Arthur “Jerry” Wensinger brought me up to date on what he’s now doing with some precedent history. Jerry joined the class in 1944 from Grosse Pointe, Michigan, by way of Phillips Andover. At Dartmouth he majored in biology and German and then earned a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in German literature. Upon graduation he went with the “experiment” in Putney, Vermont, to help rebuild a bombed-out student dorm in Munich, Germany. He then was awarded one of the first two James B. Reynolds scholarships from Dartmouth and studied German literature in Munich and, as a Fulbright scholar, studied German literature and linguistics at the University of Innsbruck in Austria from 1953 to 1954. He then joined Wesleyan University as an instructor and eventually full professor of German and the humanities. There he helped initiate a three-year college-of-letters program covering literature, history and philosophy that is ongoing today. He never left Wesleyan, “because there was no place else I’d rather be,” until he retired in 1994. He has translated and edited some 20-odd books and is currently co-editing the fourth of 16 volumes of the correspondence of Scottish author Norman Douglas. Jerry is also restoring an early-18th-century “English” barn on his 100-acre property as home for his Candlewood Farm Arts Foundation, where solo and small-group classical music are to be performed and where, in a new library on the grounds, aspiring students of local Connecticut Valley architecture can apply for grants for independent research.


Dick Dahl recounts life in the 1940s. He passed the Navy’s test for V-12 officer training and arrived at Dartmouth March 1, 1946. With some 2,100 students, including enlisted men from the Navy and Marines, Dartmouth had the largest V-12 unit in the country. Academic work was normal, but without course selection. Sports were encouraged, but there were no fraternities, no drinking and no women. On the military side, loud speakers started the day at 6 a.m. with formations and calisthenics. All activities were in uniform and there were major parades on center campus for the Navy brass with President Hopkins often attending.


—Dave Kurr, 4281 Indian Field Road, Clinton, NY 13323; (315) 853-3582; djkurr@verizon.net