1951

178 Madison Avenue Holyoke, MA 01040

Phrases such as "the dead of winter" and Shakespeare's "the very winter of our discontent" do not improve one's disposition at this time of year. Little wonder that holy days evolved among the ancients to celebrate brighter prospects precisely at those times when the sun shines least and nights are longest. When things are at their worst, and life seems to have reached its lowest ebb, that has been the very moment when saviors have typically come into being. Little wonder, too, that we continue, even with our comparatively unmetaphysical biases, to celebrate with lights and bright colors the approach of better times though in our impatient era we have come not only to anticipate them but to realize them as well in gifts given and received. If that is a failing, it seems a small one, one which has grown not out of covetousness but out of generosity. No less than the ancients, we're all in this together, so let us be merry and loving-kind with one another by sharing both our goods and ourselves at this time of year. For it is an earnest of the very best in our human natures, we who have it within us to transcend the cyclical regressions of physical nature.

Our class president, Bob Hopkins, is a prodigious letter-writer, and in his latest to us he suggests our discovering "new ways ... to take advantage of the enduring friendships and associations we started building back in 1947," when we entered Dartmouth. Let us say "Amen!" to that. Certainly one way to do that is to keep in touch with our classmates via Batch's class newsletter and dare I say it? this column. And there's much more available to us: local Dartmouth Club meetings, local interviewing committees for candidates for admission to the College, mini-reunions of all kinds (whether organized or impromptu). As Bob says, "You'll find you have ties that are stronger than ever." A few samples of news I've received will suffice to show how easy it is:

Pete Henderson writes, "Jean and I were at our son Guy's graduation from the University of Southern California last May and were surprised and pleased to run into Marshall Cohen, resplendent in cap and gown. Turns out he's Dean of the School of Humanities at USC."

Joe Welch not only writes but sends a photograph of a Dartmouth grouping at the wedding of Dave Hall's daughter Melissa's September 6 wedding to Alan Wentworth in Dave's seaside hometown, Kennebunkport, Maine. Also in attendance were Harry "Pete" Hall '50, Frank Dickinson '50, and Jonathan Hall '80.

Jeff O'Connell, former desk clerk at the Hanover Inn, now Allan Love Professor of Law at the University of Virginia Law School, has sent along a copy of a letter he wrote to Charlie Widmayer '30, thanking him for his biography of Ernest Martin Hopkins (Bob's uncle), who Jeff says had an "extraordinary capacity to be so effective in so many different situations to win over so many of the diverse constituencies he had to deal with through his grace and command, such ease and confidence and humanity in the face of often wracking pressures." Jeff goes on to conclude, "I came to understand much better the deep respect and affection that my father (class of 1918) and his brothers (classes of '25, '27, and '36) had for him and to understand the College much better ... by having flesh put on those wonderful names of Streeter, Lord, Richardson, Tuck, Thayer, etc."; and he calls for "someone who will do a similarly evocative biography of that other very extraordinary if in many ways very different man: John Dickey." To which, Jeff, we might ask: what about doing it yourself at retirement or in your spare time? After all, John Housman has the Professor Kingsfield role all sewn up.

Aaron Rausen is another professor who writes: "I am completing my fifth year as director fo pediatric oncology and professor of pediatrics at the New York University Medical Center, where the program is building in both the patient-care and research spheres. I still give occasional lectures at the Dartmouth Medical School as a way to get to Hanover, where my son, David, just started with the class of 1990. My wife, Emalou, is busy as a teacher at a NYC painted-finish furniture-design studio. My daughters, Elisabeth and Susan, commute with me daily to school in NYC from Long Island (Hewlett Harbor)." (Let me say to Aaron how much I appreciate his note: it was the first in 40 years from a doctor that I could actually read.)

Taylor Brandfass (a.k.a. Butch, Whitey,. or Bill) writes to say that the "medicine/ Madison"anecdote recounted in Batch's newsletter by Bill Brooks is entirely true. From internal evidence in his note, I deduce that Taylor practices orthopedic surgery in or around Gladwyne, Pa., which accounts for his signing himself as "Doc"! Classmates will be saddened to hear of the death of Ferguson F. Thiel, who died September 8. An obituary will follow.

Happy holidays. Keep in touch.