1969

With the 30th Reunion behind us, we now look forward to Homecoming, the weekend of Oct. 22-23. We hope to have something special this year beyond the tailgate and football game but that will have to wait for another column. The Reunion couldn't have been better. The weather, the camaraderie, the events, the food all made for a great weekend. It was especially nice to see some guys who had never been back to Hanover until now. One who comes to mind is Charlie Caplan, a cardiologist from Houston. He returned with his wife and two small kids (3 years and 18 months). In many ways I envy his having a little one but...

Others also traveled great distances to be with us: Bob Gunst and Pete Lawrence from California; Bob Sturges from Florida; Chuck Morey from Utah; RogerWaterman from New Mexico, and others too numerous to mention (read I didn't write them all down).

Roger flew into Boston and rented a Harley for he and his lady to make the trip to Hanover. Some people just don't change. In that vein, Bob Lundquist and TerryRobinson picked up where they left off (if they actually ever left off from the 25th) and did some serious damage to the songs of die fifties and sixties. Terry wondered whether the class of '99 would be around a piano 30 years hence singing Nine-Inch-Nails songs.

Other tidbits: Jim Gardner (looking an awful lot like Ed Asner) is now a grandfather; Dudley Kay ran a slam-bang tennis tournament in which everyone won some award; Jon Mark and family climbed most of Mt. Moosilauke; Mark Schleicher managed to make it across the river to attend; Dale Christensen and Bill Kneisel went into high gear and pushed our Alumni Fund total over the $1 million dollar mark (a record for a 30th Reunion); Mike Rieder watched proudly as son Evan performed with the Dartmouth Aires Saturday night before dinner; Tom Day and daughter combined Reunion with a College visiting tour. Friday night's dinner was attended by Susan and Jim Wright (Susan is an honorary member of our class and therefore gets top billing). After dinner several items were auctioned off with the proceeds going to the Alumni Fund. Sandy Alderson provided Ail-Star game and World Series tickets and Russ Granik sent some autographed basketballs. Russ couldn't make Reunion because of the NBA play-offs. Tom Parks wanted to put the Beta House property on the auction block to see if President Wright would bid on it but cooler heads prevailed.

Thaddeus Seymour was the speaker at our dinner Saturday night and played excerpts from a WDCR tape made during the Parkhurst take-over. Interesting stuff. Also during that dinner, former members of the swim team honored their freshmen coach, Ron Keenhold, who retired as head coach this year. Earlier in the day, the Dartmouth Class of 1969 Institute was officially established at a class meeting but you will have to wait to hear more about its mission and its immediate plans.

The reunion committee deserves special mention for making it all happen. PaulTuhus was head honcho, with JohnLeavitt, Bob Shellard, Norman Jacobs,David Prentice, Terry Robinson, RoyHitchings, Dudley Kay, Bill Stableford, and yours truly all lending a hand. We had 115 classmates, 82 other adults, and 33 children.

There's more but I'm tired. I have decided that the only thing missing from this Reunion was more classmates. And so, I am asking all the "regulars" to think of two classmates who they wished had attended and make them their special project for the 35th. I am picking Jon Swenson and AlSloan. Remember Homecoming Oct. 22- 23. I expect to see Tracie, Eric, and maybe even Katie there (that's some personal stuff).

Take care and write.

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