1956

With this issue of Dartmouth Alumni Magazine I assume the duties of class secretary despite the fact that I have not yet been trained in exactly what to do. I will be attending a training session three weeks from today as part of Class Officers Weekend. Obviously I can use all the help I can get and will appreciate getting class news via my email address, which is joel@poeticlimericks. com. That address provides a good hint that I write poetic limericks, and it is my intention to close each of my columns with a one-stanza (five lines) poem drawn from my large collection, including more than 40 poems written about some aspect of Dartmouth.

I now have the sad mission of reporting news of classmates who have recently passed on and there have been quite a few, including some very active in class affairs and truly beloved. Among those whom I have received such notice about are Dick Groeneveld, Frank “Fritz” Butler Simms, Howard “Howie” Neal Newman, George Warren Haliday, Donald Gregor Purple and Jonathan “Tiny” Strong. In view of the realities of our stage of life I thought that it would be illuminating to provide some statistics for the class. Back in 1952 our class matriculated 742 young men. Of these, 621 graduated in 1956. As of the writing of this column 478 are still among the living. Of these, I look forward to seeing as many as possible at Homecoming Weekend. I will report on these heartwarming sightings in the next column.

Since 2002 I have been living in the Eastman community of Grantham, New Hampshire—roughly 25 minutes from the center of the universe in Hanover. There I run the Dartmouth at Eastman group, including graduates from the classes of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. We will shortly hold our couples cocktail party, with 29 planning to attend, and I look forward to seeing Dick Kurts and his wife, Sally, among the revelers.

And now for my closing poetic limerick (written especially for this column) titled, “Dartmouth Ties.” I have quite a few Dartmouth ties, Each ignites a green glow in my eyes; The old Indian head, PC seal in its stead, All engender nostalgia I prize.

P.O. Box 1733, Grantham, NH 03753; (603) 863-3360; joel@poeticlimericks.com