1941

50-1 Woodlake Road Albany, NY 12203

This is Dan Provost signing on as guest columnist because Monk Larson went to Nicaragua as part of the delegation of "Witness for Peace." Monk said he was tempted to tell me that he was going as a CIA agent! He lived and worked with the Nicaraguan people and told them "how much we regret our own government's policy that contributes to their suffering by the sponsorship of a once-secret but now well-known war against their government." I did not know that we were at war with Nicaragua, nor that our bad relations with them was ever secret, nor that there was any question today about the origin of their government: a direct offshoot of Marxist-Leninist communism in the USSR and Cuba!

Thanks to Bob Tepper, we had another delightful mini-reunion in Hanover on October 9-11. Our party included Brodie andFran Bjorkland, Bill Broer, Don and RoseMarie Brown, Bob and Jessie Floutin, Donand Jane Hanks, Bud and Pat Hart, Boband Barbara Harvey, Terry and Clelia Higgins, Dick and Polly Hill, Art and BettyHills, Bill and Jean Hotaling, Bob and HapKoenig, Ed and Barbara Larner, Ed andBetty McMillan, me and my precious Maxine Provost, Unc and Peg Richardson, BillSteel, Don Stillman, Bob and Winnie Tepper, Dick and Locke Tousley, Al and MaryVanWie, Dick Whittier, Steve and LucieWinship, and Lou and Barbara Young. We had a productive 50th Reunion meeting at chairman Bill Hotaling's house and an executive committee meeting (13 members present) at the Inn—where we voted to give the College $5,000 more toward our scholarship fund, bringing the total up to $45,000 (total commitment: $50,000). The second recipient of our '41 scholarship is freshman Eric Wellman who spoke to us at dinner Saturday night. He is a good student who will probably go pre-med, and he plays freshman football. He is also a clarinet player, an actor, a weightlifter, a shot putter, and a skier. He is only 5' 11" but very stocky, so we called him our "Fridge." Main thing is he is very versatile, very active, and very likeable. At our 50th Reunion our class will attend his graduation ceremony! The committee also voted to increase annual class dues from $15 to $25 beginning in 1988. Barbara Young was elected chairman, women's activities, and Terry Higgins and Don Stillman were elected co-chairmen of the yearbook committee for the 50th Reunion. Head agent Art Hills suggested, and the committee approved, his idea to run an early bird program for our giving a major 50th Reunion gift to the Alumni Fund in 1991. Art will explain the details in a letter to all members of our class this year, so that we can begin our 50th Reunion giving in 1987. We decided that our next mini-reunion will be held on October 1988, for the Harvard game and Dartmouth Night, at the peak of beautiful fall foliage.

For two years I was unable to induce anyone to serve as our head agent. At the class officers meeting in Hanover last May we had a 50th Reunion meeting at Chairman Bill Hotaling's house. We went to dinner, and it was a very happy one for me, because Art Hills agreed to serve as head agent! We already had collected $72,496 for 1987, and it was too late to get Art organized properly for 1987. I was hoping to break $90,000, which would have been our best non-reunion giving year ever. But, we did even better! We came very close to $100,000 and tied for first place with the class of 1938 in the Green Derby! We had 80 increased gifts and 51 new givers which added $21,782 to our total. We had 43 $500-or-more donors who gave $73,777, which was 74 percent of our total. And we had 25 who gave $1,000 or more, people whom the College now calls Dartmouth Alumni Fund associates. It was not all good. We had 23 gifts which were lower by $3,773, 93 gifts the same as last year, and participation was 59.6 percent. The College average is 65 percent.

With Art Hills as our new leader, we have a much brighter view for the future, and I promise to keep quiet! Except for two things. First, I love Art for doing so very well and I adore all of you, especially the very generous givers, who helped to make 1987 so good for us. And second, I will remind you once again that 1987 is a better giving year, tax-wise, than 1988, so get in your 1988 gift now, prior to December 31, 1987! Thank you so much!