1927

Greetings:

Several recent telephone conversations with our class head agent, Bob Williamson, make it abundantly clear that he's been burning the midnight fuel oil for weeks while lining up a stellar band of assistants to help with the 1981 Alumni Fund. If you haven't already sent in your more than generous gift or pledge, we heartily urge you to delay no longer and thereby indicate your vote of confidence for Dave McLaughlin '54, our new president-elect.

Dime Benson was the first of those wintering n Florida to report. He and Rhoda spent the month of February with Rhoda's sister in Cape Coral, where, he wrote, the temperature exactly matched his age. Dime also noted that he wasn't exactly looking forward to returning to Polaski, N.Y., where he expected to have to shovel three to four feet of snow from his sidewalk.

Vacationing Syd Harris was the second to report, he by phone after he and Ruth had returned to White Plains, N.Y. Syd relayed that he had talked to Bud and Dot Wesselman, both of whom were well, and also with Charlieand Marie Fleisher. John and Dot Rintels were off on a safari in Africa.

Speaking of travel, Fred Fellingham continued his annual treks to far-off lands with a trip last summer to Kenya, Egypt, London, and the Seychelles. Our research indicates that the Seychelles are an archipelago of 90 islands, belonging to the British, off the east coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. Upon reading this, Fred will, we hope, enlighten us as to their importance and what led him there.

Winter passes quickly for Brick Stone in New York City, who informed us, "I have a happy retirement so far (ten years) and hope to continue it for a few more. Have been working out some family history and often walk on Sundays with Dud (Judge) Bonsai. In the summer we garden, swim, and sail in Chatham on Cape Cod, where we have a summer place."

Your secretary and wife Ruth, together with Paul and Helen O'Connell, were the dinner guests of Jock and Elizabeth Davis last fall at an attractive dining club in Worcester, Mass., high atop the Worcester County Bank, of which both Jock and Paul are directors. Jock and Elizabeth have a busy time ahead as they plan visits to children in New Jersey and North Carolina before going to China in August with a group of agricultural experts.

"Though over 70, he looks like 60 and acts like 50," is the way Tom Anglem was recently portrayed by one of his sons. Tom, still active as a prominent Boston surgeon, has written numerous articles related to breast cancer. The most recent one concerned mastectomy and appeared in the publication Surgery,Gynecology and Obstetrics. Last fall, Tom was a member of a panel which discussed the same subject on Boston television.

Does any one recognize the nearby picture of the vintage Model A Ford in front of someone's frat house during that cold 1926-27 winter, which we remember well? We think it belonged to Jack Draper, now a prominent New York City surgeon, but we are not sure.

We are sorry to have to report the passing of James Van Loon on August 23, 1980; of William Stern on November 23, 1980; and Samuel Lyon on February 16.

Memory Jogger: Do you remember that Eleazer Wheelock's decision to relocate his Indian Charity School from Lebanon, Conn., to Hanover, N.H. (accompanied by a change in name to Dartmouth College), came after several interesting but trying years? Offers of new locations had been plentiful and included dozens of towns up and down the land from the Kennebec to the "Father of Waters."

Finally, in 1769, after an eight-week tour of the north country, Eleazer accepted a 1765 offer from New Hampshire's Governor Wentworth of a grant six miles square on the Connecticut River, and he drew up the charter which was approved in March 1770.

In August of 1769 Eleazer struggled with ox teams and laborers up the wooded hill from the river to the level plateau that he had selected. Bear, wolves, lynx, and panthers roamed the forest, some of whose giant pines, often 300 feet in height, had to be leveled. The first building to be erected was a log house, and huts around it for the students were soon completed. However, snow came before the roof of a college building could be laid on, and this was not completed until early in 1770. It was located at the south-east corner of the campus, near the old well, was two stories in height, and included 16 rooms besides a kitchen, a storeroom, and a hall.

See you in June.

In 1927, driving was a rugged affair.

11 Rolling Lane Wayland, Mass. 01778