1944

Time you read this I suspect you'll be basking in the splendiferous nostalgia of our never-to-be-forgotten 40th reunion. But not to rest on our laurels, nor to tarry. To your calendars, gentlemen: our 45th is in 1988 (just four years away; they stagger the years on us now and then; no, I did not say "we stagger over the years . . . "), our 50th is in 1994, natch, and our 55th is in 1999.

How about that last one as a thought for the day! June 1999, just six months shy of the turn of the century. See you there. Why not? Come on in, the water's fine, you know all the girls . . .

The water, and everything else, was just fine, thank you, at the College's sports spectacular in Boston on April 27 a once-in-alifetime gathering of the "Wearers of the Green," those Dartmouth athletes who have excelled as Olympians, all-Americas, world and national champions, Hall of Famers, major league professionals, and team captains. Over 1,100 people assembled at the new Westin Hotel, including 14 members of '44 and their spouses. Most were super athletes; a couple of us were athletes-without-adjectives.

On hand wearing '44 badges, were: WalterBurke, chairman of the Board of Trustees, Bob Callen (baseball), Bill Craig (lacrosse), Roger Feldman (swimming), Jack Haffenreffer (freshman swimming and skeet), Snook Hughes (hockey), Al Myers (football), Bird Partridge (golf), Don Pfeifle (Zeta Psi champion chug-a-lug team), Jack Riley (hockey), Dick Rondeau (hockey), Joe Vancisin (basketball), Stan Zarod (baseball), and Fritz Hier (intramural boxing).

A very snazzy souvenir brochure was produced for the occasion, and anyone who ever set foot in Alumni Gym should have a copy. Just send five bucks to Dartmouth College, Office of the Secretary, Blunt Alumni Center, Hanover. You'll find. '44 faces and feats throughout: Jack Riley, a member of the honorary dinner committee, Hockey Hall of Fame, Olympian in St. Moritz 1948, and head Olympic hockey coach in 1960. Rog Feldman, all-America swimmer. Don Burnham, all- America and national champion in track. HalCannon, Bill Harrison, the late Jim Hayes,Snook Hughes, the late Bob Mulhern, EdRoewer, Jack Riley, and Dick Rondeau were all members of the national champion hockey team.

Despite war-time interruptions of any- where from two to four years, '44 had its share of team captains: Al Barrett and StanZarod in baseball; Whitey Myers in basketball; Meryll Frost and Tommy Douglas in football; the late Whizzer White in golf; DickRondeau and Jack Riley in hockey; Mo Distin, Jack Snobble, and Phil Puchner in skiing; Bill Barrett in squash; and Don Burnham in track and cross country.

Incidentally, in the souvenir program, this is what coach Ellie Noyes '32 wrote about Burnham: "Don Burnham was Dartmouth's greatest runner across the board. He could run on a mile relay team, was a champion from 880 on up. He ran mostly with Navy V-12 teammates in the confused war years, was a junior Phi Beta Kappa and medical student. I can't think of his ever being beaten after his second-place in the IC4A indoor mile. He was a great athlete, scholar, now an eminent physician, a very gracious and humble man. He mentioned that 'anchoring two winning relay teams were his greatest memories,' failing to mention his many individual championships."

Among others at Boston, we sat with Boband Rita Callan and Stan and Isabel Zarod. Bob, who worked for New England Tel & Tel, retired one and a half years ago when he saw the telephone break-up coming. "It's a great life," he says, except that a bad back has made him give up golf. Stan stepped out of politics three years ago he was a state senator for 100 years or more and has since been Massachusetts commissioner of interstate cooperation.

Recent mail brought" some sentimental journeying from a couple of old Navy Air Corps fly-boys Harwick Caldwell and BobRiebow. They were members of the June 1943 Dartmouth Squadron which began its flying and fighting career at Williams College in Wiliamstown, Mass. Hardwick wrote to Wil- liams, which miraculously came up with a full roster of the 50 or so Dartmouth men in that unit. Then, on a tour south this winter, he dipped into Pensacola to revisit the barracks we bunked in and the fields we flew in and out of to say nothing of some of the local pubs.

Bob and his new wife headed Sunbelt-ward from Jersey in search of a future retirement location, and Bob retraced tracks around Chapel Hill, where we all spent four months doing nothing but push-ups. "I the street where our bus turned," he wrote, "and where the upperclassmen shouted 'You'll be sorry' at us. From our old dorm/barracks, Aycock, I even retraced my path to the bloody obstacle course."

Hate to end on a sad note, but two deaths to report. Ron King, sometime in 1977 in Florida, and John Dingwall March 21, 1984, in Pound Ridge, N.Y. Obits to follow.

That's it. Blessings.

304 Parkhurst Hall Hanover, NH 03755