Class Notes January 2005

   It turns out the Dartmouth Alumni Records was mistaken in recently reporting the death of our classmate, W. WEBB WADE. I passed along the erroneous report in the last class note, and also posted it on our class web site. Then, Webb's son, Matt, called me to say Webb was alive and well, and within minutes I was talking to him on the telephone. He had been missing for years on class lists, so I could not reach his home beforehand to confirm the original report.

 

   Webb was gracious about the error. He lives in Jacksonville, Fla., where he is employed as an independent manufacturers' sales rep. Also, he informed me that contrary to information I had been given, and posted, he was not divorced from his wife, the former Ausma Millers. They have been happily married for 42 years.

 

   We are inviting Webb, as all classmates, to our 45th Class Reunion, to be held in Hanover June 13-16. Needless to say, we all regret the error. The College has no record of who told it of Webb's supposed demise.

 

   Good news, meanwhile, comes from Alaska, where our redoutable classmate, BOB SANDERS, has returned safely home from Baghdad, where he was supervising the repair of sewage lines for several months for the Army Corps of Engineers. In fact, he says he was the oldest member of the Corps sent to Iraq.

 

   Bob says that while he escaped uninjured from two insurgent attacks while in the country, he still regards news media coverage of the war as "appalling" in its pessimism and focus on bad news. "i would like to go back," he told me. "I enjoyed the deployment and perhaps would like to go to Afghanistan next time."

 

   Two classmates present at recent gatherings, PHIL KRON and HAP DUNNING, have each lost 30 pounds through dieting. Phil says he succeeded by withstanding considerable hunger, and Hap says he ate salads for breakfast and lunch.

 

   Two other classmates sent me their latest writings. BRUCE DUCKER's latest novel, "Mooney in Flight," published by MacAdam/Cage, is about a disaffected drunk who has abandoned family ties to move to a deserted tropical island he has inherited. GEORGE LIEBMANN sent me two pungent book reviews he wrote for the journal, "American Outlook."

 

   Also, BILL GUNDY, cochair of our reunion and the star captain of the football team during our last year in Hanover, wrote a letter to Dartmouth College President James E. Wright about the recent furore over a letter written by the Dartmouth Admissions Director to Swarthmore supporting its giving up of football.

 

   Saying the letter "absolutely turns my stomach," Bill extolled the positive contributions of football at Dartmouth, lamented that the letter would make the hiring of a new football coach more difficult, but expressed confidence that Wright could surmount the crisis and restore a successful football program in Hanover. The Gundy letter recalls a successful effort of 1960 classmates and others to save swimming as a Dartmouth sport.

 

   Another star Dartmouth football player and later coach from our class, JAKE CROUTHAMEL, has announced his impending retirement after 27 years as Athletic Director at Syracuse University.

 

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