1924

97 Angell Street Providence, RI 02906

Frank Granata reports from Naples, Fla., on a 1924 luncheon held in March attended by Alice and Chick Austin, Audie Countryman, Polly and Hum Barker, Mary and Larry Kugelman, Jeannette Hogan, and of course Emily and Frank themselves.

Your secretary has been having a desultory correspondence with Mony Monahan, whose headquarters are now in Newtown Square, Pa. I think Mony and I are the sole survivors of the delegation which originally entered from the Providence area in the fall of 1920.

Stan Chittick obliges with the fact that they entertained the Maury Cates and Ted Nilsen in Venice, Fia.; and also ran into Bob and Gini McCollom at a Dartmouth luncheon in Sarasota. I have just received from Stan, courtesy of hand delivery by his son Bill, a wonderful booklet made up of letters complied by Barbara. These letters were written by Barbara's great-grandfather, a ship owner in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, to his son, Barbara's grandfather. They are almost entirely between 1873 and 1876. The son at the time was a boarding student at Mount Allison Male Academy in Sackville, New Brunswick. He was 15 at the time the letters start. I am certainly going to try to get Barbara to present a copy to Baker Library, as I think it will be an interesting piece for futher research by people interested in the shipping industry of that day.

When one of our more critical classmates starts a sentence, "one factor you won't hear broadcast" I cannot resist the temptation to do just that. Chick Austin says, "In 1985 the male undergraduates on campus totaled 1939 and our last year in college the total was 1970." I assume Chick has his facts straight. I guess the only question is as to whether we should be ashamed or proud of them.

I do not ordinarily comment in this column on the death of classmates, leaving this to the obituaries which are published separately. I do, however, want to comment on the loss of Dana Bent, who faithfully performed the duties of secretary for many years and left records in such good shape that his successor's job was greatly simplified. Our sympathy goes out to Gretchen and the family.