1929

The Washington Post recently featured a reunion of "Tommy the Cork" with Benjamin Cohen and referred to the New Deal days and "the little red house on R Street," where as many as 10 boarders slept, among them a classmate of ours. As the Post put it, " 'It was like joining up at wartime,' says Gerard Swope, whose father was president of General Electric. 'You felt left out of it if you didn't go to Washington.'"

"Harry Baehr Night" resulted in a special edition of the International Herald-Tribune, with a banner headline reading "Trib Survives 40 Years of Harry Baehr" and front-page stories and photos of the man himself. As to his future plans, Harry writes: "I'm not retiring - not yet, I don't think - although it is still a possibility. Now I'm working on a slightly easier schedule, 3 days a week and filing by noon instead of 10:30 a.m., which had been a killer. I must say I get wearier earlier, so I may still pull out of the IHT and concentrate on rewriting my book on the end of the New York paper. But that remains to be seen."

Some more of your letters to Jack Hubbard:

John Laffey: "It is good to see Judy keeping Jim Hodge's memory alive for us as is Ross Hughes's wife for him. I miss getting to see '29ers here on the Cape because our Dartmouth luncheons are on a Tuesday - and every Tuesday I am in Boston on church committee work. We do get together with the Quebmans now and then. We'll miss Johnny Davis. The Laffeys keep busy in things other than trivia - and while golfing has suffered much neglect, I can report that were you acquainted with candlepin bowling I could still bore you with some line of our successes in the world of sport. Plan to be in Lubbock, Texas, right after Christmas - will take in the Sun Bowl game in El Paso and help my grandson Howard root for the Aggies. He is a sophomore at Texas A & M. And just a further observation - we sure should be grateful for having Harry handling our Green Sheet."

Al Downing: "I still work part-time as a consultant for Airco and travel all over the country. The rest of my time is spent farming my bluegrass farm here in Kentucky, and right now I'm trying to get out one of my largest tobacco crops. No race horses — just dirt farming and cattle. All this keeps me busy, and the only vacation I take is at the informal reunions."

Ed Phelps: "Retired last July 1 as superintendent of schools after 25 years - 23 here in Poultney. Will be district governor of Rotary District No. 787 beginning July 1, 1977."

And a brief note of good news from MatRock: "Between Barrett and myself we've kept the hospital here working overtime, but all OK now."

And a cheerful note from John Irving: "My biggest - and only. News is that I went around the world. It was a wonderful trip. I saw so many things that I can't remember them all. One of the most noteworthy things on the trip was the advantage of using the duty-free outlets. It makes bending the elbow much more reasonable."

And I've just done a little traveling myself - to Argentina for the U.N. Water Conference. The venture was especially enjoyable because Willcox Brown '37 and his lovely wife Natale came too - he represented the Audubon Society and I the Environment Forum. I had a chance to address the delegates of 116 nations on the need for waterless sanitation methods - maybe some water expert in Burundi or Nepal (or even California) will take the message seriously some day.

Our sympathy goes to Ed Felch on the loss of his wife Roberta in early March. And Ed Walsh has just passed the word that one of our stalwarts, Johnny Bryant, died of a heart attack in his home in Spartanburg, S.C. - details later.

Secretary, 5606 Vernon Place Bethesda, Md. 20034

Head Agent, 1605 Powers Run Rd. Pittsburgh, Pa. 15238