1951

"Indefatigable hosts" we called them in Philadelphia last May for our mini-re-union. Your scribe is talking about Jack Giegerich, Sam Roberts and Buck Scott. The Union League Club was our HQ and the venue for the arrival dinner Thursday night. A heavy dose of culture awaited our 60-plus group in three buses as we wended our way out the Main Line to Merion. The Barnes Museum, brimming with post-impressionist art, was a delight for our eyes. That was followed by a delight for our stomachs at The Merion Cricket Club for lunch. Onward to the Philadelphia Museum of Art we went to enjoy the Salvador Dali exhibition. Dinner that night was at a restaurant in the historic end of town with servers in period dress. On Saturday after breakfast we visited the new Constitution Hall, a huge multimedia salute to The Bill of Rights and subsequent amendments. We were on our own that afternoon before assembling in the evening for a class banquet. Honored for his many contributions of time, talent and treasure to his college and community, Sam Roberts became the latest Spirit of '51 honoree. A getaway breakfast the next morning and it was all over. Dave Batchelder's '51 Fables will have more details, including a list of attendees and Sam Roberts citation.

Here are a few recollections of our freshman trips. From across the pond, Mark Heifer sent a long e-mail with a photograph. "I responded to a flyer from the DOC and quit my summer job with BelTelCo and hitch-hiked to Hanover from Massena in early August '47 to join the Moosilauke trail crew. We had the strenuous but fun job of felling and bringing in softwood logs for the voracious furnace of the Ravine Camp. According to my diary these '51s were in the crew: Whitey Hand, Mike Harris, Joe Holton, Russ Keep, Bob Maguire, Chuck Nadler, Floyd Parks, Buck Scott and Andy Timmerrnan."

While in a hospital, dictated to his Columbia University administrator, we have Bob Maguire's recollections: "At night the total darkness and sense of complete aloneness and isolation until suddenly a classmate speaks or whistles and then my sudden awareness that I am not alone. This is a feeling that has never left me. During that week I met many people who I would remain friendly with throughout my four years. Including, my best friend for over 50 years, Al Anderson, until his untimely death in the mid-1990s. That week was truly the College in miniature."

Chuck Nadler recalled: "The freshman trip was a great prelude to Dartmouth. New England's forests shared a welcoming resemblance to those of Wisconsin, where I spent childhood summers and what could be better than meeting new friends in that non-academic environment. Roommates Sandy McDonald,Joe Holton and Hap Person were fellow trippers. Beginning with the freshman trip, the DOC was a great stimulus for my lifetime interest in natural history and led to wilderness hunting trips on six continents."

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