1928

On our birthday card to Wat Dickerman, we asked what's doing with the traveling Dickermans. Wat and Eleanor came from San Francisco to attend our 50th reunion and took long freighter trips before and after it, but did not show up last June for our 55th. They replied that they were bogged down by sundry ailments. Having heard that Al Fowler, Jerry Warner, and Ham Hankins have Parkinson's disease, Wat wrote me to add Dickerman to the club. He and Fowler think it is odd that two college roommates should both contract the same disease 50 years later. Doctors seem not to know a cause or cure, but their pills are effective witness the fact that Hankins and Warner came to the 50th and 55th reunions, and also to mini-reunions in between.

After the 55th reunion, Budd and Mibs Maring took off for Kennebunkport, then stopped for a while on Cape Cod on their way home to Chatham, NJ. Their August note said they were spending ten days at the Pine Beach Club in Bermuda.

John Skinner Redington sent me a birthday card from his home in Boise, ID, and signed it "Skinner," which was his nickname in college (his mother's maiden name was Skinner). I can remember two occasions when friends introduced me to someone who laughed upon hearmg my last name. Aren't people funny!

I want to share with you a touching letter from Gene Magenis: "This year your most welcome birthday card meant a great deal more to me than ever before. It meant that we all have many true friends in our class of 1928, and that we as a class are an entity unto ourselves with our successes and failures, with our health and ill health. Mother Dartmouth still beckons to us. We still are very lucky to know her and should be anxious to assist her in every way possible.

"Last February, Fran and I celebrated our 50th anniversary. Our family is grown and we have grandchildren to lavish our affections on. Shortly after our anniversary Fran's battle with Alzheimer's disease got much worse, and after hospitalization for a broken hip in June she did not know me, nor her children. Such is the loss of memory caused by this terrible disease, that few of us realize how lucky we are to have retained this most valuable of our assets.

As one of the perennial class agents I was happy to see that through the leadership of Bill Marx and our dedicated crew, 1928's sun is really shining again."

After three trips to China, Roy Myers is planning a trip to Southeast Asia, Indonesia, and the like." Every year he drives from coast to coast, giving lectures which his agent books for him, with time to rest during the summer. How many lectures have you given, Roy? It's an impressive number, I'm sure. Roy was at our 55th - he never misses.

Brougham Wallace couldn't get to the 55th due to trouble with his back after the long drive from Delray Beach to New Jersey, but now all is well and he is playing golf regularly. He and Claire sold their Maplewood, NJ, home of 34 years last summer and moved to an apartment (91-A Forest Drive, Springfield, NJ 07081) which they consider their summer resort, with no yard or house work to worry about. By October they will be heading back to Delray Beach.

Gladys Moore finally decided she did not need all the space of a house since Hank died, so she has moved into a condo (Apartment 6-206, 1600 NE Dixie Highway, Jensen Beach, FL 33457). Gladys says she continues to stay very busy and her golf game is much improved.

Ruf Munsell writes that Ruth and he had their "Golden Age" party last year —they were married August 13, 1932. Ruth had a hipsocket operation, so walking during the 55th seemed inadvisable. Ruf asks: "Do you plan to publish any type of class directory in connection with our 55th? Past issues have been interesting and valuable to class members." The executive committee will consider it, Ruf.

Wes Patience says his garden and yard (in south Jersey) are a disaster due to heat and drought. He found the 970-mile round-trip drive alone tiring in the heat.

We have the sad need to report the death of three more classmates since the notes for the June issue were prepared (the September class notes section is limited to reports of reunions): Ben Heftier died April 21; Robert L. Clark on May 4; and Fred Stone, May 28. Obituaries will appear in this or the following issue of the Magazine.

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