Class Note 1943
Issue
May-June 2023
Two fellows from ’43 are members of the Harold C. Ripley ’29 Society, a very special community of 5,870 alumni who have donated to the Dartmouth College Fund (DCF) since graduation. The two ’43s? They are Edmund G. “Ted” Miller and George Shimizu. Ted and I were invited to be members just before our 75th class reunion in 2018. Ted replied to my letter, saying, “It was easy. I had a checking account during my campus days. After graduation, I was in the Dartmouth contingent of nearly 100 ’43s at Notre Dame University.” Ninety days later, he was made an ensign and assigned to Noumea, New Caledonia, the U.S. Navy base closest to Guadalcanal in the South Pacific. It was July 1943. He made numerous “runs” to Guadalcanal and the Solomon Islands, hauling troops, equipment, and supplies. “So in early 1944, I sent my donation to the Dartmouth College Fund. And I did the same in early 1945.” Later in life, Ted received his M.A. in 1947 and his Ph.D. in 1955, both from Columbia University. He now lives in Exeter, New Hampshire.
I, George, had no knowledge of the Ripley ’29 Society. In early 1944, I was at Allied Translators and Interpreters Section, just outside Brisbane, Australia. In one of her letters, my wife, Mary, wrote, “I sent a donation to your alumni fund in your name and class.” Then in 1945, Mary wrote that she had made another donation since our outfit (24th Division) was on the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines. That’s why my Mary deserves the credit for those first two years of gifts to the DCF. A huge wah-hoo-wah to my Mary, who died on May 30, 2000, in Marin County. I am today a proud member of the Ripley ’29 Society.
Special notice: The 2022-23 DCF is in full swing. Our annual fundraiser ends on June 30. Take action today! According to my records, there are 13 of us left out of an original 651 frosh who became classmates in September 1939. We are centenarians now. This may be your husband, dad, uncle, or brother: If he can’t send a check, send it for him. If he can’t do it, take it upon yourself, as my Mary did, and mail a donation in his name and ’43. The amount is secondary; participation, to me, is more important. It would be perfect if we could engender 100-percent participation! Thank you.
Take care and stay safe and wear a mask.
—George Shimizu, 2140 Sepulveda Ave., Milpitas, CA 95035; (408) 930-2488; marymariko@comcast.net
I, George, had no knowledge of the Ripley ’29 Society. In early 1944, I was at Allied Translators and Interpreters Section, just outside Brisbane, Australia. In one of her letters, my wife, Mary, wrote, “I sent a donation to your alumni fund in your name and class.” Then in 1945, Mary wrote that she had made another donation since our outfit (24th Division) was on the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines. That’s why my Mary deserves the credit for those first two years of gifts to the DCF. A huge wah-hoo-wah to my Mary, who died on May 30, 2000, in Marin County. I am today a proud member of the Ripley ’29 Society.
Special notice: The 2022-23 DCF is in full swing. Our annual fundraiser ends on June 30. Take action today! According to my records, there are 13 of us left out of an original 651 frosh who became classmates in September 1939. We are centenarians now. This may be your husband, dad, uncle, or brother: If he can’t send a check, send it for him. If he can’t do it, take it upon yourself, as my Mary did, and mail a donation in his name and ’43. The amount is secondary; participation, to me, is more important. It would be perfect if we could engender 100-percent participation! Thank you.
Take care and stay safe and wear a mask.
—George Shimizu, 2140 Sepulveda Ave., Milpitas, CA 95035; (408) 930-2488; marymariko@comcast.net