1950

As I write this in mid-December, we've already had three major winter storms. As a friend (Whit Williams, I think) once said, "I think I'm losing my sense of humor about New England winters." Anyway, it's some solace to know that when you read this, the Red Soxwill have begun spring training.

As I have done previously in this column here are brief biographies of two classmates selected at random from our 50th reunion book. The first is Andy McClary, who lives in East Lansing, Michigan, with his wife, Jane. Following Dartmouth he had a couple of aborted career starts in city planning and shrimp fishing. From there Andy went to graduate school at the University of Michigan, where he obtained a Ph.D. in zoology and met his future wife. His teaching career included the University of Wisconsin and Michigan State, where he spent the rest of his teaching time in general education. He published numerous papers and a book, Biology and Society: The Evolution of Man andHis Technology. In retirement he has been active at the MSU Museum. After the arrival of grandchildren he became interested in toys, which developed into a talk called "Toys with Nine Lives" that he delivered to many groups. From this came a book of the same title, which discussed the changes in toys through time. Jane and Andy have two daughters, Ann and Susan '82.

My second selection for a classmate biography is Jim Laing, who lives in Milwaukee with his wife, Pat. Jims life has been involved in teaching English and coaching tennis at Milwaukee Country Day School (now University School). In addition to the school coaching he created with a fellow coach the Bachman-Laing Tennis Camps for children and adults that ran through 1998. Although he retired from teaching in 1992 Jim has continued to coach boys' and girls' tennis teams, some of whose players have contributed to conference, regional and state championships, including Dartmouth. Jim also keeps active in competitive cross-country skiing, participating in 23K Kortelopoet as well as other Wisconsin 10K and 20K races. With Pat he has enjoyed Elderhostel trips in North America, Europe and New Zealand.

Many, many thanks to Alex Joe, Bud, Tom and Janot and Fizz. Hope to see you at the Midwest mini-reunion in Chicago in June. In the meantime, how about dropping me a line via email or snail-mail? Help me liven up this column.

2 Central Green, Winchester, MA 01890;jekent2052@aol.com