Class Note 1959
Issue
At our 50th reunion class meeting new officers were elected for five-year terms by unanimous vote of all classmates present. Congratulations to president Ray Becker, vice president Scott Palmer, treasurer Art Quirk, Alumni Council representative Chris Cundey and secretary Al Munroe, who will write these Class Notes from now on, a duty of his new office.
Another duty of class secretaries is writing classmates’ obituaries. Starting with our Aegis information, Dartmouth’s alumni records office keeps files so something can be available when an obituary must be published. However, in many cases the file is very thin, leaving the poor class secretary trying to locate next of kin or friends of the deceased who may have helpful information, Googling and otherwise seeking data. Sadly, it is sometimes impossible to track down anything or anyone.
Here is a suggestion: Write a letter to Michelle Brown, Alumni Records Office, 6066 Development Office, Hanover, NH 03766 telling her what you would like to see appear in your obituary someday and asking her to file it. This will be a favor to yourself, your family and some future class secretary.
An example of someone for whom no adequate obituary could be prepared is Charles B. Hotchkiss. Long after the fact, we learned that back in 1995 he died of a heart attack while fighting a grass fire at his home in Missouri Heights, Colorado. Chuck was a friend of mine during freshman year, an outdoorsman with whom I hunted that first fall and a person more mature than most of us, I thought. That year he won first place for Dartmouth in the amazing initial (and probably only) intercollegiate skydiving contest. The last time I saw Chuck was at the end of our freshman year, as he headed out West to spend the summer as a smokejumper for the U.S. Forest Service to build up his very slender bank account. Chuck did not return to Dartmouth, we know not how he spent his life and I have been unable to locate any of his friends or next of kin.
Mike Miller’s widow, Lorna Derry Miller-Meyung, wrote a nice note when she sent a check to the Dartmouth Fund in his name. “Mike enjoyed being a member of the famous rugby team that went to England. He attended Harvard Business School and found his true career in medicine after med school at the University of Virginia. Mike was a skilled orthopedic surgeon but, sadly, died in December 2004. I regret that we never attended a class reunion.”
On a happier note, Mal Halliday, Potomac, Maryland, pianist, writes that he must miss the 50th because two granddaughters are performing in concerts across Iceland that week, their first international tour, and he wants to be with them. Of course a proud grandfather is excused!
Tom Noonan’s widow, Norma, also sent greetings to all, writing that she is “sure Tom would have enjoyed the festivities of the 50th.”
—Paul A. Stein, 172 Oenoke Lane, New Canaan, CT 06840; p.stein@sbcglobal.net
Sept - Oct 2009
At our 50th reunion class meeting new officers were elected for five-year terms by unanimous vote of all classmates present. Congratulations to president Ray Becker, vice president Scott Palmer, treasurer Art Quirk, Alumni Council representative Chris Cundey and secretary Al Munroe, who will write these Class Notes from now on, a duty of his new office.
Another duty of class secretaries is writing classmates’ obituaries. Starting with our Aegis information, Dartmouth’s alumni records office keeps files so something can be available when an obituary must be published. However, in many cases the file is very thin, leaving the poor class secretary trying to locate next of kin or friends of the deceased who may have helpful information, Googling and otherwise seeking data. Sadly, it is sometimes impossible to track down anything or anyone.
Here is a suggestion: Write a letter to Michelle Brown, Alumni Records Office, 6066 Development Office, Hanover, NH 03766 telling her what you would like to see appear in your obituary someday and asking her to file it. This will be a favor to yourself, your family and some future class secretary.
An example of someone for whom no adequate obituary could be prepared is Charles B. Hotchkiss. Long after the fact, we learned that back in 1995 he died of a heart attack while fighting a grass fire at his home in Missouri Heights, Colorado. Chuck was a friend of mine during freshman year, an outdoorsman with whom I hunted that first fall and a person more mature than most of us, I thought. That year he won first place for Dartmouth in the amazing initial (and probably only) intercollegiate skydiving contest. The last time I saw Chuck was at the end of our freshman year, as he headed out West to spend the summer as a smokejumper for the U.S. Forest Service to build up his very slender bank account. Chuck did not return to Dartmouth, we know not how he spent his life and I have been unable to locate any of his friends or next of kin.
Mike Miller’s widow, Lorna Derry Miller-Meyung, wrote a nice note when she sent a check to the Dartmouth Fund in his name. “Mike enjoyed being a member of the famous rugby team that went to England. He attended Harvard Business School and found his true career in medicine after med school at the University of Virginia. Mike was a skilled orthopedic surgeon but, sadly, died in December 2004. I regret that we never attended a class reunion.”
On a happier note, Mal Halliday, Potomac, Maryland, pianist, writes that he must miss the 50th because two granddaughters are performing in concerts across Iceland that week, their first international tour, and he wants to be with them. Of course a proud grandfather is excused!
Tom Noonan’s widow, Norma, also sent greetings to all, writing that she is “sure Tom would have enjoyed the festivities of the 50th.”
—Paul A. Stein, 172 Oenoke Lane, New Canaan, CT 06840; p.stein@sbcglobal.net