1956

More scenes from the Fabulous Fortieth: •Dick Zock closing down the tent each night when he ran out of listeners.

•The Phi Delts winning the house-attendance prize (16 of 19), clad in Indian head T-shirts, taking a moment to sing a song to NormOlsen inabsentia.

•Cy Field losing his rental car in the woods.

•Dr. C. Everett Koop captivating an SRO audience in 105 Dartmouth and looking younger (at 82) than many classmates.

•John Allen leading the Alumni Glee Club with Wheatley, Schumacher, Malin,Sankey, and Whittemore straining to hit the right notes of "Dartmouth Undying" and not a dry eye in the house as they did so.

•Crile Doscher sporting a stringy hippie wig under a floppy hat; Howie Sodokoff borrowing said wig and scaring Lois out of her wits with it.

•Tex Fridlund apologizing for not helping with Reunion when all he's done in past few months is successfully undergo serious cancer surgery.

•Lee and Jane Gammill, unanimously voted best-looking couple, disarmingly adding great class to a class with class.

•Tom Healy inviting all he encountered to come visit him in Vail, Colo.

•Ron Mackenzie removing the cast from his broken leg so that he can get to the beer keg faster.

•Bob Danziger conversing seriously with classmates and enjoying the afterglow of serving as College trustee for 10 years.

•Jim Loghry finishing the class meeting by presenting Clem Malin with his own Indian axe and Leo McKenna (new class president) with an authentic tomahawk to be passed on to class presidents until the last brave is gone.

•Len Clark gathering 10 Betas for a picture to send to Lou Pfeifle, complete with large sign furnished by Tony Bruscino.

•Eric Jensen paying $100 to the class treasury so we would listen to his complaints about Reunion, College, and world.

•Never drinking wine from plastic cups.

•A fine riverfront boathouse picnic culminated by rowers Fead, Rosenberger, Jones, and Whittemore tossing coxain Rosenwald into the river in celebration of their victory over the current.

•Plucky Jock Ramaley showing everyone up on the dance floor despite after-effects of a stroke.

•John Yassin bringing his stalwart son who beat all comers on the tennis court.

•Gene White recounting stories of water engineering all over the world.

•Jack Billhardt and Bud Rosenthal rooming together and almost enjoying it.

•Darrell Clowes enjoying an Inn porch rocking chair looking like Santa Claus summering in Hanover.

•Flint Ranney bragging that he is still wearing his 1956 green jacket, and Bill Tell looking like he could wear his as well.

•George and Kitty Robison spreading southern charm in Hanover.

•Joyce Conroy accepting the gift of an inscribed crystal decanter for her work as social chairperson and for being Cube's lady.

•Beta's singing "Oklahoma" to an enraptured audience while we awaited Jim Freedman's arrival at the class dinner.

•Oakes, Pugh, Tagmani, and French proudly handing a check for $560,000 to President Freedman as the class' Alumni Fund contribution.

•Clem Malin's witty and generous remarks as he presided at the class meeting and class dinner after 10 years as president.

•Rosie swearing on Wednesday night never to do another Reunion but on Thursday morning outlining plans with me for the fabulous 45th.

•Art Zich's advice as we departed the class dinner: "Never hire a comedian by the hour."

A sad postscript: Norm Olsen passed away on July 14 from cancer. As my predecessor, he became known to the class for his wit in this column. He will be sorely missed.

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