Class Notes May/June 2007

According to College records, the fathers of 104 of the 813 members of our class also attended  Dartmouth. Some of the 104 had grandfathers at Dartmouth, and one member of the class is a descendant of a sister of Eleazer Wheelock, founder of the College in 1769, and claims to have had 47 relatives at Dartmouth. Now, he is a real legacy. More about him later.

 

The fathers of three living classmates are still alive themselves. The oldest is Arthur H. Nighswander of the Class of 1929, now 98. ANDREW NIGHSWANDER says his dad still has a license to practice law, lives in Hanover and periodically attends Dartmouth classes. Andy himself is president of a health care management firm in Cambridge, Mass., but spends much time at a cabin in New Hampshire.

 

John M. Richardson,'32, father of JOHN M. RICHARDSON, JR, is still alive at 97, and is resident of assisted living quarters near Philadelphia. John says his dad played his last golf game a year ago, but still plays an excellent game of bridge. John is a professor of international relations at American University in Washington, D.C.,, director of a teaching center there and remains the faculty representative in the largest dormitory on campus.

 

The other classmate with a living father who went to Dartmouth is ARTHUR N. SEESSEL, III of Memphis, whose dad, Arthur N. Seessel, Jr., was in the Class of 1935. Art says his dad, now 94, remains in his own home, helped by attendants, and also lives in Memphis. Our classmate, meanwhile, sold his grocery business in 1997 and now has a consulting practice in corporate bonds.

 

Two classmates, RIDLER PAGE of Mt. Pleasant, S.C., and ROBERT HATCH of Kansas City, Mo., are among those who not only had fathers but grandfathers at Dartmouth. Ridler's grandfather, Norman Page, was in the Class of 1895, and Bob's grandtather, Roy W. Hatch, was in the Class of 1902. Ridler is a rare maps dealer who has pursued his profession all over the world, and Bob is the owner of four Kansas City businesses.

 

Two of our classmates, long active in class activities, also have had many relatives at the College. MARTIN LOWER, now in retirement at Naples, Fla., and one of our former class presidents, not only had a father, Martin E. Lower, who went to Dartmouth, but also had two daughters in the classes of 1985 and 1987, and two of his daughters  married Dartmouth men.

 

The champion legacy though is ROBERT F. KENERSON, M.D., a psychiatrist and teacher at Harvard who administers our class scholarships. Bob not only had a father, grandfather and great-grandfather attend Dartmouth, but he says his great-grandfather, Austin H. Kenerson of the Class of 1876, was married to Marsha Moulton Hibbard, who was the great- granddaughter of the youngest sister of Eleazer Wheelock. Bob says it was his grandfather, Edward H. Kenerson of the Class of 1903, who told him he had 47 relatives with Dartmouth connections. Bob's daughter, Julia, was in the Class of 1992.

 

--KEN REICH, 5522 Nagle Ave., Sherman Oaks, CA 91401; (818) 994-9231; kennethireich@yahoo.com