1959

Let's catch up with classmates who were avid skiers during our days in Hanover. What are they doing now?

DOC winter sports ski leader Tom Brackett still hits the slopes regularly. "All family vacations are ski vacations. We also ski every possible weekend during the winter at a very special place, Holiday Valley, Ellicottville, New York, about a three hour drive from our Cleveland home."

"When not skiing, I exercise a lot, work on one of my three antique cars and we travel. We shall be at the Seattle mini-reunion, which sounds like a great time. Earlierwe shall be taking the Dartmouth Travel American Orient Express trip in May."

Mai Swenson, a member of the Dartmouth Ski Patrol as an undergraduate, lives in Hanover and spends a lot of time at the Dartmouth Skiway. All is not skiing, however, as Mai continues his consulting firm specializing in stone construction and stone facing as well as his stonetrading company. Furthermore, "I got hooked on China when living there years ago, working for their government, and still spend a lot of time studying that country and the language. Another interest is Chinese furniture, which led to curating a show of classic Chinese furniture down in Concord some years ago."

Ski team member Fran Noel writes, "Yes, I am still skiing. We have a group of Master racers who train at nearby Big Sky three days each week starting in December. More or less involved with ski racing since graduation, I coached, instructed and raced in Colorado before moving to Bozeman in 1970 to take a position at Montana State University. I am now fully retired and can tell you that retirement is highly underrated! Dave Britton is also a Master racer but in the eastern division."

Another onetime ski team member, Hartley Paul, says, "Even though our body part warranties are running out, I try to ski every weekend at Whistler, British Columbia, where we have a onebedroom crash pad a four-plus-hour drive north of our home in Bellevue, Washington. We get in the lift line half an hour before it opens and ski high-speed groomer runs before the crowds hit the slopes. This winter I'm also skiing Sun Valley, Big Sky and cat skiing Chatter Creek, a 30- minute helicopter ride north of Golden, British Columbia. I found my life's motto in a Malcolm Forbes quote years ago: 'People who never get carried away should be.' "

Wally May, now retired, summers in Hopkins, Minnesota, winters in LaQuinta, California, and cross-country skis, mostly for the exercise, he says. Wally gave up downhill in 1992 for the very good reason that "I was afraid of a golf-threatening injury. I now try to play 150 rounds a year."

Wally fondly remembers ski patrol and days on nearby slopes with roomies Tom Otter and Tom Gessner as well as "a 1958 trip to Aspen in Gessner's new Edsel. Four of us drove nonstop from Hanover and skied all day the day we arrived!"

172 Oenoke Lane, New Canaan, CT06840; (203) 966-1252; paul_stein@msn.com