Class Note 1945
Issue
January-February 2023
I am writing as the class of 2026 is building the bonfire on the Green for tonight’s start to Homecoming Weekend. There is a deep frost on the lawn as the glorious fall ends. The autumn colors were as dramatic as they have been in many years. You are reading this column as we prepare for the holidays, and I hope there is now snow on the Green!
My apologies for no Class Notes in the last issue of the magazine. My husband, Jim, and I were hiking and biking in the Italian Dolomites during the submission deadline and I failed to send them before we left. As we hiked through trenches lined with stones and caves built during World War I, I was reminded of the 119 Dartmouth men, from 23 classes, who fought in the 10th Mountain Division in World War II further south in the Apennines. Those mountain men included classmates Robert Allen, George Barr, Stuart Chalfant, Fred Chamberlin, Don Cutter, Elbridge Davis, George French, John Jennings, Arvis Johnson, Andrew Marks, and John Watkins. Again, I was awed by how different the Dartmouth experience was for all of you, and yet how much was the same as it is today.
I am sad to share that Harry Bradford Bissell Jr. passed away in August. After growing up in Manchester, Connecticut, Harry came to Dartmouth from Bordentown Military Academy in New Jersey. He joined the Army shortly after arriving in Hanover and served in Germany in counterintelligence at the end of the war. Harry returned to Hanover to graduate from Tuck in 1948, along with my dad. He derived immense joy from his career in the restaurant business. A notable and charismatic community leader, Harry lived an active life in Delaware, Florida, and Blue Hill, Maine, one of his favorite places, where he lived for four months each summer. Harry never turned down an invitation to play golf and never ate a meal he did not love. I share our heartfelt condolences with his wife, Marie, his three daughters, and his five grandchildren. To all ’45s, may the joys of the holiday season be yours.
—Martha Johnson Beattie ’76, 6 North Balch St., Hanover, NH 03755; (603) 667-7611; mbeattie76@gmail.com
My apologies for no Class Notes in the last issue of the magazine. My husband, Jim, and I were hiking and biking in the Italian Dolomites during the submission deadline and I failed to send them before we left. As we hiked through trenches lined with stones and caves built during World War I, I was reminded of the 119 Dartmouth men, from 23 classes, who fought in the 10th Mountain Division in World War II further south in the Apennines. Those mountain men included classmates Robert Allen, George Barr, Stuart Chalfant, Fred Chamberlin, Don Cutter, Elbridge Davis, George French, John Jennings, Arvis Johnson, Andrew Marks, and John Watkins. Again, I was awed by how different the Dartmouth experience was for all of you, and yet how much was the same as it is today.
I am sad to share that Harry Bradford Bissell Jr. passed away in August. After growing up in Manchester, Connecticut, Harry came to Dartmouth from Bordentown Military Academy in New Jersey. He joined the Army shortly after arriving in Hanover and served in Germany in counterintelligence at the end of the war. Harry returned to Hanover to graduate from Tuck in 1948, along with my dad. He derived immense joy from his career in the restaurant business. A notable and charismatic community leader, Harry lived an active life in Delaware, Florida, and Blue Hill, Maine, one of his favorite places, where he lived for four months each summer. Harry never turned down an invitation to play golf and never ate a meal he did not love. I share our heartfelt condolences with his wife, Marie, his three daughters, and his five grandchildren. To all ’45s, may the joys of the holiday season be yours.
—Martha Johnson Beattie ’76, 6 North Balch St., Hanover, NH 03755; (603) 667-7611; mbeattie76@gmail.com