1944

It's not too early to start noising abroad the dates of our 40th reunion. Would you believe June 11-13, 1984, only some 15 months away. June 11-13 happens to be Monday through Wednesday, but don't let that bother. At our age, we deserve a few extra days off.

So tell your wives, remind your POSSLQs, inform your friends, and explain to your kids. I can't see why we shouldn't have every member of the whole damn class in Hanover come June 1984.

Max Edwards telephoned to say that his legal work in Washington, D.C., was keeping him as busy as.ever. "I'd like to retire to Arizona, where I came from," he said, "but this is where the action is." Max said that Buck Mansfield's daughter, Stephanie, was a crackerjack reporter for The Washington Post. And he, Max, said you could have knocked him over with a swizzle stick when he heard that Marty Shea had gotten married (in late 1980). "I couldn't have been more surprised if it had been the Pope," he said.

Max, Buck, and Marty were Tri-Kap fraternity brothers.

Talked, too, with Russ Smith, who has been an engineer with Hamilton Standard Company (aircraft components) in Simsbury, Conn., for the past 26 years. Russ transferred from Dartmouth to R.P.I., whence he got his B.S. His three kids are grown and on their own; he hankers for golf and sailboating; and he expects to retire soon. "An uncle left us a ten-acre farm on the ocean at Clinton, Conn., and we're there almost every weekend. Being there all year round will be just fine, thank you."

Down the Connecticut road a piece, in Glastonbury, Jack Landon is still in the food business. To be exact, he is supervisor of First National Stores in Windsor Locks, on the other side of Hartford. His five children are scattered - a son is in the Peace Corps and a daughter plays with the New Orleans Symphony and he and wife Barbara are grandparents four times over. Music was always an integral part of the Landons' life, but Jack says he's slowing down some from the time when he was singing with groups on television. Barbara is a language teacher and she and Jack stay in linguistic trim via trips to Europe.

Malcolm "Mac" Morse reports that most or the 140-year-old family business in Dallas was sold in the 1973-75 period, but that he retained some oil and "real estate assets. "So our pace is a little slower and more graceful, he says, "and I'm devoting more of my time to my boating interests. My huge old Cape Cod catboat is somewhat of a spectacle on Lake Texoma, where she's the only one of her kind."

Happy news from engineer Gordon Ross in Canton, Ohio. He re-married in June 1982, a year and a half after his first wife died. "I have found another wonderful person with whom I can share my life," he writes. "Dark and I are two very, very happy people." I can vouch for that, looking at the picture; but I can't use it, unfortunately, because it's in color. Only black and white photographs reproduce in the class notes section.

A note from Don Currier's widow Fran: "Delighted to learn of your recent marriage. I know life together will be filled with happiness. Dartmouth husbands are very special people. Johnny Lesher called a few weeks ago. He and Alice had a lovely vacation in Switzerland in early fall, and it was good to catch up on all their family news."

Comings and goings: John Bird's father, Francis H. Bird '09, one of the dozen or so oldest living Dartmouth graduates, died last November 1 at the age of 95. "He was on his toes, if not in ballet slippers, right up to the end," said John. Fran Bird drafted the country's first workmen's compensation law while working for his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin; he was dean of the school of business administration at the U. of Cincinnati for 32 years; and he served on the War Labor Board arbitration panel in World War II.

Lots of Buffalo press coverage on ClaudeShuchter's impending retirement in April, when he reaches 60. He steps down as chairman and chief executive officer of the First Empire State Corporation, the parent company of Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company, after 24 years with the company. Claude became First Empire's chief executive in 1976 and increased its profit from a minus $2.75 million in that year to a plus $ 13 million in 1982. Beyond that, he's been just about everything in the city and has earned the title "Mr. Buffalo." He says that he and his wife have no immediate plans "we'll take it easy for a while, and then maybe get out and see the U.S."

No details, only the word that engineer George Sawyer is moving from Miami to Argentina. I'll get my bloodhounds onto it.

We started out with Russ Smith in Simsbury, Conn., and we'll wind up with Taylor Pratt in Simsbury, Conn. Taylor is director of corporate marketing research for Emhart Corporation in Hartford, Conn., and as far as I can figure it, that's a new name for an old company he worked for when he was in Boston. And it still manufactures industrial products. Anyway, one of his daughters has made Taylor and his wife grandparents; a second daughter is a research assistant at Woods Hole; and son Chris '73 is a lieutenant commander in the Navy, stationed on the West Coast.

That's it. Blessings.

304 Parkhurst Hall Hanover, N.H. 03755