1944

We found four Christmas letters in our stocking during the Holiday Season past, all of them happy and full of fulfillment.

The Lessers, Dick and Jessie, who gave up big city life in Larchmont two years back for up-country living in Elmira, were on the go again - this time to Johnstown, N.Y., and back into the house where Dick was born. They spent the summer rennovating the 1856 structure and Dick's real estate and consulting office is in his father's former taxidermy shop in the back of the house. Commuting time: "ten seconds."

"Life sure is a lot of fun these days," he writes. "No more of the corporate hassle: budgets, strikes, wage controls, salary review planning, moving, etc. I got out deer hunting this fall for the first time in 20 years. Jessie has dusted off her nurse's cap and is back working full time."

Those automobile and children folks, Jackand Louise Adams, completed five years in Arlington Heights, Ill., where Jack was promoted to assistant general manager of Barrington Volvo. Their eight children are engaged in a variety of pursuits in such roadstops as Illinois, Missouri, Nevada, California, and "on the road."

Dick and Proc Ostberg got their fourth child in a row graduated from college in 1975. The result was a family gathering in which the kids gave their parents a Doctorate of Parenthood. They report idyllic days in Ipswich, Mass., where their life revolves around the tide "... which makes it possible or impossible for us to set forth by water in Ranaroja, the canoe, Ranario, the little motor boat, or Ranamar, the 18-foot cat." The Ostbergs also garden on a large scale, cut firewood, play tennis, and spoil their pair of cardinals.

Dick and Carol Ranger, Ford Motor Co. out of Michigan, are on the go so much it's a wonder they had time to write a Christmas letter. "We drove to Aspen for a fabulous Easter week skiing with Rit '74 (now U. of Denver Law) ... drove to California in August to visit friends and 'house-sat' for other friends for a week ... stopped in Las Vegas on the way home long enough to hit the slots for $12 ... celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary on Cozumel Island, Mexico, a fabulous spot for sun-worshipping, Mayan ruin-watching, and scuba diving ... drove east in October to see friends in Vermont and the fall '44 reunion at Dartmouth ... in November we hosted another exciting Ford trip, this one to Acapulco and Mexico city ... our cup runneth over."

Like the Lessers, we've got another escapee from the urban heading for the rural: Ralph"Budd" Welsh has forsaken insurance and real estate in New Jersey and bought the Montclair Motel in Manchester, Vt., just up the road a piece from where Hank Marshall did the same thing two years ago. The Welshes hope to take possession early in April.

Massachusetts urologist Jack Wheeler andGinny are also spending a lot more time in the North Country by reason of their purchase of a condominium in Quechee, Vt., between Hanover and Woodstock. A number of Dartmouth families have bought into Quechee, including Dan and Arlene Donovan and Swampyand Blanche Marsh.

Another Bud Welch, the Yellow Pages one who lives in Milwaukee, writes that he's getting along just fine and sees Ernie Rice (investment banking) occasionally. Bud expects to be in New England next summer, prompted by a daughter who is working in Boston.

Then, we've got a couple of promotions for you. Hardwick Caldwell stepped down as president of Modern Maid, a McGraw-Edison subsidiary, to step up as head of that company's International Consumer Division. He will continue to live in Chattanooga while supervising sales of McGraw-Edison consumer items on a worldwide basis. He'll be overseeing nine major appliance groups in nine separate manufacturing plants in the U.S., as well as overseas sales branches in Conventry, England, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Also extending his territorial imperative is Don Lindell who has been appointed senior vice president and manager of The Continental Insurance Companies foreign and international departments. Don joined Continental's foreign department in 1962 after 14 years of insurance experience in Latin America. He was named superintendent in 1963, secretary three years later, and vice president in 1970.

Just in from New York City comes word that Marty Shea, v.p. of the Morgan Guaranty Trust Co., has been appointed to the board of trustees of St. Vincent's Hospital and Medical Center of N.Y., adding one more feather to his bonnet of extra-curricular activities. He is also chairman of the Trust Counsel Committee of the Trust Division of the American Bankers Association; a member of the executive committee of the Trust Division of the New York State Bankers Association; a director of B. Altman & Co.; chairman of the board of trustees of the College of Mount Saint Vincent; chairman of the Cardinal's Committee for Education, Archdiocese of N.Y.; a member of the Cardinal's Committee of the Laity for Charity, N.Y.; and a member of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council. Tennis, anyone?

Even though they were sitting on opposite sides of the ice, it was a treat seeing Hank Hughes and Horace Blood in the new Thompson Arena for Dartmouth-University of New Hampshire hocky encounters. Horace up from Concord to root for his sophomore son Bobby who plays defense for UNH, and Hank up from Melrose, Mass., to cheer on son Dennis who skates at the same position for Dartmouth.

That's it. Blessings.

Those wide-ranging Rangers, Dick '44, wife Carol, and daughter Pam, got some Aspenski time with son Rit '74, law student at the University of Denver.

Secretary, 309 Crosby Hall Hanover, N.H. 03755

Treasurer, 815 East Schantz Ave. Dayton, Ohio 45419