1954

Over the years the class has seen fit to give out all sorts of awards for extraordinary accomplishments. I would like to propose that Mike Payson recieve the Class of '54 Award for creative financing. Mike, who is with the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank in Addis Ababa, writes that his seven offspring have completed or are still attending college. The Payson family includes Mike Jr., Yale 'B5; Jennifer Field, Amherst '85; Katie, Dartmouth '87; Peter Field, NYU '89; Getty, University of Maine '90; and Sophie, Lesley College '90. Anybody who can handle the extraordinary financial demands of that family obviously deserves a tip of the hat from the rest of us. You should be very proud, Mike broke, but proud.

Bob Clements sent a wonderful picture of an impressive group of distinguished looking '54s who celebrated the wedding of Bob's daughter Paula with the Clements family on the shores of Long Island Sound. See the photo on page 67 of this issue.

Phil Christophe made a major mid-life career move. Phil has become president and chief executive officer of Rochester Shoe Tree Company, Inc., an old-line New England company which has been recently purchased by the Harbor Group of Boston in a leveraged buy-out. Rochester Shoe Tree is the largest producer of cedar shoe trees in the country and has 85 percent of the known shoe tree market. The Harbor Group, which is the sole stockholder of Rochester shoe, is headed by Jim Brennan, a 29-year-old financial entrepreneur who made a lot of news in Boston last year when he attempted to structure the purchase of the Boston Garden and the Boston Bruins. Phil, who is a longtime trustee of the Mutual Bank in Boston and chairman of its audit committee, has spent his business career in financial, administrative, and operations management positions in mid-size multidivision manufacturing companies. Good luck, Phil, in your new position. It sounds like the years ahead will be exciting for you.

Chattem Chemicals of Chattanooga, Term., has announced the election of BobBoyd to the board of directors of Chattem, Inc. Bob has been with Chattem since 1975 and currently serves as vice president and general manager of Chattem Chemicals.

Dick Barker was kind enough to send a clipping from the Boston Globe with a write-up on Sinclair Hitchings. I quote from that write-up: "For 25 years, Sinclair Hitchings, Keeper of Prints at the Boston Public Library, has performed dazzling feats of legerdemain on a miniscule budget. He has reshaped the Print Department on the models of the Library of Congress and New York Public Library and maintained its standards as one of the ten major collections of the country. During his years, the holdings have doubled more than 12 times, largely in the field of photography, yet Hitchings, has also maintained an active interest in the work of such New England print makers as Sidney Hurwitz and Steven Trefonides." Those are words of great praise indeed, Sinclair. Congratulations on a noteworthy career within your profession.

Pete Barker continues at the top of my list of news suppliers extraordinaire. Included in recent correspondence from Pete was the picture of Ralph Destino clipped from the pages of Center, the Rockefeller Center magazine and of MaxGeldens clipped from the pages of a McKinsey and Company Publication. Ralph was featured in an ad for Cione hairstylists, obviously representing the ideal tonsorial subject. Max's picture appeared in Uris Nederland, a Dutch business magazine on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of McKinsey's presence in Holland, where Max serves as managing director.

The annual '54 winter Chowder and Marchmg Society luncheon held in New York City and hostedby Robert Clements was attended by: left to right, Clements, Brad Borden, Dave Mandelbaum, JohnGillespie, Bill White, Dick Barker, Dick Steinberg, Pete Barker, Dick Davidoff, Bob Adnopoz, TomKelsey, Howie Aronson, Pete Gutlon, Bill Kass, John Heston, Jerry Goldstein, and Bob Levine.

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