1952

The orgin of the practice of adopting classmates is lost in an unrecorded past. At least as far back as the class of 1925, there have been adoptions, usually of one person and usually a woman (as though to set aright a mistake perpetrated by Eleazar Wheelock and perpetuated until 1972).

The christening is not officially official: the College has nothing to do with it. It is something a class decides itself, to recognize someone who has been very helpful for a long time. Dick McDonough's wife, Caroline, arranged the 65th Reunion for Dick's father, Kenneth McDonough '25, and was made an adopted member of 1925. In 1988 Dick urged his executive committee to do the same for Liz Russell, wife of Angus Russell, to recognize her efforts for the College as an associate director of the Alumni Fund in raisingneeded alumni dollars, and particularly for her help to our class in many ways.

"I was very surprised," Liz says now. "Looking back, I realize that in their male way, they never gave me a chance to say 'No.'" But, she adds, "I never would have."

She is very proud of her distinction. "I have seen many classes since 1987 when Angus and I moved to Hanover, and 1952 is one of the finest. Fine people and fine friends. They have class pride, but keep loyalty to the College in front." Bill Breed and Steve Mandell, the two class agents with whom she has worked, sum up Liz's approach: Effective, devoted, down-to-earth, a quick and clever sense of humor, "interested in classmates for who they are, not what they've done." Liz points out that the class of 1952 was the first 40th Reunion class ever to raise more than one million dollars. "The class feels good about itself—and should."

Elizabeth Waterworth Russell lived her whole life in the Philadelphia suburbs until a mid-career change to Dartmouth. She attended Agnes Irwin School and Miss Porter's before graduation from Smith College in 1950. Her major was art history, with a vague aim of working as a musuem curator. But she married in 1960 as she entered graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania, and her master's degree was happily sacrificed to the birth of the first of their three children, the, only daughter.

She married Angus through miscommunication. She was especially nice to him to wangle an introduction to a friend of his. Angus misunderstood and was especially nice back. The friend went away. Angus didn't.

"I was a 1950s wife like most of the wives of my classmates." Liz pauses. "Sometimes I am sensitive to how other wives look at me. Many of them have done a lot to make the class what it is now." The difference is that she is on site and "can help out all of the time whenever I am asked," she explains. This is reflected in her advice to classmates moving to Hanover: "Let us know, and we'll have a party."

The move was perfectly timed. Angus needed the professional change, and she needed a personal change. The New England existence, with the outdoors everywhere within walking range and the culture and camaraderie of Hanover is a dream come true. Both have jobs with the College. Angus took a pay cut, Liz got an increase. As a result, Angus agreed to help out more around the house. "He does most of the marketing," says Liz. The serendipity in the move: "How much we both like working at Dartmouth."

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