1961

From Denton, Tex., Larry Gleason writes: "Imagine my surprise upon entering the room in the student union at Southern Methodist University set up for the President Freedman telecast to see David Blake. He began the spring semester as the new Business School dean. In April, Dave came to dinner at my apartment (Denton is 35 miles north of Dallas. Dave seems to like this new challenge quite well, but then he has yet to face the challenge of a Texas summer."

Larry sent along a major article from the Dallas Morning News, which I'll pass along to Bert orTom. The gist of the report: Dave aims to make SMU one of the country's best graduate schools of business, and gave himself seven to eight years to do it. The school already is rated in the second tier by Business Week. Key quote: "A city that doesn't have a really excellent business school is likely to lose its very bright people or is not likely to attract them. We have to do it."

And Larry sent reunion regrets because of his daughter's high school graduation and University of Texas orientation.

Last month's reunion report shoved aside a lot of other news. Among those items at the top of the heap:

Fritz Kern is the new senior vice president and general manager of American Isuzu Motors Inc., a job in which he will be responsible for the national dealer and administrative network, and numerous other operational responsibilities. Fritz has been with American Isuzu since its entry in the United States market in 1980.

Harry Ames is in the national ski report business, faxing ski reports to any fax machine in the country. The Follow The Snow service will have reports available for New England, New York-New Jersey-Pennsylvania, the Southeast, the Miawest, the Rockies and Idaho, Arizona and New Mexico, and the Far West. The system is simple: call 900-FUN-SNOW (900/386-7669), punch a button telling which regional report (or reports) you want, punch in your fax number, and within a minute, your fax machine will be receiving the latest report.

Harry says he worked seven days a week, 12-14 hours a day, for 137 days to get the system up and running. Officially, he is development director of the Travel Information Center in Woodstock, Vt. He's living in a condo in Quechee, just a few miles from the campus. "The condo perches at the very top of trie Quechee ski hill 30 feet from a trail. It has three bedrooms and is fully furnished and equipped."

Mike Hecht is the new corporate executive vice president of Carter Hawley Hale Stores Inc. of Los Angeles, and remains chairman and chief executive of the company's Broadway-Southern California chain.

Kennett Kendall has been appointed to the Pease Development Authority to guide the future of the former Air Force base in southern New Hampshire. He's one of seven directors who will be trying to market the use of the Air Force base by industry and managing all other aspects of the 4,300 acres. Kennett is chief executive office of Kendall Insurance in Rochester, which, according to the Boston Globe, is a "family business that grew to be New England's largest independent insurance agency before its merger with an international brokerage firm last year." The former Rochester city councilor was jointly appointed by the governor, house speaker, and senate president.

I'm out of space. See you next month with die promised reunion notes.

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