1926
We are now down to about 80 days before our 50th Reunion and those who have waited until now would do well to advise Russ Clark, chairman, that certainly they don't want to miss this chance to see old friends and to reserve space June 11-12-13 for them in Hanover. The latest figures for reunion attendance show 231 definitely signed up to come and 96 "possibles."
The Class is indebted to the DCAC (Athletic Council) for making available at a bargain rate surplus copies of the Penn-Dartmouth football game program which featured the 1925 National Championship Dartmouth football team. These programs picturing the many 1926 players were sent to all members of the Class as a fine warm-up for the coming 50th.
Ritchie Smith has come up with a great idea to launch the 50th Reunion with a contest that has the genuine ring of nostalgia. Ritchie has had reproduced (at his own expense) Del Worthington's 1926 Class Song which had been printed years ago by Dick Gunthorp, recently deceased. On the back page is an undergraduate picture of the Class taken in front of Dartmouth Hall. The reunion committee is offering a $25 prize to the one who can name the largest number of classmates in this picture with decision to be rendered by a court of Hanover judges: Les Talbot (Supreme), Johnny Manser (Superior) and Barbara Hayward (District & Womens Lib).
Another 50th Reunion note of interest: Henry Keyes, Harvard '26 of Boston and a near Hanover resident, (where he is a member of the Dartmouth Rowing Club) has challenged 1926 of Dartmouth, Princeton, and Yale to send a classmate to race him in single shells on Charles River, Cambridge, June 11. If there is anyone who has learned to row a single shell since graduation we might accept the challenge, provided that the race be on the Connecticut River at Hanover during our Reunion.
Steve Weston is still practicing law in Boston but is now building a house in Randolph, Vt., which will make it much easier attending the 50th in Hanover vs driving from Danvers, Mass. Another Boston barrister, Carl Schipper, will leave shortly for a trip to India and the Far East, but plans to return in time for the 50th.
Don and Marjorie Hopkins journeyed from Montclair, N.J. to Maine last fall so that Marjorie could drop off some sea captains' records at the Bath Museum. They missed seeing Maiand Ann Merrill who were due back the next day from Europe. In November Don and Marjorie went to Vienna for an eight-day visit, prior to their returning to Florida for the winter.
During last summer Lou and Georgie Conant spent three and a half months on a trip to Alaska in a VW camper, visiting daughters and friends en route. They found their conveyance "real cozy" but comfortable and a wonderfully economical way to travel. They expressed hope of joining the 1926 delegation which visits in Florida this winter.
Travel to see children and grandchildren kept Al and Polly Lowell busy last fall. They drove from their home in Holiday, Fla., to Staten Island to spend three weeks with their daughter Judy, her husband and four children, and then to Burlington, Vt., for three weeks with their daughter Betty Anne and husband.
Grateful for three years of French and a better than fair memory under critical prodding, Bill Wolfe guided Midge and Al and Glad Metzgger on a 'round the Gaspe expedition last fall. Bill said as they came back through Hanover there were several coeds on campus with a rowing shell on their car top, but no freshmen football prospects in sight for the daughters to coach.
Dick Eberhart spent the fall term as Regents' Professor in the Department of English at University of California, Davis, Calif. He and Betty reported fine weather, beautiful nearby mountains and were somewhat amazed by the thousands of students bicycling through the vast greenswards of the huge campus. Earlier in the fall Dick participated in the dedication of the Richards-Frost Room in Mugar Memorial Library, Boston University, which houses the most extensive permanent display of poet Robert Frost's works which were donated by his protege, Rev. Paul C. Richards.
Class treasurer, Jack Roberts, advises he is also treasurer of the Dartmouth Club of Southwest Florida, and that the books balance in both directions. Besides admitting that the Florida cucumber crop had been nipped by frost, on the lighter side he had seen Nort VanDuyn and Fritz Lawson at the Dartmouth Club luncheon in Naples and that they look fit and play golf almost every day.
The "Dear Jack" notes that our treasurer provides are timeless and make as interesting reading in spring as they do in fall. For example, Phil Blood writes from Minneapolis, "Hope to get to the 50th, but it comes at a busy time of year for me. After retirement from a vocation of accoustical engineering in 1961 I took up a hob- by of making and repairing violins, violas, cello, and bass stringed instruments. The hobby grew to a full time occupation and summer seems to be the busiest season. I do get away for the winters though, which I spend in Panama City, Fla. My wife Beata died five years ago and I spend what time I can visiting my four daughters and 14 grandchildren."
As the time draws nearer when 1926 will make its 50th year class gift to the College, Al Louer and Charlie Bishop and their reunion giving program committee are stressing the importance to Dartmouth to have the strong financial support of alumni to provide the educational opportunities to students today even as they were provided to us by alumni giving of classes who preceded us. It is a one-time chance for each member of 1926 on this important anniversary to make a record gift to the College to say thank you for what Dartmouth has given us and meant to us.
Secretary, 9 Gammons Road Waban, Mass. 02168
Treasurer, 932-A Heritage Village Southbury, Conn. 06488
