1934

By now we will have had our mini-reunion at the Princeton game and colorful get-togethers at other fall events. So I guess it's time to finish the '34 sports review before the snow flies although for 10 percent of the class the best time of the sports year is when they can put on skis.

Last month we discussed the wide popularity of golf, tennis, hiking, and sailing among '34s. There are also plenty of regular swimmers and Charles Levesque liking his with snorkling gear. For FrankSweetser, Len Harrison, Bill Emerson,John Anderson, and Don Allen, jogging gets the nod while Les Reeve and CharlieArmes prefer covering their miles, on bikes.

Ollie Sargent, Aram Sarajian, BobGoodman, Dave Easton, Bill Carr, and John Randall get their workouts in a gym, and Howell Chickering gets his daily on a horse. The hunters are GordonHunter (of course!) for ducks and grouse, Bob Engelman for foxes, and John Randall for whatever. Another sportsman is Don Bunting - he trots his two basenjis around the champion's circle at dog shows.

Quite a few bowlers out there, and Stan Neill and Jack Corcoran are hooked on the icy version of the sport, called curling. But the biggest number (38 percent), matching golf as a lure, get a blood pressure lift out of watching sports on TV.

We'll check out the hobbies next time, but before leaving the questionnaire topics, I find it necessary to make another retraction. Karl Weber was astonished to see that he was one of two who had served in both the army and navy. He had checked two services, but they were army and air force: in short, his initial army air corps service led to post-war duty in the air force. A more current activity was the fascinating two weeks Karl and Kitty spent seeing Kenya again after 15 years - and them relaxing at the Alumni College this summer along with Don and Charlotte Allen, Harlan and KitBanks, and John and Mary Anderson, who all said they enjoyed it.

Speaking of John Anderson, he and Mary had prepared for this with a "Showtime in London" jaunt in spring after his triumphant year as president of Case Reserve Athletic Club. His many contributions over the years included his writing the official marching song of the university. One incident last fall he won't forget: in Case Western Reserve's final home game of an undefeated season (against Carnegie Tech) John was scheduled for some halftime oratory. The bands played unexpectedly long, and John was still spouting when the referee ran over and whispered, "Anderson, you have three choices: keep on talking, and your team will receive a stiff yardage penalty, or receive the kickoff yourself for Case Reserve, or shut up pronto and get off the field." You can guess which alternative he chose.

We have a flash bulletin from John Torinus, reclaiming number-one position from Ted Germann in the grandfather stakes; Anne, his 15th grandchild, has arrived, thanks to son Mark '75. And speaking of grandchildren, Bob Engelman has had a granddaughter admitted to the class of 1989 and has a grandson in '87. He wonders how many '34 grandchildren are at Dartmouth currently. If you have one, let me know.

At a Westchester County dinner last spring, Dwight Lahr, dean of the faculty, had interesting observations about the structure of course offerings at Dartmouth and mentioned that current majors show 32 percent of the students are in humanities, 40 percent in physical sciences, and 28 percent in social sciences. That's a major shift (from the social to the physical sciences) compared to our day. A quick review of the Aegis shows that in our class 26 percent had majors in the humanities, 20 percent in physical sciences, and 54 percent in social sciences.

Of course, back in the thirties there was special concern about how to handle the Depression and get jobs. We had 17 percent with a sociology or political science major, and 30 percent had either an economics or Tuck school major. Now they go to Tuck mostly as college graduates, not as a senior year major like we did. I did not allocate the six Senior Fellows (Don Allen, Emerson Day, Bob Michelet,Oscar Ruebhausen, Dan Schuyler, and Stan Silverman) in my tabulation, since they were free of "major" restrictions!

Now back to 1985. Anyone out there who hasn't sent in the $20 dues payment to our esteemed treasurer, Ed Brown, there's still time. Clever as he is, Ed still needs money to pay for the magazine you're reading and other '34 obligations.

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