1952

In case you haven't made up your Reunion mind, this is a last-minute, call to join your friends in a truly wonderful place from June 9-12.

Steve Mandel, the incoming chair of the Alumni Fund has goals in mind: to make the fund $2O million a year from its current $14 million, to give more recognition to donors, and to raise endowment for student aid from 35 percent to a figure closer to Princeton's 90 percent.

Steve spent his lifetime as an entrepreneur. He joined his uncle and father in a small welding materials business that developed into a multi-national manufacturing company which was ultimately sold. Steve went back into the same business overseas and made that a business worth selling in 1989. He then kept an unprofitable English subsidiary and made it profitable.

For fun, he raises money. Most of his charities are Darien oriented. He is president of the library; a trustee of the emergency medical service, for which he ran a successful financial campaign; president of the local United Way.

His father, Richard Mandel '26, a bibliophile, gave generously to Dartmouth, much of it to Baker Library. He founded the Friends of the Library with Professor Herb West and created the History Room, where 14 of the 15 Dartmouth Presidents hang in portraiture and many College records are safely kept.

Steve's wife, Ann, hasn't done badly. She joined father-in-law, Dick, in his Baker interest. She was president of the Friends in the mid-1970s and again in 1995 with a goal of doubling the present thousand members. She took over Dick Mandel's interest in the History Room and, with Steve, donated an elegant refurbishment five years ago.

Ann Mandel has yet another career: politics. Most of her Darien friends thought it futile that Ann, a Democrat, would run for first selectman (mayor) of the town. Darien had not elected a Democrat since there were Republicans. She won handily in 1985 and overwhelmingly in 1987. She retired in 1989 but still receives inquiries from Democrats looking to revive the secret weapon.

Steven Mandel Jr. '78 is also an extraordinarily generous and imaginative giver. He endowed a chair in "any discipline," which rotates from department to department. He conditioned the gift on the College's agreement to modernize the squash courts, for which Steve also gave the money. When our classmate Steve heard about his son's unusual gifts, the story goes, he told him it was "not enough." '

The Mandel family has been living by the phrase "not enough" and Dartmouth has been the happier.

Marion Zischke 'B4, a San Francisco investment manager and daughter of Peteand Midge Zischke, is prominent and active in the Alumni Council. Pete was our West Coast capital campaign chair and has held many Dartmouth and class portfolios. He is, according to Marion, enjoying retirement with traveling to Norway and Rome, the latter with Jack Shuman. The couple have two other Dartmouth graduates: Michael '77 and Karen 'B6. The couple have three grandchildren.

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'52 Going for the Gold. 45 and counting.