1956

If you are not on the Internet you are missing a lot of class dialogue. Flint Ranney has set up a fine class Web site and the class-56@dartmouth.edu address group includes scores of classmates who chitchat about all kinds of things. One recent exchange has been about good fiction. Art Zich recommended two stories of the Orient: Kalimantan by C.S. Godshalk and The Warlord by Malcom Boss. Denny Minely likes TheTalented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. Dave Kerr has read all the books in the Patrick O'Brian series and is starting them again; he also Tour of the Great War by Mark Helprin, Tolkien's lord of the Rings and Once an Eagle by Anton Myrer.George Brophy Contributed A Fan's Notes by Exley. English professor Bob French recommends the Rabbit tetralogy by John Updike as suitable for our generation, Cold Mountain by Charles Fraser and CathedralandA Small, Good Thing by Raymond Carver. Tim Fohl enjoyed SnowCrash but couldn't remember the author. Dick Scobie found Michael Ignatieff's The Warner's Honor to be provocative, along with Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom. Dick says: "I like Annie Dillard's take on life; and Thich Nhat Hanh. Over the years I've enjoyed Garcia Marquez novels, Barbara Tuchmans and Doris Kearns Goodwin's histories, and digging deeper into Conrad, Willa Cather and Graham Green, and on a lighter note, messing about in tall ships with Patrick O'Brian." Mike Zissu has chimed in with A Fork in theRoad by Dennis Hammill und A Conspiracyof Paperby David Liss. Finally, Harry Nutting likes to peruse the Latin version of Encyclopedia Britannica translated into Urdu. He is also into back issues of Jack and J'ill, finding them "profound and lyrical, yet not too pompous or pretentious."

Bob Burnham (on the Internet) gives us the best reason to plan to attend the 45th reunion next year: "I sat down to write overdue notes to several classmates. The first letter was to a classmate who had just had rotator cuff surgery and was scheduled for cataract surgery early May; the second had had a 'silent heart attack' (whatever that is) and was grateful he is OK; and on Saturday we visited a fraternity brother who cannot drive anymore because of physical limitations. The message is clear: Take advantage of each opportunity!"

Ted Wadleigh, Sam Hull and Charley Soule are scheduled to attend Alumni College in Hanover this summer. In the meantime we have lost two more classmates. It is sad to report that Henry Pratt died of cancer on May 7 in Royal Oak, Michigan. Henry taught political science at Wellesley, Emory and Georgia Tech before becoming a full professor at Wayne State University. Jonathan Allen passed away in April in Boston, where he was director of MIT's research laboratory of electronics. We join the families of these fine men in mourning their passing.

P.O.Box 1031, Burlington, NC27216; (336) 227-1153;harpoon@netpath.net