1961

David Birney and Arthur Bloom appeared on campus in early January holding workshops for drama students, meeting classes, and discussing careers in drama.

And the 1961 Fellows program once again earned headlines for our class on campus. On the day when most of the paper was filled with nearly a dozen stories related to the debate, The Dartmouth still found the space for a lengthy interview with David and an enormous picture by Jerry Mulcahy of The D.

The delightful interview by Kathleen Smith began with a quote: "I think I got into Dartmouth because I was the only one who applied from West Cleveland. I was lucky because it got me out of the inner city. Most of my old friends are in jail now."

David seemed to stress the insecurity of the theatrical profession in the interview, saying that he had "always been very lucky because I've managed to keep working in a business where, as soon as you get a job, you become unemployed. . . .

I've had my anxious moments. For instance, when I got married in 1974, I had no idea how I was going to buy a house and support a wife and family. But somehow it worked out. I just keep going and somehow the work is always there."

And he also talked about the competitive ness of the business and the need to be aggressive. "The people who hire you are not out there waiting for your Hamlet. You will have to earn the right to play Hamlet. It's a little like wanting to be a tinsmith, but you must first work on the assembly line at Ford Motor Company." David mentioned also the importance of staying in touch with school acquaintances. "Nobody will ever give you a job because you went to the same school, but it might help to provide the contacts." That, David, is good advice for all of us today. We may never know when any of us may be able to help a classmate.

I think it's worth noting that our program is having a strong impact on the campus, perhaps more than we might have dreamed when we started it several years ago. Now, of course, it's time to make suggestions to chairman Charles Buffon on next year's 1961 Fellows. His address is 1201 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, P.O. Box 7566, Washington, DC 20044. His phone: 202/662-5542.

There's lots of other news this month: Len Donovan writes, "After 16 years with Norton Company in Worcester, Mass., where I was a vice president and general manager, I left to acquire my own business. Following a long search and negotiations, I acquired Specialty Aluminum Inc. in Revere, Mass., in December 1983. Specialty manufactures the highest quality sand-cast aluminum products in the Northeast. Our customers are all leading companies in various market segments of high technology industries. All of our products are custom-made to each customer's specifications. It's a unique business with an excellent potential for growth." Len invites anyone to drop by to see the facility, which is less than ten minutes from Logan Airport.

Jim Richards was recently named "Minnesota Tree Farmer of the Year" by the Minnesota Forestry Association. He operates a 400acre tree farm called Maplelag, north of Detroit Lakes, Minn.

There's a major piece on Ron Boss in the December 5 issue of Forbes on how the company that he and his brother operate, A. T. Cross Company in Lincoln, R. 1., has just acquired Mark Cross, the store chain and mail order retailer of luggage and gifts, for $5.5 million in cash and notes.

As you might expect, Ron, our head agent, is already hard at work on this year's campaign, for which our class goals are $130,000 and 73 percent participation. He's added Rick Foster as doctors' chairman and BobMcIndoe as leadership chairman to go with a cabinet that already includes Oscar Arslanian as participation chairman, Frank Stephens as matching gifts chairman, Art Kelton as fraternity chairman, and Alan Orschel as regional chairman. The $130,000 is our share of a $10.3 million goal. The participation target is within reach if just a few people more can make a pledge.

Mike Murphy sends a copy of Squid Soup, a collection of short stories by Michael Mooney, featuring a pencil drawing of Mike on the cover. Mike Murphy borrowed Mike Mooney's book, from Bill Glenn. "I think they are very very interesting stories; I especially liked 'The Popcorn Stand' and 'Snow.' Believe it or not, the pencil drawing on the cover is one of Mike. We do change, don't we." (The drawing is of a baldish Mooney.)

Doug Zipes is making big news as the developer of a new pacemaker designed to stop ventricular tachycardia, an abnormal heart rhythm in which the lower chamber of the heart goes into uncontrolled, rapid beating. If not brought under control, ventricular tachycardia can lead directly to the dreaded ventricular fibrillation in which the affected chamber starts quivering like jello. That prevents the heart from being able to pump any blood at all and is a leading cause of sudden death.

Doug, a leading authority on sudden death syndrome, is a professor of medicine at Indiana University and a senior research associate at the Krannert Institute of Cardiology at Indiana University Medical Center. He developed the'new pacemaker in conjunction with Medtronic Inc. of Minneapolis, and it has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as an investigational device. The first two patients got the device in August.

"It's the first generation of this type of pacemaker, so I anticipate that it will be implanted in only about 30 patients," Doug told the Indiana University News Bureau. "It does have regular pacemaker features which allow it to set the pace for the heart when it detects a slowing down in addition to its ability to shock the heart." He continued, "For people suffering from ventricular tachycardia, this pacemaker will be like carrying an emergency room under their skin." Instead of having to use the defibrillation paddles now found in emergency rooms arid on medic-level ambulances, the device applies the shock directly. "Now we can eliminate having to send all that energy through muscle and bone and transmit a much smaller amount directly to the heart, stop the rapid heartbeat, and make the heart come back to normal."

Besides monitoring the new pacemakers, Doug has been making presentations to other cardiologists including at a September conference sponsored by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Doug also presented his ideas about what the future holds for reducing sudden death syndrome.

I'm writing this column back at my old stand in the newsroom of The Charlotte Observer and The Charlotte News. The sabbatical is fading fast, but I'll be writing about my experiences in this magazine. See you soon.

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