1949

January 1980 is about to take its place in the Connecticut weather record books as the first January ever to pass without a measurable amount of snow. That may not raise too many eye whiskers in Orlando, Houston, or L.A. But for one who plods (not jogs) several miles each day to stand on a crowded commuter bus and then spends weekends cutting and splitting logs for a voracious wood-burning stove, brown (as in lawns) is beautiful. My cross-country skis still bear last spring's klister, but no matter, the geese are bunching up in the cornfields and April is only two months away as I write this.

I am indebted to the public information departments of Linkabit Corporation and Case Western Reserve University and to "Os" Skinner '28 for providing most of the news this month.

"Os" sent a copy of a newsletter from the Madeira School of Greenway, Va., which institution has recently elected Louis J. Mulkern to a three-year term on the school's governing board. His daughter Sarah is a junior at the school. Following graduation from Dartmouth, Lou joined the Bank of America, where he rose to the position of senior vice president in the international department. He is presently executive vice president of American Security Bank in Washington, D.C., and is a member of the Pacific Basin Economic Committee, the National Committee on United States-China Relations, and the World Affairs Council of Northern California.

David Vail Tassel, who chairs the History Department at Case Western Reserve, has just been elected a vice president of the teaching division of the American Historical Association. The A.H.A. is the oldest and largest national professional association of historians representing all fields of history. Dave will serve a three-year term, during which period he will represent the association and Case Western at local, regional, and national conferences of high school, college, and university teachers of history throughout the United States. He joined the C.W.R.U. faculty in 1968 as a visiting professor from the University of Texas and became a full professor in the department in 1969.

In San Diego, Don Pardee has just been promoted to manager of data systems for the Linkabit Corporation. Linkabit is involved in the development, design, and manufacture of communications systems and networks and has recently reached an agreement in principle to merge with M/A-COM Inc. of Burlington, Mass., as a subsidiary corporation. In his new position, Don will be responsible for all finance department management and programming. He joined the firm in 1978 as a financial systems analyst.

The past few weeks have brought more than the usual amount of sad news. Obituaries of three classmates will be in this or the next issue of the MAGAZINE, and one of our favorite class wives, Betsey Hunt, died on December 15, 1979, after a lengthy battle with cancer. It was Betsey's decision not to share her problem with her friends so that her relationships with them would not be affected by her burden. The sympathy of the class, and especially of those regulars at the fall reunions, is extended to her devoted husband Ritchie.

Dwight Smith '47 waits in his 1931 LaSalle sedan as his 150-ton 0-6-0 steam locomotive No. 47 (is the College class connection deliberate?) chugs its way througha switching maneuver on the tracks of the Conway Scenic Railroad in North Conway,N.H. Smith is founder, president, and general manager of the tourist attraction.

2 Cornfield Road Simsbury, Conn. 06070