1969

There is little doubt that this year's first order of business should be to express to all of you on behalf of the College and your class officers a heartfelt thanks for your tremendous support of last year's Alumni Fund drive. I think that we can all be proud of our first-place finish in the Green Derby and more particularly of the fact that 503 donors, an increase of 114 over the previous year, contributed in excess of $55,000, or 118 per cent of our class goal. Dick Glovsky, I'm sure you will agree, deserves special thanks for heading up our class effort, and what better way of expressing this than to appoint him head agent for life. Congratulations, Dick! Seriously though, as Dick pointed out in his August epistle, a number of individuals worked very hard to ensure a successful campaign: Bill Stableford, Gary Day,Tom Parks, John Leavitt, and Lyle Nyberg, to name a few.

It is apropos that we should find ourselves on somewhat of a roll as we head into our 15th reunion year, particularly in light of recent federal cutbacks, which will no doubt have a detrimental effect on the College's financial prospects. Let's hope that last year's momentum will carry over into this year, moving each of us to dig a little deeper in order to help offset this anticipated shortfall. Thus we have an added incentive to set and achieve an ambitious goal for ourselves in 1983. More on this later. Although we did a pretty good job last year, particularly in comparison to previous efforts, I feel we have much room for improvement, especially when you consider that of 758 members in the class, donations were received from only 503, or 66 per cent. That leaves 255 individuals who, for one reason or another, saw fit not to contribute. Let's make it a priority in 1983 to find out why. Surely, one would hope, each of us must recall some positive aspect of his stay at Dartmouth which would encourage him to want to help others share a similar experience. To this end, several of Us recently had a skull session at Pierce's Inn in Hanover in order to map out strategy and get an early jump on the 1.983 drive. I'm happy to report that Libby Roberts '79, of the Alumni Fund office, is our first contributor this year. I'm sure her boss, Henry Eberhardt '61, will be chagrined to learn that Libby plays a lousy game of poker, although she probably would have fared better had Stableford had the guts to stick around. In any case, Hank, we're already a third of the way toward this year's goal. While I'm passing out accolades, I'd like to extend a special thanks to Ernie Pletan for his support of last year's drive. Last I knew, Ernie had transferred to North Dakota either at the end of his freshman or beginning of his sophomore year and yet still thinks enough of his Hanover sojourn to contribute to the Alumni Fund. He's an inspiration to all of us who hung in there for the duration. In sum, I know that each of you will again be generous with both your time and money in order that we can continue a tradition of which we can all be proud. Why not get your 1983 contribution in by year's end so that we can start this reunion year off with a bang!

Speaking of reunions, Norm Jacobs pretty well outlined in last month's issue the kinds of activities you can expect come next June. I'm certainly looking forward to the '02 room banquet (the ultimate in late-night dining), and the children's program sounds like a sure-fire hit. Having grown up a townie, I'm anticipating a heavy case of déjà vu. Norm, I'm sure, will entertain any program suggestions. Why not call him at 617/373-1581 or drop him a card at 17 Locust Street, Haverhill, Mass. 01830. Or, better yet, why not volunteer to write next month's column and air your news and views that way. After all, last month's column was one of my better ones, to say nothing of beating the deadline for once.

Tom Parks is also seeking volunteers from the class. Herewith his plea to all '69ers: "Norm Jacobs, Bill Donovan, and I have formed a nominating committee to put together a proposed slate of new officers to serve from our 15th reunion this coming June until our 20th in 1988. The purpose of this message in the class notes is to ask if any one of you has any interest yourself in being considered for one of the jobs available, or if you would like to nominate another classmate who you think might do a good job and might be interested.

"The key positions to be filled include president (not much work to this one just setting up and running class meetings and making sure the other jobs get done), treasurer (collecting dues and keeping track of class funds), secretary (main job is writing the MAGAZINE column), newsletter editor, head agent (this one is a lot of work!), class project chairman (a new position heading a committee to make recommendations on class projects), and Alumni Council representative (an important new three-year position established by a change in the composition of the council to give more class representation).

"There are also some other jobs for which the nominating committee needs to make recommendations. We'd like to hear from anyone willing to work with the head agent or serve on the executive committee. If you have any interest in or suggestions for any of these positions, write to either Norm, Bill, or me (my address is 168 South River Road, Bedford, N.H. 03 102). We look forward to hearing from you."

That just about takes care of all the business odds and ends. I trust you all enjoyed your summers. On a personal note, I ran into Don. Johnson at the Fourth of July festivities in Hanover. He's still girdling the globe as vice president of some ski company and can be found in Grafton, N.H., when he periodically tires of his search for the perfect wax job. Played golf with Tupper Kinder and Bill "3-iron" Donovan a few months back. They're both retired and playing golf full time. Actually, Tupper still labors for the N.H. attorney general's office and fulfills his civic duty by chairing the town finance committee in Goffstown, N.H. Donovan, on the other hand, is a professional sandbagger and lives in Infamy, about a 3-iron from Tupper. Dave Boyle and son Scott dropped by the Saturday morning of the Colgate fiasco. He still works for Heublein, recently acquired by R.J. Reynolds. In addition to being a rabid proponent of the three-martini lunch, he now is pushing Winstons as an olive substitute. Dave's job gets him to Europe about four times a year and also to the Caribbean on occasion.

Please drop a card with news of yourself or others. My ammo was not satisfactorily replenished over the summer hiatus, and there is speculation that speculation is imminent. Was that really Dick Fryberger cruising the streets of Superior in a pink Cadillac at 5:00 a.m. last Sunday? This is the kind of innuendo to which I will be forced to stoop unless fresh material is received forthwith. Five will get you ten it was.

1 Meadow Lane Hanover, N.H. 03755