Class Note 1973
Issue
January-February 2021
The year 2021 has got to be a better one!
Tyrone Byrd was instrumental in organizing the Dartmouth Club of Houston’s June event, “A Conversation About Race.” Rick Routhier reported, “We listened in last night on the conference T-Byrd organized. It was amazing. The district attorney [D.A.] from Houston awed me with her insight and passion (and with the approach she’s taking). The former police chief was so insightful about reform, as was the D.A.’s former chief of staff. Lots of ’73s zoomed in, including me, Bob Haynes, Allan Kraus, George Wolohojian, and Dick Berlin. T-Byrd deserves a lot of credit. It was as good a panel and as good a discussion as you could have.” Bob added, “Straight from the heart and very informative.”
Executive vice president of collections and chief curator at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum Jan Seidler Ramirez reported this past September: “The 19th anniversary memorial gathering downtown was emotional yet weird, with all the masks and temperature checks and social-distancing reminders. Let us pray that this long pause is sputtering out with no one to lament its unwelcome arrival or deadly stay.”
Most of us will never participate in a Texas public lands alligator hunt as did Richard Merrill. After 13 years of applying through a lottery system, Richard and Mike Bromley ’66 secured one of 12 spots to go “fishing” for gators at Mad Island Wildlife Management Area along the Texas Coast, about 100 miles southeast of Houston. “The setup includes some very stinky chicken as bait on a large hook. We chose the spots where we set up our bait rigs in an alligator-infested ‘lake’ known as ‘Big Muddy.’ We used my shotgun to dispatch the gators, but you have to shoot them behind the skull, severing the spinal cord, and that is not an easy task when in a canoe because you have to get the gator in just the right spot to make the shot. Neither of us wanted to shoot the canoe or each other or capsize the canoe.
“Mike’s gator was jaw hooked, which made for a very challenging fight; it was able to thrash around quite a bit, which made it hard for me to pull in the 50 feet of 380-pound rope attached to the leader and hook and get it positioned for Mike to make the shot. It’s hard to beat the excitement and adrenaline rush of bringing the gator, the apex predator in this area, to the canoe by hand, all while trying to make sure we don’t capsize. I’ve got 20 pounds of tasty tail meat, a skull to set on a table or bookshelf, and the belly skin will eventually make it to a tannery, where it will come out as a nice grayish olive-colored leather. Haven’t decided what to make with the leather.”
Alumni relations encourages all alumni to post jobs or internships for the class of 2020. Here are the links: Dartboard, https://sites.dartmouth.edu/cpd/post-job-or-internship; Linked-In group, www.linkedin.com/groups/8933560.
Please update your contact information at www.dartgo.org/update.
—Val Armento, 227 Sylvan Ave., San Mateo, CA 94403; valerie.j.armento.73@dartmouth.edu
Tyrone Byrd was instrumental in organizing the Dartmouth Club of Houston’s June event, “A Conversation About Race.” Rick Routhier reported, “We listened in last night on the conference T-Byrd organized. It was amazing. The district attorney [D.A.] from Houston awed me with her insight and passion (and with the approach she’s taking). The former police chief was so insightful about reform, as was the D.A.’s former chief of staff. Lots of ’73s zoomed in, including me, Bob Haynes, Allan Kraus, George Wolohojian, and Dick Berlin. T-Byrd deserves a lot of credit. It was as good a panel and as good a discussion as you could have.” Bob added, “Straight from the heart and very informative.”
Executive vice president of collections and chief curator at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum Jan Seidler Ramirez reported this past September: “The 19th anniversary memorial gathering downtown was emotional yet weird, with all the masks and temperature checks and social-distancing reminders. Let us pray that this long pause is sputtering out with no one to lament its unwelcome arrival or deadly stay.”
Most of us will never participate in a Texas public lands alligator hunt as did Richard Merrill. After 13 years of applying through a lottery system, Richard and Mike Bromley ’66 secured one of 12 spots to go “fishing” for gators at Mad Island Wildlife Management Area along the Texas Coast, about 100 miles southeast of Houston. “The setup includes some very stinky chicken as bait on a large hook. We chose the spots where we set up our bait rigs in an alligator-infested ‘lake’ known as ‘Big Muddy.’ We used my shotgun to dispatch the gators, but you have to shoot them behind the skull, severing the spinal cord, and that is not an easy task when in a canoe because you have to get the gator in just the right spot to make the shot. Neither of us wanted to shoot the canoe or each other or capsize the canoe.
“Mike’s gator was jaw hooked, which made for a very challenging fight; it was able to thrash around quite a bit, which made it hard for me to pull in the 50 feet of 380-pound rope attached to the leader and hook and get it positioned for Mike to make the shot. It’s hard to beat the excitement and adrenaline rush of bringing the gator, the apex predator in this area, to the canoe by hand, all while trying to make sure we don’t capsize. I’ve got 20 pounds of tasty tail meat, a skull to set on a table or bookshelf, and the belly skin will eventually make it to a tannery, where it will come out as a nice grayish olive-colored leather. Haven’t decided what to make with the leather.”
Alumni relations encourages all alumni to post jobs or internships for the class of 2020. Here are the links: Dartboard, https://sites.dartmouth.edu/cpd/post-job-or-internship; Linked-In group, www.linkedin.com/groups/8933560.
Please update your contact information at www.dartgo.org/update.
—Val Armento, 227 Sylvan Ave., San Mateo, CA 94403; valerie.j.armento.73@dartmouth.edu