1953

15 Huckleberry Lane Greenwich, CT 06830

Recent columns have been devoted to classmates who have earned their doctorates. A great majority are working at universities. Most are involved in active teaching. Considering that these classmates have been teaching for a generation, their collective imprint is on thousands of students. Some students attend survey courses and are unknown to the teachers. Others are masters or doctoral candidates who Work closely with their professors and advisors. In either case, our classmates have had a profound effect which can only be described, not measured.

Ed Potoker, New York City, graduated magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa and, of course, near the top of our class. From the outset, he was a dedicated scholar and, typical of many scholars, he went on to earn a doctorate and became a teacher. The path to this career was somewhat circuitous, however, as Ed entered law school after Dartmouth. A year later he changed course and in 1955 earned a Master of Arts degree from Columbia University. Honored by fellowships, he then spent two years in Germany studying in Munich and Berlin. Returning to the United States in 1957 he spent a year as a copy writer for The NewYorker before his first teaching post at the University of Rochester. In 1959, he returned to New York to teach a semester at Hunter College. Then, in 1960, he joined Baruch College of the City University of New York where he is a full professor today. Columbia awarded him a doctorate in 1964. During a generation of English and comparative literature teaching he has also served as department chairman for six years and published extensively. His articles have appeared in The New York Times and in literary magazines and he has authored two books. During his early years in Europe, he met Berit, a Scandinavian whom he married in 1958. They are now divorced. Their son Eric is a junior at Dartmouth. From spring through late fall, Ed escapes New York for Southampton, where his principal avocation is swimming. Protected by a wet suit he begins in May and swims well into late fall.

Tom Blomquist, DeKalb, I11., is a professor of history at Northern Illinois University. This school of 25,000+ students provides many teachers for the Illinois school system. Tom's specialty is medieval history, particularly twelfth- and thirteenth-century Italian economics and social history. While Tom has a strong penchant for research, he teaches a full range of courses—from survey courses for undergraduates to masters and doctoral programs. In view of his Dartmouth experience, he considered himself an unlikely candidate for a Ph.D. After graduation, he served in the Marine Corps and spent a year studying at the University of Florence, Italy. It wasn't until 1960 that he earned a masters from the University of Minnesota and embarked on a pirogram leading to the doctorate he earned in 1965. He began teaching the same year at Northern Illinois. His research, conducted during annual trips to Italy, has been published both in Europe and the United States, primarily in the medieval history such as Speculum. For his research he has received numerous grants from such prestigious organizations as the American Philosophical Society. During his early years in Italy he met his spouse, Clelia. They have one son, Charles, a scholar-athlete who graduated from Grinnell College, lowa, and a daughter, Maria, who just received her associate degree.

SEEN AND HEARD: Norm Carpenter, Edina, Minn., married Linda Yates Nagle in August. Linda grew up in New York State and is a graduate of Wells College. She is a vice president of Beckwith Inc., in Minneapolis.