1963

There's good news this month. I read in the papers that since roughly our sophomore year, the scores posted on the college boards have been going down - and haven't stopped yet. This fact, to be sure, has been known for some time. What is new is that recent studies have shown beyond the shadow of reasonable doubt that the decline is not the result of some change in the number of people taking the test, and that the test has not gotten harder. (It has, if anything, gotten slightly easier, the study shows.)

Instead, the decline is caused by the fact that those coming after us were less well prepared in terms of basic skills, and doesn't eliminate the possibility that our successors were generally stupider. I'm sure that we all felt intuitively that this was the case for some time, but it's always comforting to have one's intuitions confirmed. We can stop looking back; no one is gaining on us.

As if further confirmation was needed, I am in receipt of the following dispatches outlining the achievements and conquests by members of the Class:

Steve Spahn and a partner formed a new corporation to buy Down East magazine, together with other publishing, merchandising and direct mail businesses operated by Down East Enterprises Inc. Down East, according to an account in the Bridgton (Maine) News, has become Maine's leading monthly periodical with close to a quarter million readers. It is "highly regarded for its illustrations and articles on the 'down east' way of life so attractive to both residents and visitors to the state," the account continued.

Steve is currently the headmaster of the Dwight School in New York City and chairman of the International School of London. He will remain in New York and be chairman of DownEast. Steve's parents owned and operated summer camps in Maine for many years, and, if memory serves me correctly, it was on the asphalt surfaces of the basketball courts of those camps that Steve perfected one of the most accurate shooting eyes in the history of Ivy League basketball.

We also have in hand a report that AronGreenwald has been appointed vice president of finance of American Silk Label Industries, where his boss is Rollin Sontag '48. Aron is currently living in Maplewood, N.J.

The Vick Chemical Company's proprietary products division has announced the promotion of Jim Cappio to the new position of marketing director-cough drops. Jim had previously been product director for Sinex and Nyquil, and group product director-cough drops. He is clearly the man to see for a head cold. Chances are he will not tell you to just take two aspirin.

Robert Burgess has been appointed vice president and actuary, group pensions operations, at Connecticut General Life Insurance Company. Bob has been an actuary in the group pensions operations since 1973, and he is commissioner of the pension board in West Hartford, Conn., where he and his wife Judith and their two children live. In addition, Bob is on a study subcommittee of the American Council of Life Insurance.

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