1963

Our class has passed yet another milepost. The first daughter of a classmate has applied to, been accepted by, and matriculated at the College. She is Virginia Lower, 18, the daughter of Jim Lower, and I called Jim up to ask how it felt. Both he and his wife were "very proud," he reported, and had been hoping that Virginia might choose Dartmouth ever since the College began admitting women. But there had been no hard sell. What happened was that during the course of numerous visits, Virginia had "fallen in love with the school." She had looked at Hamilton and the University of Rochester, but Dartmouth had been her first choice, Jim said. After all, Jim pointed out, Virginia had actually been born at Dartmouth, arriving while Jim was completing his M.B.A. at Tuck. Virginia, who graduated from Rumson-Fairhaven High School, has strong interests in music and psychology, which she is looking forward to furthering at Dartmouth.

I also asked Jim if the various bits of adverse publicity about Dartmouth that came out last year had affected her. Little else, it sometimes seemed, was talked about at last spring's class officers weekend than the stories about the Indian skaters and the Esquire article about the College's "animal" image. At least one member of the class has already faced a situation that many of us secretly (or perhaps openly) dread: his son was accepted at Dartmouth and went elsewhere. Jim said that generally Virginia and he had laughed off the stories and the recent Playboy television advertisement, which features co-education at Dartmouth in a notaltogether-flattering light. Virginia's close, first-hand knowledge of the College neutralized the effect of the adverse publicity, Jim said, thus perhaps providing those of us who work on recruiting and interviewing of prospective students with a response when questions come up about atavistic tendencies in the Dartmouth student body.

Personally, I was of two minds in regard to the complaints about the coverage that seemed to be a part of every presentation at class officers weekend. As a journalist, I objected to the charges that the reports were inaccurate or sensationalized. And as nearly as I could discover, the episodes covered in the newspapers and news magazines happened more or less as they were reported. But at the same time, the impression that emerged from those articles was at odds with the picture one sees on the campus and with what one hears in conversations with students. Prospective students worried about tension between the races and sexes or about creeping animalism should go and see for themselves.

But enough editorializing. When I talked to him, Jim was already worrying about practical matters, such as how he would get his two other daughters and his son, who is the youngest of his four children, similarly interested in Dartmouth. (He was also worreid about how he would pay the tuition bill if they all do get in.) Jim is now senior director of corporate planning and analysis for the Singer Company.

The really big story this month for the class as a whole, though, was probably the outstanding performance we turned in for the Alumni Fund. Kudos is clearly in order for Head Agent BruceBaggaley. (Or does he just get a kudo? I never did understand the syntax involved there.) After several years of respectable but unspectacular performances in the fund, Bruce accomplished the equivalent of getting us into the play-offs. We finished second (to the class of 1961) in our division, but certainly did well enough to get a "wild card" berth. About 60 per cent of the class — 474 out of 793 — contributed a total of about $58,000, or more than 30 per cent more than our objective.

Fred Jarrett has recently added daughter Julia Nicole Jarrett to his family. He is continuing to practice vascular surgery at the University of Wisconsin. Recently he had the privilege of being the only American surgeon in the founders group of the Canadian Society for Vascular Surgery, and he has presented reports on research he's involved in to that group, as well as to the Royal Society of Medicine in London and to the Society for Vascular Surgery in the United States.

Stu Mahlin has been made vice president and director of personnel/advertising for the Provident Bank in Cincinnati. He has been with the bank since 1970. John Schempf, now a commander in the Coast Guard, recently graduated from the Armed Forces Staff College and is now stationed at Portsmouth, Va. I trust that everyone saw Mike Moriarty's picture on the cover of U.S. News and World Report. (He was presented as one of the reasons not to worry too much about the future of America.) Similarly, I hope everyone saw the recent announcement that Tim Kraft is now in charge of President Carter's re-election campaign, and that you remembered that you read it here first.

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