1956

John Miles has responded to the column about the Naval ROTC crowd from the class of 1956 in Pensacola. While he did not make the navy a career, he did spend 11 years on active duty, flying 200 missions in F-4s over North Vietnam off the carrier Oriskany in 1966 and 1967. He earned five Distinguished Flying Crosses, three Navy Commendation Medals, and 24 Air Medals. He left the navy in 1968 and joined United Airlines. Has anyone in the class logged more air miles than John Miles? He adds Neville Fowler and Pete Lauterbach to the list of classmates, along with John Mansfield' 55. That still leaves us nine short of Len Clark's estimate of 29. Who were the others? Pete Purvis left us after freshman year to go to the Naval Academy. I saw him later at a class meeting in Washington, and he was working for one of the aircraft companies. Did he rejoin his classmates in Pensacola.?

Fritz Simms wrote a moving and powerful essay for our class memory tome, "Famous Last Words," and has responded to my request for important thoughts with the following: "It was 1995 on the Green at Homecoming. Rebecca Simms lightly shed a tear while listening to two old Grads attempting to sing Dartmouth songs embracing the lyrics as changed since around 1975.

"One grad was the Lee lococca of estate giving, the Hon. Glen French. The other was Silas Marner her husband. Glen taught me plenty about giving that evening. He did not get me into his web then, but his philosophy stuck. My own recovery group says, 'Ya can't keep it unless you give it away. I say that you know nothing of the joy of alumni participation until you give regularly, $$$ and service. I never felt as much a Dartmouth citizen as when I first did '1769.

"That was no easy deal for Silas Marner, but just knowing it had been done made me feel at home again in Hanover. Playing football, sometimes the whole game, made me feel good. I got nada dinero for that, so I felt a bit better. Then life turned in a direction that almost consumed me. The last place my money was going was to honorable causes that might help others. And then Rebecca and Good Old Glen suggested that self-centeredness might not be the best route...ya can't keep it unless you give it away."

The 1998 Alumni Fund drive has begun. Thanks, Fritz, for the positive approach.

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