Green blazers stood out at the memorial service for Sam Roberts last June as classmates and wives joined a throng of 400-plus. Attending were Buck Scott and Mary, Barry Spiegel and Elsa, Paul Staley, Sam Sparhawk, Loye Miller, Jack Giegerich and Carol, Dave Batchelder and Schatzi. For more lengthy obituaries of Sam and also Ed Lathem go to our Web page: alum.dartmouth.org/classes/51. Russ Dilks died in January 2008 and left a request that his ashes be scattered at an appropriate place at Dartmouth. That was done on June 10 by classmates Mike Choukas, Henry Nachman and Loye Miller and Angus Russell ’52. Look for more of this event in ’51 Fables. Here are two summer of 1949 stories that came too late to be in the last issue of DAM. George Biggs remembers fondly the chance opportunity to sit next to the Australian concert pianist Leonard Hungerford as he played nearly all of Beethoven’s sonatas. That convinced him to major in music, to teach college music for 29 years and to be still composing and performing. On a lighter note, Don Cox opportunistically got a chance to travel around Europe on the back of a Harley tricycle motorbike, replacing his brother’s friend who was injured a few days before the trip was to start. A passport was miraculously obtained by Don’s aunt’s friend in the State Department. Moving right along…it’s September 1949 and as juniors we get good seats in Webster for Convocation. Presiding is President John Sloan Dickey, who had a lot to say that day, none of which I remember, except these closing lines: “First, you are citizens of a community and expected to act as such. Second, you are the stuff of the institution and what you are it will be. Thirdly, your business here is learning and that is up to you. We’ll be with you all the way and good luck.” The Barbary Coast Band announced its gigs for the school year and noted that several band members, including Paul Simel, worked in French nightclubs during the summer.


—Peirce McKee, 239 Village Gate, Orinda, CA 94563; peirce.mckee@rbc.com