1965

In the late fifties, the most advanced concept in residential living was captured in the architecture of the Choate Road dorms. The intent of the design was to isolate a group of occupants around a common living area in order to encourage the formation of a tightly knit social unit. Assigned to one such group were those members of our class who arrived at Suite 302 of Brown Hall in the fall of 1961. Perhaps if we recall the diverse backgrounds and personalities of such a "scientific sample" and catch up on what has happened to them in subsequent years, we can learn something about Dartmouth, the class of 1965, and even ourselves.

John Ferdico came to Hanover from the upstate New York town of Gloversville and is now living on the banks of the Kennebec River near Dresden, Maine. He is an author of books dealing primarily with criminal law and was formerly an assistant attorney general for the state of Maine. John worked his way through Northwestern Law School by driving buses and cabs in Chicago and spent two years in the Boston area living off his ability to play a lively piano. John's present home adjoins an island game preserve, and his activities frequently include pleasant afternoon sailing excursions.

Sharing room 302F with John our first year was Tom Sakmyster, who came from Metuchen, N.J. Tom majored in history at the College and continued his studies at Indiana University where he received his Ph.D. in 1970. He is now a full professor at the University of Cincinnati, specializing in the study of eastern Europe. He and his wife, Diane, have two daughters, and at the time of our conversation the entire family was heavily involved in youth soccer.

John Van Gorder was from a navy family and in his student years considered his home to be some combination of Virginia, Massachusetts, and England. After graduation, John spent nine years as an air force officer; his tours of duty included serving as a social aide to President Nixon. After leaving the service, he worked as a consultant on governmental procurement matters and received a master's degree in contract administration from George Washington University. John has subsequently been an International Jaycee vice president, a law graduate from Fordham University, and an attorney in private practice. He, his wife, Sandy, and their two girls are now living near Philadelphia where John is an officer with a large charitable trust.

John's freshman roommate, Jim Westfall, came from Indianapolis. After studying and teaching at Tuck School, he then moved into the business world in various corporate planning and development roles in Oregon, Florida, and eventually Maine. Jim returned to the academic world on a part-time basis four years ago and is now a full-time assistant professor of business at the University of Southern Maine. He and his wife, Dian, an interior designer, share four children. Jim says his "mid-life crisis" is admitting how much he enjoys teaching and convincing himself to go after a doctorate in business as rapidly as possible.

John Kunz moved into Brown Hall from the distant state of California. He majored in engineering and later received his Ph.D. in computer science and physiology from Stanford University. His career has centered around combining the physical and life sciences, and he is presently serving as a senior scientist with Intellicorp, a pioneering Silicon Valley company engaged in the development of artificial intelligence. He, his wife, Gay, and their two sons returned to our reunion last June. John, long active with his family in the Dartmouth Outing Club of Northern California, reports his boys were shocked on their visit to Mount Moosilauke to find "another" DOC so far to the east.

Naison Mawande listed his home as Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, when he first arrived in Suite 302. He is now living in the identical geographic area, but with a dramatic change his address is considered to be in the city of Harare in the Republic of Zimbabwe. Naison serves in a significant leadership position in what I understand is a tremendous effort to develop a balanced Zimbabwean society in the former British colonial area. He prepared for such a role by being a government major at Dartmouth and going on to receive an M.A. in international relations from the University of Western Ontario in 1967. Unable to return to his troubled region because of his participation in the banned Zimbabwe African National Union, Naison remained in Canada as an officer with the Canadian Human Rights Commission. In 1981 he was able to end his exile and now serves as the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of the Public Service. Naison writes, "Dartmouth and the U.S. have given a lot to me arid many of my countrymen who are now ministers, permanent secretaries, jurists, doctors, academicians, and writers. The friendships we made, even though now broken by time, space, involuntary exile, and a 15-year war, are still remembered with fondness. I will forever be grateful to my professors, classmates, roommates, and the administrators at Dartmouth for all this. I remember nothing but generosity where it was needed and patience where the tempers of the time seemed to put us on different sides of the fence. The new frontiers of the struggle for justice in South Africa call for these same qualities. We, here on the edge of the storm, hope our friends in the U.S. will support this effort just as you supported us."

Certainly Suite 302 seems to have had an interesting, intelligent, and diverse group of occupants. Twenty-four years later these adjectives seem even more appropriate than in 1961. If these six classmates are representative of us all, then perhaps we '6ss are doing quite well.

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