Our class has done it! After many years of perseverance, requesting contributions, pleading for more contributions, begging and cajoling, the class of 1961 has achieved its goal of having more than $1 million in the Dartmouth Legacy Fund as of May 31. This is after having subsidized more than 45 different major performing arts events at the Hopkins Center during the past decade, including modern jazz, ballet, modern dance, comedy, folk music, soul, all from the ranks of the greatest performing artists in the United States. Along with the Frost statue, this has become our living tangible legacy to Dartmouth College and its students, faculty, administration, alumni and guests. Well done, gentlemen of the class of ’61! Thank you Oscar Arslanian, David Birney, Mike Murphy and our other classmates who contributed their time, efforts and monetary support to these two fine projects.
We have found the missing fifth person who is to receive the Tanzi License Plate Plaque. Oscar Arslanianhad the complete list, which is as follows from July 1 to June 30 of each year: 2011-12, John Henry; 2012-13, Bob Naegele; 2013-14, John King; 2014-15, Vic Rich; 2015-16, Gerry Kaminsky. This is now the official revised listing.
John King, Dick Barr and Hop Holmberg recently completed the 50th reunion of their graduate class in hospital administration from the university of Minnesota. John and wife Jane celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last year. According to John, that was the last of his 50th reunions and other 50th celebrations.
After 50 years (at least it has felt like 50 years), it bears mention that Hank Gerfen has been the perennial secretary of the Tuck School class of 1962. Gerf has had and continues to sport a big walrus mustache and a modest beard. He has resided in Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin, apparently forever. Hank and his wife, Maggie, recently became addicted to big ship cruising, which requires no continuous packing and unpacking but does generate a lot of pool and eating time.
In past DAM articles I have mentioned Dartmouth’s inherent connection to the development and growth of skiing and the ski industry in the United States. As part of those comments, I mentioned the key role that Art Kelton played in that development during the period from the 1960s forward, especially as it related to the development of the ski slopes, housing and commerce at Vail, Colorado, and the surrounding ski areas. Not to be outdone, Art’s wife, Elaine Kelton, and another woman have just written and had published a full-length book titled Women of Vail: Those Who Walked This Bridge—1962-1970. This unusual non-fiction book consists of the actual stories told in interviews by the women (including Elaine), mostly college educated, who left the lives they knew and moved to Vail during the late 1950s and early 1960s, when Vail was not much more than a frontier town and before it was on any map. These memories and stories bring to life the realities that these women lived and the legacy that is their Vail today.
—Victor S. Rich, 5 Red Ground Road, Old Westbury, NY 11568; victor.rich@rsmi.com
