1960

Some leftover news from 1988: Among hundreds of others in the class, Dick Aronsohn turned 50. His good wife, Debby, decided to throw a surprise party and even included some of his Dartmouth friends: George Kraus '59, Bob Werbel '59; classmates Lew Goodman and Bruce Molinaroli; Steve Roth, Ed Goldstein, Gary Plotnick, and Carl Funke (all'62); his cousin Ben Cohen '66 and son John Aronsohn '90. Several things made this party noteworthy: Debby did it; at least the Dartmouth contingent showed up (there was an open bar); and Dick remembered it. He did admit that he got suspicious when a truck and crew arrived a few days before the event to set up a tent in his back yard. He may be aging, but this old lawyer still has his wits about him!

John Goyette sent along a clipping from the November 6 Boston Globe that announced Barry Mac Lean and his mother had endowed the Mac Lean Professorship for Program Development at Thayer School. Their gift of $1.25 million will support a new master's degree program that focuses on design and management. When he isn't managing MacLean-Fogg Cos. in Mundelein, Ill, or attending meetings of the Thayer Board of Overseers, Barry skis like a madman and parties likewise,

according to my spies. Elliott Carr serves as an economic crystal-ball gazer for the Cape Cod Business Journal. In its December edition he was quoted as follows: "I thought 1988 was a good year nationally. But I think we've been living on borrowed time and there's only one way to go down. The only question is how fast. Maybe we'll borrow and put it off another year ..." Thus speaketh the sage president of Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank, where a nickel is still worth a half dime.

Two thoughtful letters regarding different Dartmouth issues have crossed my desk recently. In his letter to Phil Kron, which was copied to the executive committee, Gene Kohn expressed his strong concern over the editorial excesses of The Review and his support for the position taken by George Munroe, president of the Board of Trustees. In part. Gene said, "Leadership, to me, involves insuring the rights of all groups to speak. However, leadership also requires holding speakers to a standard of civility and accountability. George Munroe has done that-and he deserves the support of all alumni. We should not allow the editors of The Review to claim on television that they are justified in acting as they do because 'the alumni support' them. Let's support the right to speak, but condemn excess whenever and wherever we encounter it."

Mai Churchill sent me a copy of his letter to President Freedman written in response to the president's suggestion that Dartmouth acquire university status. Again in part, Mai said, "Dartmouth is without question the finest college in the country.

Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford are the finest universities. Many Americans, and not merely Dartmouth alumni, believe that the finest college is superior to the finest university as a place for undergraduate education. The goal of most Dartmouth alumni is to keep it that way."

What do the rest of you think-about anything?

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