1977

Since this is my last column of the year, I am going to forgo the usual introduction. If I don't pass along the information now, it won't be worth reading come September.

My apologies to Liz Epstein who sent me a letter this winter which I never received. But the second note did arrive and I am happy to report her activities. She is employed by an energy environmental consulting firm in Washington, D.C., and her work involves analyzing environmental legislation to see how it will affect emerging technologies. Liz has attended two meetings at the White House and at one she sported her Dartmouth windbreaker. She loves Washington and says she would recommend it (with a five-star rating) to anyone as a great place to live.

Karen Hagarman sent word of her activities long ago. She spent six months in New York City doing retailing work for Macy's and trying to break into the publishing business. In March she relocated to her home in Massachusetts where she has been working on some writing projects. She and Ellen Beres (working for Philadelphia National Bank as a credit analyst) made a trip to Hanover recently and found that the campus is "more electric somehow."

News from Hanover informs me that six persons, four recent graduates and two seniors, have been awarded James B. Reynolds scholarships by Dartmouth for graduate study abroad during the academic year beginning July 1. Robert Duncan will use his scholarship to study solid-state physics at Cambridge University and Kenneth Frankel will participate in a study of industrial workers in 20th-century Mexico, with Prof. John Womack Jr., of Harvard, to be carried out in Mexico.

Several other '77s are also studying abroad - they are conducting their own program, so to speak. I learned of their'adventures through several sources. I first received a note from Dartmouth Professor Alan Gaylord, who wrote to say that his son Don completed a fall term internship at the Job Corps center at Kicking Horse, Mont. Then, after graduating, Don and three others set off for Ecuador. Soon after that the expedition itself checked in and I received a postcard written by Michael Levi. "The Dartmouth College South American Expeditionary Force" (consisting of Omar Johnson and RichBryntesou along with Don and Michael) had survived the perils of Mexico, seeking the pitfalls of Aztec ruins, the local markets, and the tequilla. They promised to write again unless the cannibals got them first. So far no word...

No sooner had I mentioned Mark Madsen in last month's column than I received a letter from Mark himself. He is enjoying life in Cambridge, Mass., though he doubts he will ever adjust to the local native practice of imbibing beer in a snifter - over ice!

Mark mentioned running into Max Anderson, also in Cambridge as a grad student in art history. To their horror, they discovered they were both attired in tweed coats and argyle socks, and were smoking meerschaum pipes. But then, with considerable relief, they properly identified themselves by baring their LaCoste polo shirts and CAT industrial caps. Some things never change!

Ken Parker was also seen recently. A graduate student at Harvard in the Chemistry Department, Ken enjoys it all and says he has abandoned his wild ways to become a serious student.

Other news from Mark reads as follows: Kevin Kenny was recently seen in Hanover. Rumor has it that he is folding, spindling, and multilating his way to the top of the Honeywell Corporation in N.Y.C. He loves his work. Wayne Ballantyne, continuing his studies at Thayer School, is currently in search of a secure engineering job. Nora Odendahl is in Cambridge working on a novel, is employed, and is applying to graduate schools in English. So far Princeton has opened its doors. RobDubow, home in Virginia, Minn., has been engaged in some intensive music composition. He is thinking about professional work with music for the future. Ben Moore is living at home in Salem, Ohio, working for a branch of his parents' metal conglomerate. He plans to put his talents as a chemist to work in the near future at the Harrington-Bramah Institute for Scatological Research and Development.

Lastly, Mark wanted me to inform GlennMercer that he was searching through memorabilia from Leningrad FSA of 1975 and he came across a certain, very ugly znachdk which he would like to return to you. However, he needs your address.

A postcard arrived from George Shackelford who is winding up his first year of art history graduate studies at Yale. He loves Yale and is currently in the throes of planning a threemonth jaunt to Europe where, among other things, he will study "The Historic Houses of England." Gretchen Spalding Wetzel also wrote to say that she and husband Bob '76 are fine. They are living in Illinois where Gretchen is employed with a travel agency. She is hoping to open and manage her own agency soon. And lastly, Donald Thomas, who joined the Navy in October 1977, has been promoted to Navy ensign after having completed a course of study at Officer Candidate School.

So that concludes the news from the year 1977-78. Our classmates have been busy and will continue to be so, I'm sure. Though I won't be publishing juicy tidbits this summer, I will be anxiously collecting news for use this fall. Please keep me posted of summer activities and happenings. Have a wonderful summer and maybe by fall I will have found the Russian translation of znachok.

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