1957

Bev and Burt Foster were at Wendy and Howie Howland's late July mini-reunion in Pocasset, Mass. The Fosters have been on two Alumni College Abroad trips and, being interested in what happens near Quechee, pursued an irresponsible developer to the Vermont Supreme Court. They won their suit on the basis of harm done to aesthetic values. Burt has only a ten-minute "commute" from home to his insurance business in Wellesley, Mass.

Marion Scott and president Dick Perkins were there. Marion heads investor relations with a high-tech company. Dick's work with Land Vest has led to a seat on the board of the Trustees of Reservations, a pioneer land-conservation group in Massachusetts.

The full account of the Pocasset escapade has appeared on the list and in the newsletter. There's not room here to do justice to the pleasures of catching up with the fascinating lives of classmates or to the delights of having a new audience for one's own stories. If you have a chance to organize or attend a gathering of classmates, do it!

The Alumni Fund again: Randy Aires led us to a record-topping performance. We raised over $40,000 more than ever before (compared with other non-reunion years). Our participation rate was a commendably high (but not record-setting) 67 percent; college-wide, participation inched up again, to 50.8 percent.

This is the season when we should be thinking about end-of-year giving, about next year's tax returns, about the importance of scholarship support for need-blind admissions, about boosting the new administration... whatever. Now is a good time to arrange your contribution and thereby fend off most of the pressure from Alumni Fund mail over the next few months.

Treasurer Jack Spring reports good response to the increase in class dues. Compared with the prior year's loss of $1,492, we booked a gain of $4,322.

Ed Waldron wrote Clark Griffiths: "After 63 years I have finally thrown away my abacus and invested in a CP [read 'PC'!]....l'm looking out the window at the Gulf of Mexico, where two dolphins are presently trolling up and down the beach looking for an early lunch of mangrove snapper."

It's time to send me your favorite "now- it-can-be-told" story for an upcoming issue of this staid magazine. I will consider writing up anything from wastebaskets pouring down stairwells, through pledge rides into wilderness when the abandoned pledges beat the abductors home, to horses on the third floor of Richardson.

Joel Samuelson writes from East Stroudsburg, Penn., that his first novel, Absolute Power, is being published this fall. It's about how Medicare and managed care are changing the practice of medicine. "No matter what position you have in the hierarchy of power, everyone uses someone to gain more power." Look for it, read it, and let Joel know what you think:

Nuggets from the admissions report about the class of '02: more legacies accepted (121) and enrolled (92) than in recent years; 17 percent of the enrolled students are recruited athletes; the average financial-aid grant was over $16,000; 455 of the 1,124 anticipated enrollees received scholarships.

1186 River Road, Selkirk, NY, 12158; (518) 767-2782;

America's conductor Erich Kunzel '57, p. 65