1949

What is about one and a half feet long and is used to hunt rabbits and rats? Who said a ferret? If you want to know more about this relative of the weasel, Dick Hoar is the man to talk with. Dick has recently been promoted to associate director of toxicology and pathology at Hoffman-La Roche, and a colony of 200 ferrets came with the job. It seems that there has been a long-recognized need for breeding a third species of mammal to be used in scientific testing, and the folks at the New Jersey-based drug firm are betting on ferrets. Dick pointed out that being a carnivore, ferrets have much more in common with primates than do mice and rabbits.

Birth defect studies still coneume much of Dick's time as head of the company's teratology section. His interest in this field dates back to the late fifties and his teaching days at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. While performing a surgical procedure on the adrenal glands of a guinea pig, the animal aborted and the newborn were all malformed. For Dick, it's been a search for answers ever since.

As to where teratology is today, Dick believes we are finally moving away from "counting the trees and looking more at what fertilized their roots." Fetal alcohol syndrome, in which a child can be born physically or mentally defective or both due to pre-natal drinking by the mother, is one dramatic example of how the activities of the parent can lead to birth defects. Statistically, one out of 700 pregnancies of women who drink will be fetal defective. Births with gross malformations now number 250,000 a year in the United States, and Dick says this number would be much higher if we counted abortions. Science and ferrets can only do so much.

Last month I wrote that I would try to contact Doug Carter when he returned from China, and I just made it. Doug will become a retired government annuitant in April but will still be involved.with geological remote sensing as a consultant. He plans to stay in Virginia for the time being but hopes to eventually set up shop in the Hanover area. His three weeks in Peking were spent lecturing to Chinese geologists for six days each week, allowing very little time for sightseeing. Doug found his audience "friendly, intelligent, positive, and eager for the exchange." The Chinese are in the process of building a Land-Sat receiving station and setting up an interactive computer system. For the time being they will be using U.S. satellites and paying a $250,000 annual licensing fee They eventually plan to launch their own satellite system.

Our winter ski weekend was sparsely attended but the Wagners and the Haaks spent a delightful day at the Woodstock, Vt., ski touring center. A cocktail party at Sam Kilner's and dinner at the Hanover Inn included Doris and Punchy Thomas, Bud Hughes, and Bar- bara and Sam Smith. Al Wagner provided the only news item, which concerned Jim Zafris and his move from the Colonial National Bank of Danvers, Mass., where he was president, to the Danvers Savings Bank, as president. Jim chairs the board of the Berklee College of Music and is director of the North Shore Chamber of Commerce and the Danvers Rotary Club. He is a former city councilor in Newburyport and was honored last year by the Small Business Administration as the S.B.A. banker of the year for Massachusetts.

Don't forget: Reagonomics means that the people do more, so the Alumni Fund needs us all more than ever before.

Quentin Kopp '49 (left) and Pete Bogardus '51 (center) joined forces in January to present a SuperBowl ticket to a member of San Francisco's Candlestick Park "sod squad. Stockbroker Bogardusdonated the $40 ticket to the Pontiac Silverdome (as well as the blue windbreakers worn by thegrounds keepers, in recognition of their work restoring Candlestick's turf); San Francisco SupervisorKopp drew the winner's name from a hat; and Sod Squad boss John Wurm (right) accepted the ticketon behalf of the winner.

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