Class Note 1958

This column, written in late August, will appear in the November/December DAM. By then, our fall mini-reunion of October 11-13 will be history. This year, thanks to the efforts of Frank Gould, the venue was shifted from the upriver Lyme Inn to the closer, more accessible Courtyard by Marriott near the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. Presumably that produced more attendees when John Trimble called the annual class meeting to order on Saturday and when the Dartmouth Marching Band serenaded sandwich munchers at Dave Bradley’s nearby tailgate party on their way to the Yale football game at Memorial Stadium.

Among communiques from folks we don’t hear from very often is a thank-you note from Mary Ann Whitehead, widow of Arch Whitehead, for the Sound & Fury’s coverage of the latest bestselling novel, The Nickel Boys, from their son, Colson Whitehead. You may recall his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Underground Railroad. Says Mary Ann: “Thanks for your write-up on Colson’s new book and his picture on the cover of Time magazine. I am very proud, and Arch would be also. Keep up the good work on your Class Notes. I am still doing class notes for my 1959 Smith College class.” Colson’s book will be reviewed in the next issue of the S&F. It’s a harrowing but un-hyped read, based on a true Florida Panhandle story.

Charlie Pierce weighs in from Florida to ask if the S&F might be interested in a book review. The title: The Uninhabitable Earth; Life after Warming by David Wallace-Wells. “It is the most terrifying book I have ever read,” says Charlie. Our reply: Please do. Also from Florida, Key West foreign service retiree Steve Dawkins notes that he was commissioned as a Marine second lieutenant with the Navy ROTC crowd in June 1958.

Mail from Larry Scoville, Jim Riffle, and Jack Stromberg will have to hold for the next S&F, since we must also pause to note three recent classmate deaths. Ray Hilsinger, M.D., of Orinda, California, died following a fall on July 4. Phil Drescher, a Ventura, California, attorney with an army of friends, died of a stroke on July 15. Bob Nathanson of Westborough, Massachusetts, died on July 23.

—Steve Quickel, 411 North Middletown Road, Apt. F-310, Media, PA 19063; steve58@quickel.net