1963

Lou Gerstner, whose signature might well be on all of your travelers checks, became the second most powerful executive at the American Express Company this summer following the resignation of Sanford Weill. Lou was named president of the $62-billion New York conglomerate, a milestone in a concentrated business career that began at Harvard, developed at McKinsey and Company, the elite management consulting firm, and matured at American Express beginning in 1978. Described as the genius behind the resurgent leadership of the American Express credit card, Lou is also depicted by the media as low-key but demanding and hardworking. Although his home-to-office routine is frequently 6:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., Lou rejects the label of "workaholic," taking at least four weeks of vacation a year, playing golf, gardening and reading.

Although we were not affected to the degree that later classes in the 1960s were, the Vietnam War was reckoned with. Now David Butler, a former correspondent for NBC radio in Saigon, has written The Fall of Saigon (Simon and Schuster, N.Y.), the subject of a New YorkTimes review by foreign correspondent Fox Butterfield. Dave "was another witness who couldn't forget," writes Butterfield, who was also on the scene during those "terrible last 55 days" in 1974. TheFall of Saigon is a "detailed and at times poignant journalistic recreation . . . beginning with the North Vietnamese attack on Ban Me Thuot in the Central Highlands that unleashed the debacle," according to the review. "Imitating the format employed so successfully in Is Paris Burning by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, Dave presents some extraordinary vignettes from what he aptly describes as the Fellini-like atmosphere of that sad country."

A Green Beret Vietnam veteran, RogerParkinson has put his instincts for survival to work for the Minneapolis Star andTribune, the nation's 19th-largest morning newspaper. The former publisher of the defunct Buffalo Courier-Express was credited with the miraculous turnaround of the Star and Tribune in an Adweek profile. Like Gerstner at American Express, Roger, as president and publisher of the Minneapolis paper since 1983, recorded impressive figures, including a 6.2-percent jump in six-day circulation in an industry where a one-percent annual rise is considered commendable. "We're up all across the board," says Roger, described as an ebullient and aggressive man "who looks younger than his 43 years. 'Rupert Murdoch may hit those kinds of numbers in two years, but he does it a different way.' " Roger's way includes "expanding the news hole by 20 percent overall and striving to restore the paper's once-proud journalistic reputation."

John Merrow, whose TV series "Your Children, Our Children" was described here last winter, is now marketing cassettes of the successful program in English and Spanish. He has also signed on with"The MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour" as education correspondent, and is co-producing a video series on the psychological maltreatment of children with Dr. James Garbarino, the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, the National Association of School Psychologists, and Penn State University. John, founder and head of Merrow Productions, Inc., is based in Washington, D.C., where he does a weekly commentary for National Public Radio and produces audio cassettes on subjects for educators.

Former Dartmouth basketball star SamBarton was pictured in a recent Advertising Age article on six leading marketing information service companies which compete with and often provide similar services of traditional marketing/advertising research companies in offering decision-making data. The Stanford M.B.A. is president-CEO of Claritas L.P. in Alexandria, Va. Founded in 1971, Claritas specializes in market segmentation and target marketing and is best known as the developer of PRIZM, a neighborhood classification model that assigns each census block group and tract, postal carrier route, and ZIP code to one of 40 life-style

groups. According to Ad Age, Claritas recorded $6.2 million in revenues last year, up 41 percent from 1983. The 75 members of Claritas's professional staff are located in its central r&d production facility in Alexandria and four regional client service offices. Two more regional offices will be opened this year.

Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company has promoted Jim von Gal to second vice president, Information Systems Development, where he will develop computer systems for insurance administration, agency, and customer services. Jim started in Connecticut Mutual's accounting department in 1967 where he managed commission payroll and was named assistant vice president of C.M. Life, a subsidiary, in 1982. He and Eileen, who is also with Connecticut Mutual, live in Avon, Conn.

John Whitmer, formerly a vice presi- dent at ITT-Continental Baking Company, has been named vice president-marketing at Glenbrook Laboratories in New York, a division of Sterling Drug. A Tuck John had also worked at Coopercare, Combe, Scott Paper, and Lever Brothers. John and Rosemary and their three children live in Riverside, Conn. Glenbrook laboratories markets over-the-counter medicines.

Dave Schaefer, our class president, was beaming at the annual Class Officers Weekend in Hanover. Caroline gave birth to Andrew Mead (6 lbs., 9 oz.) March 18, the couple's first. Schaef followed up with a unique "Schaefer Hybrid Sonflower" seed packet birth announcement, pictured near this column. He'll tell you about it at the '63 mini-reunion November 2 in Hanover. Also at the officers meeting PeteRotch, our newsletter editor, was elected president of the Class Newsletter Editors Association, and yours truly was honored as 1985 Class Secretary of the Year. We couldn't have done it without you.

Dave Schaefer '63 waxed creative on manylevels with this one-of-a-kind announcement of the birth of his son on March 18.Accompanied by a small packet of sunflowerseeds, the label describes young Andrew as"a bouncing baby boy who combines thebest features of his mother, Carolyn, andhis father, Dave. Ready to go to college injust 18 years."

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