Class Note 1946
Issue
May-June 2020
A legendary member of the class of 1946 died on January 11. Our class sympathy to the family of Nelson S. Bryant Jr., who led a life devoted to living in “the silence of the woods” in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, where he was born, lived, and died. He told his story in a featured section of the March/April 2017 DAM as a nonagenarian who had been a former outdoor columnist for The New York Times for 30 years.
Although accepted for a summer semester at Dartmouth in 1942, he applied for Airborne, where he was accepted only because he covered his legally blind right eye twice and passed the eye test by reading out of his perfect-vision left eye.
He wrote in a salty, uninhibited, down-to-earth style as noted in describing his parachute jump into Normandy as a member of the 82nd Airborne Division the night before D-Day, when he “crossed his legs to save his balls” before crashing into a tree. Thanks to this thoughtful maneuver, he was able to sire four grateful children.
On his postwar return to Dartmouth he wanted to be a poet. He describes his failure to keep Dylan Thomas sober for his lecture at Baker Library before a thousand people. In spite of that, Thomas, pushing aside piles of lecture notes on the lectern, spoke brilliantly for one and a half hours.
Our class sympathy to the families of our deceased classmates whose loss we share equally. Carl E. Sternkopf, a former Navy V-12, died September 20, 2011. Richard D. Fitzgerald died November 26, 2019. He was a Tuck ’49, graduated with honors and Phi Beta Kappa, served as a Navy Supply Corps officer on the aircraft carrier USS Midway for two years, prized the commendations from admirals he served under, and retired from Price Waterhouse in 1986 in London as deputy chairman of PW World, where he started in 1949. William C. Grant Jr., Ph.D., died November 28, 2019. He earned an A.B. (cum laude) in zoology and a Ph.D. in biology from Yale, serving in the Pacific Theater 1943-1946, and in 1971 was named chairman of the Dartmouth biology department, where he worked for 35 years. James D. Kennedy Jr., a member of Dragon Phi Gamma Delta, died February 4.
Please give serious thought to our 75th full reunion a year from this fall. At least half of our attendees at our 70th reunion were family members. Let’s do it again, wheelchairs and walkers included. Thoughts?
—John L.E. Wolff, M.D., 500 East 77th St., Apt. 1833, New York, NY 10162; (917) 975-3175; (212) 772-9933 (fax); jlewolffmd@aol.com
Although accepted for a summer semester at Dartmouth in 1942, he applied for Airborne, where he was accepted only because he covered his legally blind right eye twice and passed the eye test by reading out of his perfect-vision left eye.
He wrote in a salty, uninhibited, down-to-earth style as noted in describing his parachute jump into Normandy as a member of the 82nd Airborne Division the night before D-Day, when he “crossed his legs to save his balls” before crashing into a tree. Thanks to this thoughtful maneuver, he was able to sire four grateful children.
On his postwar return to Dartmouth he wanted to be a poet. He describes his failure to keep Dylan Thomas sober for his lecture at Baker Library before a thousand people. In spite of that, Thomas, pushing aside piles of lecture notes on the lectern, spoke brilliantly for one and a half hours.
Our class sympathy to the families of our deceased classmates whose loss we share equally. Carl E. Sternkopf, a former Navy V-12, died September 20, 2011. Richard D. Fitzgerald died November 26, 2019. He was a Tuck ’49, graduated with honors and Phi Beta Kappa, served as a Navy Supply Corps officer on the aircraft carrier USS Midway for two years, prized the commendations from admirals he served under, and retired from Price Waterhouse in 1986 in London as deputy chairman of PW World, where he started in 1949. William C. Grant Jr., Ph.D., died November 28, 2019. He earned an A.B. (cum laude) in zoology and a Ph.D. in biology from Yale, serving in the Pacific Theater 1943-1946, and in 1971 was named chairman of the Dartmouth biology department, where he worked for 35 years. James D. Kennedy Jr., a member of Dragon Phi Gamma Delta, died February 4.
Please give serious thought to our 75th full reunion a year from this fall. At least half of our attendees at our 70th reunion were family members. Let’s do it again, wheelchairs and walkers included. Thoughts?
—John L.E. Wolff, M.D., 500 East 77th St., Apt. 1833, New York, NY 10162; (917) 975-3175; (212) 772-9933 (fax); jlewolffmd@aol.com