1948

From guest secretary David Kurr: Reached our class historian Sonny Drury at his office and confirmed he was wearing a newly developed, floating contact lens in his right eye with occasional vision in the 20/60 range. While there are some problems with the lens at this writing, we’re hopeful and trust they’ll be resolved. Lack of vision has not kept him from conducting his business selling exotic, high-temperature fusion equipment to make plastic pellets.

Our class was spread all over the globe at the end of the second World War. Sonny relates that in the winter of 1945-46 Colin Stewart was transferring to the Army ski team at Garmisch in the Bavarian Alps when he was stopped at an intersection by Stan Churchill, who was the M.P. directing traffic. They reunited in Hanover, where Colin was a premier skier under Walter Praeger at Dartmouth and the 1948 Olympics. In the same timeframe I was in Japan with the 112th Regimental Combat Team and picked up a semester utilizing an Army directive authorizing flying back to the United States for discharge provided you’d matriculated at college and didn’t have time for an ocean cruise. Transportation was a C-47 that stopped at every island with an airstrip between Tokyo and Honolulu.

Had a great conversation with Ed Shipper, whom I haven’t seen for 60 years. He was on our football team when we played Notre Dame at Fenway Park in Boston and played 22 minutes opposite an All American guard, “because the coach didn’t want to lose all the first-string varsity.” His playing weight was 169 pounds. We lost 66-zip. So, ye of little faith, don’t lose it because of last year. Ed started his career in the family merchant cotton business and at one stage grew cotton in Italy and Sicily. He branched into other product lines and is still active from his home in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Carl and Jan Evans planned to attend our 60th but had a scheduling conflict with one of their five grandchildren’s graduation. We hope they will be able to catch a mini-reunion, which are well attended and lots of fun.

P.O. Box 304, Concord, MA 01742; wdaniell48@aol.com