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Class of 1956 Internet Home Page
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Updated 2/2/2010 at 1100 hours Nantucket time (EST)
Dartmouth Faculty Reading List:
click on this address (or copy and paste into your browser)
to see what the Faculty is reading this winter:
http://alumni.dartmouth.edu/default.aspx?id=1582
Message from President Kim, January 7, 2010:
Dear Alumni, Parents, and Friends,
Thanks to you, on December 31, 2009, we achieved an extraordinary goal. We completed the Campaign for the Dartmouth Experience. A total of 65,174 people and organizations contributed to the effort, the largest in our history. This is an impressive tribute to the way Dartmouth people work to make the College stronger and responsive to the needs of society.
You enabled Dartmouth to add to its curriculum new fields of study, so students receive an education relevant to the challenges of their time. You provided essential scholarships, so students could take advantage of a Dartmouth education. And you gave our faculty, students, and staff the facilities, equipment, and program support to do their best work.
Your investments totaled an impressive $1.308 billion. I encourage you to visit the website, where you will see a press release and details about the impact of your gifts on the quality of the student experience in Hanover and in communities around the world.
We now press ahead with new ambitions. While the decline in our endowment dictates that we first reduce our expenses and select new initiatives strategically, we proceed confidently, knowing Dartmouth has such a strong and loyal base of support.
You represent the best of Dartmouth’s values in the lives that you lead. Your philanthropy makes it possible for others to achieve the same.
With gratitude,
Jim Yong Kim
December 2009 Alumni Council Meeting Report
From Elliott WEINSTEIN ‘56
It is such a pleasure to visit Hanover on a clear, crisp, late fall weekend and not have to deal with all the discord and distraction that I have encountered in past Council meetings. Instead the air was alive with 2 subjects that were on everyone's minds and lips.
Foremost was the celebration over the inauguration of our new president, Jim Yong Kim. His acceptance has been universal and overwhelming. I have heard him speak three different times now and have read his inauguration speech and can enthusiastically endorse all the praise that has been heaped upon him. If you haven't read or heard any of his talks I highly recommend that you do. They can be accessed either in video or text on the dartmouth.edu/web site or better still at www.youtube.com/dartmouth. He is a man that knows and understands what Dartmouth was, what Dartmouth is, and he has a clear vision of what Dartmouth should be when it celebrates its 250th anniversary in the year 2019.
Unfortunately the other subject on everyone's mind was the dire financial strait in which Dartmouth finds itself. Of course at the meeting they were quick to point out that all the other educational institutions are suffering even more dramatically. Dartmouth's endowment has dropped 19.6% while most other school's endowments have lost considerably more. They also make the point that the gains in our endowment over the last decade place us in the top 5th percentile when measured against our peer institutions. On December 1st President Kim made a very full and very clear report on Dartmouth's finances in a webcast to the entire Dartmouth community. It addresses what happened and why, what must be done to rebalance the 2010 and 2011 budgets that had already been prepared and must now be cut dramatically as well what steps must be taken going forward not knowing what the economic future has in store for us. I hate to keep referring you to the web but this subject is very complex and if you want a more complete understanding of the College's finances you must go to his report that is on the website listed above. Briefly, for those who don't go there, here are a few snippets. Cut he must, but things that will remain sacrosanct are: Everything vital to the core 'Dartmouth Experience'; Need blind admissions; Faculty compensation (because our faculty's ability to educate is what has made Dartmouth the #1 school in 'Undergraduate Education' in US News and World Report's most recent rankings.
As usual the College had a full program prepared to inform the attending Councilors on what is happening in Hanover so that we may report back to our Classes. And what is happening in all areas up there might be described as 'impressive' or 'amazing' but one thing for sure, it can't be described in just a page or two. I will highlight a few of the items presented to us but again, for the unabridged description of what transpired you must go to http://alumni.dartmouth.edu/default.aspx?id=1828 or the Alumni Council's website that can be accessed thru a 'Quick Link' on Dartmouth's Home page.
Alumni Trustee election time again: Two seats are coming up for election. One for a Trustee who is finishing his normal 2 four-year terms and the second to replace a Trustee who was not seated for his second four-year term (you don't want me to go there I'm sure). After a very broad and intensive search encompassing 400 possible candidates by a very dedicated and hard working 12 member Alumni Council Nominating Committee, two (one for each seat) were selected and will appear on the ballot presented to the entire 69,000 Alumni body for election during the period of March 10 thru April 7. They are Morton Kondracke '60 and John Replogle '88. Both with very accomplished resumes and who spoke impressively and with sincerity at the Council meeting. Only one candidate was nominated for each seat because it is anticipated that additional candidates will appear on the ballot through the simplified 500-name petition process that will be open during the next 2 months. I think it is worth noting that for 70 years prior to the 1990's (with 1 possible exception) the Alumni Council presented only 1 candidate to the Alumni body for Trustee election. There will be much publicity about this election as well as for the simultaneous Association of Alumni's election of Officers so I won't burden you with more here on the subject except to ask you to have your vote counted.
The Admissions scene is even more obscene than ever. There were 18,000 applicants for the 1,300 member Class of '13. A large majority of those applicants who were rated “most desirable” during some stage of the reviewing process were not accepted.
Two new building projects are going forward despite the financial crises because specific, restricted contributions are funding them. The much awaited and nearly completed Arts and Sciences Building and the newly designed Visual Arts Center that will extend the campus southward and form a new attractive entrance triangle in concert with the Hopkins Center and the Hood.
Also, items that might be of interest to those of our era that were mentioned in passing: President Kim indicated interest in “The Great Issues” course of old and I think there is a fair chance that it will be resurrected. The Army ROTC unit currently has a tiny 12-member presence on campus. I don't think it likely that it will be expanded because none of the other Services seem to have an interest in doing so and there is an underlying difficulty on campus with the military's 'don't ask don't tell' policy. Social Networking, and specifically within it 'Facebook', is becoming rampant among the students and younger Alumni. So much so that the College has plans to phase out its Blitzmail network and predicts communicating via regular e-mail will also soon become obsolete. And all this is happening after I have just recently mastered the “Send now” button.
I will leave you with a personal reflection, not about anything at the meeting but something that occurred Homecoming Friday evening in front of Dartmouth Hall. At the end of the President's customary rousing speech encouraging our team to “CRUSH” Columbia, he announced that since this was his 1st year at Dartmouth he wanted to honor tradition and join the Class of '13 in running around the bonfire that had just been ignited. I watched as he walked down thru the Alumni crowded hill to join his fellow freshmen and begin their run. My last glimpse of him was the white baseball cap he wore, symbolizing at least in my mind the long lost 'Beanie', bobbing up and down in the midst of a horde of shocked but delighted Pea Green men and women. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry so I did a little of both.
Happy Holidays and my best wishes to all of you for the coming New Year.
Elliott Weinstein '56
From: Louisa Guthrie '79 (dartmouth.alumni.relations@dartmouth.edu)
Sent: Monday, October 26, 2009 12:17 PM
To: Class and Club Presidents
Honorary Degree Nominations Requested
Dear Class and Club Presidents:
I want to introduce myself as the chair of the Honorary Degree Committee of the Dartmouth Alumni Council for the 2009-10 academic year, and would like to solicit your input. As you may be aware, approximately 6-8 honorary degrees are awarded each June at graduation with 1 or 2 of them granted to Dartmouth alumni. The mission of the Honorary Degree Committee is to recommend a handful of Dartmouth alums each year to the President's office for consideration for this prestigious honor. The criteria we look for in awarding an honorary degree to an Alumnus include professional achievement, philanthropic/civic/community service and a track record of post-graduation involvement with the College. As you can see from the list below of the 18 alumni who have received this award over the past decade, it includes a broad range of business executives, educators, artists, scientists and community leaders who have distinguished themselves, often not only in one, but multiple areas.
I am hoping that you can help the Honorary Degree Committee identify some good candidates we might not otherwise come across. Your assistance is critical to our process, as we work independently from the administration and want to cull names from a variety of sources. Our ongoing mission is to consistently build our database to include a robust pipeline, particularly in classes that are more than 25 years past graduation. Our vetting is often a multi-year process and names often come up on more than one occasion, so the key is to create a pipeline that is reviewed on a regular basis.
Please contact Suzanne Young '77 (suzanne.young@dartmouth.edu), our Committee's secretary and the College's Senior Associate Director of Alumni Regional Affairs, with any alumni names you would like us to consider. Please include a brief description of the person and your rationale for their consideration, focusing on the criteria mentioned above. As you can imagine, we deal in strict confidentiality and would ask that you do the same. It is important to note that our Committee's input is only part of the overall process; it is the President's Office that makes the final determination each year, in which a number of other factors might come into play.
Finally, keep in mind that the College does not bestow Honorary Degrees posthumously.
On behalf of the Honorary Degrees Committee, I thank you, in advance for your assistance. We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Louisa C. Guthrie '79
Chair, Honorary Degree Committee
2009-2010 Alumni Council
Alumni/na Honorary Degree Recipients 2000-2009
Donald J. Hall '50
Norman E. McCulloch, Jr. '50
Ira Heyman '51
Fred McFeely Rogers '50
E. John Rosenwald Jr. '52 T'53
Robert P. Henderson '53 T'54
Frederick Whittemore '53 T'54
Richard Page '54
Lo-Yi Chan '54
Jeffrey Immelt '78
Gordon Russell '55
ROBERT BARRY '56
Chiharu Igaya '57
Erich Kunzel '57
Henry Paulson '68
Richard Hill '41 T'42
Ralph Manuel '58 T'59
Louise Erdrich '76
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Message from Bob Murphy, '65 (murph65nh@myfairpoint.net) regarding a forthcoming book on Dartmouth Skiing. More info appeared magically in the December Class Newsletter:
"[I am not] sure you are aware of possibly the biggest alumni-organized project ever that is underway right now to show that Dartmouth alumni, staff and families have been the biggest force in the development of modern skiing over the past 120 years. This is not an official College project, but rather something that has had the active involvement of some 500+ alumni (from the classes of 1936 to 2009) providing research info, and some 60-70 alumni/ non-alumni actually writing parts of the 400+ page book that will be published next year to help celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the DOC as the project's phase 1.
"You may not be aware of the size of the modern ski industry, but it is huge (i.e. In the US alone, a Tuck Study team has just calculated it as twice the size of Microsoft), and Dartmouth and thousands of alumni have been main driving force since the late 19th century. The project is described in an on-line web site:
"http://dartmouthski.wiki.zoho.com/HomePage.html
"Funding is a challenge, but momentum is gathering. The objective is to fund this project by relatively small gifts from a broad spectrum of Classes, Clubs and Individuals. One of the ways the team have sought help is to gain modest support from a lot of Classes who have stepped up
to designate this as a Class Project with a minimum contribution of $1,000. Many are also making their classmates aware of the story so individuals can also consider contributions to the project. The Classes of 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1971 and 1985 have already made "Class Project" gifts, and at least another five classes are working through their Class approval process right now.....
"If Classes publicize the giving opportunity to their Class members, more individuals can, and our experience is “will”, contribute either by sending a check to their Class Project Fund (and then this gets sent to us with the name of the contributor and his amount if $200 or more),
or directly to the History of Dartmouth Skiing Project fund via mailing a check to John Walters ‘62, Funding Coordinator. History of Dartmouth
Skiing Project, P.O. Box 286, Grantham, NH 03753-0286. Individual contributors at $200 or higher will be given a copy of the book.
"All ski project checks sent to the Project should be made out to History of Dartmouth Skiing Project and they are tax deductible as contributions to support Dartmouth. Any technical questions on this can be directed to Bob Murphy, Fund Coordinator John Walters '62, Project Treasurer Mike Gonnerman '65, or Project Accountant, Jim Griffiths '65. Any excess funding at the end of the Project will be used to support the DOC and the Dartmouth Ski Team...."
Check your name on the Class email list to see if we have your correct address by clicking on '56ers on the Internet.
If it is incorrect, please email corrections to Hon. Ed. at flintr@denby.com.
Click here for the Honor Roll of Class participation in the Alumni Fund
Click here for Dartmouth's VAN (VOX Alumni Network), to check your own record or search for other Classmates
Our Great Class has two ListServs (email lists) on the Dartmouth College computers. One is for official Class and College notices (the Announce list); the other is for Classmate communications and chat on any subject back and forth (the Chat list). To sign up and to learn how to e-mail all of your Classmates, click here: 56ListServer
CLASS OFFICERS (2006-2011)
1956 CLASS PRESIDENT: Clem MALIN (cbmalin@optonline.net; 203-226-4986)
VICE PRESIDENT: Elliott G. WEINSTEIN (Eweinz@aol.com; 914-591-6186)
SECRETARY: Rt. Rev. R. Stewart WOOD, Jr. (stewwood@aol.com; 802-295-8912)
TREASURER: Bob (the other) FAULKNER (robert.faulkner@ubs.com; 401-245-1934)
ALUMNI FUND HEAD AGENT: Don DAVIDOFF (ddavidof@nycap.rr.com; 518-489-2135)
ALUMNI COUNCILLOR: Elliott G. WEINSTEIN (Eweinz@aol.com; 914-591-6186)
PLANNED GIVING & REGIONAL VP (NE): Jon STRONG (j.jonathanstrong@comcast.net; 508-358-4623)
MIDATLANTIC VICE PRESIDENT & CO-CHAIR 55th REUNION: Tom HARPER (harpoon1@bellsouth.net; 336-227-1153)
CO-CHAIR 55th REUNION: Tom ROSENWALD (tomrosenwald@msn.com; 212 -734-6764)
SECURITY & SPECIAL OPS: Col. Fritz SIMMS (rnsimms5456@aol.com; 570-587-2574)
TRAVEL & CO-REGIONAL VP (NE): Roger SCHUMACHER (rsschu@verizon.net; 609-291-8688)
CO-REGIONAL VP (Mid-Atlantic): Dick WHITNEY (rewuncas@aol.com; 919-370-9435)
CO-REGIONAL VP (SE): John HIGGS (higgscom@comcast.net; 772-231-8700)
CO-REGIONAL VP (SE): Howard SODOKOFF (hosodie@comcast.net; 772-336-4447)
REGIONAL VP (Midwest): Bob SLATER (rslater3@wi.rr.com; 414-332-5654)
CO-REGIONAL VP (West): Les REID (larmer@mindspring.com; 253-756-5460)
WOMEN OF '56 ASSOCIATION: Karen MERRELS (kmerrels@sbcglobal.net; 419-861-7422)
[Women of '56 are invited to all Class functions as voters]
NEWSLETTER EDITOR and CLASS WEBSTER: H. Flint RANNEY (flintr@denby.com; PO Box 597, Nantucket, MA 02554-0597; 508-228-4236; fax: 508-228-3710)
ALUMNI RELATIONS OFFICE: has a FREE telephone number: 888-228-6068
Class of 1956 Highlights:
Wah, Who? Whispers! [Class newsletters, all in .pdf format]: