“A Legacy of Leadership” is an appropriate, effective and warranted theme, announce our reunion leaders Bill Gundy and Dick Chase for the 55th. Alert! The dates in the last DAM issue for the 55th reunion were totally wrong. They are actually June 15-18, 2015. Please recall that Messrs. Hopkins and Dickey established reunions as part of their “strength of class” initiatives. So regardless of your concern for or your fondness of the current College’s “status,” your class wants you to flock back to Hanover to renew and make friendships while there remain 650 of us (more or less) to scour. For your edification, these data as of February from Dick Strehle, “According to data obtained from the College archives there were as follows: admissions, 809; graduates, 700. So, with 159 deceased members, one arrives at a figure of 22.7 percent, i.e., almost one-quarter of our class gone. I confess that I find this figure startlingly high. (Is the ‘class’ half full or is it half empty? At least we are here.) I do not know if all of the 159 deceased members on the list actually graduated, but I assume almost all did. Of course, subtracting those on the deceased list who did not actually graduate eventually would reduce the percentage of deceased somewhat, but I doubt significantly.” Plan to be there!


The alumni office advises that Oliver Hayward and Burt Glazof have died. You may have notice of some others, but this column heeds only official alumni death notices in the hope of not making rash announcements.


Pres. Hasenkamp brings notice to left-coast dwellers and visitors that the city arts and lectures programs at the Nourse Theater on Hayes Street, San Francisco, feature some heavy-duty presentations of interest in conversations with Roy Eisenhardt when earthquakes are quiescent. He booked Sen. Olympia Snowe and former U.S. Cabinet member Janet Napolitano so far this year. 


This column wagers you have not perused Gnosticism, Platonism and the Late Ancient World: Essays in Honour of John D. Turner, a Festschrift (anthology?) of essays for Professor Turner of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. These works about the Classical Era are cornerstones of Western thought and those of us who endured Royal C. Nemiah’s classics courses are aware of some of this thinking stored in our mental filing cabinets, to be resuscitated when engaged in heated political discussions. In essence, history and philosophy don’t step from one era to another. They wander down a twisted path as described by history professor Barzun at Columbia. 


Your correspondent got to musing with his sixth-grade granddaughter when she asked, “When would you want to have lived if you could pick an era?” “Well, I said, I’m not Miniver Cheevy so I say right now.”


“Why?” she said. “Because," I replied, "during my 75 years I’ve seen a man go to the moon, polio and smallpox prevented, pictures come to a box in my living room and you.” “Who is Miniver Cheevy?” she asked. 


—John Mitchell, 300 Grove St., #14, Rutland, VT 05701; jmm000@comcast.net