1948

THIRTIETH REUNION

Some 54 members of the Class of 1948, plus imprecisely counted wives, offspring, relatives, and friends, gathered in Hanover for three good days (the weatherman kept the rain off most of the time) June 12-14, while we.enjoyed our 30th Reunion. The number of returnees wasn't as great as had been hoped for, but the program was good, the facilities were convenient, and plenty of opportunity was provided for renewing old associations. (Most of us found it difficult to believe that 30 years have gone by since those days in June 1948 when a number of us - the reader will well remember that our class members could not all enter or leave Dartmouth together because of World War II - participated in Class Day ceremonies on the green lawn in front of Dartmouth Hall; when we quietly broke our long clay pipes on the stump of the Old Pine in,the Bema to mark the termination of our wondrous undergraduate days; when long Dirk. Kuzmier delivered the prophecy from a Shetland so small he had to stand over it; when President John Dickey in the final ceremony handed each of us a white, rolled, green-beribboned announcement of the passage of an era in our lives, which each of us acknowledged with a handshake and a smile, gulp, or tear. We transferred our tassels across our mortarboards in sign that it was all over - and just beginning. Thirty years ago.)

The College assigned rooms to the '48s in the Gold Coast dorms - Gile, Lord, and Streeter - and our reunion tent was pitched on the lawn out front. We reuned with '47 and '49, both of which had their dorms and tents nearby. It was a magnificent chance to meet again, after so many years, with old friends from our undergrad years in Hanover. The tents were provided with plenty of beer and other John Barleycorn mixtures, and one or more bands were always on hand in each tent until the small hours. On Tuesday night the resurrected Barbary Coast, composed mostly of former members from student days, under the inspired direction of Ort Hicks '49 and including 48's own Ed Curtis, plus the Bill-Beyea Dixieland Band, both played in our tent. The music was mellow and marked by many an old swing number from the forties. The decibels were up there, too, both from the music - I don't know that the two bands ever actually played at the same time - and the conversation. The latter was highly animated and, of course, accompanied by continuous laughter. A good time, to which Bob Pillsbury's occasional jaunts on the piano were a great addition.

The 54 '48s on hand included 23 from the New York/New Jersey area (Battison, Jack Becker, Branch, Briggs, Carlson, Drescher, Elliott, Evans, Hatheway, Hickman, Krumm, Kurtz, Lanzetta, Jim McLaughlin, Nicholson, Pedersen, Pruden, Sassenberg, Jim Schaefer, Thorne, Thornton, Van Raalte, Westney), 16 from New England (Axelrod, Baker, Chambers, Crook, Daniell, Eckerson, Gahm, Hoisington, Howland, Huke, Leggat, Maloney, Pillsbury, Shepard, Viereck, Warnock), 4 from the central area between the Atlantic and Mississippi (Greene, Mueller, Pace, Schoen), 5 from the South (Bredenberg, Curtis, Gingrich, Shattuck, Taylor), and 6 from west of the Mississippi (Drury, Herrick, Jeavons, Lockwood, Rutledge, Ken Schaefer). Al McAllister's widow, Lois, now the happy bride of a Penn alumnus, was also loyally on hand for the festivities. We missed Foxy Parker, who couldn't attend because of the sickness of his daughter, and Dick Barlow, Bob Cormack, and Jack Ryan also had to bow out - to the disappointment of their friends.

In addition to the activities mentioned, the three days saw such events as a bus tour of the Dartmouth-Hanover area; a large informal alumni dinner in the beautiful new Thompson Arena hockey rink (on Chase Field next to Park Street); an informal reception in the Kemeny residence garden on Fraternity Row; a reunion jog from Tuck Drive at seven-thirty each morning for those interested - among whom were marathoners Warren Daniel! and John Van Raalte (The jogs were led by Agnes Kurtz, assistant director of athletics); a class picnic planned for Storrs Pond, which the threat of rain transferred to Thompson; memorial services at Rollins Chapel; various lectures, plays, concerts, and exhibits. During the week there were also opportunities to partake of an introductory computer course and a group hike up Mt. Moosilauke. In addition, the College provided for tours of the educational facilities, and a number of reunioners utilized the local tennis courts and the golf course or took hikes in such lovely areas as the Vale of Tempe off the Lyme Road.

President Kemeny, introduced by Secretary of the College Mike McGean '49, delivered to the reuning classes a highly interesting address in the Spalding Auditorium in Hopkins Center. His subject concerned Great Issues of Education for the next 25 years, to 2003, and Dartmouth's expected intimate relationship to those essentially economic problems. As highly interested members of the Dartmouth family we had to be interested in the national decline in college age students during the period and the resulting reduction in college enrollment in the nation, the simultaneous necessity to broaden the curricula to meet expanding knowledge, the problems of handling the doubled number of books to be added during the period to the 1.25 million existing volumes in the Dartmouth library, the effects on comparative funds available for public and private education with the decline in student numbers nationally combined with the effect of movements such as Proposition 13, and the danger to quality education from local isolation and control. It was an informative introduction to some of the problems our Dartmouth will face.

Dick Leggat and his committee of BarneyHoisington, Bob Huke, Dick Barlow, and LloydKrumm did a fine job in setting up the reunion program. One of the highlights was the '48 class dinner in the Hanover Inn, when Warner Bentley and Joe Yukica were honored guests. '48s will remember that Warner, now retired, was in our day head of the old Council on Student Organizations, from which point he quietly directed and supported many student activities such as The Players, etc. (It was he who managed to line up Duke Ellington for the Green Key in May 1946, the first all-College back-to-normal social affair after the war, and at a cost we students could afford.) Joe made us know in his short talk that he's glad to be back in Hanover where we listeners felt sure his boys will respond to the really fine person he is. (One of the points that must impress and mightily please his seniors this fall is that Joe's plans do not entail the excuse of a so-called rebuilding year this year. Instead, the Big Green will go for broke, and one can well guess the enthusiasm this policy will engender among his. players in developing an exciting team.

It is with great relief that we report that Ted Thornton's accident in diving off the rocks in Meriden Brook during reunion did no permanent damage. Ted, whose propensity for excitement and danger in his sports activities has been described previously in these columns, did not know that a large sharp rock lay below the surface of the rushing stream when he dove into it off a high rock tower. He knew it after he regained 'consciousness, has fortunately recovered fully, and promises to know where to dive safely next time.

At the '48 class meeting, presided over by President Van Raalte, Don Briggs presented a slate of nominations drawn up by his committee. Following discussion, the new slate was approved. Lloyd Krumm, of Franklin Lakes, N.J., an active alumnus, was elected president. Other changes involved Gil Shattuck as treasurer. Ken Young as class agent, RussCarlson as class memorial chairman, and Van Raalte in the new post of class campaign coordinator, a position created by the College in each class in conjunction with the five-year Campaign for Dartmouth. Outgoing officers Van Raalte, Bud Munson, and Lou Perry were applauded by the group in thanks for their splendid efforts, as was Tom Crook, who selflessly agreed to take over the writing of '48 notes in alternate issues of the ALUMNIMAGAZINE.

The aforementioned Mr. Crook lent spice to a lively reunion seminar on mid-life crises when he described his conversion from pastor to business consultant, convincing proof that a shift in one's occupation or profession at such stage in life need not be a catastrophe. In another seminar, moderated by Professor BobHuke and devoted to crises before 1999, Bob delivered an intensely interesting rundown on the world's food supply that made the listener suddenly aware of the connection between average temperature and the satisfaction of his gnawing appetite. Art Schoen put the finishing touch on a lively energy debate in a packed 105 Dartmouth by pointing up the critical necessity for the development of nuclear power in the U.S. in face of the anticipated inability of coal to do the job as the source of required electric power production expansion.

The '48 30th has gone. It was great to see so many old friendships renewed after so many years. May the next five years enable us to meet again at the 35th as well as at the minis before them, which you will hear about from Lloyd.

Frank Weber '47 and Bob Pilsbury '48 - two different styles at a 30th reunion.

Frank Weber '47 and Bob Pilsbury '48 - two different styles at a 30th reunion.

Relly Raffman '43 (left) and Dan Toan '40 (right) were only two of 20 alumni whoreturned to Hanover to revive the Barbary Coast Band of their undergraduate days.

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