1966

The class of '66 just keeps getting better and better. For the first time in recent memory, we outstripped our Alumni Fund drive by a healthy margin. Total giving was a whopping $91,049 with a participation percentage of 62! The dollar objective was $85,000, with participation at 70 percent. (Our participation, though up from 58 percent last year, still needs improvement, but who can argue with the job Steve and Hector have done again this year!) Let's give ourselves a round of "attaboys."

Speaking of better and better, Bob Baird and his wife Ann called to announce the birth of Andrew Scott Baird, born August 8, weighing in at seven pounds, two ounces, and he is 20 inches long, "with a 36-inch chest." (That's because he is a Texan.) I can't help but muse that Bill Hayden's son will be a freshman in Hanover this fall. It only goes to show that the age distribution curve of our kids is still being determined. (I wonder what the mean age is?) By the way I determined from a quick check of Bob's birthday the answer to my question of last spring how our various 40th birthdays were spent. But keep the cards coming on in. We truly will award a prize for the best story at our 20th reunion in June 1985.

Further in the news, I finally found out how Harris Jones got the airplane he was rebuilding out of his basement, as last reported. (For those of you who save this column, see April 1981.) But you'll have to write Harris at IBM to find out. Since then, he has been flying his "ragwing" single-engine Pacer around the country. Last summer he flew to Kansas City. Then, to challenge himself further, he flew to Indianapolis for the Indy 500 without a radio. (Mayday, over and out!) It seems that a half-hour out of Poughkeepsie, he smelled smoke . . . coming from the cockpit . . . from the radio. Undaunted, Harris pressed the stick forward and flew visually to Indiana and back. (He carefully avoided control towers, flew low enough to navigate over cornfields and state highway signs, re-creating what the first airmail pilots must have felt.) My hat's off to him for such bravado, but I don't think I'll be making a seat reservation any time soon. Harris, by the way, now works for IBM Research in Fishkill, N.Y. At last mention in this column, he was in the York town Heights R and D center. Before IBM (was there such a time?) he had done his doctoral work in solid state physics at the University of Geneva and then worked at CERN. His wife Jeannie is also an IBMer. They have two boys, Mark, ten, and Will, eight.

To help my news backlog, Os Skinner '28 sent me a clipping on the continued progress of Ken Taylor's packing plant in Wy alusing, Pa. (See November 1982.) The Taylor Packing Company, (the largest such operation on the East Coast) is on the verge of further expansion, planning a $9-million addition to the plant, and allowing for another 100 employees over the next few years.

The final note for this month (remember, you are reading this column in October, with any luck, and I am writing it August 12 thanks, Doug!) is that Dave Dewan was promoted to associate professor of anesthesia at Bowman Gray School of Medicine at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., July 1. Dave has been at Bowman Gray since 1977 and has been head of the school's obstetrical anesthesia group. Congratulations, Dave!

884 Pueblo Drive Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417