1951

As I write these lines in August, the crabgrass battle has been joined once again. Dishearteningly, as you read these lines in October, the crabgrass will, once again, have won. But the experience of producing a column two months in advance has at least the advantage of forcing one to take the long view of things. For even as some plants (but not the crabgrass) Wilt in the midsummer heat, I know that ahead lie the cool, crisp, bright days of football weather, a time which for all of us will be forever associated with Dartmouth and Hanover. "Who can forget. . ." the pleasantly acrid scent of burning leaves in the air, the tang of cider carefully raisin-aged, the roar from Memorial Stadium that seemed to fill the whole town, the madcap victory march with the band to Rollins Chapel to ring the bells, the hemlock hills surrounding the campus in the twilight. Those days are all the more poignant now by our having survived successive invasions of "crabgrass" in all its forms in the thirtyfive years since. And would we not quickly return to such Octobers, and do it all over again, even though life's crabgrass always captures the field? Some of us have retired from the field, some have found new challenges on other fields, some have discovered new delights in old challenges. As Alexander Pope points out in his "Essay on Man," "Hope springs eternal in the human breast: Man never is, but always to be, blest."

Speaking of "springs eternal," FrankRussell is one who fits the last of the three categories above; for as CEO of Sleeper and Hartley Corporation of Worcester, Mass., he reports that he has been happily busied in besting the Japanese in manufacturing industrial springs. In both the first and second groups, DrewMatthews tells us of a Marine Corps career which took him to Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, and the jungles of Washington, D.C. Since retiring from the corps in 1972 after more than 25 years, Drew now spends his time in Naperville, 111., with Pros Management Services, a financial service. Bayard Johnston, down in Upper Montclair, N.J., continues with Sperry Corporation, where, with stints at Bell Labortories, he has been for 22 years; no retirement for him, what with a 14-year-old daughter. But he now luxuriates at Lake Winnipesaukee in August, while at home he makes fine, technically demanding recordings of many musical functions at Rutgers University. George Southwick, though thinking of retiring, continues in his 28th year to teach social studies so well at the high school in Lexington, Mass., that he has been honored with the DeMolay Annual Exemplary Teaching Award. Doug Gray writes that he no longer has a six-hour commute now that he consults out of his home in Media, Pa. Last November, Nase Hurowitz married a 1961 Smith graduate, Martha Grace, and while at her 25th reunion this spring in Northampton ran into Jack Weingarten, whose wife, Liz, is also a Smithie. RalphWatkins mwrites from Locust Valley, N.Y., that he could not attend our recent reunion because of various graduation commitments: from high school, his son, James, who is headed for Franklin Pierce College (whose president is Walter Peterson '47); and from Wheaton College, his daughter, Alexandra. Frank Smallwood, retiring as director of the Rockefeller Center for the Social Sciences, will be taking a sabbatical at Oxford University's Nuffield College. Bennett Bidwell has been named to the board of directors of Kerr McGee Corporation, an oil and gas concern in Oklahoma City. Bennett is also vice chairman of Chrysler Corporation.

The Tanglewood mini-reunion organized by Jack Giegerich and Nase Hurowitz on Saturday, August 9, was even more successful than last year's affair, what with the attendance of thirteen members of our class and one each from 1956 and 1969. Together with wives, friends, and offspring, 28 gathered at the Apple Tree Inn in Lenox, Mass.: Bob andJoan Hopkins, Dave Batchelder and Schatzi Ludwig, Jack Giegerich and Carole Mack, Jack's sister, Cynthia Wallace, and Ed Stern; Nancy Bridge and Jim Ryan '56; Tom Gilmore '69; Don and JoanneSnell and their daughter, Anne Bluemel; Joe and Paula Spound; Nase and MarthaGrace Hurowitz; Pete and Connie Krehbiel; Marc and Margaret Cole; Howie andPeggy Read; Jack and Ellen Lotz (who spent a week at Tanglewood on vacation from Jacksonville, Fla.), and Bill Boynton. Sally Pinkas, of the College's music department, spoke glowingly of the music program at Dartmouth at our dinner. All enjoyed a great meal, stunning conviviality, and afterward, beautiful music at the Music Shed, where we were joined by Andy Pincus, who covers Tanglewood for the papers. Together, then, in the cool of the evening beneath the stars on a moonless night, we listened to the Boston Symphony Orchestra perform a Mozart piano concerto and Bruckner symphony.

Batch, our class newsletter editor, has generously shared with me some of the items he has gathered over the weeks. I hope in the future not to have to rely on him to fill our class notes column. Please keep us all informed of your new or ongoing concerns, of any changes in your lives, of other Dartmouth folks you've run into, of your travels. Admittedly, space for news of grandchildren is limited unless, of course, they (or you) somehow qualify for the guiness Book of World Records.

Classmates will be saddened to hear of the death of Mike Conway on August 1, 1985, in Pt. Reyes, Calif. An obituary will follow.

178 Madison Avenue Holyoke, MA 01040