1940
After setting the pace for the first several weeks of the Alumni Fund Green Derby among the seven pre- and early World War II classes, 1937-43, Fabulous Forty was overtaken by '37, which edged into first place, as of the May 9 weekly report.
Hopefully, by the time this is printed, our lead situation will have been restored, but, as of that date, Forty still led in the percentage of goal achieved, 64.6 per cent of its $60,000 target, but was shaded in percentage of participation - 24.4 per cent to 1937's 33.5 per cent. Thus, our combined rating of 89 dropped us 6.3 percentage points behind '37, the men who were "grand old seniors" when we arrived on the Hanover Plain 39 short years ago.
The challenge of the statistics is clear. As we've come almost to take for granted, ArtOstrander and his class agent minions have done their usual outstanding job in getting the Class off to a solid start; now it is up to us to come through with another stretch demonstration of leadership that has been the class hallmark among the pre-war Dartmouth community - and to show those "seniors" of '37 that from now on we intend to lead the way in the "rush" to get the "nugget" for the College.
The modern Horatio Alger story of DaveDance in making his way from running his own post-war appliance business and then a salesman for GE to become one of the "big four" in leadership of the nation's sixth largest industrial firm is vividly told in the March 15 issue of Forbes magazine.
The story about GE's executive suite, which last year brought the company to record profits of $608 million from sales of $13.4 billion, was put in the spotlight by two Forbes' readers - Scotty Rogers and Bob Hewitt, each of whom sent a copy along as "must" reading.
Forbes underscores that making it to the top in GE has to be man-sized job under what the writer describes as an "up or out" policy.
One of three vice chairman since late 1972 with purview over four of the company's nine groups - consumer products, major appliances, power generation, and industrial and power delivery, Dave is described in the article as "a smooth, nimble-minded supersalesman, an exappliance dealer who rose through the 'pots and pans' side of GE" to become one of the top four.
Lots of things have been happening to Frank E. Whaland of Amherst, N.H., for whom steady recognition of his performance over 25 years in the insurance business has led to what the Concord Monitor described as "one of the hottest seats in state government."
In April Frank was named Commissioner of the N.H. Department of Health and Welfare, after having served two years as State Insurance Commissioner.
His selection for the Health and Welfare post, long embroiled in controversy and politics, was applauded by the Monitor, which said of Frank that he "carved for himself [as Insurance Commissioner] a reputation as an efficient and evenhanded administrator," who, with his staff had cleaned up in two years a backlog of more than four years of insurance cases. The newspaper editorially also lauded him as "a scrupulous neutral" (perhaps non-partisan might have been a better word) in his decisions in the insurance area.
While enjoying the editorial praise of the Concord Monitor, he also has been characterized favorably by the competing Manchester Union-Leader as "a no nonsence state insurance commissioner," who, the UnionLeader happily notes, has set about as Health and Welfare Commissioner to sweep out whatever fraud may exist in welfare programs in New Hampshire.
And last month (May), Frank was appointed to the Board of Overseers of the Dartmouth Medical School.
In a nice newsy letter, Bill Holman in Seattle, reports that, between running his law office, he is enjoying life, his family, and the sights of this old world.
Last Christmas, he and Emily took their three children, Beverly, 16, and her.younger brothers, John and Colin, still in junior high, on an overnight train ride to Banff in Alberta, Canada, where they enjoyed a "Christmas card setting." The children skiied all day, while he and Emily just drank in the scenery, perhaps a little spirits, and a lot of history on how the Canadian Pacific opened up that part of the West.
And in April, he and Emily took four days at a ranch and then joined the children again in Hawaii which he describes as the still beautiful but beginning to succumb to the development plague. With all this traveling and with the children growing older, the Holmans have moved into a smaller house in Seattle, but their mail box number remains the same, and they retain a ski condominium at Alpental in the Cascades.
From Jack Fitzgerald in Boston comes a news clipping that tells us Bill Mercer has recently gone through what must be a modern version of the experience of the Good Samaritan. In addition to his business interests as president of New England Tel and Tel, Bill served last fall as chairman of the Greater Boston United Way - undoubtedly at great cost of time, energy and all those other precious intangibles.
For his troubles, he found his Wellesley home picketed in April by an estimated 700 antibusing demonstrators charging that the United Way had allocated funds to agencies supporting Boston school desegration.
The demonstration organized by ROAR (which stands for Restore Our Alienated Rights) was finally dispersed without any damage to Bill's home, and news reports indicated that the charges were without substance. Bill, as one might expect, kept his cool.
Other short takes: From Dick Krolick, who is part of Dick Seidman's team in Washington charged with keeping a lid on the use of energy in the United States and whose son Jeff, is one of my freshmen advisees, sends us a clip of a news picture of Dick Glendinning having fun in Sarasota, where he is chairman of the historical commission.
Earle Reingold recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Endicott Furniture Company which was founded by his father in Concord, N.H., in 1925 and which he has now taken over since his dad's retirement. And changes in the store from 1925 to 1975 underscores that Earle is putting to good use all that he learned at Dartmouth and Tuck.
Howie Stockwell, writing from Acton, urges careful reading of President Kemeny's five-year report (Alumni Magazine for April) because he says he found it to be "the best piece of writing I have read relative to present problems of colleges, the best information for parents of college-age kids, whether they attend Dartmouth or not, and a report that confirms my feeling that I have been wise to contribute to the Alumni Fund for 35 unbroken years."
Meanwhile, out in Detroit, Jack McDonald hosted President Kemeny for a luncheon after having arranged a radio interview for Dartmouth's 13th chief executive during one of his alumni tours. The interview was described by those who heard it as a "hit."
And in Hanover, the following Forties gathered for Class Officers' weekend: JohnCrandell, Don Rainie, Art Ostrander, BobAustin and Gordie Wentworth. Only yours truly regretfully was missing. I was helping my older son Andy look at other colleges, so he'd know why we love Dartmouth so much.
The "Larry" referred to in the May issue with reference to his electronic contributions in World War II is Larry Boothby, who had visited Hanover for a medical check and who is now rounding out ten years of teaching physics and science at Green Mountain College. We're still looking for the dropped paragraph.
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