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Sections: 61st Day Mini, Mini-Reunion, Mini-Reunion Recording, Dartmouth College Fund, Dartmouth Sports Ranking

'61s & Guests

Bleyler, Conger, Crouthamel, Denniston, Eberhardt, Gonzalez, Grossberg,

Kolb, McArt, McGuire, McKee, Niehaus, Reed, Rozycki, Stuart, Tapper, Ward, Zipes

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Mini-Reunion--Click on Mini-Reunion Recording in Quick Links Above for complete proceedings

We did it again—another successful, informative, and highly entertaining mini-reunion via Zoom! Laurels and plaudits to Pete Bleyler, ably assisted by Harris McKee, and mahalo to all the willing classmates who volunteered to pull the production off. For those who may not have tuned in, here is a brief preview of what you missed: Pete provided previews of the Mini-reunion with a series of letters released on Fridays leading up to the Mini.which are extracted here.
 As usual, we will start with the open-mike session from 11:30 to noon, Eastern. Our first presenter, from noon to 12:30, will be Alexis Abramson, Dean of the Thayer School.  At the moment she ’s not planning on having any engineering students join her.  However, if she changes her mind, the session will be lengthened to 45 minutes and everything below will be 15 minutes later.
From 12:30 to 1:30 we ’ll have the classmate panel with Steve Grossberg and Ted Tapper.  Steve will talk about his career in psychology and his work with the brain and the mind.  Ted will talk about his career as a pediatrician serving the lower socio-economic neighborhoods in Philadelphia.  In particular, he ’ll talk about the young man who was convicted and sent to prison even though Ted testified in court that the young man could not possibly have been the culprit.  This story was written by Ted ’s son, Jake ‘91, and appeared recently in the Atlantic Monthly.  Doug Zipes will be the session moderator.
After a 15-minute break Stephen Gonzalez, the Assistant Athletic Director for Leadership and Mental Performance, will talk about the LIVE program that he offers to varsity student-athletes during the summer term.  He ’ll be joined by students Justine McGuire from women ’s rowing and Colin Niehaus from men ’s lacrosse.  This session will run from 1:45 to 2:30.
The last panel will consist of 5 classmates who spent time in the Armed Forces, and each will tell one story that should take not more than 5 to 6 minutes each.  While I was hoping to get presenters from all the services, we have 4 from the Navy and one from the Army.  The five are Denny Denniston, Henry Eberhardt, Al Ward, Rick Reed, and Peter Stuart.  Ken Kolb will be the session moderator.
We ’ll also have a Special Classmate Award presentation, probably right after the break.
Here are some background data on the presenters:

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Alexis R. Abramson

One of the major initiatives of the current Capital Campaign was the West End Campus Expansion.  Included in the plan was a $200-million project to integrate experiential learning in engineering, computer science, and entrepreneurship.  Accordingly, a new building was completed last year and is shared by the Thayer School of Engineering, the Department of Computer Science, and the Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship.

expansion of the school, putting human-centered engineering at the heart of the engineering education, research and practice.
Prior to joining Dartmouth, she was the Maltz Professor of Energy Innovation at Case Western Reserve University and served as a director of the university ’s Great Lakes Energy Institute.  During the Obama administration, Alexis held the role as chief scientist and manager of the Emerging technologies Division at the U.S. Department of Energy ’s Building Technologies Program.  In 2018, she also served as technical adviser for Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a $1 billion effort launched by Bill Gates to combat human-driven climate change.

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Ted Tapper

Ted Tapper, a primary care general pediatrician who worked in an underserved area of South Philadelphia for 45 years, will speak about his career, and in particular, the case of one of his patients, C. J. Rice.  The details of this case were featured in the cover story of Atlantic Monthly, written by Ted’s son, Jake Tapper.  Rice was convicted of second degree murder in 2011, and the story highlights the inequities in the American judicial system. 

Steve Grossberg

Steve Grossberg began his life’s work when he took introductory Psychology in 1957.  Since then, he has become the principal pioneer and current research leader discovering how our brains make our minds using neural models.  As Wang Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems; Director of the Center for Adaptive Systems; and Emeritus Professor of Mathematics and Statistics, Psychological and Brain Sciences, and Biomedical Engineering at Boston University, many scientists consider him the “Einstein of the Mind.”  His models explain mind and brain facts about how humans consciously see, hear, feel, and know things about the world, and use conscious states to plan and act to realize goals.  When these models break down, they exhibit behavioral symptoms of mental disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, autism, and disordered sleep.  The models are now used in adaptively intelligent algorithms and robots in engineering and AI.  Steve’s recently published Conscious Mind, Resonant Brain: How Each Brain Makes a Mind summarizes these discoveries in a self-contained non-technical way.  The book won the 2022 PROSE book award in Neuroscience of the Association of American Publishers and is available on Amazon.com.

Stephen Gonzalez

One of our panels will include Dr. Stephen Gonzalez, the Corrigan Family Assistant Athletic Director for Leadership and Mental Performance, and two student-athletes.  Stephen heads up the DRIVE program, which seeks to build student-athletes ’ leadership abilities by promoting the core values of Development, Resilience, Ingenuity, Valor, and Excellence.  Participants are varsity athletes, and typically meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout their sophomore summer, where they receive valuable lessons while building camaraderie amongst their fellow classmates.  Prior to coming to Dartmouth in June of 2019, Stephen was an assistant professor of sport psychology at Brockport State University of New York and the head of mental performance for the NCAA Division III Brockport Golden Eagles athletics department. As head of mental performance, Gonzalez oversaw the leadership development, team building exercises, and mental skills development for 23 teams and over 650 student-athletes. Gonzalez also was a mental performance consultant for NCAA Division I Rochester Institute of Technology ’s men ’s ice hockey program.

The two student-athletes accompanying Stephen completed the DRIVE program this past summer.

Justine McGuire

Justine McGuire is a senior on the Women's Rowing team from Mont-Tremblant, QC, Canada. Prior to her recruitment to Dartmouth College, McGuire was a captain her senior year at Saugatuck Rowing Club in Westport, CT where she won Head of The Charles (2x), San Diego Crew Classic (2x), US Rowing Youth National Championship in the Varsity 8+ category, a gold medal at the Royal Canadian Henley, and was the recipient of the Fred Dunning Award for “displaying outstanding leadership qualities, never quitting, fights through all adversity and team spirit during the 2018-2019 season.” At Dartmouth, McGuire is studying government, and minoring in Russian area studies. Since her freshman year debut, McGuire has overcome two major injuries during her freshman winter and junior fall. Despite her latest injury, McGuire worked her way back into Dartmouth's Varsity 8+ during the 2021-2022 spring season earning her therecognition of Second Team All-Ivy, and the Warren C. Nagle Award recipient for persevering towards the goal of giving their absolute best amongst the Women's rowing team throughout the 2021-2022 season.

Colin Niehaus

Colin Niehaus is a Junior defensive midfielder for the Dartmouth Men's Lacrosse team. He is from San Francisco, CA where he attended Saint Ignatius College Preparatory, and lettered in both basketball and lacrosse for 4 years. After transferring into Dartmouth his sophomore year from Amherst College, Colin led the first defensive midfield unit for the Big Green in 2022 before undergoing a season ending injury. Colin is currently studying Economics and Computer Science, and plans on working in Finance in New York City following his graduation.

Denny Denniston

Denny Denniston grew up in Mobile, Alabama. After Dartmouth he served two years as Communications Officer on the USS McCaffery, a Destroyer in the US Navy, after which he returned to Hanover for two years to obtain his MBA at Tuck. He then spent 40 years in commercial banking in NY City with Chase, National Westminster, Bank of New York and then managed the NY Branch of a foreign bank.

Henry Eberhardt

Henry Eberhardt, due to the Berlin Crisis of 1961, was drafted into the Army but fortunately at the same time was accepted at OCS in Newport, Rhode Island.  Following commissioning, Henry was assigned as Communications Officer of the USS Mazama, an ammunition ship based in Mayport, Florida, and made several deployments to the Mediterranean. He also served in the Pacific as Operations Officer of the destroyer USS Stickell including deployments to the Gulf of Tonkin to provide long range gunfire support for our troops in Vietnam.  After eight years of active duty and promotion to Lieutenant Commander, Henry joined the Navy Reserve and was Commanding Officer of a reserve unit in Hanover, which included Captain Eddie Chamberlain and Commander Ralph Manuel
Henry will relate a terrifying story when hewas on the ammunition ship in the Atlantic.  As the Mazama was heading home after participating in the Cuban Missile Crisis, the ship went to General Quarters when a fire was reported in Hold #2, which is where the nuclear weapons were stored.

Peter Stuart

Peter Stuart served aboard the USS Fremont, an attack transport ship from 1961-1963 in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean fleets. He was then assigned to a destroyer for two years based in Japan and with action off the coast of Vietnam.  After returning to the States he continued in the Navy Reserve while in law school and beyond.   He became a Navy lawyer and served voluntarily at the Submarine Base and the Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut, before retiring as a Commander.

Rick Reed

Rick Reed, a History major, member of Psi U, freshman tennis and varsity squash captain, had no thoughts of military service upon venturing into the wide wide world upon graduation.  One year later, after working as a sales management trainee selling life insurance, in desperation he escaped to Naval OCS in Newport, Rhode Island.  Having survived the rigors of OCS, Rick was assigned to the USS Graffias, a WWII era refrigerated food stores ship home ported in Sasebo, Japan.  After a strange series of events, he was promoted to be the ship ’s Navigator, normally assigned to a Commander-level officer, not a lowly Ensign.   As the Graffias was steaming near the Philippines enroute to their  home port in Japan, the ship received orders to head to the Gulf of Tonkin, to support an aircraft carriertask force.  Two destroyers had reported being attacked by North Vietnamese patrol boats, so Rick ’s ship had to set a fast westward course towards Vietnam while zigzagging to avoid potential torpedo attacks.  Rick will relate his experience during the engagement, and his subsequent take on this pivotal event in the early stages of the Vietnam war.

Al Ward

Al Ward graduated from Tufts Medical School in 1965 and was inducted into the Air Force, serving from 1967 to 1969, stationed at Malcolm Grow Hospital at Andrews Air Force Base in DC, where he was chief of VIP services.  Patients included active and retired generals (e.g., Curtis LeMay), other ranking officers, and diplomats and their families. Meanwhile, wounded soldiers from Vietnam were placed in make-shift wards and essentially hidden from the public.

Class of 1961 Special Recognition Award
                                    Presented to                           

Roger W. McArt

Rog, from starting second baseman on the Dartmouth baseball teams of 1958 through 1961 and a popular member of a typically naive  graduating class in 1961 to an elder statesman within the now proficient and progressive Class of 1961, you have made a valuable contribution to the progress and growth of the Class during its passage over the past sixty-two years.

One of your teammates on the Dartmouth freshman through varsity baseball teams described you as the “steady Eddie on the baseball team”, a player who “made tough plays look easy and frequently got key hits that won key games against major competition.”

Over the decades you have always been, and continue to be, a highly valuable spoke in the Class of ’61 management wheel. In past years, among other service contributions you have been a former Class President for a 5-year term and a major (50th) reunion, a former major ’ 61 Reunion Chair, a former member of the Dartmouth Alumni Council, a current at-large long-term member of the Class of ’ 61 executive committee, the first ’ 61 Class Head Agent and a current co-Head Agent of the Class of ‘ 61 Dartmouth College Fund effort.

Rog, as a result of the aforementioned, the Class of 1961 has selected you to be a recipient of the Class of 1961 Special Recognition Award.

Dated: February 23, 2023 

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[The late] Jake Crouthamel ’60 was key in our very first Ivy Football Championship
in 1958 - shown here with legendary line coach [the late] Jack Musick.

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Al Rozycki was unable to sleep one night last fall, “so was surfing the web and found this Ivy League sports analysis I thought was very interesting.”
THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE HARVARD SPORTS ANALYSIS COLLECTIVE
IVY LEAGUE ALL-AROUND POWER RANKINGS
DECEMBER 6, 2021 BY HARVARDSPORTS
By David Arkow
When one thinks of power ranking collegiate athletic programs, SEC football or ACC basketball likely comes to mind first. Media and press coverage is fixated on the Power 5 schools with countless articles and new power rankings after every week of competition. After all, these schools do have the most talented players and get the most viewership. But rarely is any attention paid to other conferences which might be deserving in their own right. Such is the case for the conference with the longest-standing institutions and therefore athletic programs in the country: The Ivy League. Much attention is paid to these elite universities from the academic front but not from the athletic front. A Google search for “Ivy League Rankings” yields results from US News or Niche while a search for “SEC Rankings” yields football results from ESPN. While there are many academic rankings for the Ivies out there based on admission rates, SAT scores, post-college earnings, and more, there are few when it comes to sports. Nevertheless, there is a large group of people who care about the athletic success of these programs. And many of them are underrated on a national scale when expanding the picture outside of the big two (football and basketball). Earlier this year, HSAC released an ultimate power rankings of all-around collegiate athletic programs but included only the Power 5 conferences (SEC, ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12). But as members of the Ivy League, we set out to create our own power rankings looking at the success of the eight member colleges across a variety of sports. Just after the Ivy game with the most press coverage all year in Harvard-Yale football, HSAC releases our Ivy League power rankings.  
NO. 6 DARTMOUTH Dartmouth has the smallest undergraduate population (4,500) out of all the Ivies but comes in at No. 6 in the rankings. The Big Green should not be underestimated when it comes to sports given their small school size and population town size (Hanover has around 8,000 people). The smallest school actually places first when it comes to the biggest sport in terms of dollars, attention, and physical size. Their football team (which accounts for about 2.5% of the total student population) has finished either first or second in the Ivies in four out of the last five years and were co-champions in 2021 with Princeton. Men ’s soccer has been their best sport with an average finishing placement of 2.2. Their football stadium and basketball arenas have the smallest capacity, but they boast the largest ice hockey rink. In the “rash of cuts” during the summer of the COVID-pandemic when colleges were trimming their athletic budgets, Dartmouth cut five of their sports which were then reinstated six months later after the threat of a Title IX lawsuit. For being the smallest school in the Ivies, Dartmouth can hold its own in sports. 
Then, later, Roz submits: Tom, Perhaps it ’s not just the Ivies-
U.C.L.A. ’s football team is having a great year. Its finances aren ’t. Under the former N.F.L. head coach Chip Kelly, the 8-1 Bruins have become a top 10 team behind one of the nation’s most prolific offenses. Dorian Thompson-Robinson, U.C.L.A.’s defender-hurdling quarterback, and Zach Charbonnet, their tackle-busting running back, are just the kind of players you would expect to ignite a fan base.
Yet crowds have been depressingly sparse: Attendance has averaged only 36,241 fans in a stadium of 91,136-person capacity, despite the university routinely giving away tens of thousands of tickets. By the end of the 2021 fiscal year, U.C.L.A. ’s athletics shortfall exceeded $103.1 million, led by its football shortcomings.
Our response: “Prolly a coupla causes:
1. the game is much better viewed on TV, what with multiple cameras, instant replay, etc.
2. Lotta kids attending colleges today are not from football culture
3. Many other attractions for kids ’ attentions these days
4. Once college footie abandoned its traditional Saturday afternoon time slot, it watered down the overall impact
Alas . . .”

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CTE--As we have yet to resolve the CTE dangers involving America’s favorite sport, Rozycki submits the following article:
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/987969
To which we respond: “Am afraid that, unless drastic measures are taken–soon–such as adopting that vastly improved helmet the Harvard dude has developed, even more drastic measures, such as federal intervention, are unavoidable.
And, even if the equipment improves, hoping to prevent injuries, how are they gonna stop the weight room disasters-in-waiting whereby student-athletes develop massive musculatures which do not have the innate connective tissue strong enough to keep the student-athletes from tearing their own bodies apart, even w/o contact?
And are PEDs entirely absent from today ’s training regimens?
E ’en as general enhanced nutrition and improved medical treatments are allowing our population to breed fellas so much bigger & faster that they are like unto genetic juggernauts out upon the [artificial] playing turf . . .
I cry Alas!
If not Excelsior!”
tc

Roz also shared an article about Senior Societies at Dartmouth that is too long to include, but here’s the URL: https://home.dartmouth.edu/about/dartmouths-first-senior-society

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More from Doc Roz: Here ’s one of the Bullet ’s recruits who has done the College proud. Mike Kirst (“Clam”) came from Wyomissing, PA, I roomed with him during my junior year (Middle Mass) and we were fraternity brothers in Theta Delt.  As I recall, he was a center as a Freshman–didn ’t end up playing all four years…did do lots of academics and a good bit of partying!  Those were fun times.
Alan A. Rozycki, M.D.

Here's the link for the Kirst Project Website:
https://www.mikekirstbiographyproject.com/mike-kirst-biography-book/

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Dartmouth College Fund

—Harris McKee, Co-Head Agent, sends thanks of all ‘61s who have already contributed to the DCF. We have led all classes in participation for the last two years, but we are lagging four other classes and our own progress last year.
You’ll find all the ways to give at: https:\\www.dartmouthcollegefund.org/how-give

Let’s call it a wrap.
Aloha,
tc

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