1949

As I write this, it is the day following Ronnie's announcement of his second economic recovery program to assist his first economic recovery program, all of which I found somewhat less than amusing. Fortunately, there are a number of "amusing" activities to be crammed into the remaining fall weekends, in- eluding our annual mini-reunion, highlights of which will be reported in next month's column.

Having had sparse written words from my less-than-devoted readers, I took the liberty of calling a couple of old friends. This turned out to be both informative and enjoyable, so, in spite of cutbacks in my food stamps and CETA funds, this "program" will probably be expanded.

If you have ever wondered what happens to math majors who scorn an actuarial or teaching career, pay attention one became a newspaper publisher. Roy Lovell joined the Sanford, Maine, Tribune as a reporter in 1950 and has been inhaling printer's ink for the past 31 years. During the intervening years, Roy has sold advertising, been advertising manager, business manager, and general manager, and is presently publisher of the Milford, Mass., Daily News. The News is part of ALTA Group Publications, which also publishes papers in Biddeford and Sanford, Maine, and Rochester and Little Falls, N.Y. Roy is also a vice president of administra- tion for the parent company.

Commenting on the future of newspaper publishing, Roy identified the medium-size paper with 50,000 in circulation as probably the ideal. His News has a circulation of 14,000 in the southeastern area of the state.

Roy and Marilyn, a Green Mountain College graduate, have been married for 30 years and have six children and four and two-thirds grandchildren. In her "spare" time Marilyn started a kindergarten, is secretary and prime mover of the historical society in Milford, and dated all the old local houses prior to the town's bicentennial celebration. If you're passing through Milford and have your tennis racket along, give Roy a call. He loves the game.

The lure of uranium and jade first brought Dave Raynolds to the mountains of Wyoming in 1953, following three years in the army with a side trip to Korea. His prospecting, Dave recalls, was more luck than science, as his uranium forays with maps and Geiger counter would usually turn up jade, and vice versa. In 1976 he returned to Wyoming to stay, following a 20-year career as a foreign service officer with the Department of State.

Dave married a Smith graduate, May (Kean), in 1951, and they have five children. The eldest, Robert, graduated from Dartmouth in 1973 and, following the earning of a doctorate at Stanford and a Fulbright in Pakistan, has re- turned to Hanover this year as an instructor in geology. A daughter, Martha, graduated from Dartmouth in 1978.

It was the children that provided some of the impetus for the family to spend a year in Wyo- ming in 1964. Dave had been serving as a mem- ber of the Executive Secretariat with NATO in Paris. Cowboy and Indian movies were big box office in France at that time, and the French children knew more about our West than their American classmates. Dave took a leave from State the following year to write, and what better place to do it than Table Mountain in Lander, Wyo. The children got total Western immer- sion, and Dave wrote Rapid Development inSmall Economies, The Example of El Salvador and The Power Ring.

Today, buffalo auctions have replaced the excitement of foreign service assignments, and mending fences is no longer a political activity. Dave is president of Ranch Rangers Inc., and he and May (a zoology major) breed mountain buffalo. Starting with six pregnant cows in 1976, the Raynolds ranch now boasts 59 animals.

For those of you who share my fascination with this almost vanishing segment of Americana, Dave tells me there is presently a total U.S. buffalo population of 60,000. Of these, 17,000 are owned by the government and 43,000 by private owners. There are about 15,000 calves born each year, and 6,000 mature animals are slaughtered for their meat. Of the four original strains, the "eastern" is extinct, the "woods" is found mostly in Canada, the "plains" is the most common of the breed, and the "mountain" is the largest in size. There are about 300 members of the National Buffalo Association with varied interests in the future of the genus bison. But for the Raynoldses, the work of "bringing back an endangered species tops the list."

2 Cornfield Road Simsbury, Conn. 06070