1931

This is going to be a mighty thin column. I simply didn't get any news during the past month. (I've long been scared to death that this might happen sometime.)

Anyway, the most important subject for us all is the Alumni Fund. Let me paraphrase' Fund chairman Joel Portugal's message that appeared in "Thirty-One Up": "If you haven't done so already, please send in your gift or pledge today and try to increase it by 15 percent. That will save mailing costs and make our class agents' jobs easier."

The other day, I did talk with Craig Thorn in Hudson, N.Y., to get help in preparing Rog Donner's obituary. He and Frances are fine and still have a glow from their trip to China that Bill Wendell reported so well.

Have also corresponded with Walter "Bill"Farley about his worthy suggestion to the executive committee that we have a class questionnaire on current issues facing the College. (The committee liked the idea, you may remember from the minutes, but the consensus was that it was too big a job for any individual to tackle, and a committee approach just wouldn't work.) Bill attended the Dartmouth Horizons program last year and says it was "absolutely great."

George Conklin wrote the Magazine concerning the need for word limitations on these columns, ours having been reduced. He received an informative reply, pointing out that the older classes are allotted more words-per-classmate than the younger ones. Ours, for example, is twice that of the class of '81. George sent the reply to me, adding a note that he and Anne were sorry they couldn't stay for the dinner after the minireunion last fall.

Through some inexplicable mix-up, the death of Willard Francis Johnson in March 1984 was never reported in the obituary section. One was written but somehow went astray. This has been corrected, and a formal obituary appears in this issue.

Getting back to the Alumni Fund, the latest report I have had (March 7) shows that $5,458,000 had come in and the participation index was 23 percent. By the time you read this, the figures will be much higher, but there will still be a long and tough way to go to meet the $12 million and 70 percent participation goals. If you haven't done your bit do it now!

225 Jefferson Road Princeton, NJ 08540