Class Note 1965
Issue
When we returned after the holidays 50 years ago our thoughts quickly turned to Winter Carnival, in which our class played a major role. Pete Baumbusch, as director of the Winter Carnival statue program, arranged fireworks and a skating rink on the Green. Dick Durrance was skimeister for the Carnival ski meet for the second straight year. Chip Hayes scored his second hat-trick in two games in a 7-1 victory over Harvard for an Ivy Championship hockey team that also featured Phil Cagnoni and Chuck Zeh. I recently had an occasion to talk with Bev and John Rogers, with whom I shared that weekend. John has stepped away from corporate finance, started writing fiction and begun playing guitar professionally. I asked him to update us on what he’s been doing. The question, John said, is not usually about “my career move from corporate finance to music and writing. That was a kind way to put it. The question usually comes out as, ‘So, what are you doing with yourself these days?’ It’s usually accompanied by a quick visual inventory to ascertain which body parts are not working. “The question put me on the spot for a year, unwilling as I was to say flatly, ‘I’m retired.’ Maybe the word has too many associations with pulling the troops back from battle or separating myself from the 40 years of finance and business that used to define me. And, too, for many years the answer I gave to ‘what are you doing’ meant building a family—house payments, tuition and so on. Making money. Not what one associates with creative enterprise (my last music gig netted 90 bucks and a calzone). “After some conceptual peregrination I can answer, ‘I’m a writer.’ In retrospect Noel Perrin started the process. Looking at my first ‘English 1’ essay, he said more or less hopefully, ‘Mr. Rogers, we all must master the mother tongue. That, for you, will take considerable effort.’ Later it was Mr. Deming’s creative writing seminars. He smoked a pipe, and when he got excited he puffed energetically. Bits of ash would erupt from the pipe, leaving small brown burn spots on your paper to remind you where he found your prose exciting or idiotic. (Creative writing has continued to flourish at Dartmouth. See www.40towns.com.) “After the first novel was drafted and the first short story published I decided to treat my effort with respect. Writing has to be a business, at least if one is interested in getting published. There’s a grind-it-out, asses-and-elbows aspect to it—a big part of the job for a non-famous writer just starting out. “The greatest change from my former work has been loss of face-to-face conversation. Today it’s the more ephemeral interaction of the electronic platform kind. Hey, I’ve been friended a dozen times today (and several more businesses think they have divined my preferences). (Oh, and yes, see my blog at http://johnbairdrogers.com.) “I think I may be beginning to understand just what Dartmouth means by ‘liberal education.’ ” Thanks, John. Please send me a note about what you have been doing. —Tom Long, 1056 Leigh Mill Road, Great Falls, VA 22066; (703) 759-4255; tomlong@gwu.edu
Back to 1965 Class Year
More of 1965 Class Notes
Jan - Feb 2014
When we returned after the holidays 50 years ago our thoughts quickly turned to Winter Carnival, in which our class played a major role. Pete Baumbusch, as director of the Winter Carnival statue program, arranged fireworks and a skating rink on the Green. Dick Durrance was skimeister for the Carnival ski meet for the second straight year. Chip Hayes scored his second hat-trick in two games in a 7-1 victory over Harvard for an Ivy Championship hockey team that also featured Phil Cagnoni and Chuck Zeh. I recently had an occasion to talk with Bev and John Rogers, with whom I shared that weekend. John has stepped away from corporate finance, started writing fiction and begun playing guitar professionally. I asked him to update us on what he’s been doing. The question, John said, is not usually about “my career move from corporate finance to music and writing. That was a kind way to put it. The question usually comes out as, ‘So, what are you doing with yourself these days?’ It’s usually accompanied by a quick visual inventory to ascertain which body parts are not working. “The question put me on the spot for a year, unwilling as I was to say flatly, ‘I’m retired.’ Maybe the word has too many associations with pulling the troops back from battle or separating myself from the 40 years of finance and business that used to define me. And, too, for many years the answer I gave to ‘what are you doing’ meant building a family—house payments, tuition and so on. Making money. Not what one associates with creative enterprise (my last music gig netted 90 bucks and a calzone). “After some conceptual peregrination I can answer, ‘I’m a writer.’ In retrospect Noel Perrin started the process. Looking at my first ‘English 1’ essay, he said more or less hopefully, ‘Mr. Rogers, we all must master the mother tongue. That, for you, will take considerable effort.’ Later it was Mr. Deming’s creative writing seminars. He smoked a pipe, and when he got excited he puffed energetically. Bits of ash would erupt from the pipe, leaving small brown burn spots on your paper to remind you where he found your prose exciting or idiotic. (Creative writing has continued to flourish at Dartmouth. See www.40towns.com.) “After the first novel was drafted and the first short story published I decided to treat my effort with respect. Writing has to be a business, at least if one is interested in getting published. There’s a grind-it-out, asses-and-elbows aspect to it—a big part of the job for a non-famous writer just starting out. “The greatest change from my former work has been loss of face-to-face conversation. Today it’s the more ephemeral interaction of the electronic platform kind. Hey, I’ve been friended a dozen times today (and several more businesses think they have divined my preferences). (Oh, and yes, see my blog at http://johnbairdrogers.com.) “I think I may be beginning to understand just what Dartmouth means by ‘liberal education.’ ” Thanks, John. Please send me a note about what you have been doing. —Tom Long, 1056 Leigh Mill Road, Great Falls, VA 22066; (703) 759-4255; tomlong@gwu.edu