1958

The Colorado chapter of the American Jewish Committee recently awarded Joe Blake, president and CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce and the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp., its National Human Relations Award. The award is given annually to community leaders who, with their skills, influence and dedication, have demonstrated a profound commitment to preserving our heritage of democracy.

Gersh Abraham attended the dinner at The Harmonie Club in New York last April when President Wright and Dartmouth Hillel honored Mel Alperin by establishing the Mel Alperin '58 Fund for Jewish Life at Dartmouth. Mel was the driving force behind the creation of the Roth Center. The more than $700,000 fund will be used in support of the Roth Center and Jewish life at the College. In his remarks Jim Wright called the occasion "a much-deserved tribute to a man whose leadership has touched and transformed both the Jewish community at Dartmouth and the College itself." Joe Slotnik and Steve Gutman were also in attendance.

Mini-reunion chairman Frank Gould said that regional mini-reunions planned earlier in June were successful. Local organizers included Phil Stoddard, central and western Massachusetts; Dave Chapin, greater Boston; John Otis, Cape Cod; Sy Handelsman, Boston North Shore; Rink DeWitt and Joe Kabat, New Hampshire; Norm Sylvester, Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties of New York; John Coulter, mid and upper Hudson Valley. Also Lou Bloomfield, greater Cleveland; Sam Smith, greater Hartford; Kit Cowperthwaite, greater Denver and Colorado; Bruce Gemberling, greater San Diego; Hal Douglas, greater Portland and Oregon; Mori Mitsui, lower Maine, Kittery to Brunswick; Nate Palmer, Chicago; and Ted Furber, Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

Skip Coggin and his wife, Liz, reported on his missionary trip to Africa last year, when 17 members of his church went to Uganda, followed by visits to Cape Town and a game safari in South Africa's Krueger National Park.'The mission trip was certainly a life-impacting, if not a life-altering experience." The Watoto Children's Mission was founded to help deal with the plight of 1 million orphans who have lost their parents due to AIDS and civil war. Another religious mission took David Cassidy and his wife, Sue, to Moldova, where he provided some business consulting along with Christian leadership.

As we seem to have more "free time" (called getting older) we have more time to read. I never was much of a reader (third percentile in reading comprehension in our class) but I now enjoy it very much. So I'm starting a "Book Corner" on the '58 Web site and hope you'll chime in with what interesting reading you've found. I recently read Babes in Boyland, a personal history of one of the first female Dartmouth students. Gina Barreca, the author, recalls, among other things, starting a sorority, Tau lota Tau.

Visit our Web site at www.alum.dartmouth. org/classes/58.

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