1965

[This is a continuation of our report on members of the class of '65 making careers with major airlines. Last month we visited with Dan Southard, Bob Ernst, and Frank Hankins and are now prepared to "take off' with another round of 1965 frequent flyers.]

Bob Blumenshine entered Dartmouth as one of the first married freshmen since the World War II era. By graduation his family included two children and he found himself greatly in need of income. He quickly accepted a position with a department store chain in Kansas City as part of a management training program. A short time later, almost by accident, he learned that TWA needed pilots and that he seemed to meet all their requirements except knowing how to fly. Borrowing money against a TWA guarantee, Bob enrolled in flight school ana ten months later was hind the controls of a TWA jet. He is pres- ently first officer on a Boeing 767 flying to Europe and major domestic locations. Now single, he has homes in both the St. Louis ana Lake Tahoe areas and has recently reached a new milestone, being one of the first grandfathers in our class.

beAfter leaving Dartmouth, Kent Hampton spent nearly six years in the U.S. Navy. He served in Japan and Vietnam before a final assignment as overseas transportation officer at an installation near Rota, Spain. This experience led directly to his first civilian job, a marketing assignment with World Airways in Washington, D.C. Two years later, Kent joined Air India and represented that carrier in both Washington, D.C., and Charlotte. For the last seven years, he has been sales manager in the states of Tennessee and Kentucky for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. Kent says he works primarily with travel agents and corporate representatives to increase international traffic through KLM gateways in Atlanta and Chicago. He and his Swedish-born wife, Margareta, make their home in Hendersonville, Tenn., a suburb of Nashville. Together with their son Krister and daughter Carin, the Hamptons take advantage of their KLM connection through annual skiing vacations in the mountains of Austria.

Roger Eastman began his airline career through first learning to fly in the Dartmouth Flying Club's Piper Supercruiser. After graduation, Roger worked on additional pilot ratings before "plunging into the murky world of commercial aviation." For several years he flew for a nonscheduled freight company using surplus World War II transports and for a variety of small commuter lines. Roger describes those years as "difficult, marked by dangerous working conditions, absurdly low pay and employers regularly going out of business." His search for a more stable flying position ended when he joined Mohawk Airlines, a regional carrier headquartered in upstate New York. Although Roger says that Mohawk was then "near the bottom of the barrel," the company slowly evolved into USAir, now recognized as one of the best managed, most profitable carriers in the country. Roger presently lives in Annapolis, Md., and flies a DC9 out of Washington, D.C. He says his aviation future looks bright because "the recent USAir/PSA/Piedmont merger will produce an extremely solid airline too large for any corporate raider to swallow or dismember."

Although we have been unable to locate two other classmates with airline experience (Ken Jukes and Walter Lacey), we can readily conclude that the aviation talent and experience within our class provides a tremendous opportunity. Those serving on our 25th Reunion committee need only search for a few planes painted the proper shade of green. What better way is there for all of us to return to Hanover than on the nation's newest carrier, AIR65?

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