1965

In the process of comparing corporate strategies, one of our vice presidents recently remarked that degree of movement is of secondary importance to correctness of direction. Over the span of his career he had found that slow but steady progress in some fundamentally important areas had advanced the company further than the sum of all the occasional bursts into "bold new directions." As we the Class of 1965 are entering our 14th post-graduation year, have you personally settled down to making headway toward a vision or are you checking out the alternative possibilities?

Dan Walden picked up a sense of direction back in 1968 following his command of an artillery battery in Vietnam. Starting at that point he became information officer at Fort Monmouth, N.J., a two-year job. That experience led to a position as public information assistant with Central Vermont Public Service Corporation. On the same track but in a different milieu, Dan spent 1974 and 1975 as a consultant in public relations around New York City. Consolidated Edison then set him up first as manager of special projects in the public information department and then as manager of corporate news development. All of this from a young man I remember as not having much to say. There is still one more step to report. In May of this year Dan moved to Sudbury, Mass., with Jo Ann and children to fill the role of assistant director of information services for the New England Electric System companies. Sudbury is near Dan's native home of Boston.

The new editor of the La Jolla Light arrived there by a similar series of large and small steps along a selected .bearing. Mike Goodkind can trace his moves back to Los Angeles where he was an editor for the Associated Press in addition to earlier work of reporting and writing on issues both local and national. Before that experience came time as political writer for the Tucson Daily Citizen and staff writer for U.P.I. As you may know, Mike was executive editor of The Dartmouth.

Pete Baumbusch's most recent step was a major one - from Santa Monica to Washington, D.C. Such a move was necessary to open up a four-man branch in Washington of the L.A. law firm of Gibson, Dunn, and Crutcher. Geneese Baumbusch appears to have things going her way also as she has retained employment with the Rand Corporation in spite of the cross-country move and the addition on February 8 of another member of the family, Clark Case Baumbusch.

Out in Chicago Jim Frank is continuing in a direction that was begun 40 years earlier by his father and an uncle. Jim has just been elected president of the American Automotive Leasing Association (AALA) after previous service as a vice president and director. AALA was established with the help of the Frank family and now comprises 100 companies internationally that provide long-term leasing of cars and trucks - over 600,000 of them. One of the member companies is Wheels, Inc., of which Jim is executive vice president. That is in addition to being president of the C. James Pontiac dealership in Chicago. As a result of these responsibilities, Jim has promoted professionalism among leasing companies, has testified before Congressional committees, provided information to the FTC, and developing computerized costreoorting services.

The Vermont Industrial Development Authority is putting Bob Justice one more step ahead along an apparent path of government planning. Bob's new job as director of VIDA follows work as agency planner for the Agency of Development and Community Affairs and other posts in planning with the Vermont government.

As our class members grow in their careers by change and advancement, the shedding of the old jobs can be trying for those left with the job of filling our vacancies. Mayor of Boston. Kevin White, knows this all too well in the wake of Chuck Atkins' resignation as director of Boston's Employment and Economic Policy Administration. As quoted in the September 6 Boston Globe, Chuck says, "... Kevin White attracts good people and good people are hard to hold onto." Mr. Atkins is joining Massachusetts Human Services as an undersecretary.

Like me, many of you are back from two- or three-week summer vacations. If they were genuine vacations, you must have come back to your work with new perspective, new energy; new purpose, or even new resolve to change. Send in a report of your thoughts or actions to me at the. above address. Your example just may get one of us moving again with conviction. I'm also taking a poll on how many of you are running multiple miles in under eight minutes per mile.

22 Surry Dr. Cohasset, Mass. 02025