1949

Despite an overcast, muggy day and too much Holy Cross power, your secretary enjoyed an action packed October 1 in Hanover. Having taken the team plane to Boston with the San Francisco '49ers the night before, I was in a position to be chauffeured to Hanover early Saturday morning by Father Earle Markey, dean of students at the Cross. Two San Francisco sports writers accepted my invitation to see a real college and were suitably converted. An enthusiastic invitation from Punchy Thomas to meet him at Blunt Alumni Center meant lunch on the College (Punchy is the last of the big-time spenders) and a match-up with John and WinnieStearns, Bud Hughes, Mike McGean, and Sam Smith. The occasion was a convocation of Alumni Fund "heavy-hitters." After the game, we repaired to Bones Gate, nee Delta Tau Delta. (Ort Hicks was still there.) It was enough to drag ourselves back to Boston for succulent New England lobster, but the next day's '49er win over the Patriots created a soothing flight home to San Francisco.

Telephone calls to my office from PaulBjorklund and Ray Truncellito in October indicate that they were in San Francisco. I regret that we couldn't coordinate effectively.

On August 11 (your scribe's birthday) the Wall Street Journal proclaimed the selection of Frank W. Munson as chief executive officer of the General Re Corporation, one of the largest reinsurance and insurance holding companies in the country. The redoubtable

"Mouse," who lives in Darien, Conn., has been president of the corporation, which he has served since graduation. We missed the Mouse at reunion and ask only that he bring us current on what's been happening to wife Barbara, a South Side High product (and an alumna of Syracuse University), and the rest of his brood.

New Castle, Del., veterinarian James R.Rooney received an international award from the Veterinar Klinic Hochmore of Essen, Germany, for continued excellence in horse research. The honor is given to only seven veterinarians in the world, and Jim was the second cited. Endowed by a wealthy German veterinarian, the award resulted in a trip to Germany for Jim and his wife, artist Marjorie Rooney, for the biennial Equitann, a weeklong "Festival of the Horse." Jim was presented a statue emblematic of the honor and then traveled through West and East Germany. Jim's specialty is lameness in horses, and one of his books, The Lame Horse, has been reprinted in German and Japanese. Brought up in Brooklyn, Jim majored in English at the College and then graduated from vet school at Cornell. One of the arresting aspects of his career is a professorship in pathology at Virginia Polytechnic Institute from 1955 to 1957. In September, Jim left drug testing work and returned to academia at the University of Kentucky Veterinary School in Lexington, in the middle of the thoroughbred capital of the world. It sounds exciting, and we welcome further news of Jim's son and daughter and their progress in life.

Matthew Wayner, Blumberg Professor and director of the Division of Life Sciences at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), received last August a National Science Foundation grant to support collaborative research in the biotechnical area between the University of Texas at San Antonio and the National University of Mexico over a two-year period. The investigation concerns how the brain controls appetite and thirst and, indirectly, body weight. Matt will work in Mexico. Before his appointment at UTSA in December 1982, Matt was a professor at Syracuse University (the Q's old hometown) and director of the Brain Research Laboratory there. He has also served as a visiting professor at several universities in the United States, Japan, Australia, and the Republic of China. Matt and his wife Theresa have three children; he obtained his master of science degree from Tufts and a doctorate from the University of Illinois following graduation from the ollege.

In early June, Dick Mallary, who has been executive vice president of Central Vermont Public Service Corporation (CVPS), resigned, citing "differences in management philosophy" with the president. Dick, who served in the U.S. House in the sixties as Vermont's only representative, joined CVPS in April 1980 after resigning as administration secretary. Dick had emerged as the utility's chief spokesman, and his resignation was a surprise to the Vermont utility industry. The Times Argus of Barre-Montpelier, Vt., reports that during Dick's tenure the utility "appeared to adopt a new philosophy of dealing with the public" and that Dick, who "came to utility after a career in elective politics, was at ease in dealing with the public and the press." In June, Dick said he had no specific plans'for the future, but didn't exclude elective politics. We need an update, Dick, and look forward to it.

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