1952

Looking back 50 years, our whole first semester has now gone by. Some of us have found a home: our grades are what we hoped; we have a shot at making the team we want; we have found a compelling activity. Others of us are still looking for a connection. Freshmen Dean Stearns Morse helps some of us stay in college. We remember what a transcendent place Hanover is: how cold the winter mornings are crossing the Green to class, snow squeaking underfoot. Night skies full of stars. Professors' enthusiasm about teaching and learning. That in music, there is a perfect note; in architecture, a perfect line; in language, a dozen ways of expression. Liberal arts at its best, to last a lifetime. Making very close friends with people who live thousands of miles from us; the fresh experience of learning from one another. The misty magic found in the woods of the College Grant. The excitement of our first year.

Imagine owning a telephone company: your own private company. Bob Griswold does. He is chairman of the board and chief executive of Ontario and Trumansburg Telephone Cos., just over the hill from Pittsford, N.Y., in the Finger Lakes. With only 12,000 subscribers, it is squeezed between two or three of the communication giants. But since 1920 the company has prospered under successive generations of Bob's family. There are now four Griswolds, including Bob's brother John and his two sons. Bob was just inducted into the New York State Telecommunications Association Hall of Fame to honor his "service to telephone communications in New York State" and for making a "substantial impact on the industry." It is the highest honor NYSTA bestows. Number, please.

And speaking of awards for providing life's necessities, John McCrillis sent a clipping reporting that Bill Breed received the "Legend of Oil Heat" award from the New England Fuel Institute. "Here's proof that Bill Breed is, indeed, a legend in his own time," John noted. Bill, who is head of Johnson and Dix Fuel Corp. in Lebanon, must really have proved his case. Lebanon, N.H., is not a major population hub. Candidates for the award were selected by other oil dealers on the basis of support of the industry: the contribution of time, effort, talents, or resources and overall concern for the well-being of fuel dealers. The chairman of the association said Bill "has built an outstanding organization at Johnson and Dix and is widely known and respected throughout the industry for his tireless efforts and willingness to speak for the heating industry. " In 30 years Bill has built Johnson and Dix to a fuel oil, propane, and service company with 30,000 retail customers operating in Vermont and New Hampshire. It also supplies 90 Mobil, Texaco, and Gulf stations. Bill's daughter Penny '79 is now president. Bill has also done a lot for the class and for Dartmouth. He chaired our last reunion and served as class vice president for five years. He was president of the board of directors of David's House Inc. in Lebanon during a period that saw the construction of a new and larger David's House near the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. Bill and Judy are also irrepressible hosts to visiting Dartmouth classmates in Hanover.

69 B South Main St.. Pittsford, NY 14534; (716) 385-1010; (716) 385-8958;