1956

The feedback from our great 25th reunion continues. Each phone call or personal contact with a classmate invariably begins with two or three excited expletives which need not be deleted. Words like "fantastic," "meaningful," and "super" are typical. Some complained that reunion went too fast and that they would have happily stayed another week. Others report a post-reunion depression period, regretting that friendships reestablished may fade in the absence of frequent contact. The answer, of course, is up to us. The telephone, the letter, the mini-reunion are all there for the taking. The 25th reunion can be a start rather than a finish. In the meantime, we can engage in a little self-congratulation and enthusiastically reiterate our thanks to Toby Julian and his reunion committee for having provided four fabulous days in June.

While in a self-congratulatory mood, we should take note of the figure $666,056. That is the 25th reunion Alumni Fund contribution to the College that the class was able to make. It is also the third-highest sum ever collected by any class. Wally Pugh and his mob of agents are to be congratulated, as is the class. We managed a 68 per cent participation level, three points above the College average. This has indeed been the year of the green for the class of 1956. Further on reunion, and with the proviso that the author remain anonymous, the following is one classmate's thoughts after returning from reunion:

"I am not really sure what Dartmouth did for me as an undergraduate. That was a long time ago, and identity with tradition had not so much meaning to an impetuous youngster bent on doing well with grades and getting into medical school. Perhaps others felt those years more intensely than I, and perhaps our modern counterparts in Hanover realize the importance of their education more than I did (I tend to doubt it).

"What I do feel deeply and the reunion magnified that feeling is what Dartmouth is doing for me now, 25 years later. It is a wonderful feeling to be identified with a 200-plus-year history of outstanding men (and women), to be part of a class of solid capable men who 25 years after graduation probably never looked so good in their lives, to see a campus whose buildings and natural beauty are an inspiration, and best of all to know that it is going to continue on and on, better and better and the better it gets in the future the better the past looks too. . . . For my children I pray an experience at Dartmouth - or some institution that cares as much." Amen! And thanks for sharing your thoughts.

One hundred years span four generations in the case of the Abner Oakes family. Ab's son, Abner IV (Sandy), graduated from Dartmouth on June 14, the fourth generation in a direct line of Oakeses. "Our Ab" was preceded by his father Abner II '26 and Ab's grandfather, Charles, 1883. Charles Oakes scored the first touchdown in Dartmouth football history in the fall of 1881 against Amherst. Sandy, an English major, is teaching at the Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Our Ab and his wife Cyndy live in Hamden, Conn., where they moved in 1970 after ten years of coaching at Dartmouth. Cyndy deserves our thanks for coordinating the silent auction along with Kendall Bridge's wife Janis at the 25th reunion.

Any time a classmate is featured in the lead editorial of the New York Times, it is certainly worth mentioning. John Van de Kamp, District Attorney for Los Angeles County, has undertaken a public campaign to persuade the California Board of Prison Terms that Sirhan Sirhan, the man who killed Robert Kennedy during the 1968 Presidential campaign, should not be paroled. Agreeing that "political assassination is different" the New York Times supports John's effort to have the board reconsider its tentative conclusion that parole cannot be denied in 1984. In a 235-page petition, John maintains that Sirhan, in engaging in political assassination, intended to kill more than a human being. Sirhan "intended to kill a vital and living part of our democratic government." John never was one to dodge the tough issues.

When you read this in October or later, take a minute to reflect on reunion. Then write Flint Ranney or me. We need fodder for future newsletters and columns.

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