1947

Our class is rapidly approaching a series of historic markers. No one lives to celebrate 100 years of anything they did, although a few make it to that birthday. But 50 years is within reach, with luck, and so reaching SO of anything is a good reason to simply look back, take stock, give thanks, and celebrate.

It was 50 years ago, come July, that Dartmouth matriculated 185 civilian high- school kids, many regular navy soldiers and marines, and men from other colleges. '47s are proceeding toward the anniversary of their graduation day, which actually varied from 1946 to 1949, and the entire class will celebrate its 50th Dartmouth Reunion in 1997. Read on as guest journalist Dick Hollerith writes about the V-12 Navy-Marine celebra- tion, July 16-18, 1993, in Hanover.

"Our class has always been an interesting but rather disjointed class, with only a few of us actually graduating in 1947. If you read the V-12 survey and review the February 1943 Alumni Magazine, it is clear why. World War II was under way, and the magazine was publishing monthly directories of Dartmouth men in service and letters from men overseas, the S.S. Dartmouth had been launched, and the "Rampant Indian" symbol was adopted by a group of Dartmouth men in the Air Corps. Seniors had graduated in January under the newly accelerated program, and there were co-ed students at Thayer School, which, along with Tuck, had recently changed its name. Civilian enrollment had been halved, and quite a few of our current classmates were already in the service if not at other colleges. Bob Bach was at the University of Chicago; Art Bastien at Northeastern; Fritz Alexander, GeorgeDuncan, and Bob Holmes in the navy; Herman Gadon at Clark University; StephenMoore at the University of Vermont; BobPhippen at the University of Massachusetts; George Turner in the navy since 1938; RoyChenderlin in the Coast Guard for 18 months; Al Hill at Boston University; JoeMarsh at West Virginia University; Ed Grady at Fordham; Alan Kaplan at University of Wisconsin; Jerry Bedell, Fran O'Brien,Charlie Prestipino, and Gerry Slattery in the marines, having previously attended another college. They all had one thing in common: none knew they would be going to Dartmouth, much less becoming members of the class of '47. It's a unique class with a wide range of ages and college and military experiences, with quite a few called back for Korea. We graduated anywhere from February '47 to June '49, and many of us would not have gone to Dartmouth at all if the Navy V-5, V-6, V-11, or V-12 officers training programs had not sent us there. Come join us July 16-18 in celebration of our good luck in being sent to Dartmouth and in preparation for our 50th Reunion in 1997."

In closing, we report, sadly, the passing of two classmates: Albert J. Schmidt, Garden City, N.Y., on November 24, and John R.Widholm, Glastonbury, Conn., on July 18.

See you soon,

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