1944

We have a couple of additional '44 "mysteries" for yon. Last February we played Sherlock Holmes regarding a couple of deceased classmates, Richard Berlin and Ed MacNeil. This time it's Gainor Stephen Crist and Tim Alexander Gunn. Crist died in 1964; Gunn we know nothing about. Which is to say, Tim Gunn appears in our freshman Green Book, a high school valedictorian out of Lakewood, Ohio. He matriculated September 16,1940, attended Convocation on September 19, and left Hanover that same day without notifying either the College or his parents. No word from or about him in the last 54 years.

Incidentally, he lived in 408 Hitchcock Hall, for those brief three or four days. JayMcMullen and the late Dave Mills lived in 409; Ed Crawford Hills and BobWilliamson were in 407. Any of you guys remember Tim Gunn?

There are a lot more chapters to Gainor Crist's story. He was also from Ohio—Dayton— and roomed in 101 Gile with a '43. He left Hanover halfway through spring semester of freshman year—illness and poor grades. He subsequently joined the navy, served as a yeoman, and after the war attended Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.

And guess what? Gainor Stephen Crist became "Sebastian B. Dangerfield", the hero of J.P. Donleavy's comic classic and perennial seller, The Ginger Man. Donleavy, a Brooklyn- born expatriate and author, subsequently, of 11 novels, five books of non-fiction, and five plays, met Crist at Trinity and patterned the Ginger Man after Gainor's somewhat unorthodox behavior, a good deal of which had to do with drink.

Donleavy has just written a new book, TheHistoiy of the Ginger Man, and Crist emerges, in the words of the reviewer, as "a slothful Midwestern charmer who believed in 'vegetative nirvana'—that is, the possibility of energy emanating from the inertia of absolute indolence."

Gainor was twice married, had a couple of kids, lived in London, and had a late fallingout with Donleavy. He subsequently taught at a private school in Madrid and died of tuberculosis in 1964 on the small Spanish island of Tenerife.

Okay, one more mystery: whatever happened to Hubert Wayne Williams, a Hanover lad who was president of the senior class at Hanover High School? Our last listing had him in Fort Wayne, Ind., but he's been out of touch since he left Dartmouth. DickMorse and Greg Rabassa, who went to high school with Hubie, do you know anything about him?

In our 50th Reunion book, Whit Wells reports that both his parents are still alive, at ages 96 and 95. Anyone else with both parents hanging in, to say nothing of just one, do let us know.

We're still chuckling at Dave Wilson's mini-highlight in the 50th book: "One of our kids yelling at us, 'You know, it's not easy to raise children!"'

That's it. Blessings.

P.O. Box Lovejoy Hill, Cornish Flat, NY 03746

Gainor Crist became Sebastian B. Dangerfield, hero of the comic classic The Ginger Man.FRITZ HIER '44