1929

Happy New Year. May it be a year filled with much happiness and reasonably good health for us all.

We heard from Charlie Dudley that Gus Wiedenmayer was given a good bill of health at the Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital—now in Lebanon—and that he and Mary drove their new Acura to their Florida home. Charlie has returned to Kendal after his back operation at the same institution, and he is recovering nicely.

Hal Ripley was recently in Hanover for a meeting of the John Brown Cook Foundation, and called on us to supply me with some news of classmates. He also gifted us with a jar of his famous beach plum jelly. Lucky us!

John Brown Cook and his wife, Marion, did much for the Dartmouth community during his life, and since John's death Marion has been a benefactor of the College in many ways. Hal has worked closely with them both. We all know what a great addition the Cook Auditorium, in the Murdough Center, has been to the Dartmouth campus. Hardly a day or evening goes by without an important lecture or event taking place in that beautiful theater.

The Dartmouth Bookstore has a display unit, just as one enters the store, with books of interest to the College community. Robert Graham '55, in his wonderful book The Dartmouth Story, a narrative history of the College buildings, people, and legends, tells that earnings from lumbering the Second College Grant go to scholarships, and he quotes Bob Monahan calling them "Stumps for Scholarship." Bob is for the present living in a retirement home in Plymouth, N.H.

A second book found on those shelves is Language of the Forest, the autobiography by Ross McKenney, with David Kendall '45. Ross was the "woodsman-in-residence" at the DOC for years, and much admired by students and alumni. At reunions he would put on "beanhole beans" picnics and entertain with his "Bateese" stories. Kay Andres writes; that Bill is enjoying reading that book. We miss seeing Kay and Bill in Hanover and hope they will visit here soon.

We were finally able to contact Squeek and Loretta Redding at a new address. They sold their longtime home in Winchester, Mass., and have moved to Carleton-Wllard Village, a retirement community in Bedford, Mass. Squeek still commutes to his law office in Boston every day, and Loretta reports she spends much time with an exercise program after operations on both knees. They told of enjoying dinners with Bill Elliot '27 and Carol Stevens, widow of Harold Stevens '25, who both reside in the same village. Carol and "Steve" were our next-door neighbors here in Pinewood Village before moving back to the Boston area some years ago. They were good friends, and we have missed them.

This month's contribution from the versatile Hal Ripley: My coon cat creeps with flattened ears And leaps to claw my mitten. Then pulls back to allay my fears And purrs, "I'm only kitten."

31 Pinewood Village, West Lebanon, NH 93784