1950
Dry leaves scuttle in the gutter underfoot. Summer has been long and hot and parched. Touches of yellow in the sumacs portend the change, the coming days of autumn.
A year is over; a year begins. Vacations end; new enterprises challenge. Autumn is the time of spirit refreshed. The lure of challenge and change beckon.
Reflect. Only yesterday counting the years avails us little the challenge was to fulfill the role of grand old seniors. The moment was full; the time, too fleeting.
And in a few short months we shall gather to recall those years we shared on the campus in the New Hampshire hills above the Connecticut. Set aside the date. Do come to our 30th.
Gridiron gleanings: Cautious optimism. As sophomores, Dufresne and Shula were key performers on the 1978 championship team. Kemp has since matured, sharpening his passing skills to match his running. The offense is poised to run amuck and score. The defense is potentially as sound as ever. Cautiously, the outlook is op timistic. Despite Brown and Yale, the new and old pretenders.
Our goal was $100,000; our results, more than $123,000. Yet our success was marred, a little less than stellar. The class of 1953 set a participation goal of 85 per cent; it achieved 87 per cent, a fantastic record. The participation level of all our peer classes was greater than 61 per cent. By comparison, 1950 scored only 56 per cent. The message is simple. A few cannot carry the whole. According to head agent JoelLeavitt, "the class needs everyone's help to at- tain an outstanding participation record. The dollars then will take care of themselves."
The old Commons vibrates with a new life. The evening was warm, enticing an aimless walk about the campus during a visit to Hanover this summer. Music floated on the air, faint but definitive, persistently calling. The source took a while to detect. The sounds came from the Collis Center, Common Ground, where the first session of Celebration Northeast a salute to the folk music of New England had opened. We were attracted and wandered in. The old Commons was packed with attentive students. A central feature, co-featured with the band, was the piano found by Dick Echikson's committee and donated by 1950.
Bob McIlwain's eagle eye spotted the gaffe. He reported that, "Gene Carver's wife is known by a few as Mighty Mouse and by most as Patty. But none knew her as Dot as printed under the Bema picture in the May issue."
The summer sojourn in Hanover enabled us to visit Jim Strickler, who tendered his resigna- tion as dean of the Medical School effective as of June 1981. Jim returned to Dartmouth from Cornell in 1967 as associate professor of medicine and associate dean. He became the dean in 1973 and has subsequently shepherded the Medical School through difficult years to the threshold of great strength and stability. President Kemeny, noting the period of trial, stated that Jim "... will be turning over to his successor a school with the solution of its structural and financial problems well in sight, thanks to his energy, devotion, and patience." Still, in stepping down he will leave a vacuum. Jim plans to take a year's sabbatical leave and then to return to his first love teaching.
Seeing is believing, and seeing a natural athlete perform is a joy. Therefore, it was no surprise to learn that Ted Remsen's daughter Ellen had won not only the Class of 1976 Award as the outstanding woman athlete at Dartmouth but also the Archibald Prize as the best all-around athlete. Coach Agnes Kurtz observed, "Ellen certainly is the finest lacrosse player ever to play at Dartmouth." An ail- American selection, she played on the U.S. national team in two challenge matches against the English national team.
Tidbits here and there: Wedding bells rang in Clifton Corners, N.Y., for Laurie Winfrey, a free-lance picture editor, and Bob Shnayerson, editor and publisher of Quest/80. Joseph E. Jannotta Assoc., Inc., has lured Bud Bray from Portola Valley, Calif., to Chicago. NelsonGraves is the founder and president of Graves Leasing Corp. in Buffalo. Gerry Breyton. last noted in Sarasota, Fla., has left the sunny vacationland for Doylestown, Pa. Meanwhile, Milt Diener has deserted Toledo for a place in the Phoenix sun. Ray deVoe, the omnipresent sage of Wall Street, on speculative mania: "Reality invariably re-enters the market, things calm down, and another cycle beings." C. R. Gibson Company, a publisher of gift and stationery items, has named Tony Poltrack, senior vice president of finance and administra- tion, to its board of directors. Jim Wehnes, ac- cording to congressman Bill Frenzel, is hale and hearty in Seoul; "He looks younger than I!"
The big objective is Hanover in June. In the interim, enjoy memories and old friends at mini-reunions in October and February. Dartmouth remains so much a part of us because the institution is just a part of the total environment, the total experience of our college days.
Come up and enjoy the foliage season. Or the fall days of mist and fog and lingering hazy warmth. The chill nights are part of the memory. And the dark, clear skies. Peace, joy.
A group of Connecticut '51s and their spouses met together in Darien last May.
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