Readers Make Their Pitch

Athletes overlooked, and other pursuits

Second Guesses

Regarding your article on Dartmouth's top athletes [March], I can't believe you overlooked Pete Broberg '72. Pete was a (and possibly the) top draft pick in the 1971 amateur baseball draft and pitched eight years in the bigs. Unless my memory has warped over the years, I saw Pete come back after a lengthy rain delay in an NCAA tournament game at Dartmouth to strike out the side, and then hit a pitch halfway up the roof of Leverone. He wasn't the athlete of the decade, but he deserves at least a mention.

Springfield, Ohio

Broberg (right) was the number one pick of the Washington Senators (and number one overall) in the "secondary phase" of the 1971 baseball draft. He became part of the Senators' starting rotation just two weeks after joining the team. Ed.

Mike Herriott '64 was one of the best lacrosse midfielders I coached at Dartmouth and, indeed, he was the "glue of our early sixties teams." While Mike was outstanding in one sport, I think you've overlooked Dave Smoyer '63. Dave was outstanding in three: He was a first-team All-America soccer goalie in 1962, captained the squash team, and was the top singles player in tennis. In nine varsity seasons, he won nine letters. Hard to beat that.

Hanover, New Hampshire

Associate Director of Athletics, Emeritus Whitey Burnham coached Big Green soccer and lacrosse from 1960 to 69 and wrestling from 1961 to 66. Ed.

The Brook

It was great to read the article on the Hubbard Brook experimental station ["The Little Brook that Changed the World,"January]. I took field trips there with Dr. Bormann's forestry and Dr. Likens's limnology classes, and also with Dr. Hannah Croasdale's phychology and Dr. Andy Nelson's botanical taxonomy courses. In fact, I was the designated driver of the biology department's blue Ford Econoline van.

Speaking of favorite professors, leme add, in addition to the above, John Amsden in chemistry, the most organized and clearest speaker I have ever heard, during whose lectures each piece of punctuation and each phrase, clause, sentence, and paragraph seemed to diagram itself right onto my lecture notes.

Santa Barbara, California

You might have pointed out that the present co-principal investigator at the Hubbard Brook research program is a Cornell professor named Timothy J. Fahey '74. He is also my kid brother. At least I now better appreciate what he's up to when he drives (or bicycles!) north from my mother's house on Lake Winnipesaukee. A fitting exemplar of the dedication of scholarship.

Port Washington, New York Pfahey68@aol.com

David Dobbs has nicely captured the flavor, excitement, and significant contributions of the Hubbard Brook Research Station past, present, and future. I must, however, raise a serious objection to the statement that Herb Bormann and Gene Likens left Dartmouth because Dartmouth "failed to give them tenure." I can assure you that both men had tenure when they left. At the time of their move I was chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences and I worked hard in an attempt to keep them at Dartmouth.

Ettna, New Hampshire

I was pleased to see the piece about Hubbard Brook and the connection it has to Dartmouth College. I am proud of what we have been able to achieve at Hubbard Brook, and the early part during my tenure at Dartmouth was critical (I don't use "tenure" here as a pun!). Actually, I thought that mistake in the article was kind of humorous.

Director, Institute of Ecosystem Studies Millbrook, New York

Dr. Copenhaver is, of course, right. Our apologies for mistakenly having denied the tenure of both Professor Likens and Professor Botmann. Ed.

They Make Dartmouth Dartmouth

Your October issue cited Kenneth '25 and Harle Montgomery as the creators of the Montgomery Fellowship, a program which has brought distinguished scholars to campus. You did not note an additional program which brought some less distinguished scholars—people like me. The Montgomery Scholarship made it possible for me and several other students, to attend Dartmouth. But it was much more than just a scholarship.

Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery took a personal interest, having a lunch with us each term when they came to visit. They always said, "If there's anything else we can do, just let us know," despite having already given thousands of dollars towards our educations. I never quite got used to the pride they took in us, telling us what an honor it was to be able to be with us and accompany us through college. They made me feel like I was part of their family, as much the Dartmouth family as anything else in my experience.

Tacoma, Washington

I spent the second half of Professor Bien's course, when I should have been writing my paper on Joyce, catching up with the work in my other courses which I had omitted to do earlier in order to have the time to read the better part of the complete works of Kazantzakis. On the Monday of the week the paper was due, I noticed on our assignment sheet that we had been offered the option of writing something called a pastichea literary, artistic, or musical work that imitates the style of a previous work. In one more-or-less continuous sitting over the next three days, I wrote down what seemed to me to be a clever conceit. At that point in my Dartmouth career, I was just hoping for a passing grade. Much to my astonishment, I received an A-. I treasure the kind remarks the professor made on my originality and appreciation of Joycean humor:

had written a pastiche for my term paper on Joyce. Written a pastiche of Joyce! O Hood's Spa! O vermouth—dart over Dartmouth! Are there many endeavors closer to the apex of literary hubris than to attempt a pastiche ofjoyce comma Jay? O brave, do! I thought about Professor Bien and his love of the Greek language when I sipped retsina and re-read Zorba on the island of Crete years later. And I thought about him again years later still when I made my way through an unabridged edition of Finnegans Wake, which was a colossal struggle without his erudite assistance, albeit one for which I found I was well prepared. So the circle is complete. But I have always wondered what he must have thought when he first looked down at my paper and realized that I

New York, New York

Smoking

It was disappointing to see that Dartmouth has compromised academic standards and allowed its name to be used to dress up antitobacco radicalism as objective science. Granted, it is within the scope of academic inquiry to research and assemble facts about the dangers of tobacco—after all, dire warnings about it have persisted for nearly 500 years. My concern is that Dartmouth may be bestowing its imprimatur upon pseudoscientific activist "research" that has a financially mandated, socio-politically popular outcome. It has become trendy and profitable in academia to beat the anti-smoking drum, but at what cost in terms of objectivity?

Kirkland, Washington

What a waste of $1.8 million. As anyone who watches movies can tell you, the number of people smoking on screen has plummeted, and in the few cases that remain, over 90 percent of the time the smoker is the villain. Dr. Sargent ["On the Hill," January] is horrified by a fleeting glance of a cigarette in Daylight, but not by the murder and mayhem shown throughout the entire film. As smoking has replaced adultery, lying, and murder as the great evil of the last quarter of the twentieth century, the $1.8 million would be far better spent on analyzing why this stupidity has occurred.

London, England

The Bandwagon

No, the Dartmouth Marching Band is not a traditional marching band, but unlike Mr. Kaemmerlen ["Letters," January], as a band alum I think that's a reason to feel proud, not embarrassed. The band is full of dedicated and talented women and men who give their time and energy to support their fellow students at the College and have a little fan themselves. Like any comedians, they don't always hit the mark with their jokes. But when I saw them at Homecoming they got a great reaction from the audience, and they sounded wonderful, too. Dartmouth's a unique place. The Marching Band is yet another aspect of that.

Chicago, Illinois

I am unanimous with Paul Kaemmerlen '46 concerning the Dartmouth Marching Band and its antics ["Letters,"January], He certainly is not a lone voice in the wilderness. The band and its broadcast-booth colleagues are an embarrassment.

New London, New Hampshire

Chopsticks

Noel Perrin laments the disappearance of silverware at Collis and the complex rationale for plastic-wrapped plastic utensils ["The Collis Silverware Mystery," November 1997]. Perhaps a glance beyond the provincial Atlantic will offer a simple solution wooden chopsticks! As a side benefit, students can learn a dining skill that will serve them in the other half of the world.

Kula, Maui, Hawaii SEANM@MAUI.NET

Identified

The hobby horse in question [a wooden flea-market find mentioned in October "Letters"] was made by Richard Duclos of Hanover. "Duke" started making them in 1950. They were on display and sold at the Hanover Inn. Interesting enough, he made them for all the Ivy League schools, in their respective colors. They were a very hot item during the football games and as Christmas gifts.

"Duke" is a native of Hanover and an avid sports fan, attending just about all sports events at Dartmouth College and Hanover High School. Many alumni remember his brother Alfred, who was equipment manager for many years.

Hanover, New Hampshire

"Bus"

The obituary for Emil "Bus" Mosbacher '43 [November 1997] didn't mention that he was our nation's greatest yachtsman of the 19605, winning not one but two America's Cup races. He was honored by Dartmouth with an honorary degree in 1963 and is one of two Dartmouth alumni in the Sailing of Hall of Fame. The obituary for Robert Jackson Smith '36 didn't mention that he was the designer of our own Karl Michael Pool.

Hanover, New Hampshire

Home Scholars

As I listened to President Freedman's speech before the National Press Club, I reflected back on my own private school and Dartmouth education. My thoughts wandered on to New Jersey Med., Hopkins for internships, and finally to Minnesota for a medicine residency.

But then I was surprised by his comments on home schooling. What he had to say seemed so contrary to the home schoolers I have had the pleasure of meeting as well as the spectacular progress of my own three girls. Many, many individuals are choosing this form of education because they do not want to go like sheep into a vast wasteland that has become public education.

Minneaplis, Minnesota

Jews at Dartmouth

I found President Freedman's address at the dedication of the Roth Center regrettable in the picture it painted of Dartmouth. I insist that Dartmouth and Ernest Martin Hopkins were not anti-Semitic. In my time (1933) the football captain, the editor of The Dartmouth, the editor of the Jack-O-Lantem, the leading actors in the Players, and many other campus leaders were Jews. They were not treated as members of a particular sect but as popular fellow students. In my class, out of 624 admissions, there were 44 Jews, more than Baptists (31), Christian Scientist (26), Dutch Reformed (1), Lutheran (11), Unitarian (18), and Universalis! (6). While Catholics were 16 percent of the population, ten percent of 1933 were in this group. The important fact is that the Hillel Center exists, fittingly across from Aquinas House, and will perform its important function.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

The Cog Railway(Continued)

My uncle, Warren C. Kendall 1899, was also part of the early Dartmouth presence on Mount Washington [November 1997]. The following is from a short biography written in 1949 by Samuel Stevens: "...during three summers, 1892, '93, and '94, he was telegraph operator for the Mt. Washington Railway in northern New Hampshire. It was during this period of employment that he made the record three-mile run down the cog railway from the summit to the base in three minutes on one of the slide boards then in common use by the trackmen on the center, or cog, rail to bring workmen down the mountain."

Dexter, Maine

Cold Finals

I enjoyed the anecdotes on the last page ["Northern Exposures"] of your December 1997 issue. I'm sure there are a lot of long, cold Hanover winter stories out there. I know the March 1993 storm that blanketed the whole East Coast with three to four feet of snow left a strong impression on the 1993 ski team. It was finals time and we were trying to return from the NCAA Championships in Steamboat Springs, Colorado (where we finished a close fourth). Planes weren't landing anywhere near New Hampshire. After spending a day and a night in the Washington Dulles airport, we arrived the next day in Hanover to take final exams and hand in papers. At least campus was clear and sparkling that day...

Good luck to the teams at the NCAAs in Bozeman, Montana, this year. Ski (and study) hard!

Salt Lake City, Utah SARI.SKALING@M.CC.UTAH.EDU

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