Class Note 1972
Issue
Hail, noble ’72s, far and wide!
Normally I would be composing our column amid the gleeful chirping of birds, the blooming of apple and cherry trees around campus, and I would regale you with tantalizing visions of newly green grass caressed by the warm winds of spring here in Hanover. But gentlemen, it is snowing—on April 28—and at a rather impressive clip. A curse is upon us!
Following my esteemed co-scribe John Rockwell’s wonderful spring newsletter, which will have long preceded this issue of DAM, my mailbag and in box have been remarkably devoid of correspondence of late (hint, gentlemen, hint!). I have, however, managed to scrounge up a couple tidbits of news about our brethren.
On April 26 our revered head agent, Shel Prentice, left Merchant’s Bank to become the senior vice president, general counsel and secretary of NBT Bank in Norwich, New York. NBT has been in operation since 1856 and is now a $6 billion bank-holding company with branches in Pennsylvania operating under Penn Star, branches in New York state as NBT and now a branch in Burlington, Vermont. Shel is renting a house in Norwich and comes back to Montpelier, Vermont, every other weekend, and will perhaps work one week a month in Burlington at NBT’s new branch. As the 60-year mark approaches for all of us and with it contemplation of retirement however elusive in today’s economy, Shel shared with me, “I wasn’t ready to sit on the front porch and read all day, at least not full time. I would like to do that more than I have. Interesting, the balance is elusive.” Indeed it is.
From the world of publishing word has reached me that Robert Morison has just come out with a new book called Analytics at Work: Smarter Decisions, Better Results, published by Harvard Business Press. Building off of their bestselling Competing on Analytics—the book that introduced the idea of using analytics for a competitive edge—Robert and his colleagues Thomas Davenport and Jeanne Harris describe how companies are competing and thriving through analytics in a tough global economy that won’t tolerate intuition and chance. They argue that at a time when organizations are craving security in very unsecure times, data and analytics will provide them with the strong foundation and confidence they need to excel and make smarter decisions—with minimized risk. Sounds like a worthwhile and instructive read in these challenging times.
That’s it for news, guys. I need you to bombard me with the triumphs, tribulations, even trivia of your lives to share with our far-flung brethren. Put differently, do yourselves a huge favor and don’t force me to resort to dusting off my treatise on the effect of global warming as it relates to the growth of marine algae on the pontoons of our class safety boat while moored in the river.
I close with the sincere hope that you and yours are all well. Happy summer!
Yours always in green.
—Lauren “Duff” Cummings, P.O. Box 580, Hanover, NH 03755-0580; lauren.cummings@dartmouth.edu
July - Aug 2010
Hail, noble ’72s, far and wide!
Normally I would be composing our column amid the gleeful chirping of birds, the blooming of apple and cherry trees around campus, and I would regale you with tantalizing visions of newly green grass caressed by the warm winds of spring here in Hanover. But gentlemen, it is snowing—on April 28—and at a rather impressive clip. A curse is upon us!
Following my esteemed co-scribe John Rockwell’s wonderful spring newsletter, which will have long preceded this issue of DAM, my mailbag and in box have been remarkably devoid of correspondence of late (hint, gentlemen, hint!). I have, however, managed to scrounge up a couple tidbits of news about our brethren.
On April 26 our revered head agent, Shel Prentice, left Merchant’s Bank to become the senior vice president, general counsel and secretary of NBT Bank in Norwich, New York. NBT has been in operation since 1856 and is now a $6 billion bank-holding company with branches in Pennsylvania operating under Penn Star, branches in New York state as NBT and now a branch in Burlington, Vermont. Shel is renting a house in Norwich and comes back to Montpelier, Vermont, every other weekend, and will perhaps work one week a month in Burlington at NBT’s new branch. As the 60-year mark approaches for all of us and with it contemplation of retirement however elusive in today’s economy, Shel shared with me, “I wasn’t ready to sit on the front porch and read all day, at least not full time. I would like to do that more than I have. Interesting, the balance is elusive.” Indeed it is.
From the world of publishing word has reached me that Robert Morison has just come out with a new book called Analytics at Work: Smarter Decisions, Better Results, published by Harvard Business Press. Building off of their bestselling Competing on Analytics—the book that introduced the idea of using analytics for a competitive edge—Robert and his colleagues Thomas Davenport and Jeanne Harris describe how companies are competing and thriving through analytics in a tough global economy that won’t tolerate intuition and chance. They argue that at a time when organizations are craving security in very unsecure times, data and analytics will provide them with the strong foundation and confidence they need to excel and make smarter decisions—with minimized risk. Sounds like a worthwhile and instructive read in these challenging times.
That’s it for news, guys. I need you to bombard me with the triumphs, tribulations, even trivia of your lives to share with our far-flung brethren. Put differently, do yourselves a huge favor and don’t force me to resort to dusting off my treatise on the effect of global warming as it relates to the growth of marine algae on the pontoons of our class safety boat while moored in the river.
I close with the sincere hope that you and yours are all well. Happy summer!
Yours always in green.
—Lauren “Duff” Cummings, P.O. Box 580, Hanover, NH 03755-0580; lauren.cummings@dartmouth.edu