WWW 11/14/11: How long ago was that 50th Reunion? Seems like just yesterday... well, until the rain finally let up... Not satiated, a large corps of pilgrims appeared in the Uppah Valley over the November 5 weekend (the Cornell victory). You may recall that the original date for fall mini was the weekend of October 1, but someone in authority got into the magic mushrooms and rescheduled the Penn kick-off for 6:00PM...

Maynard Wheeler’s arrangements to accommodate a real football game, kicking off at 1:30, with time after the final gun for a visit to the Frost statue before supper at the Sumner Mansion Saturday evening, were rent asunder. Rumor has it that three (3) stalwart ‘61s actually braved the driving rainstorm on that dark and poorly lit October evening, but not many other UV inhabitants did (there were so few people in the stands, the game program went largely unsold—and you may now obtain a “piece of history” by submitting three bucks (merely triple the list price) to Dartmouth Athletics for a brand new [dry] copy... (We later played Hahvahd at night, on the cusp of November, in a blizzard, in an event so poorly attended that the TV cameraman was mesmerized by the vacant stands; at every break in play the camera would scan the empty seats, repeatedly, such that during one “media timeout” we counted the people actually there: sixteen [16]. Total. We trust this proves the folly of night games in the Ivy League.) [Reminder: football is played on Saturday afternoons in the autumn, kickoff NLT 1330. No players in black sox. There are four accredited Bowl games, which are to be played on January 1: The Orange, Sugar, Cotton, and—“granddaddy of ‘em all”—Rose Bowls. After the last regular season game (read: before Thanksgiving), all football players (“student-athletes”) will return to their academic regimen. Those not fortunate enough to attend one of the 8 bowl-bound institutions will make sure to study extra hard so as to remain eligible and/or graduate with their class. ed.]

So saying, here is Maynard’s report on both the “false start” and the actual fall mini:

Fall Mini Reunion Sept 30 - Oct 1: The initial reunion plan for this weekend was affected by the last-minute announcement that the game with Penn would be a night game at 6 PM under the newly installed lights at Memorial Field. As this would kill our usual gala evening at the Sumner Mansion, a second choice in November was offered. Nevertheless, a few did gather in October. Friday night Carol and Jim BAUM, Tom CONGER, Tim KNOX, Diane Kittredge with Alan ROZYCKI, and Sandy and Maynard WHEELER met for a fine dinner in WRJ. The Penn game, with a tantalizing 2-point loss in the cold rain under the lights, was enjoyed by the Baums and Roz. [Rick Husband promises he was there - for the first half... ed.]

Fall Mini Reunion Nov 4 - 6: Hanover produced a glorious weekend in every way for our fall gathering. One could not ask for better weather or a better football game. It was competitive and Dartmouth prevailed, with President Kim pacing the sidelines amidst the team who clearly know him well. Those who participated were: Ellis and Karen ALDEN, Pete and Ruth BLEYLER, Tom CONGER, Chris and Denny DENNISTON, MaryLou and Irwin FACHER, Margaret Langer with Bob FULLER, Mel and Ben GITCHEL, Helen and Larry GEORGE, Ann and Bob HARGRAVES, Joel HEATHCOTE, Judy and Hop HOLMBERG, Carol and Ivar JOZUS, Mort and Susan LYNN, Sandy and Roger McART, Nancy Meng with Dick SPENCER, Debbie Lawson with Pete SYNNOTT, Sandy and Maynard WHEELER, Joan and Ron WYBRANOWSKI, and Hub Yonkers. Glad to be together again just 5 months after our 50th Reunion, we began with cocktails and dinner at the Norwich Inn,. The hockey diehards, Fuller and Spencer, instead saw some great play with a 5-4 win over Quinnipiac in its ECAC opening game.

   Saturday mornings we hear from the students we support with a $1500 stipend. Our Academic student, Kurt Prescott ’12, from the Religion (and Anthropology) Department told us how our grant allowed him to get hands-on experience in Israel studying Bronze and Iron Age archeological sites for his topic: “Tracing the Origins of Ancient Israelite Religious Architecture.” Our Art student, Sarah Schewe ’12, told us of her work in Africa: “Tanzania Kangas: Wrapping Women in Hope”, explaining how she has designed special total-body shawl-like wraps for women with messages about health care and pregnancy, aiming at the horrific death rate in pregnancy in a remote area of Tanzania. Our funds helped her obtain a matching grant for the project. Once again, we were blown away by the poise and knowledge of both.

   After the win over Cornell, several gathered to wish Robert Frost another good year. Cocktails/dinner at the Sumner Mansion was as lively as ever, with our favorite caterer Christophe. We were joined by both student awardees, their companions, and our head student assistant at our 50th, Caitlin Ardrey with a friend, adding extra interest to the gathering. Susan Ackerman ’80, Chair of the Religion Department, shared with us her excitement over her students and the thrust of her department. Questions had to be cut short to allow us to start our feast.

   Sunday we ended up with breakfast at the Hanover Inn before all went their separate ways with thoughts of when we could gather again.

[a big mahalo to Maynard for somehow finding the time/energy to arrange these superb sessions, plus another Bravo Zulu for quarterbacking that splendid 50th - ed]

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Al Rozycki offers this perspective on [planning, then rearranging] mini-reunions: “Like herding cats! The responses reveal what brings each of us back for mini-reunions.  Living in the shadow of the institution, I can avail myself of the many opportunities to interact with the college and the activities associated with it... i.e I can go easily to any of the sporting events. Diane and I participate with the mini-reunions, whenever possible, because we truly enjoy meeting our classmates, their spouses, and sharing our life stories with them and theirs. That being the case, whatever maximizes our opportunity to interact on a personal basis is most attractive to us.  The football event could include pre-and post game opportunities whatever the hour. Pretty difficult to engage in meaningful conversation at the game itself. The dinners, for us, have been special times...no rock and roll in the background to confuse the hearing-impaired (yours truly), an opportunity to relax in a non-rushed setting.” [Right on, Roz! - ed.]

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Upper Valley Lunch Bunch. We will gather again, in fact, on December 7, at noon. In September we embarked on a series of Uppah Valley ’61 lunches, emulating the very successful program the ‘60s have been enjoying for several years. Thus far it’s been fun—and attendance has grown. The e-mail list from which we operate includes only NH & VT addresses; others who can make it to the UV for a little sustenance and camaraderie at mid-day are encouraged to contact tc, who will be glad to add your address to the invitation list. On Pearl Harbor Day (70th Anniversary!) we will be at the Norwich Inn, in the Library, at noon. Any time we get more than eleven in attendance it classifies as a mini-reunion (for Class of the Year stats). Spread the word.

Upper Valley 1961 Lunch Bunch

May we insert one more observation on the Big 5-0? Having read F.J. Eicke’s bons mots in the last WWW, Glenn Gemelli says: “Duck, your comment in the latest WWW noting ‘…first allegiance to Dartmouth’ echoes my own sentiments.  Perhaps my biggest joy in the reunions I have attended came from just being there.  I was up early Tuesday morning and needing some coffee, so I pulled my carryon from our dorm to Hanover Inn about an hour before the farewell breakfast.  The feelings I had while sipping coffee in one of their rocking chairs, gazing from the porch through the drizzle across the green, were the ultimate summary experience.  Beyond that and some other highlights, I enjoyed reconnecting with you and meeting Kathy–my kind of lady. Cheers to you both, Glenn.” Guess we could include this excerpt from the Joe Zinn lexicon: “Nostalgia is a funny emotion, somewhere between mild sadness and comforting bliss...”

   Noose of the Class: Honorary degree recipient Ron Boss sent a commemorative ’61 Reunion pen to Dave Prentice ’69, who published the superlative Paths We’ve Taken 50th reunion book. Dave wrote Ron to thank him, and to confess that—a devout Cross user—he has lost several pens over the years. Ron wrote back to say: “Thanks for the comments about Cross. Glad you lose some!  You are amongst many that happens to. Our history as a Co. is interesting. We do 2/3 of our writing Instrument business outside the US today. The communications of the world have hurt overall volume of pens as a tool to communicate, but we have done a lot to survive. Our acquisition of a great sports sunglass Company, Costa Del Mar, has helped a lot.” [Remember, fellas: buy from the family! There are probably no writing instrument needs you may have that Cross can’t fill tudamax—and Costa Del Mars will not only make you look studly, but also filter the glare - ed.]

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Lucky the select crew of ‘61s who can attend.

*(clue to 39 across in the NYTimes August 30 crossword puzzle: TV/film/stage Actor once Married to Actress Meredith Baxter. Answer: davidbirney)

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Not to be outdone, Gim Burton performed at Carnegie Hall in October, “as part of the 50th reunion concert for ‘Your Father's Mustache,’ a chain of banjo-sing-a-long nightclubs where I worked back in the 1960s and ‘70s. The concert was in the Zankel Hall at Carnegie on Sunday, the 9th.  There were sing-a-longs, red-hot mamas, washboards, tubas, trombones, and more banjos than you thought possible.” 

Back in August, fully recovered from his little dehydration/over-exertion episode at the 50th, Duane Cox “had lunch with Denny Engleman Tuesday in Las Vegas. Denny hasn't changed a whole lot, in fact—none.”

Coupla months later, in connection with his volunteer “career” at the USO, Dobes filed this report: “Here's a photo of yours truly at the 29 Palms Marine Base. I am standing next to the ‘Humvee’ rollover simulator. They put Marines with full 90# packs in it, turn it upside down, and the kids have to extricate themselves. AWESOME.”

Speaking of careers, we got word from an unimpeachable source (Puddin Roussel) that “Best Lawyers, the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession, has named James H. Roussel as the ‘New Orleans Best Lawyers Admiralty & Maritime Law Lawyer of the Year’ for 2012.” Puddin: “Quite an honor for one who once stole a Firetruck and did not return it. I’m so proud of him, don’t know whether to laugh or cry...” [Roach kept waiting for some kinda monetary honorarium... ed.] [Similar award for Dick Beattie was reported in separate class emailing.]

Not quite so prominent has been classmate Richard Herbert—couldn’t even get a skeleton bio from him for Paths. However, our Brown U ‘61 correspondent from the BRFC, Allyn Freeman, found him in a Prudential Real Estate bulletin: “This native Long Islander taught high school and college, built houses, and watched the East End grow into a world famous resort. Originally from up-island, this broker started coming out to the Hamptons when he was 15. For several summers he worked at the old Montauk Manor, when it was a haven for the rich and beautiful of New York and Hollywood. A stint in the Army, a career in advertising and speech writing kept him away from the East End for a few years, but ‘sand remained in his shoes’ and in the 1970s he returned.” Another Freeman buddy/classmate at South Side High in NY, Bill Kandel, jumped aboard our search for the “perfect” Dartmouth green blazer: “The July WWW noted the green sport jacket scarcity, more noteworthy because of your extensive bracketing.  I, too, thought ‘green jacket’ in Reunion prep.  During research on tony Madison Avenue, I recognized J. Press...a local New Haven haberdasher catering to Yalies, much like Campion's to us.  Press previously had a tiny New York outlet next door to the Yale Club—solely, I thought, to supply new dress shirts to Mad Men stuck with lipstick stains on the way home...  How did Press gravitate to Madison with such grand scale?  And with extensive window displays of Yale regalia, an unfair recruitment tool for the vast supply of NYC football players (well, Calvin Hill, anyway). The sales people said the Press family had sold out to a Japanese group which maintained the Yale Coop look.  I asked if they could buy Campion's, but they looked blank—and as to the green blazer, they pointed to a rack of jackets where one green was wedged between peaches and baby blues. They don't consider ‘blazer’ to go beyond Yale blue...  It then occurred to me that a green sport jacket already hung at home: during the mid-70s, Joyce and I were jettisoning outdated (hers) and outgrown (mine) clothes and I rescued from her discards a remnant of her brief Annie Hall phase. It's silky with roll-up sleeves, feels like pajamas, and would suit Oscar's Hollywood Pack. She won't let me wear it with her or anywhere I may encounter someone she knows.  I won't wear it among 61s, but do intend to return in it to J. Press. BTW, this is written while hunkered down for Hurricane Irene, [sorta] like many snowed-in Saturday nights in Hanover.  It reminds me to thank you for a wonderful Reunion book and inspired writing [within the brackets] for WWW.  Sorry we didn't communicate more at the Reunion but Joyce and I had to leave Sunday to meet our baby-chasing commitments the next morning.  We had dinner with Allyn Freeman a couple weeks later and I had little to report about you...”  [anyone else got a green blazer lead for us? Our first “sure thing” fell through. We are intent on pursuing this quest to successful completion. ed.]

   At the end of summer, Class Treasurer Ivar Jozus polled the ExeComm regarding continuance of underwriting the cost of AluMag subscriptions for classmates who have not actively participated in class/college events in ten years. General consensus was to keep those folks aboard, summarized by Oscar: “Keep on sending it. The news is all good! One day, maybe, one of those guys or more will realize that life is too short and start participating.” Which Pete Tuschak confirmed from personal experience: “I agree with Oscar's statement. I myself was not very active for years, but now  in the ‘twilight’ of my life, I would like to become more so. Maybe some of those 60 to 80 [inactive] classmates will change their minds and come to an event or two.”

Dead hush fell over our whole group.

Then John Damon piped up: "Oh, no – shouldn't we oughta tell 'em...?"

Seriously, look for complete obits once Tom submits them to Harris for posting on the class website (they will also appear in the online version of the DAM).

[Apologies for no photos from the large and happy wake the Theta Delts staged for Wm. M.C. “Malibu Fatz” Miller during reunion; the indoor lighting was too dark, and everybody was having too much fun saying aloha to a class icon to pose/shoot pix—ed.]

And, while we’re on the topic of the Grim Reaper, here’s a poem by Hal Sirowitz, from Father Said. (© Soft Skull Press. Reprinted with permission):

One Organ Too Many 

I know very little about how the body works,

Father said, but as long as it gets me to where

I want to go, I don't mind if it has to be repaired

from time to time. I can definitely think 

of lots of ways it could have been designed better.

It makes me wonder what God was thinking about

when He created Adam. He must have been

exhausted from creating everything else. I wish

He could have thought of another way for me to have

kids without my needing a prostate gland. If I 

had known I was going to get cancer there 

I'd have gotten rid of it ages ago. But I couldn't 

just walk into a hospital & ask for my prostate

to be removed. I first had to have a reason.

But when I finally had one it was too late.

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Green Cards: We still love ‘em; keep sending ‘em in, esp.you luddites w/o computers [Yeah. Right. Show me the ’61 who doesn’t have access to a computer and I’ll show you a troglodyte.... ed.] Bob Fryer <rfryer@cox.net> checks in after a long drought: “After my one year at Dartmouth I transferred to UNH where I graduated in 1961. After that I attended Duke Law School with Sam Bell and Art Kola, graduating in 1964. That was followed by three years in the US Marine Corps. After that I spent 7 years with the Nashua Corporation as Assistant Secretary-Assistant Counsel. In 2005 Carol and I moved to Williamsburg, VA, where I am a CASA volunteer, drive for Meals on Wheels, and am in training for the Wounded Warrior mentor program and getting certified as a Mediator.”

Tony Horan cards: “In August 2011, I won a shared first prize in the historical essay contest at the Western Section of the Am. Urol. Assoc. meeting in Vancouver, BC. The essay was entitled ‘A History of Medical Castration’ and described my summer with two Nobel Prize winners in Houston, TX. (They won the Prize 15 years later after splitting up and competing for grant money.) I contributed by going to the Houston packing plant in August and carrying out hog hypothalmi for storage on dry ice. This gave A.V. Schally his first independent biological material.”

Bruce Forester wrote a prescription on a green card—or at least that’s what his handwriting looks like [gonna struggle through this...]: “Your WWW ‘journal’ would make a great paperback book; start back in 1961, tracing all those who contributed down thru these past 50 years. I recently attended a writers dinner at one of my eating clubs that I go to to drink and don’t eat and get a letter each time about how odd is to be in the club (Lotos Club) which is all about writers and eating. Back to the point: The thrust of the talk was how large trade paper books, including many E-books, downloaded are the rage, especially non-fiction and about groups of people down thru their lives. What think thee? Germany was a fairy tale—the small towns nestled in the mountains—now home for the rest of summer.”

The Arslanians went to Turkey [risky biz for a bona fide Armenian...]: “We had a memorable 12-day trip to Turkey in September. Turkey is a good-looking and very prosperous country to the west of my homeland of Armenia. Attached are ‘O’ & Nyla looking very much like we are still celebrating our 50 th (the hats say it all) at the phenomenal historic site Ephesus. Believe me, I had the whole genocide thing playing in my head (where it was put from my earliest recollection), but satisfying Nyla’s desire to travel to the cradle of the world and see the amazing historic sites took precedence. It was, indeed, a bit of a breakthrough for me. For the most part, I met a lot of fine people. I wasn’t enthralled with the women wearing burkas and/or scarves and heavy-looking coats. It seemed very backward to me, with their husbands and kids wearing Hard Rock tee shirts, etc. in the 80-degree-plus weather. Women are not treated well. However, Herb West trained me well, so I knew that anything can be rationalized/marginalized in the name of religion.” [Herbert Faulkner West doled out a lot more wisdom than he was given credit for. ed.]

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Gotta end this issue with a plug for the most successful sports team in the college’s history, the Dartmouth Rugby Football Club:

SAVE THE DATE, THURSDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2012!!

The DRFC Board of Governors cordially invites all Alums, Friends and Supporters of Dartmouth Rugby to a Dinner to Honor our First ever  National Champions – The CRC 7’s National Champions 2011 Squad  Cocktails & Dinner to be held at the Yale Club, Vanderbilt Ave and 44th Street, Midtown Manhattan.  We expect to have most of the members of the Championship team in attendance, as well as Head Coach Alex Magleby ‘00 and Athletic Director Harry Sheehy

Please mark your calendars for what promises to be an historic evening celebrating the success of this team and continuing to build the great winning traditions of Dartmouth Rugby!

Also, please remember that those ruggers will be defending their national title in Philadelphia on June 3-4, 2012. A large Dartmouth contingent (many hard core ‘61s) will be in attendance; may we count on you as well?

Aloha,

tc

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