1941

Funny things happen on this beat. The College, I believe, was the source of some cuttings on Joe Wilder. I reported on his notable activities for the November DAM. The January/February issue then gave some space to him in the "Dartmouth Authors" section. This showed his class to be 1942 and 1942 class notes picked him up in March. And 1942 it is in the current Alumni Directory. Maybe we should adopt Joe to legitimize his appearance in my column. In any event, henceforth if I don't recall the person, I'd better check the book. (I wonder if all this was the work of a PR person retained by Joe.)

There are also funny things going on in the office where DAM is put together. I lost 42 lines from March, fast as a hare and without so much as a by your leave. (I hadn't intended to highlight "Newsless Names" by leading off with them.) Elsewhere in the home office developments are more encouraging. Jay Heinrichs, the new editor, sent a memo to class secretaries to elicit comments and suggestions about class notes, and the magazine in general, to help him realize his hope "that the magazine constantly improve in its status as part and parcel of Dartmouth." Good move and, incidentally, I'd be glad to receive and pass on to Jay any ideas you guys and gals of 1941 may have in regard to DAM. (I've already sent along a few thoughts of my own, and in reply I was informed that suggestions received at DAM "range from eliminating the newsletters and expanding the Class Notes to eliminating the Notes themselves.")

Another communication, this one a "Dear Monk" letter from Norman E. McCulloch Jr. '50, who chairs both the Board of Trustees and the Presidential Search Committee. He wrote on January 19 "to solicit specific names of leaders you feel deserve our careful attention (as presidential candidates)." And everyone presumably received the committee's memo inviting "perceptions of Dartmouth's institutional needs" and "qualities of leadership" that a new president should have. I haven't yet responded to the letter or the memo, and I suppose I should. Ed Martin sent me a cutting a few months ago that featured the availability of all sorts of post Reaganites to head universities and coach football teams. Any other ideas? (Bill Banford has one; his letter to the editor/printed in January/February, recommends that "the next college president be a male American Indian, preferably a chief.")

I was sorry to learn from Jupe Lewis that death claimed Buzz Willis on January 31. Jupe attended the memorial service, noticing that 1941 was also represented in the person of Fred Begole. Further details will appear later in an obituary that Jupe is writing. Meanwhile the sympathies of his classmates go to Janet Lee Willis and others in the Willis family. (Jupe's letter stirred up my recollection that Buzz, a fellow Long Islander, had knocked me out of the freshman tennis tournament.) A copy of the death notice was also forthcoming from Sue Hall by way of Bob Harvey. He also enclosed Sue's note in which she wrote, in addition to family news, that "I still see Larry Kryle at the hospital. He's always smiling and happy terribly busy doctor." (Doctors aren't supposed to be smiling and happy, are they? Maybe Larry is too busy.)

The address listing of Alumni Officers, hot off the press, shows our class still to be without a head agent. The Alumni Fund goes on regardless, and the "Class Agent Portfolio" for 1987 shows goals of $12-million and 68 percent participation. Those may be up a bit and so, too, the cost of a Dartmouth undergraduate education: tuition is up 6.8 percent, according to the NewYork Times, amounting to $12,474 per year, with room and board jumping 5 percent to make the combined total a whopping $17,091. That's reason enough to give generously to the Fund, but perhaps it is also a reasonable basis to suggest that "institutional needs" include taking steps to contain what seems to have been for many years an unending escalation in College costs. (McCullough, at. al., please note in case I don't get around to writing.).

Somebody else who did get around to writing is Stew Wallace, his interesting letter on the Indian symbol also appearing in the first DAM of this year. My sister wrote, too, to send me a blank list for the White Star Home Laundry. Where do these things come from? I started this laundry on campus, after having purchased Cora's Home Laundry, and between the two of them I toted so many bags of dirty duds it's a wonder I don't have scoliosis. From Cora's or White Star, believe it or not, ten cents would get you a clean shirt, sheet, pair of PJs, union suit or sweatshirt.

Rounding out my sixth month in Albany, there has been no Dartmouth contact other than Tom Littlefield. He may be the only classmate in the city, although Al Van Wie holds forth nearby in Troy. Tom and I have visited back and forth and presently we are rehearsing together in a production of TheTaming of the Shrew at the State University. Warner Bentley, Henry Williams, Ted Packard: where are you when we need you? Peace and joy.

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