1934

There is still a loose end or two in sight when we look back fondly over our shoulder at the great 45th reunion in June. First, if you took any good pictures (the editors say black and white, not color, sorry), please send me a copy. Speaking of pictures, this is the first reunion I can remember that did not include the taking of a wide-angle, entire-class picture. I wonder why.

Our indisputable in-house record-keeper, Dick Gruen, points out that of the 121 classmates who came back for the 45th, 85 (or 70 per cent) had attended the 25th (whick Dick had chaired — the reason he was so ready with the facts). To me it isn't the 85 that is significant. We know we have a hard core of stalwarts. The seeds of satisfaction are in the other 36 — a token of Dartmouth's high participation index. It says to the guy who may feel a little diffident because he hasn't been a regular, "You don't have to have been at all the other reunions to come back to this one."

A high spot of the reunion banquet was President Frank Heath's presentation of the Alumni Award to Art Leonard. The award citation (summarized in the September MAGAZINE) noted the myriad reasons for the award and also brought the record up to date on Art in a way no one would ever drag out of him with wild horses. It's a privilege for me, Art, on behalf of the class, to extend congratulations to you and to express our great pleasure about this much- deserved honor.

I now must face the most unwelcome task of reporting to you the death of Frank Parmelee. Frank was with us at reunion, which makes learning of his death so soon after very unreal. Class President Sam Carson wrote me the sad news from Toledo, and Sam's letter was followed shortly by one from Bill Daniells, Frank's all- but-lifelong friend. Bill and Frank went to school together from the third grade through Dartmouth. I make this report with an unhappy sense of loss, because Frank was one of our super-stalwarts and I know no one who doesn't have a warm feeling about him. A full obituary will appear elsewhere in the MAGAZINE.

Correspondence from now-California-based Gail Raphael makes his retirement really sound like "how did I ever find time to work?" Despite all his busy-ness and productivity, though, his letter reflects more serenity than is enjoyed by most of us who don't get half that much done. Never far from the typewriter on which he produced his ad campaigns for Fleischmann's spirits and Amtrak trains as well as his song parodies for 1934 reunion shows, Gail is now the author of a series running monthly in AdvertisingAge, recounting some of his bounciest experiences on Madison Avenue. Reflecting his freedom from pressure, he reports, is the fact that he is nine months ahead on this series and incubating another one.

When I was lending Stan Silverman a modicum of help last spring in putting together the reunion show, every idea submitted brought forth from Stan the bellowed challenge, "Who will emcee it?" My reply was always, "JeffJackson, except for one thing — he won't be there." The most immediate reasons Jeff couldn't be in Hanover were two operations being performed on him in Texas — one on an eye, the other on a prostate gland. (This writer had that latter one, too, last February. Anybody else? I can see hands going up all over the room.) Other than those considerable discomforts, the area of Alamogordo, N.M., seems truly to have become the Land of Enchantment to Jeff and Sue.

The popularity of the nostalgia quiz shows at both the 40th and 45th reunions leads me to consider including an occasional paragraph in this column about who done what way back when. For openers, can you remember who our six Senior Fellows were? They had complete freedom to develop and carry out their scholastic programs senior year. Okay, remove your blinds. The '34 Senior Fellows were Don Allen, Em Day, Bob Michelet, OscarRuebhausen, Dan Schuyler, and Stan Silverman. A malted milk at Allen's is yours if you got them all.

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