1947
Celebrating Dartmouth's 224 th year, our theme is "Freshmen." And what better freshmen then the 50th- year freshmen of the class of '47? So we contacted a few good marines, some sailors, and some civilian entries, and got great responses.
Your scribe hit Hanover via train to White River Junction. I recall being lonely or awed for probably one minute, as I searched through Crosby Hall for room 308, which I would share with John Hawks. Shortly, I met NormFink, a raucous group in 202—80b Motlong,Cotton Johnson and Pete Townsendplus Frank Weber, Dee Mallory, Doc Curley, Bill Buckingham, Skip O'Rourke,Brian Phillips, John Slade, Gerry Franklin, and many others. Many lifelong friendships began at Crosby Hall.
Joe Hayes remembers the confusion of arriving as a marine recruit in Topliff Hall, uniforms being thrown at him whether they fit or not, marching to meals, and late-night card games in Zeke Lanzillo's room, with blankets over the windows to keep out Sgt. Gant's prying eyes.
George Bingham was in the navy dorm Lord Hall and recalls the experience of working on the Aegis and the Green Book along with Jeff Mills, Ed Howard, Bob MacKinnon, Bob Huffman, and Bob Keane, all of the civilian persuasion. George mentions the Barbary Coast Band, and the incomparable theatric Waldo "Doc" Fielding.
Jack Young and roomie Pete Larson arrived via WRJ train and shared a room in Woodward nextdoor to Len Bjorkland and Paul Spiers. Jack found English 1 very hard, but the footballing easier, except for some of the names of our "all-pro" backfield. Jack, Cotton Johnson, Hal Clayton, Joe Scandore, and Hank Brezinski, were some of the few civilians to make the team.
Townes Harris rode the rails to WRJ with Dave Huntoon. Townes had been accepted to the College prior to his navy assignment, so he managed to go on the freshman trip along with Ary Kaufman and FredFrassinelli. He well recalls Murch's Mystery Hour.
Dexter Brooks arrived on campus with a fair contingent of boys from Deerfield, so he was always among acquaintances in Woodward Hall, such as Tom Grimley, Tom Leggat, Barry Marks, and Bob Teaze.
Frank Weber recalls steely-eyed Nelson Wormwood, the campus cop who never slept. Frank helped serve at DDA so early in the morning, with servicemen complaining of saltpeter in the eggs.
Doug Burch arrived as a civilian, only to have roommate Jay Larmon hand him a telegram directing Doug back to N.Y.C. to be inducted and ordered to the Dartmouth Navy.
These are a smattering of the wealth of memories imbedded in the minds of the '47s. I'm hoping many of you will write me over the next few weeks with many more, to be shared as we go for 50.
Many of those mentioned above have gone on, but it is fitting we recall and include their names. And while reflecting, we will remember two of our class who were with us barely a term, or less, before joining the services and giving all they had to give: our earliest service heroes, Allan Norris and Lester Bixby. God rest them well, and so many others of us missing along the way.
See you soon.
63 Maple Ave., Keene, NH 03431-0083
