1952

This one shouldn't take long. It appears that I have reached a low point in news for me to garble for you. It may be the time of year just before the mud season because our prolific newsletter editor Bill Montgomery is in the same boat. Hate to have to resort to cold telephone calls, so send us both an update on yourself.

Just strolled across downtown Boston from a Sunday afternoon Celtics game at the Garden a fairly easy victory over the Knicks. The toughest aspect of the game was my attempt to explain it to two visiting client officials from Switzerland who were witnessing their first basketball game. And how about the great season the Big Green basketball squad had 15 and 11! Some of the 11 were very close ones. Never did understand hockey, so I won't comment. Did hear that John Grocott returned to the ice for the alumni contest at Thompson Arena on February 7. It took a lot of pressure to get him to buy a pair of skates after all those years in Hawaii. Mike Choukas '51, a regualr in the event, just wouldn't take no for an answer. Understand our captain held his own until the blue line rose up and tripped him into a hard fall in the second period. The third period was strictly social for John.

While on '51, I had lengthy chats recently with Jack Gannon and John Clayton, both '51s who manage to get into Boston from time to time. John and Marcia have built a place at Eastman, just north of the New London, N.H., area, so we swapped phone numbers and should make something happen up there after the black flies clear out.

Bob Curtis founded his own consulting firm last year called Curtis Consulting Services, Inc. It is based in Danvers, Mass., and specializes in advising state and local government clients. Wonder if he's been in touch with Dick Leary '54, who has been the executive secretary (alias the mayor) of the Board of Selectmen of the Town of Brookline for many years. Bob was recently elected president of the North Shore Economic Council.

Heard recently that Bob Cullerton has retired, but don't have any details to report.

In a recent conversation with Lew Zehner I learned that 1986 tax law changes stimulated a shift in Lew's business interest from equipment leasing to distribution of good old American style specialty foods as a private labeler and co-packer. Entrepreneur Lew is now up to 28 products. Lew and Mardie's youngest of five is a senior at Dartmouth. Altogether three of their kids have gone to Dartmouth. With no one left in the Radnor, Pa., nest, it sounds like they are really getting around the country.

Who would you say is the Robert Trent Jones of ski areas; one of America's two or three preeminent designers of ski resorts; a short, owlish man with outdoorsy red cheeks; pleasantly laid-back while wearing professorial glasses; and has a bearing of expertise that belies the enthusiasm of a fanatic? Why our own Jim Branch, that's who! A lengthy and fascinating article appeared in the Boston Sunday Globe a couple of weeks ago which covers in considerable detail Jim's career from four years of skiing at Dartmouth to his present role as head of Sno-engineering Inc. of Lyme, N.H., via the Bavarian Alps, Colorado, Alaska, and Franconia, N.H. Sno-engineering is involved in a wide range of mountain design activities which typically get into weather, wildlife, soils, trees and terrain. It is a great article and quite a tribute to Jim. I'd be glad to provide a copy to any classmate, in return for a little news, of course. Incidentally, with a little detective work, I found that the executive vice president of Sno-engineering is Joe Cushing, who left our class in 1950 for a path that led to the ski industry.

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