1961

It is official and confirmed! The Tanzi license plate award has changed hands, passing (reluctantly) from Mike Murphy to "Duck" Eicke. I was told that Duck sent armed guards to Murphys' house to pickup the award and transport it across state lines to Ducks house. Next in line is Pete Bleyler For those of you who are not aware, it was Oscar Arslanian who received the license plate from Tanzi before he died and had it mounted on a plaque for our on going class reunion auctions.

There I am reading The New York Times on April 20 and whose picture do I see covering nearly one-third of a page? None other than Dick Beattie, sitting right next to N.Y.C. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other dignitaries at a Four Seasons "power lunch." Not bad!

The May 14 issue of the Vox of Dartmouth, published by the Dartmouth office of public affairs, had as its lead article the Handel Society's performance of a newly commissioned work based on eight poems by Robert Frost. The front page picture of the composer shows her standing along side of our class' donated statue of Robert Frost. Not too shabby an accolade to our class' vision and perseverance!

At the May Alumni Council meeting I ran into and spent time with Mike Houlahan, also a member of the council, and Art Kelton, who was in Hanover for a meeting of the Hanover Inn board of overseers, of which Art is a member. I can only imagine what kind of a room the Inn gave Art and the quality/quantity of food and beverage they showered upon him. Those who now want to be Art's best friend, let him know quickly, before his list becomes full.

Accolades again to Don O'Neill, who has driven his classmates as he has attempted to exceed both the Alumni Fund dollar goal and participation goal set for the class for this year. It is now near the end of this year's campaign and we expect to exceed both goals. Whether we will make it remains to be seen, but it certainly will not be for any lack of effort by Don and his crew if we miss out.

It is with distinct sadness that I recently learned that our classmate Darius Waterhouse Darwin passed away last year. "Diz" Darwin, as he was known by those who were fortunate enough to be acquainted with him, was at Dartmouth for only a short time, through winter ski season of freshman year to be exact. Diz was the Colorado state ski champion and, I believe, either captain or co-captain of our freshman ski team. I first met Diz during the freshman hike and we became friends. He taught me how to ski. Unfortunately, Diz had a high school sweet-heart back home and had never been out of Colorado before coming to Dartmouth. He missed his girlfriend, his family and the "Rocky Mountain high" of Colorado. So Diz went home for spring break of our freshman year and never returned to Dartmouth. He will be missed; I will miss him. I never thanked him properly for teaching me how to ski, and I regret that.

5 Red Ground Road, Old Westbury,NY 11568; victor.rich@rsmi.com