Jay Greene remembers: When “Delta Upsilon at Dartmouth pledged Ray Johnson ’59, its first African American, several Dartmouth DU alumni, supported by the national, blackballed Johnson and two white pledges (to avoid the appearance of racism). The local chapter, led by members of the class of 1957, began a struggle against the national and the blackballers that included long road trips in the dead of winter and a determination to go local if necessary. Johnson and the other pledges were finally initiated in April 1957. 


“As Tom Macy wrote in a letter to his parents in the midst of the struggle, ‘All we want is to initiate Ray as a brother because of his personal qualities as a man.’ ”


Here’s what some DU ’57s have been up to lately.


Tom Herlihy continues to practice law in Wilmington, Delaware, with an emphasis on “legal matters for the elderly and disabled.”


Praeger published Gordon Bjork’s most recent book, The Way It Worked and Why It Won’t: Structural Change and the Slowdown of U.S. Economic Growth. Last August he joined the other members of the Dartmouth String Quartet—Bob Saphir, Randy Aires and Art Manthey—“to play some of the quartets we played together 55 years ago.” 


Ted and Shirley Jennings and their 11-year-old grandson took an Elderhostel course together at Oxford, “From Narnia to Harry Potter.”


Dick and Carolyn Sunderland, who call themselves “dog people,” currently have three Norwich terriers, and Dick volunteers for an animal rescue group in Pennsylvania.


Last spring Shelly Kjellenberg celebrated the 50th anniversary of his graduation from what was then the University of Chicago’s new law school. He remembers that his wife, Missy, “had the audacity to interrupt the move to the new law school by giving birth to our first child.”


Howie and Wendie Howland house college baseball players from the Cape Cod Baseball League. Howie’s hands stay busy gardening, and then Wendie puts up tomatoes, beets and green beans. “She also makes tomato relish, quince jelly and beach plum jelly and braids onions, which we keep in our shed.”


Herb Hansen “keeps the gray cells active” by playing in a couple of recorder ensembles and singing in a church choir. 


After working in government under four Massachusetts governors and serving as dean of finance for Harvard Medical School, Pete Nessen is currently a principal in CRIC Capital, a Boston investment firm.


Kent Whittaker is “enjoying life” in retirement after 45 years of practicing law but he also says that he’s “struggling a little, as I feel I am no longer growing, learning or contributing. I haven’t found a new activity or interest to scratch the itch.”


Bob Caldwell found a way to scratch that all-too-common itch. When hereached middle age he realized he was still playing “the same old piano pieces with the same old mistakes, so I started piano lessons.” He appears in a recital once each year.


Tom and Alice Macyhave been “working almost full time” for the last six months to restructure their church’s preschool and daycare from a secular to a Christian center—raising funds, replacing staff, revising curriculum and attracting children. 


—Michael Lasser, 164 New Wickham Dr., Penfield NY 14526; mlasser@rochester.rr.com