Class Note 1973
Issue
January-February 2024
Happy New Year!
Reunion Recap, Part 3: Saturday’s breakfast was in the Class of 1953 Commons (formerly Thayer Dining), with a special gathering for women, including Mary Allen Stifler, Valerie Armento, Donna Bascom, Jeanne Clinton and April Hopkins, Sue Gordon, Nancy Brown Hughes, Cindy Saranec Livermore, Donna Ferretti Tihalas, Karen Fagin White, Anne Derry Whidden, and Pat Cruff Buerger ’72. Guest and executive producer Kathy Duff Rines ’71 spoke about the film Early Daughters of Dartmouth: Blazing the Trail to Coeducation, 1969 to 1972.
Mid-morning Bob Conway led the memorial service at the White Church, reading aloud the names of 125 departed; the earliest, William Bond, who died spring 1970, to the most recent, Ed Sandifer in August 2023. (Later, news arrived of the deaths of Barry Jones in 2017, Bob Kerwin in 2021, and Mickey Yurkevicz in June.) Numerous classmates related anecdotes about the deceased. I received this post-reunion note from Cap’n Steve Quigs: “Unable to attend the memoriam of shipmates who have passed, but would have put in a word for our late-adopted professor William E. Slesnick, who, with the blessings of President John Kemeny, and in short company at that, bypassed the need for a Ph.D. If you didn’t know Bill, you could certainly be assured that he knew you. Voted the highest level of a Boy Scout (Silver Buffalo), he had an incredible mind, memory, and mathematical intuition. Some of us knew him as the conduit to a Rhodes scholarship (having served as an on-campus interviewer for umpteen years), while others of us knew him as a kind, 24/7 available mentor. His sudden and unexpected death (in his sleep) after a long illness was a shock to all on campus and alumni. He surely rests in peace.” Reminder that obituaries are at https://dartmouthalumnimagazine.com/obits.
Intermittent rain did not deter the majority from the trek to dedicate our class gift, “The Rise,” a quiet wooded spot for contemplation at the highest point on campus, just above the Bema and adjacent to Bartlett Tower and the Robert Frost statue, close to which the class of 1961 has added a bench wall. On-site project overseer Bob Haynes is owed many thanks. For a narrated, dry view, check out the class website, https://1973.dartmouth.org.
A luncheon with outgoing President Phil Hanlon ’77 and trustees followed. Our reunion monetary alumni fund donation was presented by class president Rick Routhier with George Wolohojian holding aloft an oversized check for $3,137,075 (final figure $3,202,497), reflecting 48.3-percent participation. Much credit goes to head agents George, Dave Bracken, Jim Fleisher, Allen Kraus, Sam Livermore, and Donna Ferretti Tihalas. Also on stage were reunion agents Don Fowls and Bob Conway as well as leadership giving team members Wayne Davis, Digger Donohue, and Steve Kessner. We received the Dartmouth College Fund Class of 1948 Award for the highest reunion dollar multiple, fittingly 7.3. Throughout the Call to Lead campaign the members of the class have donated an impressive $61 million. Lunch concluded with Mike DeVries leading all in singing the alma mater.
—Val Armento, 227 Sylvan Ave., San Mateo, CA 94403; valerie.j.armento.73@dartmouth.edu
Reunion Recap, Part 3: Saturday’s breakfast was in the Class of 1953 Commons (formerly Thayer Dining), with a special gathering for women, including Mary Allen Stifler, Valerie Armento, Donna Bascom, Jeanne Clinton and April Hopkins, Sue Gordon, Nancy Brown Hughes, Cindy Saranec Livermore, Donna Ferretti Tihalas, Karen Fagin White, Anne Derry Whidden, and Pat Cruff Buerger ’72. Guest and executive producer Kathy Duff Rines ’71 spoke about the film Early Daughters of Dartmouth: Blazing the Trail to Coeducation, 1969 to 1972.
Mid-morning Bob Conway led the memorial service at the White Church, reading aloud the names of 125 departed; the earliest, William Bond, who died spring 1970, to the most recent, Ed Sandifer in August 2023. (Later, news arrived of the deaths of Barry Jones in 2017, Bob Kerwin in 2021, and Mickey Yurkevicz in June.) Numerous classmates related anecdotes about the deceased. I received this post-reunion note from Cap’n Steve Quigs: “Unable to attend the memoriam of shipmates who have passed, but would have put in a word for our late-adopted professor William E. Slesnick, who, with the blessings of President John Kemeny, and in short company at that, bypassed the need for a Ph.D. If you didn’t know Bill, you could certainly be assured that he knew you. Voted the highest level of a Boy Scout (Silver Buffalo), he had an incredible mind, memory, and mathematical intuition. Some of us knew him as the conduit to a Rhodes scholarship (having served as an on-campus interviewer for umpteen years), while others of us knew him as a kind, 24/7 available mentor. His sudden and unexpected death (in his sleep) after a long illness was a shock to all on campus and alumni. He surely rests in peace.” Reminder that obituaries are at https://dartmouthalumnimagazine.com/obits.
Intermittent rain did not deter the majority from the trek to dedicate our class gift, “The Rise,” a quiet wooded spot for contemplation at the highest point on campus, just above the Bema and adjacent to Bartlett Tower and the Robert Frost statue, close to which the class of 1961 has added a bench wall. On-site project overseer Bob Haynes is owed many thanks. For a narrated, dry view, check out the class website, https://1973.dartmouth.org.
A luncheon with outgoing President Phil Hanlon ’77 and trustees followed. Our reunion monetary alumni fund donation was presented by class president Rick Routhier with George Wolohojian holding aloft an oversized check for $3,137,075 (final figure $3,202,497), reflecting 48.3-percent participation. Much credit goes to head agents George, Dave Bracken, Jim Fleisher, Allen Kraus, Sam Livermore, and Donna Ferretti Tihalas. Also on stage were reunion agents Don Fowls and Bob Conway as well as leadership giving team members Wayne Davis, Digger Donohue, and Steve Kessner. We received the Dartmouth College Fund Class of 1948 Award for the highest reunion dollar multiple, fittingly 7.3. Throughout the Call to Lead campaign the members of the class have donated an impressive $61 million. Lunch concluded with Mike DeVries leading all in singing the alma mater.
—Val Armento, 227 Sylvan Ave., San Mateo, CA 94403; valerie.j.armento.73@dartmouth.edu