1942
A wonderful testimonial tribute to Phil Brooks arrived via a very circuitous route, sometime after his brief obituary appeared in a recent issue of the Alumni Magazine. It was written by Michael Pistor, Counselor for Public Affairs at the American Embassy in London, and was forwarded by Robert Goodell '33, a former Cultural Affairs Officer at the Embassy and a good friend of Phil's. It is not possible to print all of the testimonial in this column but the first portion of it seems most appropriate.
"Phillips Brooks died in his sleep at 4:00 last Friday morning. And it turns out that since the first severe heart attack in November, we've had him with us on borrowed time. Up and around swiftly, looking as well as he had in years, savoring his family and making plans, he was recovering - overcoming, as he so often did in his life - undiminished, without a whiff of the invalid about him. So Phil left us as we've known him, alert, interested, restless, amused, a man of instinctive charm and sympathy, of character and strength of will. This stylish, graceful man, whose sense of service and urge toward adventure combined neatly to take him to most parts of the world, and whose gaiety of spirit warmed people wherever he went, contended with physical pain for much of his life, and accepted without visible bitterness the constraints imposed by a leg badly injured in a childhood accident. Not that it kept him from much, but it limited a few possibilities, and he was aware of it. Phil was by nature an explorer, and he kept on the move, anxious not so much to leave things behind him as to discover new ones. When he graduated from Dartmouth, he went to work as a newspaper reporter, and he was with the New York Sun when he married Carolyn Cay. After Pearl Harbor, Phil tried to enlist in every branch of military service, and then tried every civilian service organization, until he was finally accepted by the United Seamen's Service, an unsung, unfashionable organization which provided recreation facilities for merchant sailors. Under this banner he took himself to the South Pacific, where he was under fire much more often than are most soldiers or sailors. Phil didn't have to demonstrate his tenacity of purpose in such a dramatic way again, but the same determination to prevail over circumstance and the same desire to work for his country - and the same itch to see what's over the horizon - led him, after a few post-war years in newspaper work and book Publishing, into an increasingly successful career with the U.S. Information Service. He took to foreign service life, and people took to him. He was with us for almost twenty years. He got a little restless once, and left to buy and run, very successfully, a bookstore in New England for a couple of years. And when he was serving in Mexico, he almost went into the chinchillaraising business. But the foreign service remained the first love of this independent man. I've known Phil for several years, and worked with him in the Middle East, Washington and here, but I knew of him long before I met him. He was a natural. The integrity, the lack of pretension, added weight to his vitality; the concern for people, the demonstrated understanding, added humanity."
Ad Winship has kindly relayed the news that Dex Richards and Mrs. Anne-Marie Briggs were married in Yucatan, Mexico, on February 23, 1975. Their home address is 74 Skijor Steppe, Granliden, Sunapee, N.H. 03782. Congratulations to both of you.
Dave Sills has just completed a scholarly article entitled "The, Environmental Movement and its Critics," which was published in Volume 3 of Human Ecology in 1975. Another superb publication which should be of particular interest to all 42's is the College's new book of Al Dickerson's selected writings. The chapters on the 1938 Hurricane, The Fifth-Down Game and Pearl Harbor are filled with nostalgia and frequent references to members of the Class of 1942. Some of his poetry and his letters to the parents of freshmen are priceless. The book should be a popular birthday gift item to many in our Class.
The Class Officers meeting in Hanover on May 2 and 3 brought together a whole host of 42's. Some of the names that come to mind are Dingwall, Britton, Cassidy, Kirk, Finch, Farley,Kreter, O'Mara, Farr, Fanelli, and Swenson. The major topic of discussion was the Alumni Fund with particular reference to our relatively poor showing, to date. The tremendous need for college support was stressed. Each of us must make every effort to give generously to the finest college in the country and to reestablish the Class of '42 as a leader in alumni giving.
'42 Treasurer Jim O'Mara (c) of Greenhorne and O'Mara, Inc., Riverdale, Md., holdstwo plaques awarded him by the Maryland-National Capital Park and PlanningCommission, Prince George's County. At left is Henry Abbott 45, president of theCounty Chamber of Commerce, at right, Bud Dutton '42, chairman of the County Planning Board. Bud's senior cane is used for real, to ease walking on a broken foot.
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