1951
As the change of address cards roll in every month, I have detected a trend of movement to warmer climates. I have pondered its significance: some classmates have made their pile and are retiring?; they are absconding from their creditors?; or they're getting "tired blood" and just can't take the cold weather any more?
It was therefore with some surprise that I learned that one of our medics had, after five years in Albuquerque, N.M., returned to Cleveland, Ohio, to suffer again the bone- chilling wintry winds which blow in off of Lake Erie. Bill Michener was in Hanover for the Harvard game, and I got the story.
The Cleveland Clinic, the largest private post- M.D. educational institution in the country with 350 interns and residents, enticed Bill back to become Director of Education and to practice as a pediatric and adolescent gastroenterologist.
After three years in fellowship training at the Mayo Clinic, Bill was with the Cleveland Clinic's Department of Pediatrics from 1961 to 1968. He then became Professor of Pediatrics at the University of New Mexico medical school. July 1, 1973, it was back to Cleveland with wife Roxie and their two children: Sarah, 19, and Peter, 17.
Among our non-graduate classmates, we have the vice president-general manager of Ford's Lincoln Mercury Division in the person of BenBidwell. Ben graduated from Babson College first in his class. He gave their commencement address last June, received an honorary doctorate, and is now a trustee. Ben joined Ford in 1953, became executive vice president of Ford Motor Credit Co. in 1968, and was promoted to his present position in 1970.
It seems that we have international winners among '51 children not only in mathematics but also in horsemanship. Read Perkins' 19-year-old daughter Beth placed sixth in the world's championships held in England in September. Teammates placed first and second to give the United States the top spot. H.R.H. Princess Anne finished 12th. Captain Mark Phillips' horse was withdrawn because of an injury.
Read lives in South Strafford, Vermont, where he has a thoroughbred horse breeding farm, is engaged in the construction business (houses), and is a representative of several foreign manufacturers of textile machinery. He has been a town selectman for six years and serves as chairman of one of Vermont's twelve Regional Planning Commissions. He and wife Essie also have a second daughter, Bea, 16.
Bill Rugg read some recent adjacent columns which reported new offspring and concluded that it should be noted that 1951 had not yet thrown in the towel. Number three child, Alexandria Amelia, arrived on the same day Bill drove number one son Steve back to the University of California at Davis. Bill says that things had become quiet with daughter Debi also away at San Diego State.
One of our classmates who made the military his first career and was most recently assigned to Fort Huachuca, Ariz., decided that the Southwest looked good and staked out Tucson for his second career. "Ira" Chorebanian ended his Army service of 22 years August 31 with the rank of major. He took with him the Meritorious Service Medal for his achievements as reenlistment officer for the global Army Communications Command headquarters at Fort Huachuca.
"Ira" has joined Cummings Realty and Trust Co. in Tucson. He and wife Nancy have four children: son Gregg, a Penn State grad and now a naval officer; Mark, 17; Carol, 16; and Lisa, 7.
Let's turn the calendar back 25 years to our undergraduate days of January and February 1950.
WINTER CARNIVAL: "Buck" Scott was features director. An unusually warm holiday season thaw had melted the snow. Near panic set in in January as no replacement white stuff fell from the heavens. To make matters worse, finals at Holyoke, Wellesley, and Vassar conflicted with the weekend.
Snow and cold weather did arrive in time, but the Daily D headlined: "Exam Girdle Squeezes Dates to 1140." A snow and ice concertina- playing polar bear graced the center of the green. Sigma Nu received a frozen orange juice statue from the Rollins College (Florida) chapter. The Players did Moss Hart's Light Upthe Sky, which I don't recall has been produced anywhere since.
THE NATIONAL SCENE: In his State of the Union address, President Truman was op- timistic on the country's economic future following the recession year of 1949. M proposed a fiscal 1951 federal budget of $42.5 billion, with a $5 billion deficit.
The $1,000,000 Boston Brinks vault heist was pulled off. New Hampshire made headlines nationally with the first degree murder indictment of Manchester Dr. Hermann N. Sander in the "mercy killing" of a patient. Actress Ingrid Bergman divorced Dr. Peter Lindstrom marry Italian movie director Roberto Rossellini.
THE HANOVER SCENE: The Undergraduate Council voted to conduct a student referendum on February 28 on three alternative courses of action with regard to fraternity discrimination clauses. The UGC also voted to recognize political clubs. The first two accorded recognition were the Young Republicans and the Thomas Jefferson Club.
Revival of Senior Fellowships was announced after a nine-year hiatus. Great Issues, in its third year, featured Henry Steele Coramager, George F Kennan, and its first female speaker. Dr. Vera Micheles Dean. The first freshmen father-son weekend was held.
Clarinetist Artie Shaw and the Juilliard String Quartet gave a joint recital in Webster Hall. (As the "D" 's music critic, I panned Shaw.) Explorer Vilhjalmar Stefansson was the star of a week's program on the Arctic, during the course of which he supervised the building of an igloo.
THE SPORTS SCENE: These '51s were making the "D" 's sports columns: BrooksDodge and Dave Lawrence in skiing: Cliff Harrison, Mike Choukas, Bill Dow, and Bill Stout in hockey; Bob Hustek and Jim Ballard in basketball (they lost to a Holy Cross team starring a guy named Bob Cousy); "Jock" Melntyre, Blaine Boyden, "Chuck" Ryan, Frank Bruch, Hal Smith, and Dick Rogers in swimming; Dick Hulbert and Rick Austin in squash.
DIVERTISSEMENTS: Roseland Dance Hall in Claremont, N.H., advertised a free Saturday night for all Dartmouth men. ("We have 100 to 200 extra girls every Saturday.") Bromley offered a $7.95 daily rate (Monday- Friday), including bunk, two meals, lifts, and ski school. The Streamliner announced "the return of the 150 hamburger."
Secretary, Apt. 32-A, 45 E. 89th St. New York, N.Y. 10028
Treasurer, R.F.D. I, Hopkinton, N.H. 03301
