1949
Don Mose weighs in with a message from Santa Fe, N. M. After 35 years of service as the financial officer of a Chicago building construction firm, in June 1985 Don moved to the high desert country of northern New Mexico with spouse Patricia. They live in an adobe home and are studying Spanish at the local college with a group of sprightly 20-year-olds. Pat and Don also perform volunteer work for the local library, a hospital, and the local opera company. Don says that "after a decade of living on the 42nd floor of a Chicago high-rise, it's now great to get down to earth again and resume some organic gardening." Don's son, Peter, graduated with the class of 1978 from the College and is a music journalist and piano instructor in Toronto as well as the program annotator for the Baltimore Symphony. His daughter, Lisa, is a nurse in Elmhurst, Ill. Exultant in his retirement, Don offers chili, burritos, and enchiladas for all of you in the Santa Fe area, and that should include Mark Lansburgh.
From Miami, Fla., Ray Perry reports under "Dartmuthensis" that he is selling his interest in the plastic manufacturing company he established in 1970 (Plastic Components, Inc.) and building a house on the Doral Golf Course. In preparation for retirement "in about four years," Ray admits to being a "golf nut" and proclaims Doral as a perfect place, possessing six courses within walking distance of his prospective home. Ray has a son, Charles, and a daughter, Pamela, who "are long gone," and he continues to enjoy life with Donna, a member of the class of 1950 at University of Michigan whom he married 30 years ago, plus a German shepherd and a cat all females. Sounds good.
Wade "Kansas" Elliott checked in from Peterborough, N. H., where he is robust but concerned about the future of the College. I surmise that Kansas, whose three children, Barton, Keith, and Blake, are well into their adult years, is in a semiretired, but not reclusive, state, with wife Jessie.
In March, I heard from Herb Gramstorff, who sent me an illuminating article about adopted class member Thad Seymour, former Dean of the College, who has since presided at Wabash College and now is at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla. Thad has turned around a tough financial situation, doubling the college's endowment in six years and recruiting a superlative faculty in the classics and political science. Herb is a consultant to Essex Human Resources in Tampa and declares that Carll Tracy and Barbara visited Ann and him in the spring while on a buying trip for their art gallery. Carll and Barbara live in Laconia, N. H.
Class president Tom Swartz announces that the class has 10 rooms reserved for the Dartmouth-Navy Game on October 4, 1986, at Annapolis. The rooms are at the Hyatt Regency in Baltimore. If you want to obtain a room, contact Tom at 201/4674965. Wish I could be there, Tom.
Bill Yates, who lives in a semiretired state in Springfield, Mass., telephoned me in late March enroute on the Royal Viking line for a cruise from San Francisco to Florida with spouse Jocelyn.
While in Washington, D.C., for the American Public Transit Association Annual Legislative Conference, I had the pleasure of lunching two days consecutively with Ray Rasenberger. Ray, who is a senior partner in a neat but not gaudy Washington law firm, and a mutual lawyer friend of ours took me first to the Metropolitan Club, and the following day I joiried Ray and former Congressman John Monagan of the class of 1933 for the Dartmouth Alumni Association monthly luncheon meeting at the University Club at George Washington University for a report by two College Trustees on the great issues on campus. At the lunch, I encountered Fred Smith for the first time since 1949, and he looked marvelously the same. Fred, a lawyer, retired late last year from the United States Foreign Service (his last post was the U.S. Consulate General in Toronto), and he is now keeping active as a legal adviser in the Department of State.
By the time this column appears, the results of the election for the Board of Trustees will be known. I ought to be congratulated for restraining myself from commenting in this forum, although inveighed to do so by "both sides." Since I deliver enough polemics in my own venue, I thought it improper to use the column for my personal views on the subject. I will indulge myself enough, however, to remark that it baffles me as to why some of us are so afraid of the exercise of speech on subjects like the election of Trustees or the direction of the College. Those who preach freedom of the press all too often cannot accept it, or maybe my hide is just thicker after 15 years of elective office in this eclectic part of the world.
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