1942

I've got a bone in my throat. No news in my mailbag . . . just a bone in my throat. And, I'm not the only one in the Class who is choking on the same bone. Kreter wrote you about it April. Buzz Casidy has been gagging on it. It's been stuck in all our throats for ten years because it has been exactly ten years since the Class of '42 has won a Green Derby. The last time we came in first was in 1966. Since then we've been either last, next to last, or somewhere near the bottom of the list.

Could be that I'm becoming a bore on this subject because I've been writing about our poor Green Derby performances in this column ever since I first became class secretary back in November. If it is boring to you, or if I'm not writing the kind of happy talk you'd like to read well, I'm sorry for that. I just can't help agonizing over the downhill slide we've taken.

Our record these past ten years is especially confusing and disheartening when you consider how great we were during the preceding 15 years. We called ourselves "The Great Class of '42" . . . and nobody really challenged us on that because, in Alumni Fund activities, especially, we were great. From 1953 through 1966 we won 12 Green Derby competitions, and came in 2nd the two years we didn't win. No other class has done so well. No other class came close to our spirited performance.

But what has happened since then? We've been in 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th place. Why? Once we were the leaders of the pack. In Hanover they pointed to us as the Class to emulate. Our class unity, class pride, and class purpose were held up as models for others to follow. In 1967 we were the Ist class to be honored by the College with its "Class of the Year Award." Now we are also-rans. Have we lost our unity, pride, and purpose? No. I refuse to buy that. For the life of me I can't figure out why we've taken such a nose dive . . . why our average gift to the Alumni Fund has decreased . . . why 136 fewer classmates gave to the fund in 1975 than in 1966 . . . and, why we have failed to meet our Green Derby dollar objectives the last seven years!

Please don't shrug off this Green Derby competition as just a sophomoric exercise. There is nothing sophomoric about the financial support Dartmouth so desperately needs, and there is no better way to measure and stimulate this support than on a class by class basis. So . . . can we turn Ourselves around? Can we understand the importance of each of our contributions to the Alumni Fund? Can we respond to this call before June 30th - only a few weeks from now?

As I write this (the end of April) the 1976 Alumni Fund campaign is only four weeks old, and already in the weekly Green Derby bulletins we've skidded to 6th place in our division of seven classes. We are doing better than only one other class - '44. The Classes of'41, '43, '45,' '46, and '47 are all well ahead of us ... with '43 in Ist place!

Of course, anything can happen between the end of April and the middle of June when you will be reading this . . . and, for the sake of our past greatness as a class, for the sake of our Dartmouth who must have our support, I pray something has happened. $52,000 is our goal. There is still time. We can ... We will be No. 1again!

Sec'y, 1001 Livezey Lane Philadelphia, Pa. 19119

Class Agent, 14 Country Club Dr. Port Washington, N.Y. 11050