1968

Macintosh Lane Bennington, VT 05201

I was reminded of the Old Timer's adage, "If you don't like the New England weather, wait awhile," as I sat down to write this column last weekend. After a glorious October 1, with foliage in full color, it clouded up, began raining, and turned to snow. Here in Bennington, we received a gift of 20 inches through Sunday, October 3. Between 30 and 50 percent of our trees came down, their leaves burdened with whipped-cream-like snow, and power was out for two to five days depending upon your distance from town center. I was reminded of the benefits of twentieth century living as the lights came on, the well pump sprang to life, and the heat began radiating from the baseboards. The past two days I began yard and woods clean up with ax and chain saw; former DOCers with like equipment are invited for a weekend of their choosing.

Richard Williams writes from Portland, Maine, where he is vice president of Merrill Lynch, in response to my query about JimDuncan. He notes that Jim finished a doctorate at Syracuse and traveled north to the University of British Columbia in Vancouver where he is professor of geography.

Arnie Resnicoff was a speaker at the New England Dartmouth Alumni Seminar at the Naval War College held in May. The seminar was organized by Steve Calvert and included Prof. Gene Lyons as a speaker. Arnie has also authored a resource booklet for chaplains entitled "Horror and Hope: Americans Remember the Holocaust." He notes, "It is the start of a program to teach young sailors what the Holocaust was about for two reasons: (a) because the U.S. military witnessed the Holocaust (liberating the camps), we will now bear witness to its occurence; (b) because we take risks and make sacrifices for dreams, we in the military must remember the alternatives: the nightmares when dreams are ignored."

A note from Chicago's Tom Peterson confirms his direct descent from Daniel Webster, "... a fact that was obscured by my own father's desire to 'make it on his own, come what may.' " Tom's interest in Dartmouth was rekindled by this discovery as was his feeling of spiritual kinship with Eleazer Wheelock as he read a Dartmouth history tracing Wheelock's commitment to serving Christ. Wheelock's ".. language and ideas are clear and very contemporary to me, though I understand how incomprehensible his words seem to the modern secular mind."

Jack Noon passed along a newsy green card from Dave Soren. "I'm currently producing a new movie for PBS called Carthage—A Mosaic of Ancient Tunisia and a book for Doubleday called The Kourian Catastrophe—out later this year. Not long ago I was on a cruise with Pete Werner's parents . . . very nice people. John Stephens still lives in Thetford and is a very successful artist in constant demand. Bob Reich wrote recently. His new book is highly controversial (as usual) but very successful. I'd love news of Gary Hobin and Cedric Kam.Gene Mackles (a member of Sphinx, Dave's band—Ed.) was our pianist and is now a music/art producer for PBS Boston. Our drummer was the brilliant David Seidman, killed years ago in a mountain climbing accident. He was a great guy and I still lament his passing and the loss of his potential. Hope other '6Bs recall this fine classmate."