The Helpers

When Bob Sullivan researched the mysteries of reindeer flight, he found some crucial Claus collaborators at Dartmouth. They and other Helpers contributed information that led to the October publication of Flight of the Reindeer: The True Story of Santa Claus and His Christmas Mission. Called "a new Christmas classic" by Publishers Weekly, Flight is being sold in bookstores under "Nonfiction" (naturally).

Here are the Greeners involved with the book and, more importantly, with Santa's Christmas Mission: Sullivan, a senior editor at Life and a contributing editor to the Alumni Magazine. The book arose out of a spread that Sullivan did in the December 1994 issue of Life.

J Porter, art director of Yankee magazine and former art director of the Alumni Magazine. Porter spent hours working with Sullivan and illustrator Glenn Wolff devising maps of Santa's Christmas Eve routes, the great Polar expeditions, and the elves' exodus from Greenland to the North Pole.

Oran Young, director of Dartmouth's Arctic Institute and "hidden-world historian," as the book aptly calls him.

Joe Mehling '69, Dartmouth's College Photographer and contributing editor to the Alumni Magazine, who with Young conducted a photographic experiment to determine the speed of Santa's sleigh.

Philip Cronenwett, Dartmouth's Special Collections librarian, who introduced Sullivan to the unparalleled Stefansson Arctic Collection in Baker.

Regina Barreca '79, professor of English at the University of Connecticut, who explained how Washington Irving revealed Santa to Americans.

Ned Gillette '67, who discovered a cache of food left for Santa's reindeer on the summit of Mount Everest in 1992.

Vilhjalmur Stefansson, renowned Arctic explorer and historian, who established the world's finest collection of Arctic artifacts at Dartmouth including crucial evidence of Santa's headquarters.

The Army Cold Regions Research & Engineering Laboratory, based in Hanover and filled with Dartmouth grads, provides circumpolar research and logistical support.

Young

Cronenwett

Mehling

Barreca