1945

It's timely to make sure that all '45s, and maybe other classes too, know about the Class of 1945 Endowment Fund and the unique purpose it serves. Established with $5,000 in 1989, its current market value is over $25,000. The income is directed each year by your class executive committee to be used by the College for emergency needs of students. These awards bridge tough situations, helping students get home quickly for serious family problems and aiding students themselves with uninsured health emergencies. A recent use was to help a student who lost all his possessions in an auto accident en route to Hanover. Melanie Norten, the College's director of stewardship, says, "Your class should be justifiably proud of the important role it plays in ensuring that these students have the additional support they need in times of great personal urgency."

The Vermont Academy magazine ran a feature story about Bill McKenzie. Can't do justice to it here, but Bill was a C-47 pilot in 1946, ferrying supplies and peace negotiators into remote Yenan, China. There he met Mao Zedong, lunched with him, went to a dance at his invitation, and in turn invited Mao into his plane where, through an interpreter, he explained the workings of the cockpit. Bill still displays a small carpet that Mao gave him as a friendly gesture.

China two or three decades later is the period treated in John Holdridge's just published book Crossing the Divide: An Insider's Account of the Normalization of U.S.-China Relations. John served on Henry Kissinger's N.S.C. staff (1969-72), then as deputy chief of the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing (1973-75). He has since occupied ambassadorial and key East Asia State Department and intelligence posts. The book is available from Rowman & Littlefield Inc., 4720 Boston Way, Lanham, MD 20706; (800) 462-6420.

McKenzie was in and out of China long before Holdridge, but they may have some tales to tell to each other as well as to us.

Now moving quickly from Asia to Europe, John and Avonne Hartshorn, waiting for a tour boat in Hamburg, Germany, got talking with a Chicago couple, who turned out to be Joe Mathewson '55, Dartmouth Trustee, and his wife. They have a son '79 and the Hartshorns a daughter '79, who knew each other. (Don't say "small world" just remember "small College.") Hartshorns last year had three 50th anniversary parties and attended three WW II military reunions, one in Belgium visiting the old flightline and barracks where John's fighter group spent the winter of 1944-45.

Bob Pease too has a daughter in the class of '79. Stimulated by Fred Berthold's column in the March issue on Dartmouth women, Bob tells about Martha, who was put on the wait list. She simply drove to Hanover to make her case. She had a great and successful Dartmouth experience, graduating summa. She and brother Rob '76 overlapped a year. She rose to senior v.p. at both B.B.D.&O. and Neutrogena Corp. Now married with two sons, she still consults for Hitachi. Bob says, with characteristic parental modesty, "She owes it all to Dartmouth, you betcha!"

For sure, there are many similar stories out there. Let's share them.

Don Sisson,P.O. Box 1317, New London, NH 03257

Bill McKenxie Explained the workings of his C-47 cockpit to Mao Zedog.