1948

Before our 60th last June it was great to talk with Foster "Fos" DeGiacomo, Jim Garrison, Jere Poole, Dick Repko, Sam Hoopes, Ken Saunders and Ed Shipper. None attended our 60th but there were good noises about 65th. You were all missed by your old friends.

Fos recently told of losing touch since Hanover with his fellow Marine buddy Shant Chebookjian. But in early 2004 Fos luckily obtained Shant's phone number and drove and met him for a memorable lunch together, this only a couple of months before Shant's unexpected death. (You will recall Shant's just pride when he appeared at our 50th with his son Richard '75). Fos first met his wife, Nancy, on a bus he and Don Drescher took from Washington to Camp Lejeune to get their discharge papers in 1946. Nancy was of the famed baseball DiMaggios and we still don't know if her shy cousin Joe appeared at the wedding and sat with the family.

Just before Joan and I left for our 60th we received a frightened call from Don Drescher's friend Sally that they would not be there because Don was hospitalized with pneumonia. His friends will be relieved to know that Don phoned two weeks later and had fully recovered. Yow!

One of the pleasures of reunions is the chance to meet old friends, sometimes long disappeared. At the 60th one of these was Finn Siiteri, who first appeared with us on the famous top floor of Wheeler in that summer of 1944. We are all familiar with great medical research achievements of doctors Sam Katz, Jerry Lucey and others of the 30 M.D.s in our class, but we were not aware of Finn's sin- gular membership in the Order of the White Lion, bestowed on him by the Government of Finland in Helsinki to honor the life-affecting work he is still pursuing. We also note the first reunion appearance of Fordham tenured law professor Carl Felsenfeld. It was a pleasure to be in contact with arguably our finest '48 athlete (soccer, hockey, lacrosse) as well as class marshal at our graduation, Bob Merriam, who still plays the game by interviewing Dartmouth candidates.

All 48s are praying that our handicapped Sam Wilkinson will soon be once again on his feet and walking freely.

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