1947

Mid-February, and the April issue is calling for this column. By a strangeness of fate and scheduling, I just completed the March column six days ago, and now it's time for another. And for the one just finished, I went all out, using up all my news only to find my column far too long and needing editorial shears. I condensed everything in half and won approval, but still I've used up all my news. Fortunately, two letters came in, one from John Trethaway, and one from the College, and this column was born.

The 800-word column limit will push the John Trethaway story, and his African safari in March, into a September column.

I would like to dedicate the rest of this column as a tribute to a classmate who has succeeded and is now embarking on new challenges. How wonderful to read the NewYork Times on January 3, and learn that New York governor Mario Cuomo has appointed Judge Fritz Alexander II to a full term on the New York State Court of Appeals. Probably many of us would have predicted that he would succeed, after seeing the steady, hardworking, stonewall center of the Dartmouth line perform on Saturday afternoons in the late forties. Hard-working, persistent, disciplined, strong all could be used then to describe his way. And these are precisely the adjectives used this January by his peers in acclaiming his appointment. I would like to include as much of the Times article as space permits and will both quote and paraphrase. "Mr. Alexander was born in Apopka, Fla., and reared in Gary, Ind. He was a quartermaster, second class, in the navy during World War 11. In 1947, he graduated from Dartmouth College, where he played center on the football team. He received a law degree from the New York University Law School in 1951, and six years later joined with Thomas Benjamin Dyett and Mr. David Dinkins in forming the law firm of Dyett, Alexander, and Dinkins. Before his appointment by Governer Cuomo, Mr. Alexander was a justice in the appellate division of the State Supreme Court for the First Department, which covers Manhattan and the Bronx.

"He was also a member of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, which reviews and investigates complaints against judges in the state. Mr. Alexander, a widower and father of three, is described as perceptive and thorough on the bench, warm and sociable off. 'He is unanimously respected as a judge, as a person, and as a Commission member,' said Gerald Stern, administrator of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, from which Mr. Alexander stepped down to accept his post on the Court of Appeals."

Over the years, Judge Alexander has become a respected community leader. He formerly was president of the Harlem Lawyers Association, now merged with the Metropolitan Black Bar Association, and helped found the National Bar Association, a black lawyers group, and the New York-based 100 Black Men, Inc. Fritz's colleagues who know him well describe his even temperament. He is tailor-made for the bench, ideally suited for the judiciary. First of all, he likes it; he really loves it. There's a lot of hard work and research involved, and he eats it up. He would not be satisfied at all with a memorandum half done. He has a marvelous, even disposition, and there is a lot of respect for his fairness and judicial temperament.

Fritz himself describes his journey through the ranks of the New York judiciary as a steady and disciplined trail, not a quick and flashy jump up the political and judicial ladder. He plays down whatever obstacles, racial or otherwise, he may have overcome or the historical significance of his holding his present post. Says one colleague, a judge and former partner, "He thinks he can cook chili. He's good company."

Fritz received a timely note, from one of our own, Norm Fink, himself the deputy vice president for development at Columbia University: "Almost four decades have passed since our days together in Hanover, N.H., a fact which I sometimes find hard to believe. For some of us, those years have been more of a struggle than for others. You and I had to do it on our own, and that is one of the reasons that I presume to share the pride of achievement to which you are so rightly entitled. There are few judicial tribunals in the world that have the distinguished history and compelling impact as our Court of Appeals, and to have a friend attain the distinction and assume the awesome responsibilities of such high office is heartwarming and gratifying. God Bless."

And best wishes from your secretary.

63 Maple Avenue Keene, NH 03431