1921

Here we go again the start of a beautiful new year. I shall be expecting all the men and women of the class to write with breathless haste about the interesting events of the past year. Your classmates truly wish to read about your children and grandchildren and the accomplishments of both. Come now, honestly, aren't you proud of them? So why not tell us "just like it is."

Meanwhile, we of the class can't avoid a bit of reminiscing on our own. Does this poem express our feelings? (It's from "An Old Man's Idyll" by Thomas Noel (1799-1861).)

By the waters of life we sat together, Hand in hand in the golden days of the beautiful early summer weather, When skies were purple and breath was praise!

It is seldom that your secretary receives a letter that is good for a laugh, but that is what Werner Janssen sent to Ort Hicks. It seems a new reference book on composers, conductors, and great musicians of the last two centuries contains a half-page listing of the accomplishments of our classmate Werner.

The reference to Werner starts this way: "Janssen, Werner (1899-1965)." In Werner's letter to Ort, he writes: "The enclosed review of a just-released, definitive reference book a tome on records some of us have attempted to do may hand you a laugh, for I am supposed to have left this world in 1965. And now writing you, I have been exhumed. What a coincidence! Several lawyers have wanted to take me on a contingency basis, but I thanked them, for I loathe publicity of any kind and must suffer the consequences despite being busier than ever in the grave!"

Who can forget Werner's musical comedy, Oh, Doctor, and the group of excellent songs such as "Oh, Doctor, try something new for me" and "Oh, how I love the art of Mr. William S. Hart, he is so big and strong."

As a matter of record, I must report that the Dartmouth Palm Beach Club held its annual meeting late in March of this year. We were privileged to have Mike McGean, secretary of the alumni, come down from Hanover to inform us of all the "easy" problems facing the College.

The dinner was splendid all of those present enjoyed themselves but our real problem is how to induce more alumni to attend this yearly function which will take place again in March of next year.

It is sad to report that during the last few months the class has lost two of its members, Reginald B. Miner and Chandler Symmes. To their widows, children, and grandchildren, the class officers send their deepest sympathies.

From Marjorie Bassett (Clarke's widow), who lives in Scottsdale, AZ, came a letter telling us that she had been visiting her daughter in California. When one visits daughters, it takes weeks to catch up with the news. It did leave her some time to play her favorite game of golf, and she came within an inch of making a hole in one.

Even though Marjorie was wearing "Foot Joys," made exclusively by Dartmouth grads in my hometown of Brockton, MA, the shoes didn't seem to help with that hole in one. Keep swinging through, Marjorie; eventually "Foot Joys" will produce that hole in one Bill Tarlow '50 (Mr. Foot Joy) promises.

To all the conservatives, liberals, and leftists or rightists who wish to tear up the Dartmouth campus, or any other campus, or on any other problem that we face and which becomes politically instigated by numerous protest groups, may I quote from one of our distinguished graduates: "Let our object be our country, our whole country, and nothing but our country."

- Daniel Webster, 1804.

Mildred Fish, left, widow of Robert Fish '18, offers congratulations along with her late husband'sclassmate William Hulbert, center, to Government Professor Vincent Starzinger, upon Starzinger'sbeing named the second recipient of the Fish Award for excellence in teaching. The award waspresented during 1918's 65th reunion last June.

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