While walking on the beach in south Florida in February I looked up and saw Rob Rosier. Bob was there vacationing with his two sons and their respective families. It was good to see Rob getting out and enjoying life again after grieving over the loss of his spouse, Linda, nearly a year ago. Another spousal loss to the class was the passing of Anne Henry, wife of John Henry, who passed away during the latter part of 2013. Both Anne and Linda had been welcoming fixtures on the class’ alumni circuit for several decades and both will be missed at future class events.


As a result of the enduring contribution to the class of 1961 throughout the years, the class officers, led by class president Denny Denniston, have decided to form a class of 1961 spouses committee to assist the class officers and class executive committee in managing the affairs of the class for the decades to come. Nyla Arslanian, wife of Oscar Arslanian and a long-time asset to the class, has been selected to chair this important committee, which as time goes on will only grow in importance to the class’ ongoing viability.


Pete Palin and John Damon, co-chairs of the class effort to increase substantially class member participation in Dartmouth’s Bartlett Tower Society, have reported that class member inclusion has increased this year. As of February 15 we had a confirmed 41 class members who have designated Dartmouth College in their wills. Several more class members have agreed recently to revise their wills to include Dartmouth as a beneficiary—small or large, by specific bequest or as percentage remainderment, with or without restrictions, with or without specific use designations. Pete and Tom aren’t through yet, as they will be approaching all classmates personally in due course. Please make their job easier; contact them before they contact you.


Mike Kirst has been doing a great job as the current president of the California State Board of Education. He had been tasked with the enormously difficult objectives of developing (completed), garnering acceptance by the governor of California and his administration (completed) and now trying to shepherd highly complex school-funding allocations throughout the state in an equitable and fair manner. If you think that this is easy, just try defining such terms as “equitable” and “fair” and then the need to win over various political factions. In addition, Mike and the board must also develop or adopt a plan to measure each school district’s performance after being granted additional funds. I was in California in February and visited Mike one afternoon at Stanford University, where he is a highly respected professor emeritus. I asked Mike why, when most members of our class were retired or coasting in that direction, he took on this difficult and highly stressful task. His response was that both he and Gov. Brown thought that they could make a positive contribution to the long-term quality and fairness of public education in California. Mike, best of luck!


—Victor S. Rich, 5 Red Ground Road, Old Westbury, NY 11568; victor.rich@rsmi.com