Fifty years ago we returned to Hanover in January 1962 more confident than we had been in September. You may recall that we were confronted with some interesting moral issues. On January 8 La Dolce Vita showed at the Nugget and got a 4.9 rating from The Daily D; two days later Elmer Gantry got a 4.6. Later in the month Herb West appeared as a defense witness in the obscenity trial of Mark Goodhue, manager of the Dartmouth Bookstore, who was prosecuted for selling Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer. The court later ruled that the book was obscene, but acquitted Goodhue because of the educational nature of the college bookstore. There was also a heated debate about whether the honor system should have a mandatory reporting clause. On February 1 the student body, by a two-thirds majority, passed the honor code without the reporting requirement. The faculty approved the system in February. The United States began to spray defoliants in Vietnam in February as the war began to develop. John Glenn in Mercury capsule Friendship 7 became the first American to orbit the Earth—three times in four hours, 55 minutes. Our first winter in Hanover also had a lighter side. The Dave Brubeck Quartet and the Duke Ellington Orchestra both played for us in Webster Hall that winter. One of our own sparked perhaps the most memorable news item of the season. On February 6 The Daily D headline read “Stanford Co-eds Riot, Send Letters of Application in Response to Want Ad.” It turned out that Punch Lochridge had run an ad in the Stanford Daily calling for a “Beautiful girl as a date for Dartmouth Winter Carnival.” 


Our mini-reunion was well attended, with folks traveling long distances to participate. Brigid and Bob Murphy threw a wonderful welcoming party on Friday evening. Shep Curtis, who is thriving as a retired Episcopalian priest, came from Nevada to serve as grill master at the pre-game cookout planned by Jane and George Wittreich. Claude “Rocks” Liman is teaching English in Ontario but came south to participate. Barbara and Bob Busch traveled from Colorado, while Bev and John Rogers came from Minnesota and Bruce Wagner trekked from Michigan. Nettie and Mike Rodgers introduced us to their son Andrew ’12. Several of our classmates have taken on at least part-time teaching as we near retirement. Denny Bekemeyer has practiced in Seattle, and now travels to teach a course in the law of aircraft finance at the University of Illinois Law School. John Bullock and Gretchen traveled from Dayton, where John has retired from his ophthalmology practice to teach epidemiology at Wright State. Steve Fowler talked to us about the plans that are developing for the 50th reunion, while his better half, that is professor Linda Fowler, gave us a great talk on “The State of the Presidency in the Age of Obama.” 


More than 60 of our classmates have responded to the questionnaire we circulated in an effort to ascertain the ways we believe the Vietnam War and the military have affected us and the country. Send me a note about what you have been doing—and please complete and return the questionnaire.


—Tom Long, 1056 Leigh Mill Road, Great Falls, VA 22066; (703) 759-4255; tomlong@erols.com