1963

Mike Cardozo is listed in the December issue of the Washington Monthly as one of the "strongest presences" among the second rank of White House aides. Mike, who, with Appointments Secretary Tim Kraft comprises the Dartmouth Mafia within the CarteT Administration, works in the office of counsel to the President as senior associate counsel.

Except for the minor annoyance of people who come traipsing through to see what John Dean's offices look like, Mike reports that he has been enjoying himself, working on presidential appointments, selection of judges, and on making sure that appointees avoid conflicts of interest, real or presumed. Before joining the White House staff, Mike had worked on the Carter campaign as state coordinator in Connecticut, where Carter lost narrowly. Mike explains that several important ethnic groups in the state had trouble understanding a bornagain peanut farmer from Georgia, and while Mike came up with some ingenious stratagems for countering this problem, it wasn't quite enough in a state that was already caught up in a swing toward the conservative side.

Declining ratings for the President in publicopinion polls and adverse press notices have not, Mike said, hurt morale on the White House staff. "Morale has never been bad," he said. "For a few days, after Bert Lance resigned, people were down. They were drained, and some felt badly for Lance, who had been a good friend." (Mike, incidentally, was involved in advising the President on the Lance affair.) But, Mike continued, "the people in the White House are good, dedicated people, and they continue to be dedicated." He dismisses speculation that Carter might be a one-term president as "ridiculous."

Mike is still a bachelor, but reports that he is dating a young woman who graduated from Dartmouth. It's much like dating someone who went to anyplace else, he reports, except that you don't have to try to explain "what's so great about the Dartmouth experience."

Your class secretary is, incidentally, indebted to Kevin Lowther for the clipping from the Washington Monthly. Kevin also reports that his book on the Peace Corps is now out. It's called Keeping Kennedy's Promise (Westview Press, $10), and is a blistering attack on the Corps — together with a specific prescription for giving it a renewed sense of purpose. I have told Kevin that I will plug his book everytime he sends me an item, an offer that I herewith extend to the rest of the Class.

American Express Co. recently announced that Lou Gerstner was elected executive vice president and president of the card division, effective the first of this year. There will be two reactions to that from members of the Class, I predict. Some will let their card account slide, figuring that they now have a friend in high places; others will seek to bring theirs up-to- date, fearful that someone they actually know — not some letter-writing computer with a phoney WASPish name — may see what a mess their affairs are actually in. Your secretary falls into the latter category.

It is probably an indication of how far and fast Lou's career is rising to note that another fellow was also elected an executive vice president at the same time. The other fellow is 48; Lou, as is the case with many of us, is 36.

In addition to his appointment as executive vice president of the monster international banking concern, Lou was also recently appointed to the board of managers of Memorial Hospital for Cancer and Allied Diseases in New York, and to the advisory board of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Until his recent promotion, Lou had headed McKinsey & Co., a management consultant firm. He is also a member of the board of trustees and the executive committee of the Joint Council on Economic Education. Lou, his wife Robin, and children Louis, five, and Elizabeth, two, live in Greenwich, Conn.

In other news from the banking front, Chemical Bank in New York has announced the appointment of John Farnsworth as a senior vice president of its metropolitan division. He is in charge of Chemical's retail banking in the mid-Manhattan area. So if your American Express card has been pulled by Lou's operatives, and you're hard up for cash in Manhattan, at least you may have a friend at Chemical.

John went to work for Chemical shortly after getting his M.B.A. from Tuck, and was appointed assistant vice president in 1969. In that capacity, he worked mainly with Chemical's customers in the Midwest. More recently he was a vice president heading Chemical's corporate banking group for the United Kingdom and Ireland, and was based in London. On returning to the United States, John, his wife Marilyn, together with their three children, John Jr., Cynthia, and Tara, took up residence in Darien, Conn.

I also notice from reading the Chemical Bank press release that John is a native of Huntington, N.Y., which may indicate that there may have been something astrologically favorable in the last year or so for people from Huntington who graduated from Dartmouth in 1963. Another Huntington native, TomMcLaughlin, was promoted last year as assistant to the vice president of industrial relations at Bethlehem Steel Corp. He had previously been administrative assistant in the office of the vice president of industrial relations. He and his family reside in Hellertown, Pa.

The Dartmouth Anthropology Notes, put out last November, reports that Daryl Erickson had recently been back on leave from the Oasis Hospital in Al-Ain, Abu Dhabi. At the hospital in Abu Dhabi, which is part of the United Arab Emirates, Daryl was one of three doctors who see 200 patients a day and deliver 200 babies a month. He and his family — wife Gina and three children. — toured the United States, speaking to Bible-study and church groups on their experiences.

From the same source we learn of yet another erstwhile anthropology scholar, JohnKovas, who was back in Hanover last year recruiting for his advertising agency, Leo Burnett USA, in Chicago. John and wife Kathy live in Winnetka, and John is- apparently getting to attend a lot of pack meetings as his two sons, Teddy and Colin, become increasingly involved in Cub Scout activities.

To plagiarize one more bit of information from the anthropologists' grapevine, LarrySwift and his wife Marilyn are fixing up an old house near the sea in Gloucester, Mass. Larry commutes into Boston for his job with Commercial Union Assurance. Marilyn, who designed the Swift's Christmas cards, reports that she finds more time to paint and design now that both children, David and Kathryn, are in school.

In other news from Massachusetts, Governor Michael S. Dukakis recently honored the firm of Samuel Cabot Inc. on its centennial observation. Sam Cabot is treasurer of the family-owned, family-operated business whose principal product is Cabot's Stains.

Bob Morris received his master's degree in urban studies from the University of Akron in December.

Bob Barnum has been named director of personnel administration at the College. Bob had been assistant to the vice president for administration.

And literally as the column was about to go into the envelope, Jack Smith called to be sure that I include kudos for Steve Macht's "knockout" performance as Max Schmeling in the TV movie dramatization of the Schmeling-Louis fights called Ring of Passion. I missed it, but Smith says Steve was most impressive in the role. Indeed, Smith, who is an unstoppable punster, thinks that as a result of his performance in the movie, which was set partly in Nazi Germany, Macht may have "struck it Reich." Unnnh, that hurts.

And that's all from Philadelphia. More next month.

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