1932

We recently had a letter from John Swenson out in Green Valley, Ariz., who sadly informed us of Larry Burtis' death; his obituary will be in this or a forthcoming issue of the Magazine. John wrote about Larry and other classmates in that area saying, "When I moved here from Tucson in 1974 there were four of our class—

Chuck Atkins, Eddie Toothaker, Larry Burtis, and myself. Chuck has moved from here and now it leaves Eddie and me. Ed is in good health and hits a mean 'game of golf with a low handicap that few of us at our age can equal." John gave us the additional news that he and his wife have been to the Orient and India during the past two years and spent six weeks in Spain this last spring. He hopes to see us all in 1982.

Finally, the last of the three Bad Bills (BillAdams, Bill Kuhn, and Bill Bucher) written up in our '32 newsletter wrote in from Rapun Gap, Ga. Says Bill Bucher, "This is my second retireparable ment. The first was in the Poconos of Pennsylvania. We had a beautiful home and guest house in "Hidden Valley" near Stroudburg. But the winters got so bad we decided to move south to Lancaster, where I was active setting up Better Business Bureaus." Apparently Lancaster was also too cold for Bill, so he moved to Georgia. He says, "We bought a beautiful home on Screamer Mountain in Clayton, Ga., and we love it. The view from our top deck is spectacular." Bill keeps active in such civic affairs as raising money for the Rapun Gap-Nacoochee School, most of the young people at which come from broken homes. Bill does not mention his two other "Bill" friends even though I sent him the complete dossier!

Harry Rowe sent us an interesting clipping from the Hillsboro, N.H., Messenger, featuring a front-page article with many photographs of the retirement party of Francis Brown. Brownie, as we called him in Wheeler Hall, has been the town doctor in Henniker, N.H., since 1946. He had taken care of Harry Rowe's family for a good many years before Harry realized that it was his old friend of freshman days back in 1928. When Brownie retired, approximately 400 townsfolk assembled to pay honor to him since "the family doctor" is a breed that has grown scarce in the last few decades. Quoting from the newspaper article: "Dr. Brown can be summed up in the word 'Doctor.' D — dedicated, O — obstetrics (which was his primary interest), C — caring, T — thoughtfulness, R — reassuring." One of those in attendance at the reception was Sanborn Brown '35, Brownie's younger brother. Both boys had come to Hanover from Beirut, Lebanon, where their father was a missionary and where Brownie spent the first 16 years of his life. Their great-great-grandfather was the third president of Dartmouth, from 1815 to 1820. He was Francis Brown, class of 1805, who, as Brownie says, "got the job when the then-reigning Wheelock wanted to make a state university of the place and the trustees or somebody didn't. The result was the famous DartmouthCollege v. Woodward, decided in favor of the sanctity of contract by the U.S. Supreme Court, whereupon my ancestor died at the age of 36, leaving a rather prominent line of progeny."

Last August, "Whip" and Addie Walser took their immediate family (two sons, Conrad and Eric '68, daughter-in-law Ginger, and daughter Lisa) on a vacation in Idaho rafting down the Middle Fork and the main Salmon River, called the "River of No Return." The trip was made in small rubber rafts that were disassembled and flown to the take-off site by Mackey Bar outfitters of Boise, Idaho. There were 13 passengers and four guides in four boats. We drifted 129 miles in five days; since the river dropped approximately 20 feet per mile, it gave us plenty of white water and rapids. We camped on a different beach along the river each night and we passed old, abandoned gold mines and saw a variety of wildlife, including mountain sheep, eagles, and a large black bear. While floating down the river we also had a chance to do some good trout fishing. At the end of the trip, we were flown out again in a small Cessna plane to Boise. This trip, through a wilderness area, is the same one that President Carter and his family took last year. All in all, it was one of the greatest trips I've ever been on for complete relaxation, and I recommend it highly to one and all. Out of the 13 passengers, four of us were Dartmouth alumni (it's not accurate to say "men" and I can't bring myself to say "people"), namely Andy Nichols '58 and his daughter Stephanie '83 from Boston, my son Eric '68, and myself this led to some good water fights from the opposition.

Your obedient servant,

Proof that the world of Dartmouth alumni is a small one are these four Big Greenerswho found themselves among the 13 passengers on a five-day float trip down theSalmon River in Idaho last August. From left to right, the white-water wizardsare Whip Walser '32, Andy Nichols '58, Eric Walser '68, and Stephanie Nichols '83.

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