John Cusick never thought he would become a Floridian, but he and Lyn sold their home in the south of France in 2010 and have now joined who knows how many others in persistently sunny climes on this side of the Atlantic. He’s living in Vero Beach, and will depart in a few months on a trip to Kyoto, delayed by last year’s tsunami.


The wound-healing center at the Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center in Ogdensburg, New York, has been renamed for Tom Patterson, a longtime pastor and healthcare advocate. An anonymous donor gave $750,000 to the center’s foundation on the condition that it be named in honor of Tom. 


The slim pickings in the inbox and mailbox have made room for two stories that require some space:


A few years ago Bill Breer, whose Foreign Service career led to a deep interest in Japan, wrote an article (with guidance from Joe Stevenson and Chik Onodera ’58) about exposing young Americans to Japan at the undergraduate level and proposed establishing at Dartmouth a Mitsui chair in Japanese studies. He already had an association with Shoei Utsuda, chairman of Mitsui & Co. Both Mitsui and the College accepted the idea, and the selection process for the first Mitsui endowed professorship in Japanese studies is under way.


Second, many of those who went to the Washington, D.C., mini saw a wonderful rendering for a proposed mural hanging on Bill’s wall, though only temporarily. It was part of Walter Beach Humphrey’s proposal for the Dartmouth Club of New York (located in the Yale Club), though apparently it was never executed. Humphrey also painted the cavorting and largely unclad Native-American women who once adorned the walls of Thayer Hall. In 1983 the College chose to cover the murals because, as the Hood Museum’s website puts it, they “gave offense.” Ironically, when the College consulted more recently with the Native Americans at Dartmouth council, its members recommended that the murals be uncovered for “educational purposes.” They found the mural offensive but chose to “face it and learn from it,” rather than censor it. The drive to uncover the murals faded, however, and nothing was ever done.


Gene Stichman, who, like Bill, lives in Washington, D.C., picks up the story: “I first saw the piece at the annual Baltimore Antique Show a few years ago. I thought it would be a great piece for the College to own, and Carol, my significant other, urged me to get it. Apparently, the College did not have any visual record of the proposed work before this. I put it up at Bill’s so our classmates could see it before I sent it off the Hanover. Classmates who want to see it should contact Bonnie MacAdam, the Hood Museum’s curator of American art (barbara. macadam@dartmouth.edu).”


I hope to hear from more of you next time around as I begin winding down my time as class secretary. I’m eager to end not with a whimper but a bang. Even an interrobang!?


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