1941
Comes now a new class-notes season. Comes now a new class-dues season. Directly related matters, those, because when you pay the dues, you're going to turn over the notice and write us a note about what's happening, thus providing grist for this mill for months to come. You are going to do that, aren't you? Good.
As usual, sadly, we have to begin by mourning classmates lost since the last writing. Bill Durkee died last May in Denver. Bob Mensel died at Mary Hitchcock Hospital in June. And Brummy Miller died in July in Waukegan, Ill. You'll find obituaries further back in this or a later issue of the MAGAZINE, and our condolences go to the families of all.
In addition, as you may have noticed in the September issue, Professor Ray Nash, who was an adopted member of our class, died in May. Ray came to Dartmouth in 1937, just as we did, and until his retirement in 1970 served as professor of art, director of college publications, director of the graphic-arts workshop, and as good friend and mentor to many, many undergraduates.
Summer brought a chance to chat on the phone with Mort McGinley, who called to tell us of Bill Durkee's passing. Mort says he is "basically practicing law," but besides that he's raising cattle, feeding cattle for others, involved in the development of a ski area on Pike's Peak, and managing a mining venture in Montana. Forgot to ask what he does with all his spare time.
Two members of 1941's medical contingent have been taking time out for speechmaking. Last spring, Gene Stollerman, now professor of medicine at Boston University, delivered the annual Chambers Lecture at Dartmouth Medical School a most thought-provoking discussion of medical ethics and doctor-patient relationships in today's society. And in June, William Dignam, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at U.C.L.A. since 1951, delivered the annual Rudolph Memorial Lecture at the University of Rochester Medical Center.
In the bad-news-that-could-be-worse department, Chet and Dot Stothart have been having their problems lately. While visiting a married daughter in Michigan last.summer, Dot took a midnight header down a flight of stairs, suffering serious cranial and spinal damage and partial paralysis. Chet says she's making fine progress but faces months of therapy at Gaylord Convalescent Hospital in Walling ford, Conn. He recently retired from the autosales business, and they have moved to a shore home in Bridgeport, Conn. When not visiting Gaylord, Chet helps out in the distribution end of a booming decorative-tile business that daughter Kendra has built up in nearby Fairfield.
There's still more news on the platter, but it will have to keep warm in the oven until next month to leave room for an item of class business.
In May, Prexy Bruce Friedlich, Dan Provost and his new wife Maxine, and the Youngs, Gotshalls, Winships, and Harveys met in Hanover for the College's annual Class Officers' Weekend. The '41 meeting was spent chiefly in further meditation on a class project some facility or service that '41 could provide Dartmouth or its students on our own, financed primarily out of class dues and replacing the career seminar, "Is There Life After Dartmouth?," which our class ran for so many years.
By now you may have received an in-depth report from Winship, but Bruce asked for a brief rundown here, too. The '41 fall reunion is set for Bonnie Oaks October 15 and 16, and he was planning to put the subject to all classmetes in attendance.
A lengthy list of possibilities has been collected, split roughly into three categories:
Student life. First, we might donate a social facility of some kind a dorm or dorm-cluster "common room," a patio for the Collis Student Center, etc. Or we could establish a Class of 1941 Scholarship. Or we could fund a student internship in almost any administrative department of the College, which would give a student a job and relieve the College personnel budget.
Career assistance. Our earlier program was in this area. Now the Career and Employment Services (C.E.S.) office is trying to strengthen its counseling and placement services. We could finance a student intern or a seasonal aide to work with companies that interview and recruit on campus. Another C.E.S. need: financial support for students who work during offcampus terms with non-profit, public service, or governmental organizations that can't afford to pay for such work.
Continuing education. Alumni College is the best-known example, but Dartmouth does much else (and would like to do more) to make its educational resources available to alumni. Lack of money threatens some activities and blocks new ones. We could sponsor a program in this area.
You'll be getting more detail, but Bruce wants your input beginning now. Do you favor such an undertaking? For or against any of the above ideas? Got other ones? Write Bruce at Henderson and Friedlich Inc., 600 Third Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016. Or Steve and the newsletter at R.F.D. 2, Box 93, Concord, N.H. 03301. Or me and this column at the address up top.
Box 331 Essex, Conn. 06426
