1961

TWENTIETH REUNION

We looked good. That was the strongest single impression that everybody seemed to have at our 20th reunion.

With a few notable exceptions, we were lean and tough-looking. We seemed to be in better shape, physically, than we were when we graduated. As a group, we were certainly several tons lighter than we were in 1977 at our 15th reunion.

We did it by running, swimming, playing tennis, squash, racketball, you name it. If there was any doubt that the fitness craze affected our class, this reunion eliminated it.

At the reunion run, Andy Urquhart led our class with a time of 37:13 for 10,000 meters on what struck me as a hilly course. The worst of it, heartbreak hill for some of us, was the hill running up the west side of Storrs Pond. It seemed endless. Ronald McDougald finished second in our class with a time of 38:12, followed by Elliott Weiss in 38:20, and Don O'Neill in 38:40.

But those times alone don't tell the story. Andy, Don, Glenn Gemelli, Shelly Baroff, and Terry Rogers were in spectacular shape, as hard as rocks.

The second biggest impression was the cooperation of the weather. Everybody was afraid of it, and it had been the rainiest spring in Hanover since as far back as anyone could recall. But for us, it was fine. The apparently obligatory showers came, early Thursday and didn't return until after 11:00 p.m. on Saturday. The rains quickly turned the ground in the tent to mud, but the quick wit of our student aides got us out of that one. They turned some tables into impromptu duckboards, allowing the gabbing and dancing to proceed. Gim Burton's band.was good, attracting folks from the other reunions in our age range (1962 and 1963).

The weekend included a good mix of mindexpanding, mind-easing, and mind-teasing activities. Reunion chief Hop Holmberg was everywhere at once, operating out of first-floor headquarters in Middle Mass. Registration was smooth and absolutely painless, with nary a line. That's despite the fact that by the time the College cut off official recording of registration Saturday afternoon (and some came after that), we had tallied 153 classmates and 463 total persons. That represents 26 per cent of our living alumni and is a strong total. We were eased out by 1962, ever competitive, which produced 170 classmates, for 27 per cent.

The weekend included:

* Nighttime fellowship and dancing in the class tent.

* An impromptu seminar on the threat of nuclear war, led by Al Rozycki and Matt Friedman, two physicians frightened by the possibility, knowing the inability of American medicine to handle even a fraction of the potential casualties.

* A more formal presentation on the impact of the arts in our lives (featuring, from our class, Oscar Arslanian and Oak Winters) that had everyone who was there raving.

* An absolutely inspirational concert by the Dartmouth Glee Club that seemed better than we'd ever heard before. But our own Glee Clubbers, with those of'62 and '63, did themselves proud in singing for the alumni dinner in huge Thompson Arena, then joining with the current club at the evening concert.

* Formal courses (or at least formal lectures) on the turbulent times in the Middle East (the take-home lesson all the parties in the Middle East believe they have divine sanction, and have for thousands of years; also, most of the states in the region are artificial constructs of the Western powers), on "What is 'The Good Life' " (the lesson most of us really believe the good life is achieved through the family, and so do our kids, and virtually no one really wants to live unmarried with a member of the opposite sex, remain single, or practice homosexuality), and on operating the computer. * A relaxing picnic at Storrs Pond. * A chance to cross-examine the president, David McLaughlin.

But the real show of the weekend, once again, was our own Hollywood impresario, Oscar Arslanian. For nearly an hour, Oscar fired bullets fast and furious. He was at his skewering best, and many of us (certainly me) felt like crawling under the table. But it's more fun than any speaker could be. And he rolled us through a class banquet/dinner meeting at a rapid pace.

Yes, we conducted business. I'll be distributing minutes of that meeting through a future newsletter. A couple of high points need to be made here:

Hop Holmberg was elected president, succeeding Gerry Kaminsky, who becomes class representative to the Alumni Council under a new plan that will usually mean we're represented on the council. We all honored Gerry for a job well done, and he got a commemorative clock for his service.

Also elected, without opposition, were Vic Rich as treasurer, me as secretary, Bert Rowley and Bob Anderson as newsletter editors, Ron Wybranowski as 25th reunion chair, Ron Boss as head agent, and Oscar Arslanian, Dick Beattie, Charlie Buffon, Dennis Dinan, Henry Eberhardt, Fred Fields, Cartter Frierson, Bill Haynsworth, Bill Hutton, Mike Kirst, Larry Levy, Tom McDonough, Mike Murphy, Bob Naegele, Terry O'Neil, Dave Prewitt, Jack Reno, Al Roizycki, Jay Torok, and Hartley Webster as at-large members of your executive committee. Many will chair class committees.

Charlie, for instance, is the new head of our 1961 Fellowship Program, and he announced at the banquet that our next two fellows would be Stephen Bosworth and Jake Gillespie.

Steve, who was ambassador to Tunisia, now is deputy assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs and really looks the part, with a shock of snow-white hair. Jake is senior planning officer with the U.S. International Communication Agency.

Reunion was also a time for reunion, the do-you-remember-whens that seemed to go on constantly. There were also a share of happy coincidences, small world department. Jon Sperling, for instance, was talking about his next mission for the Agency for International Development to Indonesia when Ken Quickel, who now practices in Pennsylvania, spoke up of his own experiences in Indonesia with the Center for Disease Control.

We're out of space for this time, with lots more reunion stories to tell, as well as a good bit of news picked up from seeing the folks who came. I suspect virtually all will be back for our 25th, and I hope you'll be there, too.

Members of the class of '61 soak up some sun while sporting t-shirts proclaiming to the world atlarge the list of their classmates who came back to Hanover for their 20th reunion.

Judging by the photographic evidence presented by these members of two 20th reunion classes a '62(left) and a '63 (right) consumption of comestibles is a highly favored reunion activity.

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