1961

Something Special, Just For Us.

It's March 18 in Charlotte as I write this, and I'm already excited. Some 165 classmates have already said they'll be heading back to Hanover for our big 25th reunion - the most important, and from what older folks have told me, the very best reunion.

This is the last time I'll get to write to you about going to reunion, so it amounts to your last reminder through the pages of this magazine. The key dates again are June 12-15, though many of us will get there on Tuesday, June 10, so we can relive our freshmen trips - to be chubbers again for two days. Send in your Reservation as soon as possible now, and don't hesitate to use the phone if you have a question. Reunion chairman Ron Wybranowski's phone is 203/227-4044.

I just talked with Ron by telephone, and he says that everything is falling into place. Our reunion will be different from most because the class of 1961 is different (though of course for each of us, it's our only chance at a 25th reunion).

Nobody has ever tried before to recreate freshman trips.

Nobody before us had had a Passages program at 15th reunion and has brought it back for a three-part reprise at the 25th reunion.

We were the first to dream up a Fellows program, which has become a significant contribution to the life of Dartmouth.

Of course, we'll have speakers as well: Director of Admissions Dick Jaeger '59, President McLaughlin, and Dean Thaddeus Seymour, who is now president of Rollins College and who is a special guest because he was so close to so many of us.

By now, you should have received Reflections, our reunion yearbook, the result of a magnificent job by a committee headed by Alan Orschel. Call if you haven't got it. And if you can, send along $40 to help defray the cost of it.

Art Kelton and Ron Boss report that as of early March, we were making good progress on our class reunion-giving goal of $1,001,961.

Gerry Kaminski's nominating committee already is hard at work. Among the members: Mike Murphy, Ken Kolb, FredFields, Bob Naegele. Call them today if you have ideas on who ought to serve until our next reunion.

By the time you read this, Bruce Beasley and Jeffrey Brown will already have served as this year's 1961 Fellows, talking to the Dartmouth community and visiting classes. Bruce is an internationally renowned sculptor, and Jeff is a dealer in fine arts who also has an extensive background as a museum curator, art teacher, and writer on art subjects. Now CharlieBuffon is looking for suggestions for the 1986-1987 school year. Don't hesitate to nominate yourself, if you think you have a message for Dartmouth undergraduates.

News notes: Mayor Ed Koch of New York has turned to two classmates for help again. Ross Sandler is the new transportation commissioner, appointed after scandals in the Parking Violations Bureau which have made national headlines. Ross has become an expert on environmental law and on mass transit. Since 1975, he has been a senior attorney and director of the Urban Transportation Project at the Natural Resources Defense Gouncil, a public interest law firm. Ross also has served as a special transit adviser to Koch.

So Ross is the man to blame when you're stuck in New York traffic. "The public transportation system in New York is fabulous, yet we have tremendous congestion," Sandler told The New YorkTimes. "The challenge is to make the street system and the public transportation system work most efficiently."

Koch also named Dick Beattie to the New York Board of Education. Dick already knows a good bit about educational policy as former general counsel of the U.S. Department of Health Education and Welfare, and as the man designated by President Carter to set up the Department of Education when that was spun off from HEW. He also played a key role in negotiating true integration of the 16-campus University of North Carolina system.

And he's done two major studies for Koch, one of the Human Resources Administration and one on special education for the handicapped, which found that many of the 116,300 children in special education classes did not belong in them, and left a plan for change that now is being followed.

According to Newsday, Dick wants to focus on educational quality, dropout prevention, and "the leadership problem throughout the system."

Arthur Johnson has become president of the Constitution State Corporate Credit Union, the central bank for credit unions in Connecticut. He had been serving as general manager.

DARTMOUTH 196125TH REUNIONJUNE 12, 13, 14, 15

3300 Windsor Drive Charlotte NC 28209