1961
If you were to have made a list of those '61s most likely to succeed in politics while you were still at Dartmouth, your list almost certainly would have included the name Sam Bell.
You remember Sam, active in everything, class president our junior year, Undergraduate Council president our senior year, member of Palaeopitus, etc., etc.
Well, he's still at it.
Sam's been appointed majority leader of the Florida House of Representatives by House Speaker Designate Hyatt Brown. That's sure to be a tough job, since the position involves serving as the speaker's floor manager.
Bell is chairing a transition team to manage transfer of power from the previous administration. He'll chair the policy steering committee and serve as a voting member of every committee of the house, an action unprecedented in Florida politics. Wow.
"This is a rare honor," said Sam. "I'm excited about its possibilities."
Bell is Brown's former campaign manager. He's been a member of the House, representing Daytona Beach and surrounding Volusia County, since 1974. Last year, he was voted runnerup for the honor of most effective House member in committee, for which he won an Allen Morris award.
That award just piles atop the others he's been winning - legilsator of the year by the Florida Association of Retarded Citizens (1977) and Florida Pediatric Society (1978), one of five Outstanding Young Men in Florida, by the Jaycees, in 1975. Let's hear from the other politicians, - please.
Go see: Animal House, says Class News-letter Editor Bert Rowley. The movie was co-authored by Chris Miller '63, and Bert thinks he sees some resemblance to some members of our Class, although "Chris assures me all characters are fictional." For example, Bert wonders whether the movie character, The Otter, isn't modeled after our own "Otter," Bob Anderson, also class newsletter editor. He says he read the first of five scripts two years ago, and he was last heard muttering, "maybe file libel suits . . . maybe even file a '61 class action suit on behalf of AD's."
Bert, by the way, says he's bought another horse, a palomino "named Moon Shine. And I've nicknamed him Foster House to acknowledge one of my favorite clients for Sweepstakes Advertising. My wife Pam and I spend weekends these days riding the trails in back of our place ..."
Random notes: Dick Sandler is chief loan officer of the European-American Bank in New York. . . . Gerry Greenfield is living in Santa Monica, Calif., has one child, age seven. . . . CurtDechert is involved in gold and silver exploration all over the western United States, says President Gerry Kaminsky. He's just joined a new company, Falcon Exploration, based in Reno. He married Yolanda in 1972, and they have a two-and-a-half-year-old girl. .. . Leonard Donovan has been named a corporate vice president of the Norton Co. after serving as division vice president and general manager of the sealants division since 1974. . . . StephenJ. Dale has been promoted to vice president of the New England Merchants National Bank in Lexington, Mass.
Travel-weary: Charlie Boynton is senior vice president-international at Cyrus J. Lawrence with responsibility for the company's efforts in the United Kingdom and Canada. That means visits. "Many are the miles between Vancouver and London!" he writes. He's living on a farm in Pottersville, N.J., with his wife Stisan and four youngsters.
The final word: I looked up Sam Bfell's ringing convocation address our senior year (doesn't anybody have bound volumes of The D lying around?) He referred to that timie in our lives as "the era of the shrug," decrying what he called "a total lack of awareness and an absence of sensitivity."
Remember his words? "This is a call to committed action and not to the passive, self-satisfied, secure attitude of let George do it. Historically, students have led revolutions. And in our day, we have seen students believe so strongly for a cause that they have given their life to see it realized. The danger we face is the danger of the shrug."
You can see the budding politician at work. He turned out to be totally correct when you think of the deaths that were to come at Kent State, at Baton Rouge, at Orangeburg. And the children's crusades that had an impact on two successive presidential campaigns. That's a true politician at work - ahead of his time.
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