Sadly, our class is still diminishing. No more confusion about Bob McClarin, as he has passed on, as has Hal Roitman, both of whom loved Dartmouth. Bob McLellan still walks a mile a day, has a girlfriend and four great-grandchildren. We had a wonderful conversation.


Irv Sager keeps active and dates my first cousin. He loves living in New York, despite his family wanting him to move to Boston, where they live. He says he has been moving back for five years. A big problem he has is being unable to read, as his eyes are shot. 


John Todd says he is as active as he can be at age 97. He feels fine and is enjoying life. His early days in Kalamazoo, Michigan, are so long ago that he can’t remember them, but that’s okay because he sounds like he is making the most of the present.


I received a touching card from Armanda Bettman ’12 of the Hill Winds Society at Dartmouth, thanking me for all my support. This reaching out between generations is beautiful. I was thinking how Armanda entered Dartmouth in 2008 and I entered 77 years before, in 1931. If I were to go back the same length of time, I would have entered 1854. The Civil War would not have been fought, slavery would have been legal, the transcontinental railroad would not have been completed, buffalo would still have roamed the plains, roads as we know them did not exist and the main means of transportation would have been sailboats. The most horrific slaughter of humans by other humans lay ahead. Is the College equipping Armanda with the knowledge necessary so that her future will be better than the past? I hope so. I wonder, did the College equip us to be able to chart our future so that we can truly say we are the great class of 1935?


—Edward Gerson, 2400 Mariposa West 3A, Laguna Woods, CA 92653; (949) 829-8400; ejgerson@webtv.net