1941

Did you read the article in the ALUMNI MAGAZINE last spring about the big party in Hanover to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Dartmouth's radio station, WDCR? If so, you probably noted that an honored guest and principal speaker at the affair was Dick Krolik. It was Dick who, in our senior year, led the fight that eventually broke down College resistance and brought student owned and operated radio - DBS it was then to Dartmouth.

The group whose proposal the College accepted in May 1941 also included Tom jardine and '42s Bill Mitchel, George Brickelmeier, and Buzz Cassidy. If few of you remember hearing DBS programs, it's because the station didn't start operating until the fall of 1941, after we'd left. Dick himself, in fact, never heard his creation on the air until he addressed WDCR's third birthday banquet back about 1961. He said in that speech: "Actually, today was the first time I had ever heard a sound from this 'brainchild,' after 20 years, and it was pretty impressive... I heard a magnificent rock 'n' roll record."

Incidentally George Herman, 1941's certified broadcast celebrity, was also to have been a speaker at last spring's celebration, but he was caught in Washington by last-minute news responsibilities and didn't make it. He was, though, one of four alumni interviewed at length by the Dartmouth for a big feature on the media published at the time of the WDCR bash.

Correspondence with Krolik generated by all the above also produced some personal news: "What I'm up to is testing whether I can start a career in journalism at age you- know-what. Been writing for Dossier, a non-weighty monthly that chronicles such things as high-priced real estate transactions and glimpses of society at play in D.C.... Other news: Peter Keir has retired from the Federal Reserve Board and signed on as a consultant to the Institute of Life Insurance."

That was last May. Last June brought publication of Portrait of a Woman Down East, a collection of the writings of the late Mary Bolte selected and edited by Chuck Bolte. The pieces originally appeared in Harper's, the Atlantic, Down East, and other periodicals, as well as in her two books. Down East Books is the publisher, and I recommend it. And, finally, July's news was the election of Grant Hesser as president of the American Council for Construction Education, the national agency which accredits college and university four-year degree programs in construction education. Grant was one of ACCE's founders, and his qualifications to head it are plain enough. He has been 37 years with Chas. V. Maescher and Company, a Cincinnati general contractor construction-management firm, of which he is now board chairman. And he's been a director and officer of more construction industry organizations and programs than you and I ever knew existed.

That, at last, brings us up to date. In the nick of time, too, because Dan Provost's mailing on 1941's October mini-reunion netted a whole barrel of stuff, which he has passed on and which we will dive into forth with.

The last time he checked in, Ira Skutch described himself as "the oldest living games how producer in TV." But no more. "After 26 and a half years with Goodson-Todman, I have decided to go off on my own. I'm in the process of putting together a theatrical company to produce plays here in L.A. This is getting to be more of a theatre city every year. There is. a wealth of talent here, of course, and there have been a number of exciting productions."

There's a whole lot of travelin' going on. Unable to make the fall reunion were UncRichardson, because "Peggy and I will be cruising on the Greek Isles," and FritzCluthe, because "we are leaving for Europe on September 10 and won't be back till the end of October."

Bruce Brown was already in England when he sent regrets. "Have been visiting friends and sightseeing in London. We're staying at an elegant country manor in Wiltshire at the moment, after touring in Wales, the Cotswolds, Bristol, and Bath. Spent a weekend in Suffolk at the country home of Sir Hugh anLady Hambling, whose son Peter is my gods on. Back to London tomorrow and then to Oxford to start a two-week course at Worcester College."

From Albuquerque, N.M., meanwhile, Dick Paul pleads: "After 11 foreign countries and 23 states in the last five months, I will take a rain check. Along the way, saw Judge Cam Farmer, who is considering moving from Muskegon, Mich., to this area if and when he retires. Also saw cousin Spider Paul in Seattle."

Be assured, however, that Provost's return mail contained a good number of replies from classmates whose only travel plans were for a trip to Leb and Hanover for the October 8 weekend. A report on that and lots more in our next.

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