1938

Storm Nelson (March 29) has just finished dropping 11 inches of snow at our front door as I prepare this class column. I am sure that many '38ers from the Carolinas to Maine have had just about enough as this storm blew, tornadoed, and leapt northward ever colder with sleet, rain, snow, and winds that would shake the best bridge loose from the latest denture-securer. In this fair state we had snow at Waterbury, but the Jim McKeons along the coast were subject to battering waves.

While in Florida, Ed White reclines, comfortably well-shaded from the heat. Red Boutilier writes from Medomak, Me.: 'In the last c-c-c-o-old spell, I was out in an open boat taking pictures of a newly-launched fishing vessel during its sea trials. It sure took a time to get rested and thawed."

And from Roger Buffinton in Tucson: "Here I am sitting at the picnic table in the backyard looking at the beautiful Catalina Mountains, listening to the birds singing away, and enjoying our 70th day in a row without precipitation, in 69-degree heat and about six percent humidity."

Of course I chose March to visit my grandson in Montreal, managing to survive three blizzards in two weeks. It hasn't changed that much, Blair Morrissey. (Blair was located in Montreal for a period in the sixties, with U.S. Steel.) My trip back to Connecticut was delayed because of a THREE-FOOT snowfall in the area between Montpelier and the Junction. I stayed overnight at White River junction, only to be shocked a bit at what I was watching on TV. The voice said, "The Leverone field house is being set up for an auto show featuring 20 dealers. ..." Oh heart of heart, what has happened to the floating duckboards on an otherwise dreary March campus?

"World War II friendship survives 40-year, 10,000-mile separation" is the headline on the following AP release, extracted from an Arizona newspaper published in December 1983. "After a gap of more than a decade, Aldepheus Anitou has gotten back in touch with a Navy captain he met when the officer visited his thatched-hut South Pacific village 40 years ago during World War II. Captain David Berliner, who now lives in Boca Raton, Fla., met Anitou after his ship docked at the island of Malaita in the Solomon Islands chain. Anitou had requested medical supplies from the YMS 266 and invited Berliner and some of his mine sweeper's crew to visit his village. The two men corresponded regularly after the war, but when Berliner settled in Cincinnati in the late 1960s, he stopped writing his overseas friend and they lost contact when he moved to Boca Raton. . . . Anitou managed to reestablish contact with Berliner after first contacting the mayor's office in Cincinnati. . . . 'It was a miracle that the mayor just didn't heave it. It was a miracle that the mayor found me and forwarded the message to me.' . . . Berliner quickly answered his friend's note, and Anitou responded with a five-page letter."

David had a wonderful voyage last summer, sailing to Bar Harbor, Maine, and back. "Lots of time to visit, wait for fog to clear, and enjoy unusually beautiful anchorages during our four-month voyage."

Correction: The reference to Val Graves should have read Val Cravens. (See DAM, January/February 1984, page 72.) Apologies to Ed Grace and Val Cravens.

Alexander "Sox" Calder Jr., who served as chief executive of Union Camp Corporation of Wayne, N.j., from 1960 and as chairman and chief executive officer from 19.72, will continue as chairman of the board's executive committee. Sox joined Union Camp, a billion-dollar forest-products firm that is a major supplier of paper, packaging, chemicals, and building products in 1940. Except for one year of government service on the Board of Economic Welfare and three years in the U.S. Navy during World War II, he has been with the company for the full 43 years.

By the time you read this, Bob Reeve will have presided at a meeting of the class officers, scheduled to be held in Hanover during the Class Officers Weekend, May 4-5. Any startling news will be forthcoming from your esteemed president.

Dick Francis slipped off to Bermuda so that he might work out the final details for the mini-reunion, September 29-30.

Gil Tanis, head agent, reports progress, but urges that pledges not be delayed.

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