Class Note 1959
Issue
Jul - Aug 2019
This is the next-to-the-last Class Notes column written by your current scribe. The final column, however, will recount our 60th reunion and the election, at the class meeting held during that reunion, of a new slate of officers, including a new secretary to pen these notes. So, although this is really only my penultimate column, it is the last column for which the canvas is open. What then should be chronicled? Career and other achievements; the rare classmate who still plies his trade; relocation to be near grandchildren or healthcare; the women who have become such an integral part of the fabric of a class which started all male? Been there, done that.
One au courant technique for Class Notes is modeled on columns by the co-secretaries of the class of 1990 (a son and nephew of dearly departed Scott Palmer). The technique, which has also been used by other class secretaries, is to devise a short, Dartmouth-related question, blast it out electronically to the entire class, and then base a column on the avalanche of answers. What might be a suitable question for ’59s? As this would be both my first and final occasion for using the technique, the question should be appropriately weighty, provocative, and reflective of our place in the senior wing of the alumni body.
But this is just a flight on gossamer wings. Sadly, your scribe is so electronically incompetent that he would have no idea, without inordinate assistance, how to pose a question to the entire class and then compile a column based on the responses. No matter how much I might dream of devising and asking it and some of you might wish to respond, any ’59 Class Notes question must, for the nonce, remain unasked and unanswered. But, for those of you who are intrigued by the technique, including many who would be technologically able to participate, take heart. A new scribe, who has, we hope, embraced more thoroughly the culture of the electronic era and is better able to navigate modern communication channels, will soon take office.
—Dick Hoehn, 845 Union St., Marshfield, MA 02050; (781) 834-7194; r06hoehn@gmail.com
One au courant technique for Class Notes is modeled on columns by the co-secretaries of the class of 1990 (a son and nephew of dearly departed Scott Palmer). The technique, which has also been used by other class secretaries, is to devise a short, Dartmouth-related question, blast it out electronically to the entire class, and then base a column on the avalanche of answers. What might be a suitable question for ’59s? As this would be both my first and final occasion for using the technique, the question should be appropriately weighty, provocative, and reflective of our place in the senior wing of the alumni body.
But this is just a flight on gossamer wings. Sadly, your scribe is so electronically incompetent that he would have no idea, without inordinate assistance, how to pose a question to the entire class and then compile a column based on the responses. No matter how much I might dream of devising and asking it and some of you might wish to respond, any ’59 Class Notes question must, for the nonce, remain unasked and unanswered. But, for those of you who are intrigued by the technique, including many who would be technologically able to participate, take heart. A new scribe, who has, we hope, embraced more thoroughly the culture of the electronic era and is better able to navigate modern communication channels, will soon take office.
—Dick Hoehn, 845 Union St., Marshfield, MA 02050; (781) 834-7194; r06hoehn@gmail.com