1950

Sometimes this magazine's editors just don't get it. They devote all of this month's issue to sons and daughters of Dartmouth who have made contributions to society, people who have made this world a little bit better for their having lived in it. If they'd asked, anyone in the class of '50 could have told them as Pogo might say we have met Dartmouth's gifts to the world, and they is us.

On Monday, June 13, these "gifts" are due to convene on the Hanover plain for nostalgia and revelry. You should have by now the list of guys who have said that they plan to some to our 45 th Reunion. If you are still on the fence, undecided, I have a few thoughts. This is probably the last chance to get together with guys you knew in the classes of 1948 and 1949, fraternity brothers, and others. The same might be true for your '50 classmates since our 50th Reunion is six years away (when you'll be how old?). Further-more, a few days' vacation in Hanover and New England in June is hard to beat, and the price is right.

So, what are you waiting for? Send in that card and tell Reunion Chairman Bob Lindell that you're coming.

A year or so ago I wrote about John Moulton and his battle with metastatic prostrate cancer. A note from Dave Luce enclosing newspaper clippings indicates that John is active in support of a bill to make Wisconsin the first state to legalize doctor-assisted suicide. This news is three or four months old now, and I can't speak to the status of the legislation Or John's health, but his activity certainly makes him one of our unsung heroes.

Another news clipping tells of Paul Van Orden's election to the board of Rhode Islandbased Sunbeam-Oster Company. Paul is executive director of the Chazen Institute of International Business at Columbia University and was formerly an executive VP with General Electric.

This next item is sort of a wrist-slapping, coupled with a plea. Treasurer Ben Shaver reports that 175 guys, 30 percent of us, don't pay their dues. There undoubtedly are lots of reasons, ranging from a lousy four years in Hanover to disenchantment with the College today. Yet, if you're one of the non-payers, but you're reading this magazine (and my deathless prose), you must have some interest. The Alumni Magazine represents more than half of the class's expenditures, and those who pay their dues are subsidizing those who don't. 'Nuff said.

In closing, I have to say I agree with the Mark Twain quote in February's Yankee magazine: "The people of New England are by nature patient and forbearing, but there are some things which they will not stand. Every year they kill a lot of poets for writing about 'Beautiful Spring.' These are generally casual visitors who bring their notions of spring from somewhere else."

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