1944

Who'd have ever thought that a bunch of young whippersnappers like us, just over our mid-70s hump, would get far enough along to qualify for our 55 th Reunion? Well, them is the facts, by golly, and them facts ought to get each and every one of you off your front porch and rear end (does anyone still have a front porch?) and up to Hanover in a couple of months—June 14-16, to be exact.

This is our 55th, gentlemen, and from where I sit at the moment, our 55th in '99 looks stronger than our 60th in 2004. Let's fling while we're still all flinging... Long overdue: recognition that our erstwhile newsletter editor, Al Hormel, was selected last October by the Hartford (Conn.) Courant newspaper as one of the year's best letter-to-the-editor writers. Al couldn't make it to the fancy banquet in Hartford, but he did receive a life-time supply of bonded, letterhead stationary. Just write to Al and he'll respond in style.

Speaking of letters, John Weeks, retired to the Kendal project in Hanover, had one of his epistles printed in The NYTimes Sunday magazine section last November.

Also in The Times: (1). A November story about American Indians preparing for colleges and universities at special prep schools, the most prominent of which is Native American Preparatory School in Rowe, N.M., founded in 1995 by the late DickEttinger (Dick died of lymphoma in 1996). Dick's daughter Barbara is currently chairman of the school's board of trustees.

(2). Wiley Hitchcock was in the news again, this time as a musical expert witness in a folk music writer's suit against the British composer, Andrew Lloyd Webber, who wrote Phantom of the Opera.

(3). Walter Burke was one of three former Dartmouth Trustees (the others were George Munroe '43 and E. John Rosenwald Jr. '52) saluted as patrons by The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Then, speaking of trustees, Bill "Ezz"Hale is a trustee at both Paul Smith's College, near Saranac Lake in upper New York state, and at the Adirondack Park Institute. Ezz started going to the Adirondacks in the mid-thirties with his family and he and wife Pat built a summer home on Lake Clear, 20 miles from Lake Placid, in 1987. Mo Distin was the architect.

Quiedy retired on Martha's Vineyard are Dick Hull, who, with his wife, Barbara "Bobby", is still dabbling in antiques; and John Eaton, who is debating an eye operation in connection with his diabetes.

Reported deaths: Dick Howe, JoeDrummey, Dick Davis, Don Weir, and Leonard Rieser. Our sympathies. But I can't end here without a few more lines about Leonard. He left Hanover in 1942, returned in 1952, and served Dartmouth for 46 uninterrupted years, as a professor and top administrator. He was a quiet, wise, talented, witty, and gracious gentleman, and few in the history of this place have given it more or left a more important legacy.

That's it. Blessings.

P.O. Box 24, Lovejoy Hill, Cornish Flat, NH 03746

Al Hormelhas been named bestletter-to-the-editor writerby the Hartford Courant. FRITZ HIER '44

44's 55th June 14-16