1927

Today is a miserable day, the fourth in a row, dismal, dreary, and discouraging as I peer out of my study window across the back yard to a grove of small white birches dripping wet and bent over from the heavy rain. It is much more pleasant to write when the bright sun streams through the window. But a deadline calls for action, so here goes.

During the past month, we have had letters or notes from a number of classmates some of whom have been more or less incommunicado for several years. Great! Keep up the good work, because there is no way that your friends can hear about your own doings unless you tell us.

Ernest Massucco is semi-retired in Montpelier, Vt., where he operates commercial and residential rental properties and does investment counseling. He enjoys Vermont's hunting, fishing, and golf except during the winter months, which he and his wife Phyllis spend in Florida.

Congratulations are in order to Len and JaneDunn, who celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary on June 19 in Mesa, Ariz., where they live.

Chuck Brewster has been living in Landrum, N.C., since his retirement from the ministry in 1970. His parish for the six previous years was in Honolulu. Chuck wrote that he and his wife Frances spent this past summer in Georgetown, Me., with friends and relatives and that the highlight of his recent birthday was a telephone call half way around the world from his son in Iran.

Harry Milner has presented an old family grandfather clock to the 1927 room in Dick Hall's House, and from Steve Tracy we received a clipping from a recent notice by the Nashua, N.H., Valley chapter of Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite that Lester Eaton was awarded the meritorious service award of the New Hampshire Council of Deliberation.

A note from Houston Gray at Hilton Head Island, S.C., reports that he plays golf there weekly with Warren (Bunny) Smith. Houston admits that "retirement beats working and that after seven years of being a bum, I've yet to spend one moment of boredom. There is still so much undone, and so much to be learned, such as how to correct a tendency to slice."

Dick Mooney, whose attendance at the 50th was his first reunion since our third in 1930, tells us that he has now retired from John Deere & Company and keeps himself busy with travel, bird-watching, volunteer work for the Red Cross, and transferring books to cassette tapes for the blind.

During his retirement in Dorset, Vt., HankMurray has been specializing as a writer, photographer, and producer of educational film strips, having had over 40 such strips released by Pathescope Educational Media, Inc. Hank has also written several plays and is active locally as a member of the board of directors of the Dorset Library, Dorset Players, and Dorset Bicenten- nial Committee.

Al Wise brought us up to date in a recent letter: "I owned and operated my own building contracting business in Hartford, Conn., until 1946. I then obtained my M.A. from Trinity College and taught at the Loomis School in Winsor, Conn., where I served as head of the English Department until retiring a few years ago."

In a comment on his recently submitted questionnaire, Bert Gustin (thanks Bert) reminded us that "the only permanent thing in the world is change" and he offered as examples:

The Indian is dead.The women are here. and We can't run so fast.

According to Ken Murray, who visited him in late summer, Bob Mix is recuperating well from the heart flare-up which prevented him from attending last June's reunion.

Burton (Doc) Harris wrote from Boulder, Colo., that his long trip east to the reunion was well worth waiting for. Doc is president of a family corporation which owns a ranch and 50 head of cattle in Greybull, Wyo., to which he makes occasional supervisory round trips of about 1,000 miles. And Bob Bliss wrote that he was sorry to have missed the reunion, but it came during a three-week trip to London, Norway, and Copenhagen. Bob later spent two and one half weeks at a resort in northern Wisconsin. He is active in the Partners of America's Sister City Program with Leon, Nicaragua, which he visited last February.

In our October column, we mentioned the library display during reunion of numerous articles donated over the years by members of 1927. We have since learned that Dr. FritzKortlucke was not only responsible for suggesting the display but also has made many fine additions to the library's resources in recent years. Some of these are:

Holinshead: Chronicles (London, no date, but first was in 1586).

Versalius: Opers Omnia (Leyden, 1725). Van Leeuwenhoeh: Opera Omnia, seu

Arcana Naturae (Leyden, 1722), a facsimile of the Shakespeare First Folio of 1963.

Raynal: Storia dell' America Settentrionale (Venice, 1778).

Special editions of several British authors, such as DeFoe, Smollet, and Sterne.

Our report on the fall reunion, October 22 and 23, will appear in the next issue. In the meantime, we continually urge you, please, to write, write, write.

11 Rolling Lane Wayland, Mass. 01778