Congratulations are once again in order for Pete Bleyler, our former class president and recent recipient of the Dartmouth Alumni Award. Pete was recently elected as the second vice president of the Dartmouth Association of Alumni. It appears that the association was looking for youth and movie star looks when the nominating committee selected Pete to run on the ballot.


Apparently Henry Eberhardt has bitten the bullet, as he and Laurie finally left New England in January for the warmer climate of St. Petersburg, Florida. They now reside there permanently. Will New England ever be the same again? Hank may be gone, but he has not been forgotten. Our new head class agent, Pete Stuart, recruited Hank to be one of his key lieutenants in the alumni fund drive for our class.


John White recently communicated with me to let me know that during 2011 he spent a week in Haiti visiting his youngest son, Tim. John’s son had been on an 18-month assignment as the director of finance for the Haitian Health Foundation, a private charity that delivers free food, medical and dental services, clothing, housing, education, agricultural training and other self-help skills to the needy of a significant portion of Haiti. Tim’s area of responsibility covered more than 100 Haitian villages and approximately 225,000 people, nearly all of whom were in substantial need following the 2010 earthquake. The situation there was further complicated by the onset of a serious cholera epidemic that hit Haiti a few months after the earthquake. While in Haiti Tim apparently got malaria three times.


I offer you this story about John’s son because his involvement in providing assistance and improvement to the people of a Third World country, Haiti, is a remarkable story of a young man who, according to John, was a certified public accountant who left a successful banking position “to do something else with his life.” He appears to have accomplished that and much more. Tim’s contribution to society is a tribute at least in part to his values and upbringing as provided by his parents. In the fall Tim will be entering Yale graduate school, where he’ll study for a master’s in environmental studies. 


Roberta Heisterkamp, wife of deceased classmate David Heisterkamp, recently published a book dedicated to the memory of her husband. The book, titled Shared Moments: Rocky Mountain National Park and Estes Park Remembered in Postcards, which describes, primarily through antique postcards collected by the Heisterkamps during two decades, what tourists experienced when they visited the two parks.


As a closing comment, we all know that President Kim is leaving Dartmouth to become the head of the World Bank. Although he has been at Dartmouth for only a few years, he has made a positive impact on the school, on the students and on the alumni. I have met Dr. Kim on several occasions and I’m sorry to see him leave Dartmouth. Frankly, however, if I had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become the head of the World Bank I believe that I would have made the same decision. What would you have done?


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