1944

Dishing up death notices is hardly the way to spend one's summer vacation. But that old cliche, death and taxes, is still part and parcel, and you can quote me. As class secretary I write obits for the Alumni Magazine, and I'm currendy suffering from obit-writer's cramp.

We've had a devastating 18 months: at least 28 classmates have died between January 1, 1992, and June 1993, an horrendous statistic for us never-grow-olders.

One of the departed is George Recke, who died of cancer May 17. (Incidentally, George's wife, Kit, was Bette Antaya's best friend, and Bette got George and Kit together on a blind date.) The Recker was a memorable member of our freshman class and freshman football team, and thereby hangs another crazy statistic: 13 members of our 27-member freshman "A Squad" have died, while only seven of our 32-man "B Squad" are dead. Moral, I guess: be happy with second-string.

But not really. There's no second string or fiddle about any of our '44 roster. Take GregRabassa, Howard Gilman, Ted Mortimer, and Joe Vancisin, for example. Greg has won literary prizes over the years more times than most of us tie our shoelaces. The latest is a 1992 National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandorf Award for distinguished service to American letters.

Howard was cited in a smashing April 4 New York Times review of an event of "cardinal importance" at the Metropolitan Museum, namely a photography exhibition called "The Waking Dream." It consists of over 250 photographs lent by the Gilman Paper Company, thanks to its president, Howard, who dreamed up the whole project.

In May Joe Vancisin received the John Bunn Award, presented by the Basketball Hall of Fame for outstanding contribution to the sport. After a sterling Dartmouth basketball career, Joe coached at Yale for 19 seasons (207 victories) and then served as executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches for 19 years. He retired a year ago.

The City of Cleveland declared April 2 Mortimer Day, as Case Western Reserve School of Medicine and the city jointly paid tribute to Ted Mortimer. A luncheon, symposium, and a dinner honored Ted's lifetime as a nationally-renowned pediatrician and epidemiologist. And there was a letter of congratulations from President Clinton.

Karl "Moose" Musser retired "for the third time" from the Lebanon, N.H., office of Smith Batchelder & Rugg, a New England accounting and tax preparation firm. Moose retired to Hanover from Massachusetts nine years ago, but continued to keep a hand in as a consulting actuary, specializing in employee benefit plans, for Smith Batchelder. He also sings regularly with a barbershop quartet, "The North Country Cordsmen." Wife Betty is a volunteer at Dartmouth's Hood Museum, and this winter she was named Volunteer of the Month.

Recent deaths include Snook Hughes, Tony Foster, George Springsteen, Dick Mayberry, Dick Kerwin, George Recke, and Richard Berlin. Our sympathies.

That's it. Blessings.

P.O. Box 24, Lovejoy Hill, Cornish Flat, NH 03746