1941

My nominee for the guy in our class with the most unusual and interesting job is Bob Feller, so it's a special pleasure to announce that he has just been honored for his achievements in that job. For 30-odd years, Bob has been a specialist in the chemistry of preserving and restoring works of art and is now an internationally recognized expert in that field, in wide demand for consultation and instruction.

He was the 1983 recipient of the Pittsburgh Award, given annually by the Pittsburgh Section of the American Chemical Society, that city being the place where Bob lives and works. The citation paid tribute to his demonstration of the "important relationship between the physical sciences and art . . . His leadership in . . . preserving one of the truest and most telling forms of human expression is recognized by his peers."

If, by the way, any of you would like to challenge that "most unusual and interesting" flag 1 just hoisted over Bob's career, let me know. Would make an interesting discussion of 1941's paths since Dartmouth.

You've already read in "DFTD" that BillFlanders died last fall of a heart attack. "It was totally unexpected," Henrietta wrote. "I came home and found him gone. He'd been watching TV." There is an obituary later on in this issue.

From Ponte Vedra, Fla., we get greetings from Don Knight: "I've been out of touch for a while, so this will be an update. This is my ninth year of retirement, but busy years involving Republican party work. Have recently finished a stint as mayor of Ponte Vedra. Sara passed away two years ago, and I recently married Jean Boone of Sawgrass.

"Have been a member of American Senior International Golf Team for five years. This year we successfully defended the King Leopold Cup in Brussels and won the French Senior Championship at Deauville. The door is always open to any '41s who get down this way."

Add Bob Sencer to your list of retirees. Last year Bob cut loose from his post as professor of communications at Montana State University. He and Inez have moved to Grass Valley, Calif. "a new small home here in the Sierra foothills, about an hour's drive from daughter Sally and husband in Sacramento." They were planning to attend the Alumni Seminar in San Rafael last fall and hoping to find some '41ers there. Whether they did or not, we hope Bob will tell us.

Another note comes in from California, this from Bob Baker in Redondo Beach: "We are trying to sell our condo so we can buy our 'dream boat' and start cruising the world. Our youngest daughter, Elvira, is doing her residency at a VA hospital in Boston. She had a daughter last year one week before graduating from Brown Medical School. Some record, that!"

We had a nice long, chatty update from Stuand Audrey May last fall. Stu still runs the May Optical Company in Wareham, Mass., "fighting the battle against imports." Audrey represents the firm in New England. "We still have our mini-farm in Rochester, Mass., with the business —: making eyeglass frames and sunglasses only ten minutes away." He says daughter Nancy is now a free-lance illustrator in Boston and daughter Cindy a draftsman in that city's suburban high-tech belt.

And speaking of kids, I've been able to keep tabs on a couple of Frank Watters's offspring via the public prints. Daughter Nancy rated a headline in the Hartford paper in November when she was elected to chair the East Haddam, Conn., board of finance. On the job, moveover, she serves as one of the state's three commissioners of health care and hospitals, and so pops up often in news stories about hospital-cost legislation and regulations. And if any of you are Yankee magazine readers, you, too, may have done a double take when thumbing the December issue and finding what looked like a picture of Frank himself peering from behind an 18th-century tombstone. It turned out to be son David '72. He teaches American literature at the University of New Hampshire and was being written up as a leading expert on early New England gravestone carving.

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