Class Note 1938
Issue
Jan - Feb 2018
Present: “Thank you for giving me the opportunity to attend this incredible institution and truly enjoy it every moment without the weight of financial worry hanging over me,” writes Weiling Huang ’19, with deepest gratitude as the recipient of the ’38 scholarship fund. “Despite my parents’ effort to tell me otherwise, I recognize that they would have been making many sacrifices to give me this opportunity. Thank you for helping lessen our burden and the strain to give me this opportunity—I am writing this from an apartment in London as a participant in the government foreign study program—an incredible few days.”
Past: Circa 1938, “It was just two years ago that a group of Dartmouth students welcomed a young man on the pier where the Europa docks. They didn’t know any more of the man than that he was a Swiss skier of world prominence, was tanned and lithe and had a boyish smile and he was to be their new ski coach. The man was Walter Prager. He had no idea what to expect. These were Dartmouth men, they were skiers—anything might happen! Walt knew practically no English. His conversations at first were like puzzles put together piece by piece with words found in a little dictionary no bigger than a postage stamp—to his listeners they were delightful puzzles. But they soon found that Walt had a ready laugh; he was an out-of-door man, a lover of the mountains. Walt could swing the best ski songs on a vest-pocket concertina too, and wanted to eat apple pie a la mode three times a day. He was a regular fellow; he would make a good ski coach. And he did! Walter Prager has turned out two of the greatest teams in Dartmouth history and has become the center of winter sports at Hanover. His coaching has never depended upon his capacity to mutilate English. No, it is his quiet personality, his comradeship and his unquestionable ability as a skier that have welded a group of fairly good skiers into a fine team.” Kudos to the 1938 skiers!
Future: In June 1938 the amazing class of ’38 left the hallowed grounds of Dartmouth to put into effect all that was learned. In June 2018, a mere 80 years later, they will celebrate “80 out”—the amazing class of ’38 lives on and on! Bless you all!
—Jean M. Francis, 2205 Boston Road, O-139, Wilbraham, MA 01095; jmfcarmel@charter.net
Past: Circa 1938, “It was just two years ago that a group of Dartmouth students welcomed a young man on the pier where the Europa docks. They didn’t know any more of the man than that he was a Swiss skier of world prominence, was tanned and lithe and had a boyish smile and he was to be their new ski coach. The man was Walter Prager. He had no idea what to expect. These were Dartmouth men, they were skiers—anything might happen! Walt knew practically no English. His conversations at first were like puzzles put together piece by piece with words found in a little dictionary no bigger than a postage stamp—to his listeners they were delightful puzzles. But they soon found that Walt had a ready laugh; he was an out-of-door man, a lover of the mountains. Walt could swing the best ski songs on a vest-pocket concertina too, and wanted to eat apple pie a la mode three times a day. He was a regular fellow; he would make a good ski coach. And he did! Walter Prager has turned out two of the greatest teams in Dartmouth history and has become the center of winter sports at Hanover. His coaching has never depended upon his capacity to mutilate English. No, it is his quiet personality, his comradeship and his unquestionable ability as a skier that have welded a group of fairly good skiers into a fine team.” Kudos to the 1938 skiers!
Future: In June 1938 the amazing class of ’38 left the hallowed grounds of Dartmouth to put into effect all that was learned. In June 2018, a mere 80 years later, they will celebrate “80 out”—the amazing class of ’38 lives on and on! Bless you all!
—Jean M. Francis, 2205 Boston Road, O-139, Wilbraham, MA 01095; jmfcarmel@charter.net