"WWW 3/20/2011: First things first: Registration. You need to register for the 50th reunion now. It is very simply done online by going to this link and filling in your data: www.dartmouth.org/classes/61/ (reunion costs and other related fees are also found there). To register by hard copy/snail mail, please contact Registration Chair Bob Wendell at (828)694-3505 < bobkatinnc***aol.com. Checks should be made out to "Dartmouth Class of 1961" and sent to him. We need to lock in our reservations at the various venues, the Birney performance must be confirmed by May 2, and please bear in mind that June 9 is only 2-1/2 months away...!

Women’s Studies, aka Herstories: Nyla Arslanian has bravely stepped forward to lead the effort to get the ladies’ perspective on Dartmouth life—and after 50 years, it’s gotta be fascinating. Here’s Nyla her own self: Attention Wives and Significant Others:

Let your story be told.  I have volunteered to compile a companion piece to the Recollections in Paths We’ve Taken, our 50th Reunion book, entitled Dartmouth 61: HERstory.

The Dartmouth relationships and friendships are dear to me. There is no question that I feel part of the Dartmouth community and have my own reflections to share as, I'm sure, do many of the wives/significant others of the men of Dartmouth '61. In compiling a "Dartmouth '61 HERstory" we invite you to share your story.  Anyone interested please submit your reflection(s) in 300 words or less. Any "story" will do. Photos also will be accepted. Stories are coming in—slowly.   Many of us have years and years of material to work with. I really appreciate WWW’s support in getting the word out with a reminder to pass it along to all the women. 

Email your material to nyla***discoverhollywood.com or USPS mail to Nyla Arslanian, Arslanian & Associates, Inc., 6671 Sunset Blvd., Suite 1502, Hollywood, CA 90028.  Questions?  Contact Nyla directly by email or phone (323)662-8236. Deadline is May 1.

[Please do not hold back - tell us like it is...! And note that May 1 deadline. Ed.]

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Class Election: (Quoting ’61 Pres. Roger McArt):

“Our new Class Officers will be elected at Reunion and will begin their terms on July 1, 2011. This letter is a reminder of the Class Meeting on Saturday of Reunion at which the election results will be confirmed. Balloting will take place by mail and email. The officers to be elected are Class: President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, Newsletter Editor(s), Head Agent(s), Bequest Chairman, Mini-Reunion Chairman, and Communications Officer(s) (Webmaster).

Art Kelton is Chairman of the Nominating Committee responsible for the election and for developing the slate of candidates. Art’s contact information is:.

                 A Kelton Jr. Real Estate
                 225 Wall St, Suite 200
                 Vail, CO 81657
                 O-970-476-7995; C- 970-390-0919 akjr***vail.net

In addition to the offices listed above, the Executive Committee has recommended amending the Class Constitution to include a new appointive office, Class Historian, to keep track of all of us over future years. Thus we will also be voting on this amendment as well.”

[Stated below is a summary, as drafted by prime candidate Tom Dalglish, of the new office in the format of our class constitution:

Article X, Section 2 (e): (Proposed)

e.  The Historian will be responsible for writing obituaries and memorial profiles of deceased classmates and for ensuring directly or through appropriate class officers that such written remembrances are posted electronically online or otherwise disseminated to the class and college. The historian will be authorized on behalf of the class to request and collect from the college, from classmates, and from other appropriate sources, such information as may be needed for the preparation of the remembrances. The historian will work with other class officers, and with their support will coordinate efforts with the class and with the college, to ensure that documents, images, or objects of any kind, created from time to time by the class, or by its individual members that relate to the Class, or by the college that relate to the Class of 1961 or its members, living or deceased, are appropriately preserved for whatever historical value they may have. The documents or images may include class reunion books, other class publications, records of citations given to the class as a whole and to individual classmates by the College and other notable organizations, and works of art of any kind. In coordination with other officers of the class, as appropriate, the Historian shall be responsible for arranging for the care and custody of information and objects of historical value that relate to the Class of 1961 or any of its members.]

“Proxy materials will be sent to you before the June meeting, and we are asking everyone to vote by mail or email before the meeting. In exceptional situations we will be able to accept some ballots at the meeting, but not from everyone attending or the balloting and tallying would take too long. I hope to see you in Hanover in June.”

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Reunion Art Show (quoting Chair Ron Wybranowski):

“We announced in previous mailings that we would like to have an Art Show as part of our 50 th reunion. This would be an opportunity to share how the ‘Arts’ part of our Liberal Arts education has become integral to our lives. And it would be a unique chance to show your art to those of us who have known you for a lifetime. Or perhaps you would share some of your photography. So far we have had [few] responses [including] Jean DeHaven, Sandy Wheeler, and myself. We hope more of you will want to participate.

“Our plan would be to create a digital presentation running on a continuous loop on a large HDTV in the class headquarters. We would also like to have a more formal showing in one of the presentation rooms during the course of the weekend. A digital show provides the opportunity to present a body of work created over time. It also eliminates the logistical problems involved in bringing artwork to Hanover and finding a safe and secure place to hang and show it. While this digital format lends itself to photography, digital images of oil paintings, watercolors and sculptures will also work.

So, whether talented amateur or pro, classmate, spouse or significant other, if you are interested in participating, let me know in the next week or two so we can get on with the planning.”

                 Ron Wybranowski
                 (978)-975-3013
                 ronwybo***comcast.net

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61 Select Chorus: We need people, wives included, to contact Terry Rogers ( Terry***rogers.org ) if they want to be part of the core singing group to lead us at the Trustee luncheon Saturday and the Memorial Service. This can be a whole lot of fun for shower singers, karaoke wannabes, and other vocally inclined folks not in the Gleek Lub; will entail a few rehearsals during Reunion, and Terry needs to know whom/how many he can count on.

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Association of Alumni Election: Ongoing as we speak. This note from John Mathias:

In accordance with the Dartmouth Association of Alumni election guidelines, the association's Balloting Committee would like to notify you of the following slate of candidates for the 2011 Association of Alumni election.

These candidates have been nominated by the Nominating Committee of the Association of Alumni [including]:

Second Vice President

Pete Bleyler '61

Voting takes place March 9-April 6, 2011. Election results will be announced at the association annual meeting in Hanover on Saturday, April 9, 2011. For more information (including election guidelines, a link to the association's blog, and candidate profiles), please visit www.voxthevote.org. You can also contact the Office of Alumni Relations at (603) 646-3929.

John H. Mathias '69, President

Dartmouth Association of Alumni

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Green Cards: We got a few. Just missing the last publishing date, Ken Walker notes: “Exciting news for the Walkers: our younger daughter Sabrina (38) has been chosen as the female tennis player representing New York state on Team USA. As such, she will be one of only 21 tennis players representing the US at the Special Olympics World Games in Athens, Greece, from June 25- July 4, 2011. Of course, we’re going along, with our daughter Lisa D’91 and our neighbors, so that we can cheer her on.”

Mike Norman: “Looking forward to the big one in June. Plan to attend with classmate and close friend Ted Tapper. Retired from academic medicine (pediatrics) in 2000. Have been working part-time since10/04 accrediting hospitals all over the USofA. In 6 years I’ve already been in 36 states and racked up a lot of USAirways dividend miles + 1 trillion[?] Honors points.”

Bob “Jobbly” Jackson, in Jan. ‘11: “Just to remind you that I have retired. Not sure if this was completed last time we saw you. Karin & I will be in Hanover (god willing and winter gets over)! Trust you purchased a large snow shovel to go with the mud boots. LLBean is close! (Hint: if you are coming this way, we have space & lobster). Enjoy the NH winter! We keep sending the snow!” [Uhh, right – several snow shovels and a scoop (snowblower got covered over back in November...). Plus new snow tires, after last year’s top of the line set lasted only 16K miles. Plus upscale snow boots in a valiant effort to stop the daily snowfalls in the Uppah Valley. Must say, wintah 2011 took on a character all its own: in a black hat! How often can it snow in one season...?! The plowed snowbanks kept rising so high the NH DOT had to bring in road graders to lower them so cross traffic could proceed. And if all this stuff ever melts... Noah never had water so high! So, just send the lobstah, if you please.... Ed.] To which RBJ appends: “Who said getting older was fun? It all comes down to those of us who avoided the contact sports! Sailing, skiing,and in those days, basketball and soccer preserved some of us for old age. Now I can still swing a mean axe,so careful where you stand. Really looking forward to this Big One!”

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Old Maui boy tc working his new snow plow...

News From Classmates: Bill Pieper has written another novel, What You Wish For, “ the most ambitious yet in terms of the issues it deals with and the nested flashbacks.” We have read it and, as the review says,”part family saga, part love story, medical drama and legal dilemma, What You Wish For is fiction that pulls you in and doesn’t let go.” Meanwhile Pipes advises, “you can let the world of 61ers know I'm in solidly good health, won't be leaving California any way but feet first (except on vacation trips, that is), still play tennis several times a week, like my wine with home-cooked and often home grown meals, love to rat around in the Sierra (adjusting my preferred altitude with the season, of course) and just celebrated a 25th anniversary with Cathy Holden, my charming spouse. All pretty boring, now that I see it written down like that, but what can you do? It's the life I chose and the life I like.”

Writer-wannabe Hank Eberhardt reminisces: “My job on the destroyer USS STICKELL DD-888 was hunting subs, Russian subs in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean. Once in the Med we ‘caught’ a diesel Russian sub that stayed down for 72 hours and then surfaced right next to us and the message came over, ‘good morning captain.’ We then shadowed the sub to a mother ship off the coast of Morocco, hung around while it replenished, and then escorted it out of the Med. This story and more will be in my forthcoming book Now Hear This about my Navy experiences. No, I haven't started to write it yet.”

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Letters-to-Editors maestro FJ “Duck” Eicke not only responded to that commentary on Mike Slive’62 and the Southeast Conference published in the AluMag, but also penned a few lines to the SEC itself via his local newsrag, to wit: “The oversigning controversy” ( The Mississippi Press, Tuesday, March 8, 2011) presents yet another example of how far collegiate football has moved from its intent – a relevant extracurricular activity–and its main player–the student-athlete. The issue is not signing more than 25 per year. The issue is signing recruits who have not met the basic qualification for admission to the institution and the NCAA usurping the prerogative of the institution to set its standards for admission. In essence, many of the institutional members (colleges and universities) have relegated themselves to the profit motive that controls big-time athletics today.

There is no way that an institution of higher education should offer a scholarship to an athlete who has not met standards for admission. A student-athlete should meet the same qualifications as any student who seeks to attend the institution and do so prior to the offer of financial assistance. There is no logical argument that can be offered to refute this statement. Admission standards should be based on qualifications that a potential student has the academic background to progress academically and eventually graduate.   

Apparently there are some conferences (possibly The Big Ten) that do adhere more to their principles than the diluted guidelines fostered by the NCAA. Unfortunately, the SEC is perhaps the best example of the opposite. Luckily, enough student-athletes still possess both the academic credentials and athletic ability to reap the reward of a college education and the benefits of athletic competition that we see in many former players who make us proud. Too many institutions have degenerated to a much lower standard in the name of “winning at all cost” – and it does cost.

My belief is that a response was needed since SEC standards are foreign to an Ivy League perspective on athletics - and that I support as an integral part of the Dartmouth experience. With last night's national championship game, the SEC has now won 5 straight in football. If you will look at today's USA Today, there is a story about players from Auburn and Oregon graduating, opting for the NFL, or remaining in school. Auburn players are focused on the NFL while Oregon—a major university football power, obviously—has a number of prominent players on the PAC-10 academic all-star team and the undergraduate stars of the team (e.g. LaMichael James) talking of staying in school to obtain their degree. The QB at Stanford –considered perhaps the #1 pick in the draft this year if he left school as a junior–has opted to stay in school and obtain his degree (in Architectural Design). Different mentality –and unfortunately the SEC may be the worst example among major college football conferences. Mike Slive might be able to refute my statement, but he will hedge (read: lie with statistics) to do so. My intent is to point out how it is possible to have athletics and academics (Ivy League style, or less stringent) and still have respectable athletics. Does not Dartmouth pride itself on the percentage of students participating in intercollegiate athletics?”  

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On the medical front, Joe Zinn had open heart surgery back in November. “Apparently the years have caught up with me—headed to the hospital tomorrow for triple bypass surgery + replacement of an aortic valve.  Will be incommunicado for a few weeks or so.  Doing my best to treat this as an interesting intellectual experience while ignoring the collateral damage.” Then: “Feeling much better today, one week after. Facing approx. three months of drugs (13 varieties), physical conditioning, and menu restraints.  And did I mention the discomfort & agony? Do what ever you have to, brother, to avoid bypass!” Then, today: “Progress is A-OK, feel better than before the surgery by far, both strength and stamina improving.  The cardio rehab program, which ended last week, was mahvelous !  Now just have to be disciplined about my exercise routine. Pills are with me to the end.”

Not to be outdone, Webmaster Harris McKee had some nasal enhancement (septum repair) in mid-November: “I had a lot of nose chopped off two years ago; probably still pretty raw when we went back to celebrate the Ivy Championship of 1958.  But all samples were benign.  So now we've done the inside and the outside!  Double jeopardy but no big C. [relating facial mutilation to football:] My freshman year in high school we had no masks at all.  I don't remember whether we had anything sophomore year. The last two years we had a single plastic bar. I broke several of them!  At Dartmouth, we lineman practiced with the cage that everyone wears for games today, but our game helmets had a plastic double bar. We were lucky to have kept our teeth with the removable mouthpieces that we wore. Mine covered my lips as well as teeth!” [see Jobbly Jackson, above, for the “wisdom” of engaging in contact sports... Ed.]

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Last December Al Rozycki was drumming up reunion attendance among the ancient limping warriors of Bullet Bob Blackman thus: “I'm writing to encourage you to attend the Class of 1961's 50th reunion. A group of ex-football players, Charlie Chapman, Ken DeHaven and I, to name a few, are trying to enthuse ex-footballers like you to make it to Hanover for the reunion. I already know that Harris McKee, "Paisan" Marrone, Skip Johnson, Connie Persels, and DeHaven are coming, with their wives, because they are staying with my wife Diane and me at our place in Norwich.  Although I can't offer you a spot in the house, it will have an endless supply of coffee and rolls in the morning, beer and soft drinks later in the day, and lots of opportunities to relax and talk over old times.

Attached is information from Maynard Wheeler that explains the dates and schedule–we hope to have a special time to meet as ex-football team members, and it would mean a lot to your old colleagues if you could be there.

I've been living in Norwich since I returned in 1972 as a pediatrician on the faculty at the medical school; have raised 3 sons, gotten a divorce and remarried. All in all, it has been fun living in proximity to the school...and living in a small town in Vermont. I'd love to have an opportunity to share with you what's gone on in your own life these past 50 years!

If you have any questions, thoughts, ideas, feel free to contact me, and if I don't know the answer, will find somebody who does.

                 Alan Rozycki
                 56 McKenna Road
                 Norwich, VT 05055
                  Alan.A.Rozycki***Hitchcock.org
                 (h) 802-649-1578
                 (mobile) 802-281-2227

Have a happy holiday season and do try to make it back.  It will be a blast.

Best to you. Roz”

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Speaking of sports, had contacted soccer captain Larry Holden to verify that Ron Picket repeated as tennis captain in ’61, having served as frosh skipper.

Larry: “ It's going to take me another 50 years to wrap my mind around the fact that we're 50 years out. Ron Picket was the tennis captain; haven't heard from him in 50 yrs. Best wishes to you and a reciprocal mahalo.”

tc:“Just to put the cap on that issue, believe this is the first e-mail exchange btwn these HQ and thineself in at least 50 years... At any rate, big mahalo for the tennis data: had thought Ron was frosh captain, but no mention anywhere of senior year skipper.”

LTH: “I am just now recovering from English Comprehensives sufficiently to try expressing myself again in the mother tongue. If you can't locate Picket, I could try impersonating him at the 50th. The one place where he was not MIA was on the former red clay courts on the west side of the gym.”

tc: “English Comps...! Hownell did you dredge that abomination out of the put-away-and-[with hopes]-forgotten slag heap?  Can I ever forget spending all spring of '61 sitting in a wing-back chair (which Kinderdine had misappropriated from Dragon), devastated shoulder propped up on the left arm, and reading Ulysses–on which there were all of zero (0) questions in the Comps...? Was afraid to give my intended her engagement ring until I saw that I'd passed Comps. Surely they don't impose that cruel & unusual punishment on today's diverse/multicultural student body?”

Every wintah Larry’s mom used to bring her 6th grade class up from their school in NJ to a small private ski cottage in NH, where they would conduct book-learnin’ in the mornings and ski in the afternoons. Intrepid ski instructors including Larry, Chip Serrell, and tc showed those kids how to turn both ways, stop, and perform an able stem Christiana. It was huge fun, everyone enjoyed themselves immensely, and the kids got a real display of snowy wizardry when tc demonstrated the gelandesprung —interrupted suddenly in mid-air by low-hanging pine boughs. Seem to recall it took Larry & Chip a half hour to dig tc out of the impact crater...

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At the end of 2010, we received this announcement: Mike Murphy reports that on December 1, 2010 his company—American Container Net, Inc.—was acquired by the Mauser Corporation.  Mauser, based in Bruehl, Germany, is a global packaging company with sales exceeding 1 billion Euros and 52 plants operating in 16 countries.  In the United States, Mauser is the largest manufacturer of 55-gallon plastic drums, and the second largest manufacturer of 55-gallon steel drums.

Mike formed American Container Net (ACNI) in 2004, through the acquisition of several steel drum reconditioning plants located from New England to Ohio.  Mauser's purchase of ACNI represents their initial U.S. entry into the reconditioning, reuse and recycling side of the drum business.

For Mike, this brings about the first time since his graduation from the Harvard Business School that he has not been part of the reusable industrial packaging industry. "When we left HBS in June 1966 I took a job as the general manager of Drum Service Co. of Florida," Mike writes. "I was able to buy that business from the owners and sold it in 1998 to the company that today is the largest in the field—Industrial Container Services, LLC. I stayed on for a while, but it was way too early to retire and so I started ACNI.  Now I have to decide if it's still too early to retire!"

"I am greatly looking forward to seeing everyone at our 50th next June."

Our valiant, resourceful and tough-hided Frost Statue Chairman [and fellow “barrel-washer”...tc] Murphy does confirm that: “there are, my friend, a bunch of us who believe that we are lucky to have useful, productive work, and don't want to completely give it up.”  For which we heap even more laurels on his savant brow. Some of us were not so fortunate, some had other paths in mind, while still others simply had no choice. Mike has surely served our class well, and we hope he will at least continue along that path.

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At about that same time, Peter Holbrook chimed in : “I was waiting for the appearance of a feature article scheduled for the January issue of Southwest Art magazine—which is now on your newsstand (if you have a newsstand—which we don't here in the woods). Now that is out and also available online at  http://www.southwestart.com/featured/peter-holbrook-getting-real . The online version is somewhat different from the print version. I have scanned it and can send you a hardcopy if you are unable to open the web page above, or just want a print version without spending four bucks. The article was written by Rosemary Carstens who did as good a job organizing the result of a two-hour phone interview as can be done. And my old painter / friend / art dealer Bruce Cody (who also has a show review in this issue) had some kind words for which I am grateful. Most of the paintings reproduced are from Southern Utah—a series I have been working on for 6 months or so in preparation for a show at the St. George (UT) Art Museum to open on June 11, 2011 and run for about 3 months. Coincidentally this date also opens my 50th college reunion in Hanover, NH giving me a valid excuse for missing that gathering (again). So, apologies to the few of my classmates who may remember me. Note to T.C. - see if you can get the web link above into the class newsletter - thanks.” [Pekelo: Vi-ola!... Ed.]
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More fine art may be considered at a benefit sale of the late DeVona Cox’s works at Duane’s home in Palm Springs March 26. Webmaster McKee has already alerted the class via our ’61 website:

DeVona McLaughlin Cox Retrospective Art Show Benefit and Open House  

Saturday, March 26, 2011 – 1pm to 5pm
2398 S. Alhambra, Palm Springs, California  92264 

Duane Cox of Alhambra Drive will be holding a charitable fundraiser at his home. His wife, DeVona, who passed away last fall, was a gifted artist.  Her large collection of works will be sold with all the proceeds donated to three favorite charities:  InnerFaith Spiritual Center Worldwide, Bloom in the Desert Ministries UCC, both of Palm Springs, and the USO.    

DeVona McLaughlin Cox Experience Summary 

●    Graduated from San Jose State University  with a major in Fine Arts and a minor in Psychology.
●    Instructed students in multimedia painting and drawing techniques in her private studio for over twenty years.
●    Exhibits throughout California resulting in the sale of hundreds of paintings.
●    Taught painting for the Department of Parks and Recreation in the cities of San Jose and Los Angeles.  Classes averaged thirty to forty students.
●    Led art therapy sessions in several psychiatric hospitals in  Northern California.
●    Created film strips for primary and secondary school teacher sensitivity training. 
●    Appeared on television demonstrating a variety of art techniques.
●    Led seminars in experiential art.  These seminars provided valuable insight to participants in the areas of personal growth and self-awareness.
●    Skilled in a variety of media, e,g, oil, acrylic, pastel, watercolor, etching, sculpture, and mono-print.
●    Exhibited in several juried shows at the Palm Springs Museum of Art. 

Location Background:  The sale and open house location is a mid-century modern home built adjacent to the Indian Canyons Golf Resort in early 1960s.  The home was built in 1964 by developer Paul Trousdale, who built more than 25,000 homes throughout Southern California.  He is most known for Trousdale Estates in Beverly Hills.

Directions to 2398 S. Alhambra, Palm Springs, CA  92264
South on Sunrise past E. Palm Canyon.  Sunrise turns into Laverne.  Take a left at the first stop sign at Camino Real.  Alhambra is the third left off Camino Real.  My number is 2398, at the intersection of Alhambra and Sequoia. 

Beneficiaries’ Web sites:

www.innerfaithworldwide.com   www.bloominthedesert.org   www.palmspringsuso.com

Here is Father Dobes saying Aloha Nui to his love:

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“Thank you for your wonderful words on DeVona.  This is my farewell to her at Joshua Tree National Park.   Help me say goodbye.  Thanks for all of your support.”  

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San Francisco law wizard Bill Hutton made Hawaii news by quarterbacking a major land gift from ‘Ulupalakua Ranch to the Maui Coastal Land Trust (see link): http://www.coblentzlaw.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=content.contentDetail&id=52431 The owners of the ranch are old friends of the undersigned, and we congratulated Bill with deserved laurels & plaudits. He responds: “Thanks for your laurels.  Some deals are easy—not many—and Ulupalakua Ranch was one of them, thanks mainly to the family, who were determined to get it done.  Very nice folks, as was their real estate lawyer, one Rick Kiefer (Maui), whom you may well know. Interesting that you heard about this from my law school classmate Tom Dalglish.  We spent a lot of time together in Ann Arbor, and I've seen him exactly once since... About  30 years ago, give or take, I was in Seattle for reasons forgotten, strolling through the Pike Place market on a Saturday morning.  And there on a busy corner, sitting on a box, was Dalglish, playing a musical saw and grinning at me. Unforgettable.” Bill’s partner in the same SF law firm, Fred Fields, took his February birthday off to make a 3-day weekend and, “...we went down to the funky beach town of Cayucos, near Morro Bay, for a long weekend with two other couples, a lot of golf, wine, good food, laughs and long walks on the seven mile beach there, very nice...I recall your piece about the heat there [in the UV last summah]—very well written just like everything else you do—and no doubt that had something to do with [thoughts of relocating], and perhaps this winter, too. I'm interested to know where you'll land next—Northern California ain't bad, buddy, come give it a try. Looking forward to seeing you at the reunion.” [Uhh, well—all bets are off until after Reunion. Maybe I’ll find something to like in this extraordinarily offensive weather we’ve been barraged with since I alit in the UV back in January ’10... Ed.]

Long as we’re in No. CA, here’s a career update from Mike Kirst, PhD, which came in too late to be included in the Paths We’ve Taken 50th Book: “I am working at full capacity. I was Jerry Brown’s chief education gubernatorial campaign adviser, and after he won was named President of the k-12 California State board Of Education. I had the same title from 1997 to 1982, but this job has much bigger scope of policies and formal decision making power. Also, I have a large 3 year grant through Stanford from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to improve college success and graduation at broad access high education. My main focus is on community colleges. I plan to be at the reunion.” Must observe that, if anyone can possibly wreak some improvement in the US education disaster, Mike is the one who could do it. Imua, Dr. Clam!

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David Birney pulled off a live stage coup on January 29 at the Carpenter Performing Arts center at CalState Long Beach with yet another superb presentation of “Mark Twain’s The Diaries of Adam and Eve.” The pictorial review below sums it up:

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Another natural actor is writer/helpmeet/dad/shrink Bruce Forester, MD, who is “...in a documentary movie single. I am a talking head while movie explores why most never want to marry. If you go to Amazon or NetFlix or web site single the documentary movie you can see the trailer. Fun doing it. The Brit producer also is writing screenplay for my mystery Fatal Betrayal with options on all 15 in the Mort and Millie series. If interested go to www bruce forester.com to see my web site which gives you a taste of the read. And an interview of Mort and Millie the leads.” We told the Dukester long ago that “Betrayal” was already a screenplay in the novel form—thus his producer has had his work done for him by the ol’ Athletic Chairman of TEP...

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In late fall we sent Chuck Dayton some poesy which deals vaguely with his Beta House nickname (below):

Shroud of the Gnome BY JAMES TATE

And what amazes me is that none of our modern inventions
surprise or interest him, even a little. I tell him
it is time he got his booster shots, but then
I realize I have no power over him whatsoever.
He becomes increasingly light-footed until I lose sight
of him downtown between the federal building and
the post office. A registered nurse is taking her
coffee break. I myself needed a break, so I sat down
next to her at the counter. "Don't mind me," I said,
"I'm just a hungry little Gnostic in need of a sandwich."
(This old line of mine had met with great success
on any number of previous occasions.) I thought,
a deaf, dumb, and blind nurse, sounds ideal!
But then I remembered that some of the earliest
Paleolithic office workers also feigned blindness
when approached by nonoffice workers, so I paid my bill
and disappeared down an alley where I composed myself.
Amidst the piles of outcast citizenry and burning barrels
of waste and rot, the plump rats darting freely,
the havoc of blown newspapers, lay the little shroud
of my lost friend: small and gray and threadbare,
windworn by the ages of scurrying hither and thither,
battered by the avalanches and private tornadoes
of just being a gnome, but surely there were good times, too.
And now, rejuvenated by the wind, the shroud moves forward,
hesitates, dances sideways, brushes my foot as if for a kiss,
and flies upward, whistling a little-known ballad
about the pitiful, raw etiquette of the underworld.

Chuck had recently “...had a good sailing trip from San Francisco to LaPaz, Baja, dolphins, close encounter with a great blue, Frigate birds, stars, stars, stars.”

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Gnomie at the helm

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As for devout sailors, when Brother Bob Conn was searching the ‘net for information on some classmates for our Paths We’ve Taken 50th book, he came upon this link: http://www.sail-world.com/cruising/index.cfm?nid=52841&rid=11

The Cruising Club of America has selected William (Scott) Piper III, M.D. to receive its prestigious 2008 Blue Water Medal for 12 years of adventurous cruising and voyaging in two boats, Pipe Dream VI, a J/40, and Pipe Dream IX, a 52’ J/160, aboard which he has logged over 132,000 miles, for a total of 180,000 miles. The medal was presented at the club’s annual Awards Dinner in New York on January 13, 2009 by CCA Commodore Ross Sherbrooke, of Boston, Mass. [Would say that a rates a solid Bravo Zulu! - Ed.]

A recent contact, from our charter Class President Jas. “Scotty” Turnbull:

“CLOCKS SPRING FORWARD ONE HOUR

When told the reason for Daylight Saving Time an Old Indian said:

Only the government would believe you could cut the top of the top off a

blanket, sew it on the bottom and have a longer blanket.

I must confess that I find the time change one of the more exciting natural happenings of the year.  I know.  I know.  It's not natural... but it is exciting and it means Spring, if not here, will come and soon. Remember, Old Indians always have reservations.”

tc responds: “I'm with you on that account.  Being from one of the few places that never changes, I get stoked by that extra hour of daylight. Being an ol' ad man, you surely know that the longer DST period in recent years has been dictated by the barbecue lobby in DC...Whoda thunk it?  Bubba & Cooter back up they semi-trailer w/1,000-gallon smoker tank to the Capitol Steps, and next thang we know we gits ta stay up later...

Heap good.”

 Scotty: “Thank you for the horologic agreement.  At this point in time I would imagine that all ex-Islanders are on their knees being aware of what is speeding towards Hawaii and other islands.  I am one of those who suffer from SCHADEN FROIDE (phonetic but not precise) which you'll recognize as "the sharing of bad news when you're, hopefully, the first to know.”  Yes, I am addicted to those conversations that start with "I hate to be the one to tell you this..." while loving it all the time.”

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Well, guess we’ve procrastinated enough: as many of you know, Bill Miller (aka Malibu Fatz, aka Capt. Billy Bitchen of the Royal Malibu Pursuit Squadron) flew his final mission on Christmas Day 2010. Wrestling congestive heart disease and some other nuisances, he had a kinda bad last year or so—with a few 911 dress rehearsals—and retired for a little nap on tc’s birthday from which he don’t wake up. Fatz was legendary when we were on campus—from his ’59 Impala w/LUNCH license plates, always parked next to Al Stowe’s BLOW in the Theta Delt lot; to his black and white Tony Curtis Pimp Shoes, to his outrageous Great Issues attire—a huge white double-breasted dinner jacket always worn with gaudy aloha shirt and ridiculous blow-lunch necktie; to his parties as Theta Delt Social Chairman (how could Jackie Kennedy ever have formally regretted her invitation to the 1961 BHCF Memorial Slalom...?); to his amazing agility on the football field and rugby pitch (until some recurring injury always sat him down each season), Billy just wanted everything he did to be fun. Roommate from day one in Hanover, Jim McElhinney was the best student of the legend, and captured it all beautifully in his eulogy–recited to a capacity crowd on a rainy January 2 at the big guy’s beach club in Malibu. A life well lived. And certainly not forgotten. His widow Judy, The Native, will join us at some time during the 50th in Hanover.

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Malibu Fatz kisses the bride, daughter Cassie, who had the good sense to marry a Punahou grad...

Father of the bride, Judy the Native, Dr. Mc the roommate

That’s it for now. Gitchy hiney in gear and sign up for reunion. Please note features offered in Phase II of our reunion—Mike Gazzaniga 's forum, Passages II, and the Monday Night musical gala: Gim Burton, Jim Watson, Steve Dale and other musicians in various combinations, Bruce Johnson and his barbershop quartet the Chordsmen, the Aires, and ‘61-specific comments by Thad Seymour. Oh, and send your check.

As Duck the mind-bender counsels: a year to a one year-old is a lifetime; to a 30 year-old is 1/30 of a lifetime; to a 70 year-old is 1/70. Life is non-linear, meaning a year is not a year with each passing year. The time left is the most important, and who knows when that shall end?

Let's not plan other than to live life.

aloha,

tc

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