1961

The Class of 1961 Legacy:The American Tradition in Performance has been launched. Lewis A Crickard, director of the Hopkins Center, writes that the first performance funded by our class, the Mingus Big Band, named the "smokingest band on the planet" by Jazz Times, played to a full house in Spaulding Auditorium on Oct. 24. Theirs was the first of three events by visiting artists underwritten by the Class of 1961 Legacy during the 2000-2001 season at the Hopkins Center.

Writes Crickard, "The second performance, by illustrious blues singer/songwriter/guitarist Keb' Mo on Oct. 28 also sold out. The third performance will take place on April 12, when the virtuoso quintet Windscape presents a sweeping program of music from the '20s, including works by Louis Armstrong and George Gershwin. The Class of 1961 Legacy—the only known fund to focus support on the American tradition in the arts—has made an important and ongoing contribution to the arts at Dartmouth. The growth of the legacy has amazed us all: to date there are 115 donors. Your class has the honor of creating an endowment that had never been imagined before and you certainly established a legacy that will enrich Dartmouth students for years to come."

Wow! What a response! Crickard said he is planning a thank you reception for the class during our 40th reunion June 11-14. The thanks of the class for spearheading this project go to David Birney. Many of you have already heard his voice on the phone.

Meantime, planning presses on for the 40 th. If you haven't already returned your essay to Frank Ginn, please do so at once. The reunion book printing deadline is upon us, so use the email form if you possibly can for fastest transmission. Put down this magazine and do it NOW.

And it's time to make sure you have your response cards into Art Johnson. As I've said before, we're hoping this will be our biggest reunion ever. Minutes of our October class meeting can be found on our Web site, www. alum.dartmouth.org/classes/61/, so I won't take space to discuss our actions here.

Brother Birney directed and was featured Christmas Pudding—"a holiday confection of songs, stories, poems by Charles Dickens, Frank McCourt, Dr. Seuss, Clement Moore, Mark Twain, Shakespeare, John Updike, St. Luke and others, spiced with carols and traditional music of the season," at West wood Presbyterian Church, a benefit to raise money for People Assisting the Homeless.

Another class thespian, Terry Ortwein, read from his memoir Harlo recently in Westerly, Connecticut. He's an actor, a playwright and an educator.

David 0. Smith, who has 35 years of expe- rience in the helicopter industry, including as president and CEO of American Eurocopter, Eurocopter Canada Ltd. and MBB Helicopter Corp. and who currently is a business development consultant in San Jose, California, has been elected to the board of directors of Petroleum Helicopters Inc.

And Maynard Wheeler is joining our list of retirees, moving to a "real" home in Eastman in Grantham, New Hampshire from his longtime practice of pediatric ophthalmology, although he allows he may practice some after he moves to New Hampshire. Planned date: June.

Wake Forest University Baptist MedicalCenter, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem,NC 27157-1015; rconn@wfubmc.edu or rconn@triad.rr.com

REUNION June 11-14 2001