1961

The class of 1961 was honored with a 1998 Special Recognition Award during Leadership Weekend for our Frost statue. The award read, "The Robert Frost statue that you generously donated to the College is but one example of your longtime devotion to your fellow classmates and to Dartmouth. The College is grateful to you for all you have done and is honored to present you with the 1998 Special Recognition. And our special thanks go to Mike Murphy and Art Kelton for spearheading this project which so long looked as if it would be sidetracked tracked by the bureaucracy and now has won official thanks.

It's been 41 years since our freshman trips, and it was quite a treat to be back on campus when the freshmen were beginning their indoctrination to Dartmouth on the lawn of Robinson Hall and then departing for the wilds of New Hampshire and Vermont. It was Leadership Weekend, a new creation for leaders of the classes, clubs, affiliated groups, and the Dartmouth Alumni Fund. Your class was represented by OscarArslanian Pete Bleyler Ivar Jozus, ArtJohnson, Roger McArt Ken Walker, and me. It was a busy, almost breathless weekend.

We did hold an executive committee meeting at Pete Bleyler's spectacular new house with wonderful views overlooking the Connecticut River Valley. One topic of discussion the building excitement over our 60th birthday celebration in San Francisco, now scheduled for May 13-16. In that room we picked up three 60th birthdays during that four-day period: Pete Bleyler on the 13th, Ken Walker the 14th, and Roger McArt the 16th! Who's got a May IS birthday so we can have a cake with 60 candles every day of the reunion? All but a handful of us will be 60 in 1999, so let's celebrate the passage of the years and our continuing class friendships (rather than getting depressed about the big 6-0). There's plenty of time to circle the dates on your calendar, clear your appointments, and be there.

Dr. Charles K. Francis Jr. has been appointed president of the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles, one of four historically black medical schools. He had been practicing cardiology in New York, where he was professor of clinical medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University and chairman of the Department of Medicine at the Harlem Hospital Center in New York. Although we've had several presiding deans in our class, I believe he's our first university president.

Did you see the big Writeup on "visionary scientist Stuart Kauffman: in The Wall-StreetJournal? The article was on Stuart's patented idea, dubbed molecular diversity, which has helped spawn a field known as combinatorial chemistry. The article said the new field is "revolutionizing drug discovery, making it possible to create and sift through vast quantities of potential drug ingredients with lightning speed." How much is the patent worth? "I think $300 million is plausible, perhaps even more," Kaufman said. Take the time to read the whole article on the World Wide Web.

Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem NC 27157- 1015;

How the class of '61led Robert Frost into obscurity, p.20