state national director of the New York State Association of Insurance Agents. This is the third year of service for Chuck and he will represent N.Y. on the board of directors of the National Insurance Agents Association and will be on the executive committee as well. In addition to his broad business activity, Chuck is also active in the home town area as a trustee of Albany Academy and member of the advisory board of the Salvation Army. He had earlier served as treasurer of the Albany County Republican Party and was president of the Urban League of Albany.
It hardly seems possible that it is time to start planning for our 25th Reunion already, but the project and program are getting underway. JohnRosenwald has appointed Jack Boyle to be chairman of the 25th and this is an excellent choice. Jack has already run one of our earlier reunions and this experience plus his enthusiasm for the assignment bode well for all of us. The date, incidentally, is June 16-19, 1977. Mark it now! A fringe benefit next fall will be choice seating at the football games.
It had been a long time, possibly since graduation, but it was very enjoyable to get together briefly with Jim and Esther Gardner not long ago. Jim, as we reported earlier this year is a senior vice president of the Valley National Bank in Phoenix and is in charge of their loan portfolio administration. That is no small task in these times.
Since this is our last report for calender '75 I'd like to take this opportunity on behalf of the class officers and executive committee to wish everyone best regards for the season and hope that 1976 will be a healthy and rewarding year for the entire class.
Sec'y, 40 Hamilton Lane Darien, Conn. 06820
Treasurer, 21 Ridgefieid Road Winchester, Mass. 01890
