1944

How's this for a good idea? There are 632 living, breathing, handsome '44s out there 461 who graduated, 171 non-grads and with our 35th reunion coming up in a couple of months, why don't all 632 of those living, breathing, handsome '44s come to Hanover on June 9-11?

I'm told we already have a chance to break the attendance record for a 35th reunion; why not get everyone back and put the records to rest forever?

See you all here in June even if I have to get McElnea to build a new Caesar's Palace on the Green to accommodate you.

Speaking of Bill McElnea, my old roomie has made the coyer of yet another magazine, The Executive of Los Angeles. His handsome, living, breathing countenance, painted in oils, looks you right in the eye. Inside there is a nifty picture of him skippering his boat, and the text says he's building the world's largest "gaming" company, Caesar's World. But Bill prefers the boat: "I don't gamble," he says. "It isn't my form of entertainment, I don't enjoy it. I'd rather go sailing."

We mentioned last month that Mo Distin was right in the middle of the Lake Placid Olympics. Just how much right in the middle we didn't realize until the February 18 copy of the New York Times crossed our desk. There, emblazoned in printer's ink, was the fact that William Distin was the chief of VIP protocol services for the alpine division of the Olympics, and accompanying the article was a photo of Mo's wife, Mi Li. Mo was one of the few in Placid sporting an enamel inlaid gold Olympic pin. "It was my father's," he said. "He was an official at the 1932 Olympics here. It's a far cry from the plastic cards they give us today."

From Cincinnati came the good word that West Shell Jr. has been named to chair the Hamilton County Republican Finance Committee for 1980. It will be his responsibility to fill the bowl up for the Ohio Republican Party throughout Hamilton County. West is president and chief executive officer of West Shell Inc. Realtors, and the press release went on to list 13 current civic and professional positions he holds, from banks to insurance companies to the Chamber of Commerce to development committees to the Red Cross to the police association to ... to ... to ...

A nice long letter arrived from Al Hormel, who is a commercial artist in Weston, Conn., and who lives on Curiosity Lane. Al was being curious himself about the old, old rumor that Indians could attend Dartmouth tuition-free. It's probably true that the first half-dozen Eleazar plucked out of the forests didn't plunk down much in the way of tuition, but there's been no recorded policy in College archives that says Indians could go here for nothing. Lots may have come here on scholarships or with loans, but not tuition -free.

We were sorry we couldn't accept Jack Haffenreffer's recent invitation to tea and crumpets at his country digs near Canaan, N.H., 17 miles east of Hanover. Jack said it was tea and crumpets, but I suspect it was really for pulling out pine stumps with our bare teeth. He had his old roommate, John Rexford, up from Concord, and the two of them were tugging and hauling around the 404.8 acres that Jack has for sale and "tasteful development." If you're looking for some lovely real estate not far from Hanover, see Jack. Acres and acres of unspoiled forest on 108-acre Spectacle Pond right out of Walden 200 years ago.

If any of you chubbers out there receive a directory of "Alums of Cabin and Trail, 1965-1979," you'll see that that "labor of love" came from Jim Averill's son Bob '72, now with the Falk Clinic in Pittsburg after two years with the U.S. Public Health Service in West Virginia.

Then, social notes from all over as they apply to the fellow who writes this stuff, Fritz Hier. He put on a nice double ceremony in January in the local Cornish Flat church. Second son Gar married Cathy Bennett, and oldest son Rob and his wife had their two-month-old daughter christened. The College chaplain, who performed the ceremonies, said he'd done lots of weddings and lots of christenings, but never both at the same time. Third son Fred just got his instructor's license from a Jacksonville scuba diving school.

So, meet you all 20,000 leagues under the sea. Or at the June reunion. Whichever comes first.

That's it. Blessings.

311 McNutt Hall Hanover, N.H. 03755