1965

This month I'm going to break a few of the unwritten rules about classmate reporting and relate a few personal experiences that deal with what we learned, sophisticated Ivy Leaguers would label a trite cliche: "It's a small world." When I'm finished you'll get an explanation as to why such a tack was taken.

Last spring while sitting in the office of one of our marketing managers, I glanced up to see a framed picture of a skier, waist-deep in powder, carving an Alberg-style Christie. The answer to my first question came as no real surprise - it was an old photo of Dick Durrance's dad who went to the 1936 Olympics after Dartmouth with a U.S. figure skater who later became a director of this company (Scott Paper) and a friend of the marketing manager I was with. Small world, right? But how do we explain the fact that the very next day I got a surprise telephone call from Dick himself who was in Boston to make arrangements with Boston University for a film to promote the university? Now of all the schools in Boston it just so happens that B.U. is the only one I've had any contact with and that was a recent series of discussions with the president and his planners on what image of B.U. should be presented to its future students and current faculty. While Dick was in Boston filming for B.U., his dad was in Denver doing a similar film for Denver University. Perhaps the link becomes rather insignificant by now, but the featured coed in the Denver film is none other than my youngest brother's girl friend!

Anyway, Dick passed on word that he had visited Chris Knight who has kept his own small film company alive and that he had also visited with Jim Little out in Wyoming for their annual ski race. The score after ten years of matchraces is tied at five-five. Jim is alleged to be the chief of staff at the Jackson Hole Hospital. Incidentally, one of Dick's neighbors in Vienna, Va., is leaving for Korea this fall. Frank Davenport, in a long letter on the foreign service, mentioned that he is currently taking Korean language training before going to Seoul and the political section of the U.S. Embassy. That should be an interesting assignment in light of all the furor in Washington.

My next small-world story also has a faint Scott/Dartmouth connection. Last February I was asked if I knew a young woman from Cohasset who was being considered as a replacement for Patricia Harris on the Scott board of directors. My answer was no at the time, but this July I did see a new face attending the monthly directors' meeting. Last week on my morning run I passed a woman jogging along who looked vaguely familiar. That same evening in the mail, I received Scott's second-quarter report with her picture and a write-up that mentioned she was also a director of a T. Rowe Price fund. That is significant because in the same stack of mail was a news release that EdTaber had just been elected vice president of T. Rowe Price Associates. Ed, who received his M.B.A. from Harvard, was also elected vice president of the Rowe Price New Income Fund.

This month's last small-world story is more typical of what I trust happens to many of you. While sitting in Boston's Logan Airport waiting for a plane to Philadelphia, I spied a familiarlooking face that didn't belong in the waiting area for a BOS-PHL flight because the owner was from New York and at last report was living in Nashville. However the ticket agent confirmed that my memory of faces from 12 years back was correct and it was Dick Voss. Dick confirmed that he is still living in Nashville and was returning from a visit to Cape Cod. Right now Dick is a clinical psychologist at Central State Psychiatric Hospital. Since leaving Dartmouth Dick has picked up a wife, four children, and an interest in amateur radio. He has also picked up an aversion to the current state of the field of mental health and is going back to school full-time this fall to become ... an electrical engineer! I forgot to ask if he had been reading Passages.

Okay, that is the bottom of my bag of smallworld stories for now. I hope that they will remind you fellows of similar experiences of running into old friends and classmates. I want to establish that it is legitimate for you to send in reports of such encounters, even if seemingly trivial. The fine thread of such small contacts is what we rely on to weave the fabric that binds us together as a Class with a sense of unity. Judging from our successful Alumni Fund drive (105.4 per cent of goal and 60 per cent participation), I know that you are alive, responsive to Dartmouth, and earning a living. Take two minutes and provide me with a few more details.

Some quick updates: John McGeachie has resigned from Kiewitt to go with Automatic Data Processing, Inc. in Clifton, N.J. John was director for two years in addition to developing and teaching a course at Tuck School on "Managing the Computer Resource." You may remember that John worked with Profs. Kemeny and Kurtz to develop the original Dartmouth Time-Sharing System installed during our undergraduate years.

Steve Smith has joined the Norwich Pharmacal Company in Norwich, N.Y., as a distribution supervisor in the physical distribution division. Before this move Steve was manager of commercial operations at the New York State Historical Association and Farmer's Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y. Steve is still president of the Burlington Historical Society and his wife Ellen teaches in Edmeston.

Ward Hindman received the Air Force Systems Command Certificate of Merit for a piece of work he did in foreign military intelligence. We can wonder without knowing if Ward hijacked one of those Soviet aircraft we reportedly have in Arizona.

Chris Rooney has been promoted to the level of vice president in the investment banking department at The Chicago Corporation. Chris says he is envious of my living in such a great place as Cohasset because he and John Poole used to spend weekends there. I just looked in the telephone book and found a John Poole listed at an address right next door to the jogging female director of Scott I mentioned earlier.

22 Surry Dr. Cohasset, Mass. 02025