1944
Yup, that was, indeed, our Jay McMullen narrating "The Toyota Invasion" TV special on C.B.S. January 29, a show which the New York Times reviewer said "adds yet another substantial credit to Jay McMullen's record."
"A producer for C.B.S. News," he wrote, "McMullen is something of a quiet man in television. Every year or so he goes off with a film crew to produce an essay on a single subject, usually something that is considered difficult for the electronic medium to tackle. Word has it that even his bosses don't know for certain what Mr. McMullen will bring back. Usually, though, the finished product is thorough, well-organized, and illuminating. It then goes on to collect numerous awards." And it's true: Jay's trophy collection must need an extra room to house them all.
Another Side of the Blues is the title of Charles Wilder's book of seven short stories, published last summer. The dust jacket reads: "Born in Washington, D.C., Charles Wilder graduated from Dartmouth College magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, majoring in English, Spanish, French. Mr. Wilder later received a master's degree from Columbia University. He has been a journalist, a college instructor in the humanities, and a translator of Spanish and Portuguese. He has traveled widely in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Brazil, and the Caribbean, in each instance gathering the background for Another Side of the Blues, his first published book."
It's $6.00, paperback, Exposition Press, Hicksville, N.Y.
Kudos go to Wynn Underwood over there in Montpelier, Vt. A Superior Court judge since 1972, he recently was appointed to the Vermont Supreme Court. Three Superior Court judges and one probate court judge were nominated for the opening, and Wynn won the appointment. The governor said that Underwood's 18 years as a trial lawyer and nine years as a judge made him "eminently qualified" for the state's highest court.
Also kudos to our two 1944 class agents, Clark MacGregor and Dick Mayberry, for winning a 1980 Dartmouth Alumni Fund Award for money raised during a 35th reunion year $314,966. No, that was not Clark and Dick you saw at the new gambling casino in Atlantic City!
On the go out of Greenwich, Conn., is Alex Gillespie, who is a senior vice president and counsel for the American Smelting and Refining Company (Asarco), and lots of Asarco's copper and other metals are in South America. Alex told me that he ran into Art Scharf in Peru a couple of times and that Art was retiring from Mobil Oil after 23 years.
That sent me to alumni records and directory assistance and I made contact with Art Scharf happily ensconced in a condominium in Branford, Conn., which is just outside New Haven. Art is, indeed, retired, but is fully busy "fooling around with small computers" in the areas of speech and speech therapy, reading, and writing. He's also getting in a bit of bridge and golf with his wife. Their five children are scattered: one in London, one in Alaska, one in Oregon, the youngest girl still in college in Colorado, and one is in Branford.
How about this December note from KarlSorg! "Indomitability, that's what it is! Last Saturday, in the wee hours of St. Nicholas Day, Jan bore us a beautiful 7 lb 10 oz son, Charles Nicholas. Both mother and child are absolutely exquisite. I believe this is the first and probably the last of the offspring of a '44 to have a Dartmouth prospect in a class graduating in the next millenium. For the cynic, having a son in the class of 2001 isn't a space-y odyssey ... I commend it to the strong of heart and loins."
Not so strong was Karl's foot, which he broke while attending a convention in San Antonio. I know because Ezz Hale saw him there on crutches.
And would you believe yet another new settler in the Quechee, Vt., retirement pool. Burt and Esther Bickford moved there in midDecember from Rhode Island. They're into solar heating and have built an "envelope" house which will be warmed by the sun and a wood stove. Burt took early retirement after 33 years with General Electric and says he's having no trouble whatsoever occupying his time. He spent several weeks doing some door-todoor follow-ups for the Census Bureau, and he's taking a tax course. And catching up on his reading.
Jim and Alice Hardigg's daughter Viva is on Dartmouth's women's cross-country ski team. Ad and Phil Penberthy's son Cleve '74 left his job as dean of students at Staples High School in Westport, Conn., to become principal at the public school in Telluride, Colo.
The Kodak company did a nice thing for Andy McDowell's widow, Kitty: It flew her to the football coaches meeting in Miami where she was a guest at a ceremony honoring Andy.
Speaking of widows, there are, sadly, two more to report. Dick Allen, a professor of physics at the University of Hartford, died of a heart attack November 1. As did Ed Knight, a lawyer and farmer in Lewisburg, W. Va., December 18. Our sympathy to their widows, Ann Allen and Whickey Knight, and their children. Incidentally, Dick's father was a member of the class of 1912. Ed's father was Dartmouth 'l6, his grandfather was 1887 at Dartmouth, and his great-grandfather a '61.
That's it. Blessings.
209 Parkhurst Hall Hanover, N.H. 03755
