1959

Do you remember our 1958-59 varsity hockey team capturing the Ivy League crown with 10 consecutive, spectacular wins? It was 10 years since Dartmouth had won a championship and Harvard had been monopolizing the conference. Team captain Rod Anderson well remembers the tide turning when Harvard met a Dartmouth team that included a great group of '59s.

Rod grew up in St. Paul, where "hockey was the most important thing a boy could do. For me hockey was fun." He still remembers classmates Tippy Putnam and Rennie Spaulding, who also thoroughly enjoyed competing on the ice. Hockey carried over into Rods adult life when he became that sport's coach at Minneapolis' Blake School; "Probably what led me to feel comfortable about going into teaching as a career," he says. He taught history and social studies at Blake for 40-plus years, retired in 2001 and "unretired practically the next day. I'll finally quit when the kids tell me I can't do it anymore," he says. Rod is still in touch with roommate Stu Hanson, also living in Minneapolis, and "once in a while" with Dave Gavitt in Rhode Island. Rod promises to be at our 50th reunion.

George "Jeep" Pearse grew up skating in West Hartford, Connecticut, but became team manager instead of a player. He also says that hockey impacted his adult life. "Being team manager taught me business, management and administrative principles I used after graduation, first with IBM in its military computer division and then when I went into my father's industrial hydraulics distribution business." Now happily retired, relaxed and an active ham radio operator (KA1DF) in Hilton Head, South Carolina, George recently enjoyed seeing Mike Hellman, who lives nearby in Sea Pines.

Team center John Wadman grew up skating on a pond near his Massachusetts home, continued at Dartmouth and after graduation played semi-pro hockey in Connecticut, where his professional career was as a chemist. He remembers hockey as "the best part of my life. I still watch it on TV every chance I get." Now retired from chemistry, John is a member of the Renaissance Club in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, where he lives and spends time running its snack bar. He not only plans to be at our 50th reunion, but is also bringing his sister and two sons.

Dave Preston started by playing pee- wee hockey in Utica, New York, and then varsity at Deerfield. He skated freshman year but broke his back two days before practice started sophomore term and therefore could not letter until a senior. Dave continued to skate hockey even after graduating, in his case while going through Navy flight training in Texas. ("Of all places," he says.) He is now retired, back in Utica and flying courier planes "just to stay active."

Other '59s on that championship team of whom I am aware were Dirk Frankenberg, who died in 2000, and Bob Batson, whom I cannot locate. Can anyone advise me where Bob is?

172 Oenoke Lane, New Canaan, CT06840; p.stein@sbcglobal.net

REUNIONJune 12-16