1940

A touching tribute to the quality of the Dartmouth education we obtained at Dartmouth in the late 30's comes from Bob Levine, professor of organic chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh, where in June he will have completed 33 years on the faculty.

To savor the message in his thoughtful note to class treasurer Stet Whitcher - a kind of summing up at the apex of his academic career - you'll want to hear Bob speak here for himself: "After 30 years in the research-teaching rat race (government grants, contracts, etc.) and having turned out 55 Ph.D.'s, about 150 publications, and one patent on a new way to make the very important analgesic, Demerol, I decided to give up research, and for the time I have left before retirement (about four years), I have decided to concentrate on good undergraduate teaching.

"This decision to do the best teaching I can at the undergraduate level, which is proving very exciting and rewarding, takes me back to our Dartmouth days, when I was exposed to many outstanding chemistry teachings by such men as E. B. Hartshorn, J. P. Amsden, and, above all, Andy Scarlett.

"I have decided to concentrate on undergraduate, rather than graduate teaching, since it is at the undergraduate level that we either turn the students on or off - and I want to turn them on. In this small way, I can share with undergraduates part of what I call the Dartmouth experience: outstanding teaching.

"When any of my students comes in to see me now, as large numbers do, to discuss chemistry or personal problems (and many of them want to discuss personal problems), they find a friendly ear and not a person who criticizes their life styles! They find there need not be a generation gap. The coffee pot is always on; they sit down in a comfortable easy chair in my office and relax.

"And they feel they are transported to Hanover, since on one of my office walls I have much Dartmouth memorabilia - the late George Cutter's map of Hanover, a large framed picture of Eleazar Wheelock's tombstone, a picture of Dartmouth Row, a pennant, etc.

"Although I am geographically many miles away from Hanover, I only have to look up from my desk at the wall before me and I am back on the Hanover Plain."

It's good to be able to report to Bob and others "that while there is today increased emphasis toward research and publication, the same concern with outstanding teaching for the undergraduate and the same personalized approach to teaching persists among the contemporary faculty. We can all hope there will be students in the Class of '80 who in the year 2012 may feel moved to write a similar letter and so pass on the torch of a Dartmouth experience to vet other generations.

Of his family affairs, Bob reports that he and his wife Dorothy are only a year from their 30th anniversary, while their three children are now making their own marks on the world: Ruth as an attorney with Odyssey House in New York City, helping women who've taken their lumps from man and society; Barbara, now completing a two-year program as a physician's associate; and David, working in Pittsburgh toward his CPA.

Among other communications, we learned that when Laurie Herman dined with Jack Fitzgerald at the Parker House in Boston, they relived the day 40 years ago last fall when they attempted to reach Hanover during the 1938 hurricane. Jack recalls that he and the late Jack O'Brien had to spend the night together in their car because their way had been blocked by fallen trees.

As temperatures at the Hanover Inn corner plummeted to —35° F., De Jones reports of luxuriating on the Carribean island of Captiva, and notes that he occasionally sees Dave Davenport, who lives on the island of Sanibel just to the south.

While Mel Wax went through the trauma of the tragic murder of San Francisco, as press secretary to the mayor, Dick Mather has also gone into public services, as assistant to the mayor of Alburquerque to spur further the economic development of that southwestern city. He entered public life following the acquisition by a larger outfit of the dairy of which he had been president for 15 years.

And from Bill Sinclair comes the report that "the lights do look great on Baker Tower and the students do appreciate them." He saw the lights and learned of student views during a trip from Cleveland to visit the campus last fall to watch son, Bob '80, play in a rugby game.

Meanwhile, as if he had read Bob Levine's letter, Art Ostrander reminds us all of the great and continuing value of a Dartmouth education and urges us one and all to help us make the Class Alumni Fund goal this year of $90,000.

303 McNutt Hall Hanover, N.H. 03755