1944

A whoopity-do-da for Dick Mayberry, our intrepid class head agent, who led 1944 to a world record in this year's Alumni Fund for a class 39 years after graduation. Dick, and 39 intrepid regional agents and special chairmen, coaxed and cajoled in a cool $ 141,787 from 364 total donors, which was 63 percent of our scoring base and enough to win the Green Derby Group V in a runaway. Hot diggity dog . . .

Among this summer's Alumni College attendees (the theme was "War and Peace") were a couple of fairly recent, peaceful newly-weds: Bob and Nancy Purnell (five years) and Dave and Yvonne Judson (just under two years), and they had come a fair stretch to get to Hanover. Bob has been in private practice in Arcadia, CA, most of his life, specializing in internal medicine and metabolic diseases. Nancy teaches special education to youngsters with learning handicaps in nearby E1 Monte.

Dave works in Houston, TX, for Gordon's Jewelers, the second largest jeweler in the country. He is a buyer of quality, high-line watches, servicing 200 stores in 46 of the 50 states. "We don't have a store in New Hampshire," he said. "Maybe I can open one just so I can get back to Hanover more often." The Judsons almost didn't get back to Houston: Hurricane Alicia creamed Galveston and mashed Houston just as they were heading home. Yvonne Judson works in the real estate division of Sears.

John and Muriel Morse are getting smarter and smarter as time goes by. They recently moved from Summit, NJ, to Randolph, NJ, a 19-mile jump, in order to be closer to work. "Now I'm only a mile from my desk, instead of 19.Clever, eh?" Johnny works on the business side of the local school district and helps keep the budget balanced.

Another Morse, Dick, the international economist who lives in Honolulu, writes: "My most remarkable '44 event was at an immigration desk at Tokyo airport somewhat over a year ago, when I saw a distinguished, familiar face standing in line a few steps back. I decided to test my hunch. 'Are you from Lake Placid?' I asked. 'Near there,' he replied. 'Then you must be Mo Distin.' And of course he was. He and his wife were away to China in behalf of a scholarship fund her father set up. We hadn't seen each other since '42. But even ten minutes' chat moving through visa and customs lines was rewarding."

A most pleasant pop-over, from Center Harbor, NH, to Hanover, was recently retired consulting engineer Dick Rice, who kindly popped into my office. He had open heart surgery last year and so decided to pack it in after 35 years of engineering in Needham, MA. He and wife Suzy had bought a summer place on Lake Winnipesaukee ten years ago and they've fixed it up for year-round living. "I've got enough projects around and about to keep me going non-stop for the next ten years," Dick said.

From "X" Larrabee at the Research Triangle Institute in Raleigh, NC: "You wrote about some of our kids being in their mid-thirties. Ha, some are in their late thirties. My oldest, a son, will be 39 in August. Worse, in 1985 he'll have 20 years of US Marines-GI bill-VA employment service, and can retire, for God's sake, and become a double-dipper.

"We have three other college graduates and three non. Of the former, a history-major son is, naturally, grounds supervisor at a golf course in Oregon. A younger sister took her UNC journalism degree to Maine, where it's helping her manage a pizza parlor. Our baby daughter just graduated from UNC and we're hoping her anthropology-German major will help keep her waitressing at Tijuana Fats' in Chapel Hill.

"The non-graduates are doing better, especially the daughter who declined to try for a final math credit and has since had a splendid career with TV Guide in Seattle. Another daughter has produced three grandchildren, ours, and lives with her Danish husband in Denmark. And our third son put himself through the grinder of a technical college course in graphic arts, which is why he's in the furniture moving business.

"So what'll you and I do when we grow up?"

One never likes tapping out the news of taps. Sig Kulawik died April 14 while shoveling snow at his home in Sioux City, IA. Our sympathies to his widow Paula and their six children. Likewise to Warren Kimball, whose wife Adele died of a massive heart attack on July eighth in Contoocook, NH.

On a happier note, we'll keep reminding you and reminding you of our 40th reunion next June 11-14. We're ready to arm-wrestle with anyone who has any doubts about coming, so why bother lifting weights. Instead, come back to Hanover and lift a toast to 1944 and the College that sent us all out into the wide, wide world.

That's it. Blessings

304 Parkhurst Hall Hanover, NH 03755