1952
Whatever Dick McDonough has been doi ng seems to be working very well. I recently received a copy of a congratulatory letter to Dick from Henry Eberhardt '61, director of the Dartmouth Alumni Fund office, to commemorate 1952's breaking the 30th-year-out fund record. Congratulations to you, Dick, and to your equally hard-working agents! Also, the Green Derby statement I recently received put our class at the top of the heap in Group V (classes of 1946-1952) combined rating. Our contribution percentage was 39 per cent, compared to a goal of 63 per cent.
If you perused the June ALUMNI MAGAZINE, you probably saw that our own Marsh Meyer was one of the recipients of an honorary degree at Dartmouth's 212 th commencement. The degree of doctor of humane letters was awarded to Marsh for his courageous commitment to human rights in Argentina. Congratulations on behalf of the class, Marsh.
Two pieces of mail came in about Bill Davis, first a letter bringing me up to date on the Davis family and then an announcement that the board of directors of Betz-Converse-Murdoch Inc. had appointed Bill vice president of the firm's eastern group in Plymouth Meeting, Pa. BCM are consultants in environmental engineering, water supply and distribution planning, waste water engineering, solid/hazardous waste management, etc. Bill has been with BCM since 1974; it looks like he picked a growth industry. His new duties include client relations for the firm's state and local markets and marketing communications.
Bill has been active in civic planning commissions and is a member of several planning associations. Daughter Helen '79 is following in dad's footsteps; she is a policy planner with the City of Philadelphia. I am sure that state and local planning has taken on an even greater importance with the onset of Reaganomics! The other members of the Davis family are equally busy, with Will (Syracuse '81) working in Wilkes Barre with Nabisco, and Olie, who has put up with Bill for 28 years, teaching chemistry lab at Swarthmore. Notwithstanding the fact that Bill admits to having acquired 50 pounds since Dartmouth, he claims that all the Davises are healthy and energetic. (I'm afraid to think back to how much I weighed at Dartmouth!)
I'd like to thank Ed Finerty for thinking of me when he passed through town. He spoke to my answering machine. I just tried to phone him, first at his office (which number is no longer in service), then at home (I had hoped to be able to chat with Peggy). No luck at all.
It should be reported that all hands returned safely from the Minnesota Outward Bound trip. We recently held a weekend reunion on the Michigan shore of Lake Michigan, a stone's throw from Dick and Jess Spurgin's summer home. Unfortunately, Erik Gunderson was performing surgery that Saturday and couldn't be with us. One very pleasant surprise occurred during our layover at the Minneapolis airport on our way north. John Brower stopped by to say hello and to wish us well on our trip. (He also phoned me in Chicago after my return to see if we had made it through safely.) John looks just as great as ever. He obviously is one who has found the secret to aging gracefully.
Herb Roth wrote of a reunion held in July at "The Barn," the Roths' weekend retreat in Milford, Conn., in celebration of Harvey Kelley's impending marriage to Gail Warner. Sy and Maxine Grolnick were also in attendance. Herb wrote that it seemed astonishing that 34 years have passed since this trio roomed together freshman year. Since then, they have held together in a common bond of friendship. Sy is a psychoanalyst and is on the teaching faculty of North Shore Hospital in Great Neck, Long Island. Harvey is plugging Penn Mutual life insurance in New York City, where Herb is a lawyer, engaged primarily in litigation. By the way, Herb reported that Harvey and Gail were in fact wed. Congratulations.
Two late bulletins from Hartford, one from Houston, and one from New York City report that Tom Allen has been appointed regional vice president of the Travelers Insurance Companies and will be headquartered in St. Louis. (Tom, if you will recall, was chafing in Newark according to the 25th reunion yearbook.) The Travelers also announced the appointment of Neil Kelsey, C.P.C.U., as associate director of the data processing department in Hartford, Conn. And from Houston came news of Frank Moody's appointment to chair the Department of Surgery at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. Finally, in New York, Seventeen magazine announced the appointment of Dick Coyne as its western advertising director. Dick will direct the Chicago and Los Angeles offices. A lot of '52s are on the move. Congratulations to all.
In closing, thanks to Ken and Ellen Roman for the freshly caught bluefish as the Durot crew passed by Nantucket on the Mistral. They were delicious.
Three former freshman roommates from the class of '52 got together in July in Milford, Conn., forthe wedding of one of them. Seated from left to right are Sy Grolnick, Harvey Kelley, and HerbRoth; their wives, from left to right, are Maxine Grolnick, Gail Kelley, and Christine Roth.Details of the get-together are in the '52 class notes.
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