You realize that you’ve reached a new pinnacle in the life when a submission (actually a missed submission) to DAM is acknowledged as follows from class gadfly Frank Gado: “Your November-December Class Notes piece in DAM is your best-written yet.” On a higher note, we received these greetings from expat Larry Hampton that outlive the season: “We are thinking of you this Christmas and sending you all our warmest and best wishes for happiness, good health, and prosperity in the coming year. In a time of great uncertainty, a most important constant is our friends, and we treasure ours—even if we see many of you less often than we would like.”

Sadly, we continue to collect word of classmate deaths. Letters of condolence have been written to widows of the following: Gene Laff, Gerry Polin, Joel Farrell, Ole Sundeen, George Hammel, Ted Striker, Dick Schaedle, and Chuck Bradford.Sadly, as this was going to press, we learned from Dick Shanahan that Dave Dingman had died. They were the subject of a picture that was published in the late fall edition of the Sound & Fury. Sam Smith reports that he is as current as possible in informing classmate survivors of the book titles purchased by the library in their loved ones’ memories. We continue to hunger for news other than classmate deaths to share with the class and DAM readers. I have spoken with Hal Bernsen who, by the time this is read, will have moved from Virginia Beach, Virginia, to a life care community in Pittsboro, North Carolina, near Chapel Hill. I have also spoken with Walter Vail, who tells me such a move is the furthest thing from his and Scottie’s minds! Two sides of a coin, but as someone who has recently joined the former camp, I am biased! The head agent team of Abraham, Alperin,Bernsen, Bennett, and Vail has made an impressive start to the Dartmouth College Fund annual campaign and thanks to all those agents who have agreed to propel us toward meeting our goals.

—John Trimble, 2735 Golfside Court, Naples, FL 34110; jtrim99@comcast.net