1942

A note from Mike de Sherbinin brought the sad news that Jim Farley died in March and enclosed material on Jim which will be used in an obituary in this or a later issue of this magazine.

Jim was one of the founders and the first editor of The Valley News, a paper which really brought new life to the Upper Valley area. As Steve Taylor, a former staff member of The Valley News put it, "The Lebanon-Hartford area was then in decline. Mills had closed, and the railroad was slumping. Their decision to start the newspaper changed the history of the area. The newspaper gave the 'Upper Valley' an identity of its own that businesses began to build on. If .they hadn't done that, I-89 probably would have crossed the river at Claremont, and all that development in Lebanon would be 20 miles south."

Mike continued, "As for me, I am 'peace coordinator' in Western Massachusetts for the United Church of Christ, one of five in Massachusetts, a part-time paid job which keeps me moving around my four-country area promoting interest by churches in ending the arms race and finding more acceptable ways for the U.S. to get along in the world. I have been at this now for three and a half years; as a friend said the other day, 'You must be succeeding; we haven't had a war as yet, with the U.S. involved.' (Too many situa- tions where we seem to find it OK for others to bury their dead, however.) I was in Hanover early in March and visited the Hood Museum; what a fine addition for Dartmouth."

A long letter from Bob Blood runs in part, "Thank God for the miracle of healing. In January 1985 my first ultrasound checkup confirmed that my prostate tumor was not getting any bigger, but neither was it shrinking. So it was with great rejoicing that we learned in July that the tumor had completely disappeared . . . The legacy of that illness includes starting work later in the morning, freeing up one more evening a week by letting go of the nurturing group which we had offered for the past six years, and passing on to others the presidency of the Long Lake Neighborhood organization and my place on the Friends Center Committee . . . Physically my energy is back to normal. I've gained 10 pounds above my lifetime 142, and friends are saying I never looked better." Bob went on to comment that "after a lapse of many years, when my attention was directed elsewhere, I am now resuming my Dartmouth connection ... I find that the onset of old age has increased my sense of my roots at Dartmouth."

Joe Palamountain got a terrific write-up in the magazine Capital Region (Albany, N.Y.), giving him a big hand for his 20year stewardship of Skidmore as president. When Joe took office, he got an institution that "not only had been running enormous annual deficits, but which had committed itself to the frighteningly expensive task of abandoning its creaky old buildings on Union Avenue and raising an entirely new campus off North Broadway. If Skidmore ever needed someone who could raise money, this was the time." But Joe pulled it off, put Skidmore in the black, on the new campus, and took it coed, "one of the extraordinary success stories of American higher education in the postwar period."

We see by the papers that Ed McLaughlin (our contribution to Massachusetts politics lieutenant governor in the sixties) has become a partner with the law firm Nutter, McClennan, and Fish, managing the firm's new Hyannis office. Ed, it says, will divide his time between the new office and Boston. It's obvious, we guess - lawyers never retire; they just go to the Cape.

In June Edward R. "Bud" Kast retired after16 years as headmaster of GermantownAcademy in Fort Washington, Pa. His career as a headmaster has spanned 37 yearsand three schools. In honor of Kast and hiswife, the school held a "celebration day" onMay 3, unveiling an oil portrait of himwhich will hang in the administration wingand dedicating the Edivard R. Kast Professional Growth Fund, established to aid theprofessional growth of faculty. Above, Kastis pictured with tivo students in the fall of1985.

15 Indian Springs Way Wellesley Hills, MA 02181