1960

It happened a whole summer ago, but our 30th Reunion was so terrific that it's worth savoring and enticing those of you who couldn't make it to do so next time. You don't have to wait five years.

Rick Lyman is putting together our first mini-reunion for Dartmouth Night weekend October 12-13 in Hanover. Then, there's discussion afoot about a 55th birthday extravagana in 1994 in London, Bermuda, the Greenbrier, or a location you can help select by showing up in October or piping up by mail or phone in the meantime.

But back to June. We assembled more classmates, 139, than any 30th Reunion class ever has before. The prize for longest distance traveled goes to Bill and Pinky Watson, who came from Australia (where Bill is Irving Trust's man in Melbourne). The Prodigal Son award goes to Tom Machura, making his first return to Hanover in 24 years (from Chicago, where he's a life underwriter for North American) and his first reunion ever. Rick Roesch deserves maximum thanks for putting the whole event together. For that success and other services, he is now head class agent, responsible for persuading us to reach new heights of generosity during the next five years. In the last five, Marty Lower wrung $1,114,000 out of us, $460,000 this year, making us the fifth best 30th Reunion class ever (but regrettably behind '53, which raised $758,000 by dint of 90 percent participation to our 70 percent.) As his reward, Marty is now class president, replacing Phil Kron, and determined to pursue Phil's mission of getting ever more of us to take part in class activities. The two schemers found ten new people to add to the class executive committee, and Marty has since found three more: Doug Bryant, Denny Goodman, and Rey Moulton, who's also been put in charge of our 35th Reunion in 1995. Anyone who was present in June will agree that Rey should instantly contact our class theatrical impressario, John Goyette, to lock in the return of Bayou blues sensation Marcia Ball, who had three reunion classes dancin' and stompin' for four hours with hardly a break.

At our October mini-reunion, we will have to make do with the piano playing of Don Landzettel and Bob Prouty, but they did fine until 2:00 a.m. each night at reunion, providing accompaniment to pickup singers including Mike Daley, George Rush, and Bill Gould. As Phil emphasized to those who awoke to make our reunion class meeting, anybody who wants to be on the executive committee need only raise his hand and/or show up.

On October 13 in Hanover we are going to try to figure out where to hold a birthday bash and what to give the College as a class gift. Half or more of those attending the class meeting seemed well-disposed toward a suggestion by Paul Cantor that we finance the stay on campus of a distinguished contemporary artist to work, exhibit and be available to students. Another sizable group favored helping the athletic program in some way, possibly by endowing a football jersey. Athletic options are being checked out by Roger Hanlon. Other suggestions are welcome.

The point of these get-togethers, though, is not so much the business to be transacted as the getting-together itself the talk and the sharing of views and life experiences. It is trememdously rewarding for us and our wives, even when the subject happens to be (as it was in many conversations in June) the class of 1990 valedictorian's charge that Dartmouth's traditions are racist, sexist, and homophobic because he felt uncomfortable as a homosexual. At the class meeting, Mike Daley put on his deepest down east accent to say that "we speak with many voices" and will never be unanimous on anything. But the talk is enriching for us, and when it's about what's going on at Dartmouth, we can feed it back and help keep the College sane. Following the lead of Bob Boye, who's conducted this column so well for the past five years, and with Dud Smith taking over the newsletter that Jim Adler made into such a fine sounding board, I hope we can do a lot of talking amongst ourselves. So, show up if you can. If you can't, write.

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