1954

While we did not receive this year the extraordinary recognition and accolades from the Dartmouth College Fund that we experienced last year, our 50 th reunion year, we did contribute the respectable amount of $283,000, which was 94 percent of our ambitious post-reunion goal. We achieved a 69 percent participation of the class, which was a class record in a post-reunion year. Additional amounts, not credited to the fund, were contributed by our classmates to other Dartmouth activities, particularly Tuck, where many of our classmates celebrated a 50th reunion. Hugh Nolin, head agent, and the many volunteers assisting him are to be commended.

Bob Collins was honored as the recipient of the distinguished Dickson Emeriti Professorship from President Robert Dynes of the University of California. Bob is a professor emeritus of history at UC Santa Barbara and is considered to be the foremost specialist on the history of the southern Sudan. His book CivilWars and Revolution in the Sudan: Essays on the Sudan, Southern Sudan and Darfur, 1962-2004 was published recently. An earlier and popular book, The Nile,was published in 2002.A sure-to-be controversial book, Alms for Jihad, written with J. Millard Burr, will be released shortly by

Cambridge University Press.

The fly fishermen gathered this year at the Megantic Fish and Game Club in Maine. Jim Adams reported that they were hosted by Audrey and Dick Lewis and joined by Dick Page, Bob Levine, Wil Wilkens, Shelly Woolf, Pete Ankeny and newcomer Jay Davis. Jim is now scheduling the 2006 trip and hopes some more classmates will sign up. The destination will either be Idaho or the Blackwater River in British Columbia.

For your additional forward planning the class holiday luncheons are scheduled for Boston on December 7 at the Weston Golf Club and in New York City on December 8 at the Yale-Dartmouth Club.

Skiing activities are being scheduled by Jay Davis with the Vermont "warm-up" to be held January 8 through 10 at Mt. Snow. The western Colorado trip is planned at Vail from March 4 through 8.

The golfers under the direction of Shelly Woolf are well organized for next year's outing. It is scheduled from February 26 through March 2 at the Tampa Palms Golf and Country Club in Tampa, Florida. Twenty classmates and their spouses have already signed on.

Looking still further ahead is the trip scheduled for the Dordogne and Provence in France. Plan for a U.S. departure on June 23 and a return from France on July 5. John Fenn and Don Berlin are contacts. Also being planned is a Seattle and Vancouver mini-reunion scheduled for September 2006. This is being organized by Ed Scott and Don Belcher.

Michael McDonald of New Hartford, New York, died after a prolonged illness. Condolences to his wife, Mary, and his three sons, a daughter-in-law and two grandchildren.

270 Bronxville Road, #A81,Bronxville, NY 10708; brycebastian@verizon.net