It’s 6 p.m. on Father’s Day and John and I have just finished talking about what we want to say in this, our last Class Notes column. We are waxing nostalgic about our dads, thinking about how much we miss them, when we learn that these men we loved, admired, and respected died in our arms, mine just a month before our fifth reunion at the age of 58. The memory of how proud he looked when we arrived on campus freshman fall is still strong in me, like the granite of New Hampshire that was made part of us ’til death. Equally strong is the gratitude John and I feel at having been given the opportunity to serve as class secretaries. Thank you for allowing us to share your news and tell your stories—it has been an honor and a privilege.

We are thrilled to be passing the torch to Janie Simms Hamner, a loyal daughter of Dartmouth, starting with the November/December issue of DAM. But before we do, I thought I would take a few paragraphs to reflect on my many years in this role, the most rewarding of them being the last five working alongside my brother from another mother, John “Juan” Currier. I could not have asked for a better wing man.

It occurs to me that “Building Bridges,” the welcoming 40th reunion theme coined by Dawn Hudson and Otho Kerr, our can-do co-chairs, aptly describes the job John and I have been doing during our tenures as class secretaries. We have derived immense satisfaction from connecting with a broad and diverse spectrum of classmates, particularly those who, for any number of good reasons, have been reluctant to respond to class outreaches in the past. With 54 columns and more than 2,500 birthday greetings in the rearview mirror, we hope our message of inclusivity has come through loud and clear: “We are grateful for you” (thank you, Gemma Lockhart!); you all matter.

Since penning my first column nearly a decade ago, I have written about 142 of you (including nine guest columns) and mentioned 113 others, chronicling your families, careers, activities, successes, and tribulations. You are educators, authors, surgeons, politicians, philanthropists, social workers, artists, engineers, entrepreneurs, scientists, and so much more. Sadly, we have also mourned the passing of 22 of our 52 deceased classmates, the most recent being the death of Doug Egan on May 14. John and I have always regarded you as an exceptionally talented, kind, caring, and supportive collection of individuals; what we couldn’t have fully appreciated without meeting you or reconnecting with you through our class secretary efforts, however, is the incredible breadth and depth of your humanity. You are a remarkable group!

We want to thank Dawn, Otho, and the 50-plus members of their 40th reunion committee for their hard work during the past year and commend them for successfully pivoting to a series of joyful virtual reunions following the postponement of our eagerly anticipated physical reunion. Despite our shared disappointment, there is much to look forward to when we return to Dartmouth next June or July, including lots of 60-something-year-old dancing to classic 1975-1979 tunes culled from your responses to the music committee’s online “Battle of the Bands” contests.

Finally, to the more than 600 classmates whose names have yet to appear in this column, we want to hear from you! Please send news to jshandkids@aol.com and help Janie hit the ground running.

Refresh, enjoy, and travel on, good people.

—Stanley Weil, 15 Peck Road, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549; (917) 428-0852; stanno79@gmail.com; John Currier, 82 Carpenter St., Norwich, VT 05055; (802) 649-2577; john.h.currier@dartmouth.edu