1963

555 Fifth Avenue, Ninth Floor New York, NY 10017

Roadtrip '86! I leave my office at 2:30 p.m., Friday, October 17, in perfect crisp sunny autumn weather. It's Hanover or bust for Homecoming Weekend and the annual class officers meeting.

The foliage along the newly toll-free Connecticut Turnpike is gorgeous in hues of red, orange, and yellow and the weather warm until Bridgeport. The traffic is remarkably light on Route 91 north until the notorious Hartford-Springfield, Mass., corridor, which makes the Long Island Expressway look like kindergarten. But it beats the old Route 5 trek of the sixties. A quick stop for dinner in Enfield, Conn., and on to the Sheraton in West Lebanon, N.H., by 10:30 p.m., where I meet Al Davies, wife Sheila, and daughter Alex after a great night at the bonfire. Others seen at the Friday parade are Ted Suess, Bruce Nichols, WayneSloper, Bob Barnum, Dave Schaefer, RegJones, Geoff Murphy, Dick Berkowitz, and Dave Boldt.

Some of these same revelers must rise early Saturday morning to be on time for the jam-packed officers meeting, where Bruce Nichols delivers his first report on the planning of the 25th reunion. BobBysshe is there, joined by Bruce Coggeshall, Pete Rotch, Bruce Baggaley, and Marty Bowne. President Schaefer announces that the Dave Downey Scholarship has reached its goal of $5,000 and we're in business. He also names BruceBaggaley chairman of the nominating committee for the next slate of class officers.

Nichols announces a big push for record attendance at the 25th reunion in 1988. Keep an eye on your mailbox and for announcements of some interesting special events. More volunteers are signing up; John Lehman, Sam Cabot, and Dave Dawley are expected to be among them.

After the meeting, I walk over to Chase Field to catch some of the Dartmouth-Harvard soccer game with Dave Boldt, who delivered his report as editor of the class reunion book. In addition to this all consuming post for the class, Dave has been promoted from editor .of the Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday Magazine to deputy editor of the newspaper's editorial page. His ten years at the magazine were celebrated there with a surprise "Decade with Dave" party highlighted by a videotape of many embarrassing moments and cameo appearances by former Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo and current Mayor Wilson Goode. Reporters on Dave's staff won many awards, including two Pulitzers. A swimmer in his spare time, Dave recently broke 31 seconds for the 50-yard backstroke for the first time in a dozen years in finishing second in the 40-44- year-old age group at the Middle Atlantic Masters Championships. Meanwhile at Chase Field, Dartmouth scored on a penalty kick midway through the game to hold Harvard to a 1-1 tie in double overtime.

The Big Green did not do as well in football later that day, but the fans had a great time. At lunch at the Leverone Field House prior to the game, I meet the families of Ted Suess, assistant treasurer of Rohm and Haas, a Philadelphia chemical manufacturer, and Bob Bysshe, an executive with Bankers Trust in New York. Ted came up with his wife, Anne, son Ted, 17, who's looking at colleges, and daughters Kristin, 14, and Jill, 11. Bob and Beth have a son, Geoff, a freshman a Colby, and then there's Tommy, 17, Peter, 15, and Karyn, 12.

At the highest level possible of the sunny east stands, Bill Wellstead, the great kicker, now from Longmeadow, Mass., philosophizes on our change of football fortunes as a possible question of recruiting. Bill and Diane have a son, Jeff, at Cornell, another son, Scott, at the University of Massachusetts, and a daughter, Wendy, in high school. Reg Jones and Nancy make their annual homecoming pilgrimage from Bennington, Vt., where Reg heads the education department at Nestech Corporation, one of the leading Kaypro computer dealers in the U.S., and Nancy is in administration at Bennington College.

I catch up with Geoff Murphy and Cotheal before drowning my sorrows at the fantastic bash produced and directed in a tent and sorority house courtesy of Bill Breetz, who found time to do this while starting his own law practice in Hartford. Dave Schwartz, a radiologist from Worcester, Mass., is on hand with Nancy, and so is Denis Eagle, who came up from New York with his wife, Kay, and his parents but then rose earlier than everyone so he could play the clarinet with the alumni band.

Bob Baker came with his family on a trip from Houston; Dean Edson didn't have to come far from Hanover, where he is an administrator at the Dartmouth Medical School.

There is Providence adman Steve Scott, whose latest clients are marketing frozen dough and fire alarms, and Dick Enholm, director of sales and marketing for Foster Grant, the sunglass manufacturer. Foster Grant transferred Dick and Susan and son Greg, 10, this year from Massachusetts to sunny Tuscon, so Dick, a Tuck graduate and former Benton and Bowles advertising executive, was glad to be back in New England, even if for a few days. I also see Jay Olin, a Boston banker, and wife Kathleen, and Art Williams, a New York investment banker, wife Sandra, and youngest son, Tom, a student at Pingry School. Older son Art IV is with Merrill Lynch, and daughter Mindy is at Dickinson College. I chat with Stu and MiriamRichards, Ken Seidler, and Wayne Sloper. Bill Breetz, the mini-reunion chairman, is mopping up, visions of lobsters, barbecued steak, and a tent on Wheelock dancing in his head. He suggests we adopt Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, who rented us their house when the party got a little chilly.

Director of the HopkinsCenter Emeritus, Historian of the DickeyPresidency, and vampire for one night, PeterSmith, left, and MichaelMoriarty '63, right,take a break during thefilming of Return to Salem's Lot. The filmcrew worked at severalUpper Valley locations,including this one inNewbury, Vt. The filmis slated for release nextspring.