Class Notes 1957

Editor’s Note: Secretary John Cusick wrote this column before his death September 25, 2024.

Have you read about the Lucy missions, NASA’s explorative missions to asteroids? Lucy was the skeleton discovered in Ethiopia in 1974 by Don Johnson. You might know he is the founder of the Institute of Human Origins, but we all should proudly know that Jay Greene, along with Laura and Herb Roskind, serve on the institute’s board.

Bruce Bernstein introduced us to Ben Joel ’27, supported by our Dickey Center Fund and one of 85 to 100 student internships facilitated by the Dickey Center. This past summer Ben visited and recorded his Dartmouth peers in Costa Rica, Kenya, Kosovo, and Vietnam. Colin Calloway, the John Sloan Dickey 3rd Century Professor in the Social Sciences, once said, “Make room for multiple perspectives on difficult issues.” Ben’s reporting matters. (See the January/February issue for more.)

Meanwhile, new input on Lloyd Weinreb places him quite high on our 1957 bookshelf author count, with many editions of his Leading Constitutional Cases on Criminal Justice, then Natural Law and Justice, Oedipus at Fenway Park, and finally Erma Elephant and the Really Big Hole—something for everyone.

Following up on a query from a Chicago man asking whether our Wendell Smith was the author of what sounded like a rather weighty tome, I emailedWendell hoping to add him as the 20th author on our ’57 bookshelf. I guessed that Wendell of Polestar could very well be the author so was somewhat disappointed with his “nope.” Oh well, maybe some of you are hiding behind pseudonyms and are really authors of…rom-coms, mysteries, cookbooks? All are welcome.

Clearly ’57s love their books…and their music. So, as the winter solstice turns the corner, it’s hard not to hear Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson reminding us that, “the days dwindle down to a precious few,” and Willie Nelson crooning, “and now the purple dusk of twilight time steals across the meadows of my heart.” Looking back to these Class Notes of four years ago, the height of the pandemic, we also took advice from Johnny Mercer: “Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, latch on to the affirmative and don’t mess with Mr. In-Between.”

It’s fun to have a theme for a Class Notes column, but I put significant items received that don’t fit a particular theme in a special folder to save for another day. Here’s a sample.

Two prominent ’57 families reported from Dartmouth’s Commencement last year. Randy Aires was in Hanover to celebrate granddaughter Ava’s M.B.A. from Tuck, while Sherman Mills was there to celebrate grandson Drew’s graduation with the class of 2023. Special note: Ava’s mother, Juliet, and Drew’s mother, Sarah, are both class of 1984. Extra-special note: Sherman’s grandson is the fifth generation to graduate from Dartmouth, beginning with Sherman’s grandfather in 1891, his father in 1919, Sherman himself in 1957, daughter Sarah in 1984, and now his grandson in 2023. Class record, perhaps?

It’s not always so momentous. It can just be fun, such as Calvin Towle wishing us well and hoping we can still run a mile in four hours or Dick Handy stating that time is a problem, but he still finds enough to complete The New York Times’ Sunday crossword puzzle every week.

Items can be informative, too. Here’s the late Art Koff, our class expert on aging: “There are several reasons why longevity in our class is longer than average. College graduates live longer than average, as do wealthier people who can afford proper food and healthcare. In addition, Dartmouth by comparison to other Ivies and colleges in general, has a much higher number of ‘outdoorsy students,’ which also skews to living longer.” Think Clarke Griffiths, Al Rollins, Bob Copeland, and the importance of the DOC.

On the other hand, items can be both heartwarming and heartbreaking, such as the affectionate tributes to Adam Block: Laura and Herb Roskind remember helping Adam through a most depressing time when his wife divorced him, and Howie Howland recalls that Adam successfully transferred his depression and loneliness into his signature banjo song, entertaining ’57 classmates at Homecomings and reunions for so many years:

Leftover biscuits

Leftover ham

Leftover gravy

In an old frying pan

Leftover coffee

Leftover tea

I’m all alone.

Cause she left over me.

—John W. Cusick, 105 Island Plantation Terrace, Vero Beach, FL 32963; (772) 231-1248; johnwcusick57@gmail.com

Breaking news: Michael Lasser reported his “health has gone downhill the last several months,” and he’s had to think seriously about what he must give up. “I’m not quite ready to remain permanently horizontal,” he said, “but I must step back from some things.” An urgent meeting chaired by Tom Macy was called,former president Bruce Bernstein was nominated to be copresident with Michael, and the motion was enthusiastically and unanimously approved by the executive committee. It was a great outcome. We get to keep Michael, and we gain the talents and experience of Bruce to help lead our aging class forward—two great presidents, two loyal sons of Dartmouth.

As mobility becomes a major issue for our class, Zoom calls are replacing mini-reunions and classmate dinners, so it was wonderful to hear from Norma and Eric Lee, enjoying a couple of days in Boca Grande, Florida, visiting Genie Lyman, widow of our classmate Dick Lyman. Genie’s warmhospitality included a Dartmouth dinner with Reyn Guyer and Joan and Jack Hall.

Of course, the importance of Zoom calls is undeniable, and we were all pleased to receive an invitation from Dartmouth to join classmates Chris Wren, Dick Duncan and Gary Gilson for a Zoom conversation about the state of journalism. Chris talked about his experiences as a New York Times foreign correspondent, Dick as an executive editor of Time magazine, and Gary as a producer of documentaries for public television. Many classmates on the Zoom call talked about where they get their news as well as the political polarization existing in the country today.

You will remember that Howie Howland volunteers every week at the English Fort and the Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor, Massachusetts, where he has been proclaimed Plimoth Patuxet Museums’ Volunteer of the Year. So it was with great pride that we received the announcement from USA Today that Plimoth Patuxet Museum has won the top spot for the best open-air museum in the entire United States. The judges nominated 19 museums for the Readers’ Choice Awards and Plimoth Patuxet was voted No. 1 among this distinguished group of institutions. Wah-hoo-wah, Howie!

—John W. Cusick, 105 Island Plantation Terrace, Vero Beach, FL 32963; (772) 231-1248; johnw cusick57@gmail.com

Homecoming 2023 highlights below.

There was a gathering of 28, including two Kunzel winners, for dinner at Arlene and Barry Rotman’s lovely home in Norwich, Vermont, and the traditional Sunday pancake breakfast at Happy and Clarke Griffiths’ Lebanon, New Hampshire, home.

A check was presentated to the Dickey Center’s Great Issues Fund and the class held partnership meetings with the classes of 1982 and 2007 to ensure the center’s future funding.

We presented special citations honoring Bob Adelizzi, Bruce Bernstein, and Judy Stempel for their exceptional contributions to our class.

Al Rollins carried our banner and led the class parade on Dartmouth Night.

Finally, there was a Homecoming football win over Columbia.

Also, I share some highlights from the listserv.

Michael Lasser’s new book on songs, his fourth since retirement, brought kudos and hearty congratulations from classmates, including professional writers Gary Gilson, Bruce Sloane, and Chris Wren.

Michael’s Zoom call with Harry Tuft explored “Why Folk Music Matters.” Harry discussed his participation in folk music’s development and the significance of its stories. He delighted all by singing Pete Seeger songs to open and close his presentation.

Adam Block’s transfer to a memory care unit created an outpouring of affection from many classmates, including Randy Aires, Jay Greene, Howie Howland, Herb Roskind, and Chris Wren. Adam is remembered for creating our listserv, his belief in free speech, and his refusal to censor as well as for his unique songs and banjo playing at mini-reunions and Homecoming events.

Finally, Gary Gilson’s column for the Minnesota Herald Tribune featured Hunter S. Thompson and prompted this gem from Linda Kakela: “Wayne Kakela and Bruce LeFavour were guests of Hunter S. Thompson for Sunday brunches and shenanigans at Owl Farm on Woody Creek, near Aspen [Colorado]. When Hunter committed suicide in 2005 and it was known that his wish was for his ashes to be fired out of a cannon, Wayne stepped forward with his 1976 cannon and a bottle of Wild Turkey to offer his services. Wayne’s proposal was the finalist until Hunter’s colleague Johnny Depp organized a $3-million ceremony that included a blast from a cannon mounted on a 40-meter tower.”

—John W. Cusick, 105 Island Plantation Terrace, Vero Beach FL 32963; (772) 231-1248; johnwcusick @aol.com

First of all, hearty congratulations to George Shimizu ’43 on his 103rd birthday! George is his class scribe for these notes and is a favorite of ’57s. Keep those personal notes and experiences of WW II coming, George. All classes are grateful.

Bill Davidow visited the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, and had his picture taken with the LGP-30, the computer he programmed at Dartmouth back in the day. The LPG-30 weighed 800 pounds and was one of the first desk-sized computers that offered small-scale scientific computing.

Cynthia and Dick Perkins hosted a mini-reunion for New England classmates at Longfellow’s Wayside Inn in Sudbury, Massachusetts, attended by William Ackley,Lita Moses and Bruce Bernstein, Barbara and Walter Burgin, Jane and Al Rollins, Karen and Jay Trepp, and Charles Tseckares. Dick reported, “As always, it’s so good to get together with classmates and spouses, most of us picking up from when we were last together at our 65th reunion and, as we said goodbyes, hoping to see each other again at Homecoming this fall.”

Wayne Kakela’s widow, Linda, reported from Steamboat Springs, Colorado, that Wayne was honored and remembered, as he is annually, at the Yampa River Festival. That’s when he would shoot off his cannon to begin the festivities. “Gone for 14 years,” she wrote, “but not forgotten in the Colorado mountain valley that he loved.” The reaction was immediate from Bob Adelizzi and John Donnelly. Speaking together and for our class, they said, “As long of one of us is alive, Wayne will never be forgotten.”

And finally, I want to note the passing of Bob Marchant as a significant news item. Bob returned to Dartmouth after serving in the Army. He was different, a bit older and wiser, a kind of knowledgeable big brother, who served as our class president, our 50th reunion chairman, committed fundraising chair, and mentor to many of our class officers along the way. We mourn the loss of every classmate, of course, but in the words of our class necrologist Howie Howland, “This one really hurt.”

—John W. Cusick, 105 Island Plantation Terrace, Vero Beach FL 32963; (772) 231-1248; johnwcusick@aol.com

Let’s get to the news.

Garvey Clarke returned triumphantly to Dartmouth as founder and past president of the Black Alumni of Dartmouth Association to be honored at BADA’s 50th anniversary ceremonies. More than 300 Black alumni returned for the celebration, proclaiming it the “best reunion ever.”

Michael Lasser presented Astaire, Rogers, and the Art Deco Dream at the world-famous Art Deco Weekend in Miami Beach, Florida. A virtual smash hit, Michael demonstrated how Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire embodied the art deco aesthetic in their dances and screen appearances.

Howie Howland has been proclaimed “Volunteer of the Year” by the Plimoth Patuxet Museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Howie volunteers every week at the English Fort and the Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor; the citation expresses thanks for his outstanding fulfillment of the museum’s “educational mission with kindness, empathy, and thankfulness.”

Monte Pascoe’s widow, Pat, a former Colorado state senator, professional writer, and teacher, has written a new book, A Dream of Justice, the story of segregation and the long fight she, Monte, and many others fought for integration in the Denver Public School System, a must read for all interested in the history of civil rights in America.

Now, from the class listserv: Bruce Bernstein, Herb Roskind, Jay Greene, Bob Marchant, and Gary Gilson are discussing Robert Moses and Fire Island, New York. Worthy subjects, for sure, but what captured my attention was Bruce revealing that so much of his heart remains on Fire Island that his will requests his ashes be scattered off the Fire Island Ferry into the Great South Bay. I was so moved by the positive nature of his request, this passionate love for a special place, I immediately thought: Class Notes column!“When it’s all over,” I asked across the listserv, “where do you want to be?” The listserv moved on, but not until Bob Marchant replied, “I’ll be looking forward to ’57 class reunions in the sky.”

Bob’s comment convinced me that there is an important and fun Class Notes column here. Let’s find out. Tell me: When it’s all over, where do you want to be?

—John W. Cusick, 105 Island Plantation Terrace, Vero Beach, FL 32963; (772) 231-1248; johnwcusick @aol.com

A hearty welcome to classmates joining our class listserv: Bill Breer, Walt Burgin, Bill Davidow, Eric Lee, John Roberts, and Calvin Towle.It’s a fun way to get together with classmates, wives, and widows and reminisce or just to stay in touch with what’s going on in the world and our lives.

I’ve a selfish motive: I search the listserv for subjects to include in this column. A recent example is Rod Hinkle’s whimsical plea to have the state deliver a weekly ice cream cone to seniors more than 80 years old. The idea gained immediate and equally whimsical approval from Bob Adelizzi and reminded Gary Gilson of his visits to the Hanover ice cream store down past the Nugget, where he once saw the “criminally gorgeous” wife of Professor Finch.

That prompted Jay Greene to remember sophomore year playing Hotspur in Henry the Fourth, where he, fellow actors Prince Hal, the King, and Dolly Tearsheet (Professor Finch’s lovely wife) stayed up all night talking at the Finches’ Vermont farm after closing the last show. Dawn approaching, the four saddled up and rode off into moonlight and a rising sun. That reminded John Lange of his 21st birthday, when he borrowed a horse from Professor Rosenstock-Huessy, rode past the President’s House, and galloped across the Green and over to the Zeta Psi house, where he stabled the horse in the library. “The horse took it very well,” he said. “The library rugs did not.”

This led Herb Roskind to recount his three years living in the Rosenstock-Huessys’ guest house. He regretted missing a more normal campus life, but treasured conversations with the good professor. “I also rode his horses,” he mused, “and remember a special time with the master himself on a deep snowy day.”

From ice cream cones as a senior benefit, to Shakespeare, a criminally gorgeous professor’s wife, midnight horseback rides, a 21st birthday adventure, ending with intimate memories of the great Professor Rosenstock-Huessy—I hope you’ll agree that’s the stuff of a fun Class Notes column.

Hope to see you again on the listserv!

—John W. Cusick, 105 Island Plantation Terrace, Vero Beach, FL 32963; (772) 231-1248; johnwcusick@aol.com

Change is in the air. Exciting news from Hanover: Sian Leah Beilock will become president of the College starting July 2023. Currently president of Barnard, she will be our 19th president and the first woman elected to the position. Exciting news from Tom Macy in Connecticut: Michael Lasser will become president of the great class of 1957 at our 65th reunion in September. Mike succeeds Tomand becomes our 18th president. Mention of reunion reminds me of the scores of classmates who worked under the guidance of Bruce Bernstein to make sure our 65th was the best ever. Much attention was directed to helping those with mobility issues. I hope that helped you if you were in Hanover or that you were able to participate via Zoom if you were not.

I’m thinking about other changes, too, the differences between our class of 1957 and those graduating in our reunion year 65 years later. It’s the 50th anniversary of coeducation, and gender is the most obvious difference, but what about ethnic diversity, states we represented, or even countries we called home? I have asked the college to send data on the class of 2022 and promise a future column exploring the differences between now and then.

Speaking of now and then, a quick dip into the class news folder reveals: Chick Shaver with a new book, a 40-year labor of love, a daily devotional containing 365 messages of encouragement and inspiration, 6,000 copies sold the first two weeks, ordered by eight different denominations, and translated into nine languages; Gary Gilson’s memories of attending Columbia Graduate School of Journalism with Dick Duncan and Chris Wren in 1960; and Bob Copeland recalling days in Navy ROTC at Dartmouth and remembering Ken Rakouska, Paul Hagedorn, John Liati,and Rod Dubois.

A final item of change: Mike’s objectives to rekindle the class newsletter and listserv. I check the listserv daily to learn what’s of interest to you so that I might write a more meaningful column. It’s potentially a mini “Great Issues” course. Join please! An email to Tom Macy (jtmacy@comcast.net) and you’re in.

—John W. Cusick, 105 Island Plantation Terrace, Vero Beach, FL 32963; (772)-231-1248; johnwcusick@aol.com

Steve Katz submitted a 1951 photo of his grandfather with President Truman celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Katz Drug Co. and suggested we discuss our classmates’ roots. Responses were immediate and wonderful, such as Al Rollins’ story of his ancestors helping Daniel Webster win a criminal case back in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Cal Perry working on genealogy for 35 years to create a family pyramid going back to the 1600s, and Joel Mitchell’s family arriving on the Mayflower. Great stuff for a future Class Notes column, but not now with Putin’s cruel war on Ukraine.

Art Koff responded that his grandparents immigrated from Ukraine in the late 1800s and settled in upstate New York. Bert O’Neill’s grandfather left Finland to avoid the Russian czar’s draft, immigrated to Minnesota, and worked in iron mines for five years to obtain U.S. citizenship. Herb Roskind provided a moving portrait that traced his family back four generations from a cemetery outside Kyiv to his life today at Arizona State University. Gary Gilson reported his ancestry from Bessarabia, a sliver of a country alternatively part of Moldova, Ukraine, and Russia. Bruce Bernstein’s grandparents, a family of blacksmiths in Lithuania, came to America and founded the North American Iron and Steel Co. Mike Lasser’s grandparents immigrated from a small village outside Kyiv, and Mike wondered if his family was related to Herb’s, which prompted Jay Greene to reply, “We’re all cousins, baby.”

Indeed we are. And our hearts are with those freedom fighters in Ukraine. The hope is that a ceasefire will have been negotiated by the time you read this, and the atrocities of war will have stopped. “But, not likely,” says Chris Wren, former New York Times bureau chief in Moscow. “Putin is a nasty piece of work.”

Nasty, yes, but there must be hope. Bob Slaughter wrote he was “amazed at the widely multicultural backgrounds of our relatively small class.” That’s our treasure, and perhaps that is our hope for humanity as well: to recognize the importance of diversity while understanding we are just one family. All cousins, baby.

—John W. Cusick, 105 Island Plantation Terrace, Vero Beach, FL 32963; (772) 231-1248; johnwcusick@aol.com

Jay Greene’s triumphant return to his St. Helena, California, lecture series after an 18-month hiatus was attended by Judy and Bob Creasy. Jay’s focus on WW II apparently resonated with all classmates, as the subject of WW II went viral on our listserv. Herb Roskind remembers the Sunday outing in the family’s 1940 Buick cut short to hear President Roosevelt describe that day of infamy. John Lange remembers sitting on his father’s lap, listening to music and being read the funnies, when the station was suddenly interrupted with the president’s message. Art Koff remembers his father tracking battles with colored pins on a large map of Europe. Charles Tseckares remembers his mother and father crying when his three brothers went off to war and not understanding why anyone could be sad at such an exciting time. Others contributing to this column include Rod Hinkle, Steve Katz, Bob Copeland, Gary Gilson, Bob Marchant, David Keith, Bruce Sloane, Bert O’Neill, Bruce Bernstein, Judy Stempel, Bob Slaughter, and Mike Lasser.

Classmates living on the East Coast at the time remember finding debris on the beaches from torpedoed merchant ships and seeing anti-submarine planes returning so low they could see the pilots’ faces. West Coast classmates remember air raid wardens and blackout shades for the house windows and family car. All classmates recall gas rationing, listening to the president’s fireside chats, making tin foil balls from cigarette packs, collecting scrap metal, Saturday movies with Pathe News, victory gardens, making butter with dye and a bag of margarine, collecting fighter pilot cards, mothers wrapping bandages, and soldiers visiting our schools promoting war bonds and treating kids to a ride in a jeep.

No other classmate mentioned a mother stripping the wringers off her wash tub for the war effort or a father, rejected for military service because of a failing heart, establishing an Oregon State cavalry unit to patrol the beaches. My memory from this day forward will be of a 5-year-old Cinda Ely honoring her absent father off in the Navy by singing “Anchors Aweigh” to anyone in uniform.

—John W. Cusick, 105 Island Plantation Terrace, Vero Beach, FL 32963; (772) 231-1248; johnwcusick@aol.com

A previous column mentioned Garvey Clarke. Mike Lasser immediatelyresponded: “Garvey’s laugh,” he said, “rich, genuine and frequent, is one of our class treasures.” Voila! A new column was born.

Bob Marchant’s class treasure is coaches. He named Eddie Jeremiah and Ellie Noyes in particular and recalls lavish praise for “Doggie” Julian from Ron Judson, Chick Winslow, and Skip Bohn, and he remembers Gene Booth called Coach Julian his “life teacher.” Bruce Bernstein recalls Karl Michaels’ impact on Dave Cook, and Cal Perry credits Tommy Dent’s influence for his four seasons in soccer and lacrosse.

John Lange’s class treasure is Paul Zeller, who represented Dartmouth to the world through music, while Jay Greene’s is the faculty that taught us. Bob Mowbray named the Appalachian Trail as his treasure, eliciting agreement from a number of classmates. Bob Copeland, in particular, offered personal accounts of the significance of this choice: some 18 cabins and 110 miles of trail maintained by the DOC and cutting right through the center of campus. The trail prompted Bob to add Ross McKenney, builder of snowshoes, cabins, canoes, and men, to our list of coaches and life teachers.

Bob Adelizzi, while giving a shout-out to Joel Levy, named our 50th reunion book, Return to the Source, as our class treasure. His pick had me scurrying to find my copy. Tom Schwarz was the editor and it is a gem, indeed.

The final choice comes from Charles Tseckares,who selected the bells of Baker Library. Charles remembers the bells’ routine in starting and ending our days at Dartmouth. In an article for his community’s quarterly magazine in Bedford, Massachusetts, he confessed to missing the structure the bells provided and recalled that after many years, he returned to Hanover to attend a seminar at Tuck. Monday morning arrived and he was awakened by the bells of Baker. “At that instant,” he wrote, “I realized I had come home.”

All winners. From coaches, teachers, and a classmate’s smile to the Appalachian Trail, our reunion book, and the bells of Baker—whatever your treasure, hear the bells, return to the source.

—John W. Cusick, 105 Island Plantation Terrace, Vero Beach, FL 32963; (772) 231-1248; johnwcusick@aol.com

Remember the magic of “’57 Out!” The beginning of the civil rights era, the referendum to eliminate discrimination from national fraternities, and that special moment in our class history when Delta Upsilons Tom Macy, Shelly Kjellenberg, Tom Herlihy, Bob Caldwell, and Ted Jennings forced the implementation of the referendum years before it was legally to take effect—a moment memorialized by Mike Lasser in thismagazine back in 2011.

No wonder classmates continue to struggle with the Frank Wilderson ’78 interview in the November/December issue of DAM. Skip Traynham asked us to understand that Wilderson’s time was very different from ours. Basketball Hall of Famer and former executive director of the Rhode Island human rights commission Gene Booth agrees, saying he’s “proud to report a more positive picture of race relations back in our day. Coach Doggie Julian started me sophomore year along with Dick Fairley ’55. No other Ivy had two Black players on their roster. Harvard, Brown, Penn, and Princeton didn’t have any.” Gene went on to mention enduring friendships with Coach Julian and classmates Gary Gilson, Dick Handy, Mike Matzkin, Howie Silby, and Bob Towbin.

Former Alumni Council member and Black Alumni Dartmouth Association (BADA) founder Garvey Clarke says, “I cannot recall a single negative experience during my time in Hanover,” then adds with a chuckle, “and that includes Boston adventures with Phil Lippincott. In fact, the student referendum and my vote on the Alumni Council to support President Kemeny’s banning of the American Indian symbol confirmed forever that Dartmouth was the right decision for me.”

Dartmouth’s need for help in the 1970s surprised Gene and Garvey, who returned to Hanover to instill the spirit of hope they remembered as undergraduates. They formed BADA and, with Kemeny’s support, created an organization to reverse the atmosphere and attitudes expressed in Wilderson’s article.

Sadly, pushbacks continue. Today’s reality is George Floyd, Black Lives Matter, and Dartmouth naming a senior diversity officer and celebrating Black Legacy Month—it’s clearly time to make some “good trouble.” Mary Oliver asked us what we are going to do with our one precious life in this broken world. If only in your heart, “’57 Out!”

—John W. Cusick, 105 Island Plantation Terrace, Vero Beach, FL 32963; (772) 231-1248; johnwcusick @aol.com

DAM’s November/December 2020 interview with Frank B. Wilderson III ’78, “On Afropessimism,” was back-page dynamite. Wilderson’s bold and provocative statements created such furor in our class that I contacted Skip Traynham for comment. Skip was dean of the Tucker Foundation when Wilderson was at Dartmouth, and I thought his point of view would add value to our search for any grand “reckoning” ahead on the great issue of racism.

Here’s Skip: “I’ve read the interview with Frank Wilderson and, of course, find myself in agreement with some of his remarks and at odds with others. This will not be a surprise. The Black community is not monolithic. Like everybody else, we vary in experiences and in perspectives.

“Clearly my experience with Dartmouth was very different. I enjoyed my undergraduate years. If I had not, I doubt President Kemeny would have invited me to join his administration or that I would have accepted the appointment.

“One reason our experiences were different, I expect, is that I entered Dartmouth before the civil rights movement, while Frank entered after. Our expectations of college years were quite different and, as a result, our experiences were as well.

“I do agree with Frank that ours was, and remains, a racist nation with much to answer for, though colonialism and fascism indicate we are not unique in the community of nations. He says the United States has no right to exist. But it does exist and, because it does, I think it is my duty to vote and to do whatever else I can to make it better, because it shapes the lives of millions of people of all races and colors. I note that he teaches at UC Irvine. I hope that means that he is working, if not to change the nation, then to change and improve the lives and perspectives of Black people in it.

“Finally, I am puzzled by Frank’s optimism about Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin being convicted for his actions. Unarmed Black people continuing to be killed with impunity by the police is one of many testaments to our nation’s racism.”

Thanks, Skip, for providing context. The year 1957 is not 1978 is not 2021. Gene Booth’s and Garvey Clarke’s thoughts will appear in a future column. Let’s hope the long arc of history truly bends toward justice, as we’ve been taught. We have miles to go.

—John W. Cusick, 105 Island Plantation Terrace, Vero Beach, FL 32963; (772) 231-1248; johnwcusick@aol.com

Let’s get to the news.

The Eric Kunzel Class of 1957 Award was presented to Ida Claude ’22, Jacob Donaghue ’22, and David Lucas James ’21 at the Hopkins Center annual awards ceremony. Abigail M. Kott ’20, beneficiary of our 1957 Scholarship Fund, graduated as an economics major during the College’s virtual Commencement ceremony. Honorary classmate Steve Swayne continued to make us proud with his introduction to Aida on YouTube, plus online exploration of opera’s best-known music in award-winning films. John Roberts’ accomplishments as longtime director of the Massachusetts ACLU were captured in a film celebrating the organization’s 100th anniversary. Walt Burgin, in a special article for the Dartmouth College Fund, traced the roots of his 40-plus-year career in education to John Kemeny’s personal mentoring.

Our ’57 listserv continues to entertain and inform: Bill Woodbury and Sherman Mills remember serving in Vietnam, including visits from Chris Wren when he covered that war for Look magazine; Jay Greene describes the stevedoring and long-shoring trades back in the days before fork lifts, containerized ships, and heavy cranes; and Herb Roskind recalls his behind-the-scenes look at business in China as he experienced its newly emerging capitalism.

You’ll remember Bruce Sloane reported his cochlear implant was a life-changer. Now Carl Schmidt reports his own lifesaver: After falling and bleeding from the head, Carl’s lifeline medical alert system notified the emergency response team, which successfully rushed him to the hospital. And world-renowned urologist Jerry Weiss has authored the book, Breaking through Chronic Pelvic Pain, a Holistic Approach for Relief.

Finally, can there be any good news relating to the pandemic? A previous column noted the success of Bill Davidow’s book, The Autonomous Revolution, but failed to mention another item of great significance. Back in 2011 Bill and two colleagues licensed a new technology from the University of California, founded a company to pursue its use, hired some great biologists to search for applications and…yep…along came Covid-19. That company, Berkeley Lights (BLI), has just gone public and is being used to develop vaccines and treatments for Covid-19!

—John W. Cusick, 105 Island Plantation Terrace, Vero Beach, FL 32963; (772) 231-1248; johnwcusick @aol.com

Coronavirus is the news. It’s the postponement of Bert O’Neill’s heart valve replacement and the cancellation of Clark Griffiths’ “3rd Friday” lunch in Lebanon, New Hampshire. It’s John Roberts’ struggles to keep This Week in Palestine on the air after Boston station WCBZ suspended all its programming. It’s the postponement of Jay Greene’s World War II lecture series in St. Helena, California. It’s Herb Roskind, the “Captain Pontoon” of Martha’s Vineyard, watching his dream set sail without him.

There were some bright spots, of course, It’s Bill Davidow, Silicon Valley pioneer, Intel executive, and author of The Virtual Corporation, publishing The Autonomous Revolution: Reclaiming the Future We’ve Sold to Machines. It’s Dick Perkins continuing with LandVest, which he created more than 50 years ago. It’s the lovely note from Inger Baehr recalling the pleasure with which she and husband Bob Baehr enjoyed hosting a 2006 mini-reunion at their home in Grimstad, Norway. It’s Dick Canton, just before lockdown, hosting a beautiful weekend for 18 gathered in Naples, Florida. It’s Alice and Tom Macy visiting Vero Beach, Florida, on their way to that Naples affair, allowing for dinner with Judy and Kent Whitaker. And just sliding under the virus wire, it’s Mike Lasser, dining first in Sarasota, Florida, with Lee and Bob Caldwell and Lee Hirschey’s wife, Debby, then performing here in Vero Beach, where he and his incredibly talented singers absolutely wowed a packed museum crowd with City Songs. But the hard work of Dick Duncan and Judy Stempel for the greatly anticipated Santa Fe-Taos, New Mexico, reunion had to be cancelled, as was the trip to San Francisco with the Barbary Coast Jazz Ensemble.

Rod Hinkle asks what we octogenarians should be doing at such a time. Mike Lasser provides an answer with his plan to gather personal anecdotes about our lives at Dartmouth between 1953 and 1957. Let’s have fun with this. In Mike’s words, “the best, the funniest, the wackiest.” We all have stories to tell. If not now, when? Please send yours directly to mlasser@rochester.rr.com.

My hope is to lighten up in the next column. Maybe even talk about first cars.

—John W. Cusick, 105 Island Plantation Terrace, Vero Beach, FL 32963; (772) 231-1248; johnwcusick@aol.com

Let’s getto the news. Herb Roskind purchased a 26-foot pontoon boat on eBay and is studying for the Coast Guard exam that will allow him to conduct boat tours around Martha’s Vineyard and Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Reynolds Guyer was featured in the latest issue of Dartmouth Alumni Magazine as an inventor speaking on the power of creativity. Best known for developing the game of Twister and the Nerf Ball, he is cofounder of Winsor Learning, which has trained 43,000 teachers to work with struggling readers. Steve Swayne, professor of music and directorof the Montgomery Fellows Program, has been elected president of the prestigious American Musicological Society. Montgomery invites distinguished luminaries to live, work, and teach at Dartmouth, luminaries such as Yo-Yo Ma, Kurt Vonnegut, Toni Morrison, and our Chris Wren.

Class of ’57 writers Gary Gilson, Mike Lasser, Bruce Sloane, and Chris Wren have been mentioned in previous columns, but get this: Larry Selig has just published Discovering Your Spiritual DNA and is receiving outstanding reviews on Amazon. Chic Shaver’s Basic Bible Stories has been printed in 55 languages, including 75,000 copies in English, and Bob Creasy’s Maternal-Fetal Medicine, a bible in its field, is now in its seventh edition.

Classmates had fun discussing Ken Burns’ PBS country music series. Did you know that before he began his distinguished career at The New York Times, Chris Wren was a songwriter for Johnny Cash? Or that John Lange was the lead singer for a bluegrass band in Paris at a place called Kitty O’Shea’s, back when his day job was minister counselor to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development? Bob Copeland, Art Koff, David Keith,and Gary Gilson had fun exchanging favorite country song titles, but Mike Lasser silenced all with his confession that one night long ago, he sat drinking and writing country songs. Mike’s best title? “Will Love Replace Night Baseball in the Bleachers of Your Heart?” Gol’ dang, y’all, that’s good!

You’ve asked about our class presidents, the 13 loyal sons who have served five-year terms since our graduation in 1957. I’m working on it. Stay tuned.

—John W. Cusick, 105 Island Plantation Terrace, Vero Beach, FL 32963; (772) 231-1248; johnwcusick@aol.com

In response to our last column, a classmate asked: “We’re all in our mid-80s. We’re almost all retired. Do we do anything except write books?” So, with apologies to the published authors in our class, let’s provide some answers. Charles Tseckares is active in the off-site committee at his continuing care retirement community in Bedford, Massachusetts. He recently led a trip to the Frank Lloyd Wright house in Manchester, New Hampshire. Herb Roskind teaches global studies at Arizona State University’s and coordinates research between ASU and Israel’s Ben Gurion University.

Howie Howland volunteers at the Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth, Massachusetts, a living history museum that replicates the Pilgrim’s original settlement. Judy Stempel, when not visiting daughters and granddaughters in Texas, California, and New Mexico, co-chairs a film festival in Fort Worth, Texas. Bob Marchant chairs his condo’s homeowners association in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, and enjoys his contacts with contractors, lawyers, surveyors, and even homeowners. John Citron chairs CapeAbilities, providing services for Cape Cod, Massachusetts, adults with special needs. He manages a budget of $22 million, serving more than 450 individuals. Chris Wren recently baled hay at his Vermont farm for a neighbor’s horses, and Al Rollins continues to fly his plane, climb mountains, and play basketball.

Some of us are feeling change more dramatically than others, of course. Downsizing is a big issue. Michael Matzkin moved from Connecticut to downtown Boston to be close to his daughters, grandchildren, the ballet, concerts, and the Red Sox. Susan and Charlie White are selling their Casco Bay, Maine, home and moving to a retirement community in Brunswick, Maine. Mare and Dick van Riper are counting on their balky lawn tractor to last a bit longer, hoping to keep their country house in Roxbury, Connecticut, a few more years.

Health is an obvious issue, too. Bob Towbin quotes Shakespeare, “Trouble comes not in single spies, but in battalions,” referring to his five heart surgeries this past year. No, we’re not all writing books. But we’re still here. As Al Rollins would say: “Do as much as you can, for as long as you can.”

—John W. Cusick, 105 Island Plantation Terrace, Vero Beach, FL 32963; (772) 231-1248; johnwcusick@aol.com

“Honoring our Past, Inspiring our Future” is the theme of Dartmouth’s 250th-year celebration. Let’s do a bit of the same for our class.

A newly unearthed copy of our 1957 Commencement Program shows that our senior year was Dartmouth’s 187th. Commencement marshals were Tom Donahoe, Peter Barnes, and Wayne Kakela. Our senior executive committee consisted of Duncan Barnes, Frank Bruni, Garvey Clark, David Clements, Kent Crane, Jim Dalton, Skip Kerr, Dick Leavitt, Bob Macdonald, Ed Matthews, and Chuck Schroeder. Class speakers at the Bema that day were Bob Smith with the address to the College, Don Cowlbeck reciting the class poem, Gordon Bjork delivering the class oration, John Colenback presenting the Sachem oration, and Dick Schramm with the address to the Old Pine. All that leading up to the valedictory address by Lloyd Weinreb.

This anniversary year’s focus on the past causes all of us to look back. Classmates are remembering old times rather than reporting current activities. Not so strange when you consider our past is so much longer than our future. Let’s spend just a moment on a few reflections….

John Lange worked as a brakeman on the Mount Washington Cog Railway in 1954 and then served his time at the U.S. Treasury, where he was a director managing the foreign exchange reserves of the United States. Rod Hinkle and Bob Mowbray joined the Peace Corps in 1961, Rod leaving his job teaching civics at Newton High School and Bob following three years active duty in the Marine Corps. Howie Howland and Jim Taylor, both past presidents of the Dartmouth Club of Cape Cod, recalled the importance and dedication of treasurer John Citron’s 23 years of service. Hannie Mason hosted ’57s Jack Stempel, Bruce Bernstein, Larry Blades and Jay Greene at the Iowa caucus in 2008 when Obama came out of nowhere to upset Hillary.

President Hanlon says “our 250th is as much about our future as it is about our past.” Sixty-two years ago Professor Rosenstock-Huessy told us our present is the insistence of the future upon our past. What do you think? How are we doing?

—John W. Cusick, 105 Island Plantation Terrace, Vero Beach, FL 32963; (772)231-1248; johnwcusick@aol.com

Special kudos to Happy and Clark Griffiths for another outstanding Homecoming Weekend. The many activities they planned included a lunch and tour at the new Moosilauke Ravine Lodge as well as a reception and dinner at the Dickey Center, where Mike Smith presented Dan Benjamin with a check for $8,000, helping build our great issues fund to more than $600,000.

Remember the big upright bass that Jack Stempel played with the Barbary Coast? Jack’s widow, Judy, has donated that valuable Swingmaster to a very grateful Fort Worth, Texas, Independent School District. “Some young person will experience the joy of making music,” a tearful Judy said. “My heart is full.” Bob Creasy reports that he and wife Judy recently attended an outstanding lecture by Jay Greene in St. Helena, California. Jay has been delivering his informative historical lecture series at the St. Helena Public Library since 2015. Next up, March 12, is “Charlemagne and the Origins of Modern Europe.” Contact Jay at greene7375@comcast.net for a full schedule. There is much more great history to explore in coming lectures.

As I write this, nine representatives of our class are enjoying the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra performing in Florence, Italy: Ginny and Randy Aires, Bruce Bernstein and Lita Moses, Eric Kunzel’s widow, Brunie, Alice and Tom Macy, and Cynthia and Dick Perkins. As you read this, Perk and Dick Canton and Ann and Bill Edgerton are putting final touches on the March 1-2 Naples, Florida, mini; while Herb Roskind is making final arrangements for the March 22-24 Phoenix mini.

Chris Wren reports he has joined the class listserv mentioned in the last issue of our Class Notes. Chris has been busy promoting his bestseller, Those Turbulent Sons of Freedom, but is making time to join classmates’ discussions of great issues.

Joe Steveson and Bob Adelizzi report that our goal for the Dartmouth College fund this year is 57-percent participation and $200,000. Agents Randy Aires, Don Burkhardt, Bill Breer, Pete Corothers, Bob Creasy, Ted Jennings, Dick Perkins, and Dick Sunderland will be helping them attain that goal. Let’s all help too: ’57 out!

—John W. Cusick, 105 Island Plantation Terrace, Vero Beach, FL 32963; (772)231-1248; johnwcusick @aol.com

Your scribe has been promising a fake news item just for fun, so here goes: A White House tweet announces Calvin Towle was named assistant to the president for repelling fake news. Salary is $1,000,000, plus tips. Calvin promises to succeed even if he has to arrest 140 characters.

Remember the referral last column to our class website, www.class-57@listservdartmouth.edu, managed by Adam Block? Since then, great issues of the day have been discussed by Bruce Bernstein, Bob Copeland, Jay Greene, Art Koff, Mike Lasser, Bob Marchant, Wendell Smith and Charles Tseckares. Judy Stemple and Wendie Howland weighed in as well. Tune in. It’s an entertaining and provocative read.

Byron Krantz has received the Centennial Medal Award from Case Western Reserve School of Law. It is the highest award bestowed on any graduate and recognizes demonstrated excellence and leadership in the practice of law and public service.

George “Pope” Urban is busy traveling with his grandchildren when he isn’t in Maryland tutoring elementary schoolchildren, working with a nonfiction group, painting with acrylics, or kayaking. He retired from his ear, nose, throat, head, and neck surgery practice two years ago, but hasn’t had time to miss it.

Bill Curry was accepted to Dartmouth Medical School back in the day, but chose Union Theological Seminary instead. Union sent Bill to St. Philips in Harlem for his fieldwork and changed his life forever. It’s home. He bought an old building ithere n 1975 and has been restoring it ever since. He’s also a collector of arts and crafts. His collection of Grueby pottery is one of the largest in the country, and his contributions to the Hood Museum have earned him membership in the Bartlett Tower Society, proof there are many ways to demonstrate one’s love for Dartmouth.

Ron Read has been teaching a technical management leadership class at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. His students are scientists working on the wide-field infrared space telescope, which has a field of view 100 times greater than the Hubble space telescope and will measure light from more than a billion galaxies. Wow. Can fake news compete with the search for life-supporting planets? Don’t think so.

—John W. Cusick, 105 Island Plantation Terrace, Vero Beach, FL 32963; (772) 231-1248; johnwcusick@aol.com

Bruce Sloane’s story of his life-changing experience with a cochlear implant was picked up by USA Today. Bruce has been busy giving talks and counseling folks with hearing loss and welcomes this chance to take his message to a much larger audience.

Ida and Barry Rotman are in the news again. The College announced establishment of the Rotman Society, preparing a video to celebrate the significance of the Rotmans’ generous support. Membership in the society will be awarded to parents and grandparents who consistently support Dartmouth.

Skip Traynham served as dean of the Tucker Foundation from 1974 to 1983 before moving to Los Angeles as rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church. Skip has been honored with the opening of the Traynham Health Center, a state-of-the-art facility that will house primary, specialty care, and diagnostic services.

The college has also announced a new initiative in healthcare funded by a gift from Eric Eichler. This service will bring together faculty from across the campus to offer undergraduates educational opportunities in healthcare delivery.

The Detroit Free Press invited Gary Gilson to revive a documentary that he produced back in 1969 for this year’s annual film festival. Gary is now working on a book based on great quotes from stories he covered through the years as a reporter and producer of documentary films throughout the country.

Tom Macy and Bruce Bernstein have found a creative way to enhance our commitment to the Dickey Center. The class of 1982 has asked to join us by establishing a fund to parallel our Great Issues Innovations Fund. This collaborative approach is unique at the College and provides 25 additional years of funding and endowment growth. The class of 1982 is special for other reasons as well: At least 15 members of the class are children of ’57s!

Happy and Clark Griffiths are hard at work planning for our Homecoming October 26-28. Plans include a special tour of the beautiful new Moosilauke Ravine Lodge on Friday, the Harvard game on Saturday, and a memorial service for Monk Bancroft in Rollins Chapel on Sunday.

—John W. Cusick, 251 Sabal Palm Lane, Vero Beach, FL 32963; (772) 231-1248; johnwcusick@aol.com

The year’s great pendulum keeps swinging: Bob Copeland writes that Monk Bancroft and Bob Shirley have passed. “I don’t know how well you knew these guys,” Bob says, “but they were among the best characters our class produced.” We speak often of our losses, but let’s talk of significant gains as well. Steve Swayne and Matthew Marsit are important new additions to our class. Steve, as chairman of the music department, was responsible for selecting the winners of the Eric Kunzel music award. Extremely close to our class, Steve has also received the John Rassias faculty award for exceptional outreach to alumni. Mike Lasser and Randy Aires strongly supported Steve’s adoption. Matthew, director of bands at Dartmouth, has been leader of the Dartmouth Wind Ensemble on two trips to Costa Rica attended by our classmates. He has also received numerous awards as a conductor and a clarinetist. Matthew was strongly supported for adoption by Bruce Bernstein and Pete Carothers. A most sincere welcome to both from the great class of 1957! Jay Greene shares with us that plans are firming up for a spectacular California mini-reunion, most likely April 27-May 2, with three days in San Francisco followed by three days in Napa Valley. Jay and Paulina are planning the valley fun and, significantly, Tom Ely’s widow, Cinda, is planning the San Francisco activities. Bruce Sloane reports that, after some 30 years of declining hearing, he decided on a cochlear implant, which now gives him near normal hearing, literally changing his life. Bruce adds that the implant has also changed wife Joy’s life. Bruce is busy giving talks, writing articles and counseling folks with hearing loss. If your hearing aids are no longer giving you the help you need, Bruce suggests evaluation for a cochlear implant. Check out his blog on this website: acialliance.org/blogpost/1644925/An-Octogenenarian-S-CI-Journey.

Now back to that yearly pendulum swing: It’s New Year’s resolution time as I write to you. One of my most important is to contact more of you from whom we have not heard recently. What are your hopes for 2018?

—John W. Cusick, 251 Sabal Palm Lane, Vero Beach, FL 32963; (772) 231-1248; johnwcusick@aol.com

Remember that day in history, June 9, 1957? Remember “Rak” and “Runk” from the Sports Illustrated 1957 Winter Carnival article? As they remember that day, Rak (Ken Rakouska) was commissioned a Navy ensign at 10 a.m., graduated from Dartmouth at 1 p.m. and married Dorothy Runkel at the little white church down the street at 4 p.m., with Bob Baehr as best man. Life-changing events. More recently, Rak and Runk report a swell time at the St. Augustine, Florida, mini organized by Gretchen and Larry Calvert.

After our great 60th reunion Muffy and Pete Caruthers arranged a get-together at the Basin Harbor resort on Lake Champlain, Vermont. Marian Holmesand Bob Copeland, Lita Moses and Bernie Bernstein, Lois and Ted Everett, El and Bill Fiero, Happy and Clark Griffiths, Sue and Dave Jenkins, Alice and Tom Macy, Cynthia and Dick Perkins, and Ellen and Allen Vanderland continued the reunion spirit there. Bob Creasy and Judy took Tom Macy’s advice and toured Vermont on their trip to Hanover from home in Marin County, California; too early to enjoy Tom’s “leaf peeping,” but they experienced a quintessential Vermont getaway at the Landgrove Inn near Londonderry, then a side trip to visit Joan and Sam Bartlett on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

The Dartmouth Club of Cape Cod asked our Jim Taylor to provide a speaker for its annual dinner in Osterville. Jim secured President Emeritus Jim Wright, who discussed America’s wars and those who fought them. Jim also met Dick Handy on a recent trip to Maine, and discussed our 60th reunion with John Citron at a board meeting for CapeAbilities. John is finance chair of this nonprofit that provides services for adults with disabilities; Jim is former board chair.

Any of you worried about peace? How about the Middle East? This Week in Palestine radio program is hosted by John Roberts every Sunday morning at 8:10 a.m. in the Boston area on WZBC, 90.3 FM. You can also stream the program live anywhere on your computer at WZBC.org.

Luckily, no room for fake news this edition. Please keep the real stuff coming to share!

—John W. Cusick, 251 Sabal Palm Lane, Vero Beach, FL 32963; (772) 231-1248; johnwcusick@aol.com

The 60th reunion of the great class of 1957 is behind us, so let’s get to the news. During the 60 years since our graduation we have given Dartmouth more than $60 million!

Eighty-two classmates, 77 wives and significant others and five widows returned for the 60th. At our 105 Dartmouth Hall class meeting, outgoing president Bernie Bernstein passed the gavel to Tom Macy and presented a special citation to Happy and Clark Griffiths for their exceptional class service. Special sessions included the evolution of “Great Issues,” moderated by Bruce Bernstein with panelists Gordon Bjork, Jay Greene, Larry Silberman and Chris Wren; and an Arctic-Antarctic presentation featuring adventurous classmates Bob Creasy, Bill Fiero and John Hobbie. Class dinners offered good food, extra treats and surprises: President Hanlon’s uplifting remarks, Dartmouth Aires performances, Barry Rotman accompanying his mother, Ida Rotman, a 60-year Dartmouth donor, on her 104th birthday as she became the first female member of the class of ’57.

Lyn and I arrived a day early for another inspiring Commencement. Honoree and speaker Jake Tapper ’91 received a standing ovation from the class of 2017; but for us, the real highlight was conferral of doctors of humane letters to Dottie and Bob King, whose endowment provides full scholarships to exceptional students from developing countries.

Equally impressive was our class memorial service, sensitively designed by Mike Lasser and Jack Stempel’s widow, Judy. Profound and dramatic, the service included music by Jay Greene, Ellsworth Wheeler’s widow, Kay; class singing led by Clark Griffiths; and readings by Hanny Mason’s widow, Carrie, Bernie Bernstein, Ted Jennings, Jack Hall, and Joe Stevenson. The names of classmates lost since our 55th reunion were read by Tom Macy, Wendie and Howie Howland.

Closing dinner at the Hanover Inn included Mike Lasser’s insights into songs of the 1930s, professor Jacob Strauss on piano and our incomparable Dave Cook on clarinet.

Finally, Bruce Sloane tells me that the toughest part of the scribe’s job is extracting information from classmates. One solution might be to create a new section: fake news. So keep those cards and letters coming!

—John W. Cusick, 251 Sabal Palm Lane, Vero Beach, FL 32963; (772) 231-1248; johnwcusick@aol.com

Sixty years! It’s been 60 years since we left the funny, funny faculty and went out into the wide, wide world. (Tuition and fees then were about $1,100.) In a few months we will gather once more in fellowship and remembrance for the class of 1957’s 60th reunion, June 12-15. Sixty years can seem like an instance or a lifetime—or both, simultaneously. It will be the year 2077 when the class of 2017 returns to Hanover for its 60th.

I’m writing this a few days before the calendar turns over to 2017 so some plans and events for the reunion have not been finalized. You will, of course, receive up-to-date and more details about the reunion. But here are some things to look forward to.

Most important for me, and I’m sure it is for others, is simply meeting, greeting and hanging out with classmates. Class headquarters and nerve center is the Paganucci Lounge, Class of 1953 Commons. Check in there first.

Some highlights include a presidential reunion address with Philip J. Hanlon ’77 Tuesday morning. The College has several lectures planned although details are not yet available.

If you haven’t been back to the College for a while, you may want to take a campus bus tour. There’s also an architectural walking tour, sort of an addendum to “Architecture 1” you took so many years ago—lots of construction since 1957.

Eating and socializing go together. Professional school grads will meet for breakfast Tuesday morning. Noted musicologist Mike Lasser will entertain us at the class banquet Wednesday night.

We’ll have a memorial service for departed classmates, an activity that grows more poignant every reunion.

You can also play golf, go along on a guided tour of the Orozco murals and visit your fraternity, major department and faculty members.

It’s our 60th reunion, June 12-15. I hope you’ve registered. If not, contact Clark or Happy Griffiths at clarkgrif@comcast.net or Mike Tompkins at miket@infionline.net. Volunteer if you can. They will welcome your help.

—Bruce Sloane, 124 Hull School Road, Sperryville, VA 22740; (540) 987-8859; bsloane@wildblue.net

As this issue arrives in your mailbox Homecoming is in full swing and the presidential elections and future of our country are a bare two weeks ahead. Yes, we live in interesting times.

Bruce Bernstein, Tom and Alice Macy ventured north of the Arctic Circle on a College-sponsored trip led by Ross Virginia, director of the Arctic studies program at the Dickey Center. After visiting Iqaluit in the Canadian north, they crossed the Davis Strait to Greenland. They visited the town of IIulissat and the Jacobshavn Icefjord and walked out on the vast ice sheet that covers most of the country. Their last stop was the town of Kangerlussuaq. (Several years ago I was privileged to visit Ilulissat and Kangerlussuaq and I must agree with Bruce that, “it was the most amazing trip I’ve ever taken.”)

Class membership in the Bartlett Tower Society is approaching 60. Ted Jennings would like it to reach or surpass 60 by the time of our 60th reunion next June. Ted says Dartmouth offers excellent ways to turn underperforming assets into income producers. You can even make a favorite campus activity a beneficiary.

Speaking of our 60th reunion, it will be held June 12-15, 2017. Look for detailed information in the class newsletter. Contact Clark or Happy Griffiths at clarkgrif@comcast.net or Mike Tompkins at miket@infionline.net for more information or to volunteer to help.

Most of us have reached our 90th decade and many struggle on in poor health. Our sympathy goes to the family, friends and classmates of the following deceased class members: Richard Norris, Douglas Trottier, Lee Beattie, Charles Maschal Jr. and Frank Szymanski.

—Bruce Sloane, 124 Hull School Road, Sperryville, VA 22740; (540) 987-8859; bsloane@wildblue.net

My dear classmates, I’m sorry to say that news is sparse this issue. I realize we are getting older and more infirm, but there are still memorable things happening in our lives that others would enjoy reading about. But they won’t unless you let me know about it.

Let’s look at the archives from 40 years ago, in the June-July 1976 DAM: The ’57 notes reveal that Dave Cook was named Class President of the Year. Congratulations again, Dave. We were getting ready for our 20th reunion, led by Dave Orr, who said he expected lots of wives and children to accompany their husbands to Hanover. Nick Danforth was getting “tired of New England slopes” and headed to Salt Lake City, Utah, for more rugged skiing. Jay Greene had a weekend visit from Jan Wlodarkiewicz. In Baltimore George Urban, M.D., was chairman of the ear, nose and throat department at Holy Cross Hospital and also had five children.

Back to today: Plans are beginning to shape up for our 60th class reunion, June 12-15, 2017. (Not June 5-12 as reported in the last ’57 notes. Sorry!) A post-reunion get-together is planned at the Basin Harbor resort on the shores of Lake Champlain, Vermont, June 16-17. More information will be forthcoming in the class newsletter. If you have suggestions, are willing to help or have questions, contact Clark or Happy Griffith at clarkgrif@comcast.net.

Eric and Norma Lee from Maryland were entertained for several days by Dick and Genie Lyman at their home in Boca Grande, Florida. They were joined for dinner one night by Jack and Joan Hall. Thank you, Norma, for that news.

I’m sorry to report the deaths of Robert J. French and Jonathan F. Seely.

—Bruce Sloane, 124 Hull School Road, Sperryville, VA 22740; (540) 987-8859; bsloane@wildblue.net

As I write this the eastern United States is having a mild December with little or no snow in New England. Will there be skiing in New Hampshire when you read this in February? Time will tell.

“Left foot red!” “Right hand blue!” Remember the game Twister? The one that left you and your girlfriend piled up together in knots? That game was co-invented some 50 years ago by Reyn Guyer. Reyn says he knew Twister was a winner when he played it with his girlfriend and “we couldn’t stop laughing.” Itbecame a long-time bestseller after it was featured on The Tonight Show in 1967 when Eva Gabor entwined host Johnny Carson onto the mat on live television. The game was recently inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame, a testament to Reyn and the toy’s enduring interest through the decades.

Another memorable invention of Reyn’s is the Nerf ball. Reyn has used his good fortune to support the Winsor Learning system, which helps teach remedial reading to dyslexic children.

Every good hardware store has a “go-to” person who always has the answer or solution no matter how simple or complex the problem. At the Brandywine (Pennsylvania) Ace hardware store the guy with the answers is Dick Bugbee. Dick, a sales associate, says he spends his day helping customers solve their problems, from plumbing, electrical, paint, tools, lawn and garden to nuts and bolts. “It is very gratifying to find a simple solution to a customer’s issue, and I learn something new every day,” he said. Other associates often ask him for help with simple calculations: proportions, areas, acreage and so on.

We are all familiar with death as a part of life and each month it seems there are fewer of us. This issue our thoughts and sympathies go to the families, friends and classmates of Bob Richmond, Ed Nelson, John Johnson, Brad Gorham, Harvey Epstein and Tony Pell.

—Bruce Sloane, 124 Hull School Road, Sperryville, VA 22740; (540) 987-8859; bsloane@wildblue.net

It’s the hot and muggy dog days of August as I write this. I guess the humid weather has everybody semi-comatose because there is very little to report.

“At 80 I don’t do a heck of a lot,” claims Belden Bell. Nevertheless, he’s on the board of trustees for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank, and co-chairman of its Legacy Society. He’s also working for Republican presidential candidates and got his youngest daughter, Heather, married off a few months ago (how difficult a job was that?) with one still to go (how difficult will that be?). Belden lives in rural Fauquier County, Virginia, with wife Rae, two golden retrievers and an unrepentant parrot. All that seems like a heck of a lot to me, Belden. What does the parrot have to repent?

That’s all the current news, folks. Just so you have something to read I checked the Class Notes for October 1976 as reported by secretary Benjamin Bixby. Things were busier in those days. Abbott Meador was a member of a group that received a $24,000 grant from the Maine State Commission on the Arts and Humanities for producing a film about Maine. Jay Greene was elected president of Western Steamship Services Inc. Also moving up in the business world were John Hall Jr., Joe Malley and Phil Lippincott. Ambassador to Yugoslavia Laurence “Larry” Silberman secured the release of a U.S. citizen imprisoned in Yugoslavia for a year, apparently “on trumped-up charges of espionage.” According to The New York Times, Larry was quoted as saying, “When we get to the point where we don’t care about an American citizen innocently imprisoned, then we’re not much a country anymore.” Do those words still ring true today?

Please take few minutes as Belden did and drop me an email or note. Some of us are doing a heck of a lot, even at age 80. Tell the class about it.

—Bruce Sloane, 124 Hull School Road, Sperryville, VA 22740; (540) 987-8859; bsloane@wildblue.net

If you should be lucky enough to visit the coast of Maine this summer, plan to stop by for a gander at Abbott Meader’s paintings and drawings on exhibit at Sotheby’s in Damariscotta. Abbott, professor of art emeritus at Colby College, is known for his landscape drawings of inland Maine and the Katahdin region. Lately he has been doing a series called “Invention on a Child’s Drawing, which involves imagery appropriated from our children’s and grandchildren’s drawings, re-combined and placed in new settings.” Look for some of Abbott’s work in the next edition of the class newsletter.


Nancy, Abbott’s wife, is an accomplished potter and still teaches at Colby. The two of them have held joint shows.


For more than 11 years James Taylor, M.D., has been a volunteer physician at the Duffy Health Center in Hyannis, Massachusetts. This month Jim will be the recipient of the 2015 Senior Volunteer Physician Award presented by the Massachusetts Medical Society. “Duffy,” said Jim, “provides services to the homeless and potentially homeless, the majority of whom are addicted to one or more substances and suffer from the many trials and tribulations associated with these problems.” Jim spent most of his professional career in private practice as a primary care physician. “The patients at Duffy were some of the most appreciative I have treated in a long career in medicine. This was one of the most enjoyable and rewarding chapters in my professional life.”


For his 80th birthday Frank Bruni took his four blackjack-loving children to a casino at Atlantic City, New Jersey. “I’ve got a trick,” said Frank as they entered the casino. “A secret guaranteed to make money.” He then gave each kid two crisp hundred-dollar bills so that their initial bets would be on him and they would start out even. “See?” he said. “You’re already a winner.” 


How was your birthday?


Our sympathies go out to the families of our deceased classmates Kwan Ha Yim Ph.D., Stephen Zaslow, M.D., John LaMonte and William Draper Jr.


—Bruce Sloane, 124 Hull School Road, Sperryville, VA 22740; (540) 987-8859; bsloane@wildblue.net


Volunteering has become an important part of life for many of us. For the past 12 years Joel Mitchell has been a board member with nonprofit Volunteer New York, the only volunteer connector in the lower Hudson Valley. Prospective volunteers connect with organizations looking for volunteers via a website that maintains the database. 


“We match these names and their skills to the organizations that are looking for volunteers,” said Joel. “Our list of volunteering opportunities is long and everyone has a skill set or passion that can be used to make our communities stronger! We also coordinate not-for-profit-related programs with area companies that encourage their employees to volunteer.” Joel also takes some time out “for just regular volunteering.”


Some people are so impassioned with their life’s work that it is hard to let go. After 50 years teaching at Harvard Law School, Lloyd Weinreb has retired to become the Dane Professor of Law, Emeritus. Before coming to Harvard Lloyd served as clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harlan and was a prosecutor for the U.S. Justice Department in Washington, D.C. At Harvard Lloyd has taught numerous courses and has an extensive bibliography, including several casebooks on criminal law and law review articles. He is perhaps best known for the semi-popular book, Oedipus at Fenway Park: What Rights Are and Why There are Any. 


“Dartmouth was a paradise for me,” writes Steve Zaslow, “and I treasure every minute spent there and every relationship.” A Dartmouth Med School graduate and psychiatrist, Steve has recently retired to Florida, where he manages “to survive in unfriendly territory.” Steve, I sincerely hope that your roller-coaster life smooths itself out to a more friendly existence.


What are you up to? Your classmates would like to know. Send me some news!


I’m sorry to report the death of Bob Goodman. 


—Bruce Sloane, 124 Hull School Road, Sperryville, VA 22740; (540) 987-8859; bsloane@wildblue.net


From the sands and the shores of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, John Citron writes that he keeps busy in retirement. In addition to being treasurer of the Dartmouth Club of Cape Cod for 15 years, John and his wife, Ellen, deliver Meals on Wheels in Harwich, where they live. They both also volunteer with CapeAbilities, a nonprofit agency that delivers services to adults with disabilities; John is also treasurer and a board member. To keep in shape, the Citrons have his-and-her treadmills and work out together. 


The current altitude record for hot air balloons is 22,000 feet, says Dave Keith. He didn’t quite reach that altitude on his balloon ride, a gift from daughter Christy on his 80th birthday. It took Dave more than a year to cash in the gift certificate, but he says he floated past Cloud Nine as he looked down on the marvels of Florida. He suggested to me that I should take a balloon ride over the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, which has more spectacular scenery than Florida. Would that take me past Cloud 10, Dave? 


Thirty years ago class secretary Dan Searby wrote the ’57 Class Notes for Dartmouth Alumni Magazine. In the December 1984 issue he reported that Pete Diamond, Art Johnson, Sherm Mills and Joel Mitchell were all moving up in the corporate world. Don Swift was a research geologist with Arco and Herb Roskind was working hard to get Democrats elected. Wedding bells rang out for John Plunkett and bride Diane Pollack, both of them for the second time. I hope you are having a wonderful 30th anniversary. And in 1984 we were turning 50 and becoming old men.


Most of us do volunteer work that is both interesting and needed. Let your classmates know what you are doing. Send me your news! 


Word has been received of the death of Paul Schmitt of Larkspur, California. Our thoughts and condolences go out to his children.


—Bruce Sloane, 124 Hull School Road, Sperryville, VA 22740; (540) 987-8859; bsloane@wildblue.net


Snowbird Frank Bruni migrates with the seasons between Georgia and the New York suburbs. His 18-year-old granddaughter Leslie didn’t want him to make the drive by himself. So she flew from L.A. to Atlanta, hopped behind the wheel of her granddad’s gold-colored Cadillac, and the two headed north. That younger generation is remarkable! 


Jim Francis sent me a brochure of our Freshman Fathers’ Weekend, a three-day get-together in February 1954. With dads in attendance we saw freshman hockey square off against Harvard, the freshmen hoopsters face Boston College and listened to the freshman Glee Club.


We also had a smoker, went to regular Saturday classes (bet they don’t have either of those today) and attended church services led by the Rev. Diplock, father of Llewellyn Diplock. President John S. Dickey ’29, Dean Stearns Morse and Ross McKenney of the DOC spoke to the group. Our class officers were Edward Jennings, president; George Bixby, vice president; Robert Smith, secretary; and Kent Crane, treasurer.


Best friends forever, or BFFs. That describes Dick Perkins and Tony Carleton ’56. At Dartmouth they skied and were roommates. After college they remained close, living close by and sharing the successes, pains and foibles of families, careers and growing old and skiing together. A few years ago Dick, legally blind from macular degeneration, had to stop skiing altogether. Two decades earlier Tony had developed a neurological disorder that destroyed his upper body strength and made walking difficult, but he could still ski. 


Then three years ago Tony had an idea: He would serve as Dick’s guide, and they could ski down mountains together. Tony put on a bright green and orange vest that said “Guide” and attached colorful vertical stripes to his pant legs to help guide Dick, who followed him downslope with another orange vest that said “Visually Impaired.” And downhill they go!


You can see a short video of them skiing (they go fast, amazing other skiers), plus excerpts from an interview by Boston station WBUR at the class website, www.dartmouth57.com. 


—Bruce Sloane, 124 Hull School Road, Sperryville, VA 22740; (540) 987-8859; bsloane@wildblue.net


At the Cooperstown mini-reunion last June, after everyone had been to the baseball museum, several classmates talked about childhood memories and favorite teams—Dick Canton, the Red Sox; Bob Baehr, the Cubs; Dick Lyman, the Tigers; and Monk Bancroft, the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry. Ron Judson, a former Brooklyn Dodgers fan, also talked about his experiences as a minor league pitcher in the late 1950s. 


Monk, Joe Stevenson, Clark Griffiths and Roger Brown are involved in what Joe calls “a comprehensive history of Dartmouth skiing.” The author is Steve Waterhouse ’64. Joe wrote the bio of Chick Igaya, Clark wrote a history of the 1936 Oak Hill ski lift and Monk provided information on the replacement of the single chairlift at Mad River Glen. Roger is doing video for supplemental presentations. Anticipated publication date is late 2009. 


One afternoon in Cooperstown Al Wahlig said, “This tells the story of my life,” and pulled an old comic strip from his wallet. The character in the strip announced that he’d given up his career to build boats. Same with Al. He practiced medicine until 1995, when he retired to build 12-foot wooden rowboats from Maine northern white cedar for his six grandchildren. He and Joyce live in Hammondsport at the southern tip of Lake Keuka, one of the prettiest of New York State’s Finger Lakes.


Bob Slaughter modestly calls himself “an inactive member of the Door County Astronomical Society” in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. His interest in astronomy began with the Boy Scouts, continued with professor George Dimitroff’s courses and then proceeded to “doing starsights for navigational positions around South America in a destroyer escort.” These days he teaches informal courses for young people “interested in learning about the skies and stars.” Bob keeps in touch with Ned Bixby, Jack Cramer, Ken Rakouska, Ken Ragland and Ted Bradley. 


Ron and Beverly Marino have been finding good homes for rescued abandoned collies for the last two years. Ron writes, “With times as they are, pets are the first to go. We offer a new beginning for these great dogs. Please consider a collie when looking for a new pet.” For information, write ronaldlmarino@hotmail.com.


Bruce Sloane serves as board member, treasurer and ambulance driver for the Sperryville (Virginia) Volunteer Rescue Squad. He says, “More and more of our volunteers are retired folks.”


Much of Route 4 in New Hampshire and Vermont is not as we remember it. East from Lebanon it’s cluttered with strip malls and punctuated with traffic lights that snarl the traffic at rush hour. West from Rutland a four-lane expressway bobs and weaves through the Green Mountains on its way to New York State. But from Lebanon to Rutland it is still the narrow road—and the slow ride—we remember, as it turns sharply just east of Woodstock, follows the meandering Ottauquechee River for miles and ambles past several covered bridges. We’re in the midst of the dog days of August, but Labor Day approaches and autumn beyond it—the 56th since our first Convocation. If you’re looking for an excuse to return—for Homecoming, say—there it is. 


—Michael Lasser, 164 New Wickham Drive, Penfield, NY 14526; rhythm2@frontiernet.net


With thanks to Ron Judson for his good offices, here’s what’s up with classmates who were on that terrific Dartmouth basketball team we used to watch with such enjoyment.


Gene Booth, a 2006 inductee of the New England Basketball Hall of Fame, retired as executive director of the Rhode Island Commission for Human Rights and is now running MLK Business Forms in New Haven, Connecticut. It’s associated with the Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council, which encourages large corporations to do business with minority-owned companies.


Retired from Wells-Fargo and living near Berkeley, California, Jim Francis developed an interest in special education in the 1990s. He works two days a week as a special ed teacher’s assistant, mainly with kids who need help in reading. Jim makes special mention of Coach Doggie Julian, who helped him establish himself in the National Industrial Basketball League after graduation. He went on to play for Oakland in the American Basketball League in the early 1960s.


Tom Donahoe has got a Dartmouth thing going—son John is an ’82 and grandson Thomas is an ’09. Tom retired from Price Waterhouse 13 years ago and stays active on not-for-profit boards in the Chicago area. Tom remembers a team dinner before a Friday game against Harvard. Three of the four Roman Catholics on the team were eating fish, “but Judson is having steak. When I asked him how he could eat meat on a Friday he splashed water on it and said, ‘Swim, you S.O.B., swim!’ ”


Chick Winslow e-mails that he followed his schoolyard hero Pete Geithner ’54 to high school, a summer job lifeguarding at the Jersey Shore and eventually to Dartmouth. Chick seems to have done something similar with three sons, two daughters-in-law and a brother-in-law all with Dartmouth class numerals after their names.


Larry Blades, out there in the Heartland, calls himself a recovering lawyer. He does the predictable retirement stuff—gardening and playing bridge, and also uses the Internet to write letters to the editor and “make a nuisance of myself.” Of the team he remembers “the incredible camaraderie of the group. I don’t remember a disparaging word.” He also tells a story about freshman coach Chick Evans, who took 12 players on a trip but said that next time he’d take only 10 so there’d be more steak to go around. One member of the team piped up, “Why not go by yourself and have the whole goddam cow!”


In the course of talking about bygone days Ron Judson remembered Herb Markman, who died in an automobile accident in 1959. “Herb and I played against each other in high school and then were surprised to find ourselves on the same team at Dartmouth. We’d hang out in the gym, playing one on one and having shooting contests.” You may remember that both of them were among the last practitioners of the two-handed set shot. Ron said, “Herbie could shoot. He was a little slow of foot, but he’d beat the hell out of me.” Ron paused and then added, “Hey, he didn’t always win!”


—Michael Lasser, 164 New Wickham Drive, Penfield, NY 14526; rhythm2@frontiernet.net


Some of us made a career out of teaching, others taught a course or two as an extension of our work and still others first taught after retirement. 


Doug Brew taught at a number of colleges, including 19 years in the geology department at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. He then turned to house building for Habitat for Humanity in Colorado and Poland. He also sings in the Durango Choral Society—including a performance of the Mozart Requiem in Carnegie Hall last year.


A former distinguished teaching professor at the State University of New York-Fredonia, Dick Gilman found himself back in a classroom with 60 students after a sudden death in the geo-sciences department. He still plays fiddle and banjo, builds mountain dulcimers and has helped to restore the 1891 Fredonia Opera House where he volunteers.


Mike King has a similar interest. Since his retirement from Brooks School in North Andover, Massachusetts, where he created the school’s first art department, he has been involved in renovating the Park Theatre in Jaffrey, New Hampshire. It’s a former vaudeville and movie house in the process of becoming “a regional center for the arts.”


While teaching modern European history at Hofstra University John Jeanneney developed an interest in the use of leashed tracking dogs for the humane purpose of finding wounded big game. He has a Web site (www.born-to-track.com) and is the author of Tracking Dogs for Finding Wounded Deer.


After a career in information technology at IBM in Providence, Rhode Island, Phil Lippincott is active in Common Cause at the state level. Phil describes it as a nonpartisan organization “working toward open, ethical, accountable and effective government.”


Duncan Barnes, retired as editor of Field & Stream magazine, remains active in the out-of-doors. He is currently a director of the Maine Coastal Conservation Association, which works to conserve the state’s saltwater sport fisheries, and is also a founding board member of Stripers Forever, an Internet-based organization with nearly 20,000 members from Maine to North Carolina that advocates game fish status (no commercial harvest) for the wild striped bass all along the Atlantic Coast. 


Last December Bob Grey, former U.S. representative to the Conference on Disarmament, spoke about the new START Treaty at the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability in Washington, D.C.


Marty Anderson and his wife, Annelise, have co-authored a new book, Reagan’s Secret War: The Untold Story of His Fight To Save the World from Nuclear Disaster, from Crown. Both are fellows at the Hoover Institution. 


Dick Mason sings with the Joyful Singers, a Worcester, Massachusetts, chorus of men and women in their 70s.


Dave Jenkins was a general trial judge for the state of Vermont. Asked what he does nowadays, he says, “I try cases.” He is still a part-time judge on civil cases “when they ask me.”


Retired from a career in environmental engineering, Bob McCollom serves as a regional board member for the Vermont Symphony Orchestra and is active with the Vermont Humane Federation.


—Michael Lasser, 164 New Wickham Drive, Penfield, NY 14526; rhythm2@frontiernet.net

This note from ’57 class president Bob Marchant: “Dear classmates, widows of classmates and others important in the lives of our classmates: At the 50th reunion of the Dartmouth class of 1957 Jay Greene and Larry Selig ran a moving tribute to our classmates who had died up until that time. Since that June of 2007, 26 more have passed away.


“Tom Macy, class necrologist, has worked with webmaster Allan Vendeland and Class Notes editor Mike Lasser to ensure that the announcement of the obituaries is timely and accurate. The class appreciates their work in this necessary task.


“Below are the names of the 26 of our ’mates who have died since our 50th. We miss them and name them to hold them in our memories: Wes Adams, Bob Baehr, Gerry Cabaniss, Lan Cady, Kit Carleton, Jeff Clapham, Mal Davidson, Al Escalante, Frank Guider, Dan Harris, Tony Jenks, Stan Juthe, Wayne Kakela, Bill Knox, George Kregos, Erich Kunzel, Joel Levy, Dick Mason, John Meier, Bob Porter, Pete Pullen, Ned Roesler, John Scully, Frank Sherman, Sandy Trusler, James White and Bob Young.”


Praising “the outstanding user-friendly” class website that answered her questions about how “to stay contacted with the class that Wayne loved so much,” Wayne Kakela’s widow, Linda, wrote that she and Monte Pascoe’s widow, Pat, “are making tentative plans to come together to the 55th reunion” in 2012.


Classmates who have taught as a career or who came to teaching later on continue to describe their work in the classroom. If people will put aside natural reticence and send some information, I’d like to include more examples.


Dick Shramm has “taught economics, finance and community development for 45 years, preparing graduate students for work in local governments, nonprofits and businesses devoted to building sustainable local communities.” He’s done most of his teaching at Columbia, Cornell, Tufts, MIT, University of Vermont and Goddard College.


Charlie Cummings chaired the department of otolaryngology/head and neck surgery at the University of Washington and then at Johns Hopkins. Fifteen of his students went on to chair other academic training programs. Charlie is currently the executive medical director for Johns Hopkins International, which involves international education and clinical care.


A bit of boasting: I’ve been named a 2010 Rollins College Thomas P. Johnson Distinguished Visiting Scholar. It seems that I’ve managed to become distinguished at about the same time that I’m entering my dotage.


A recent New York Times op-ed piece suggested reducing college to three years. Responses emphasized the need to give students time to examine their assumptions about their futures. I’d like to devote a column to those of you who changed your minds about future careers or else studied something unconventional—a premed majoring in philosophy, for instance. 


I’d also like to devote a column to ways in which classmates are helping others and providing services to their communities. A lot of us are doing this sort of thing. Please send examples.


—Michael Lasser, 164 New Wickham Drive, Penfield, NY 14526; rhythm2@frontiernet.net


If you’re looking for a job, try Art Koff’s website, RetiredBrains.com. Art says that the website has continued to grow and offer content of interest to older Americans. “We have changed our employment focus to temporary and part-time jobs,” he said. “These are areas most available to our demographic. Employers have reacted by placing thousands of jobs.”


Speaking of jobs, if you shop at the Wegman’s grocery store in Woodbridge, Virginia, visit the wine department and let wine consultant Sherman Mills help you pick out an appropriate bottle or two. In addition to working part-time selling wine, Sherman teaches wine classes to customers. “It’s fun and gives me enough money to keep my wine cellar well-stocked,” he said. Sherm and his wife, Caroline, have gone on several walking tours in England run by the Wayfarers. They hope to make another trip this September to visit Downton Abbey. Should we look for you in future TV episodes?


Lead author Bob Creasy, M.D., has helped to revise and update the sixth edition of Creasy and Resnik’s Maternal-Fetal Medicine: Principles and Practice, a widely used reference and textbook. The book is available at Amazon.com. Bob also chairs the class of ’57 Caring Connection program and is heading out to New Zealand for some well-deserved fly-fishing. 


We sadly note the passing of Richard Hume. 


What is going on in your life? Let classmates know. Send me your news! 


—Bruce Sloane, 124 Hull School Road, Sperryville, VA 22740; (540) 987-8859; bsloane@wildblue.net


It’s been a year since our 55th reunion and classmates continue to meet together and renew friendships, most recently at the Martha’s Vineyard mini, September 23-26, and about a week ago at Homecoming, October 11-13. Accounts of these festivities are forthcoming in the class newsletter.


Life afloat has its appeal, but after more than a decade of living aboard boats less than 23 feet long, Bill Fiero and Ellen are ready to come ashore. During that time they have cruised through more than 30,000 miles of America’s waterways, including trips to Alaska up the Inside Passage. But that doesn’t mean they have given up travel, Bill says. “We spent the past summer ‘cruising’ through the Rockies, and will soon celebrate our 27th year of retirement at age 50 and sharing a simple life of houseless global travel.” 


The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine recently honored Charles Cummings, M.D., as a distinguished medical alumnus based on his years of service to Johns Hopkins since 1990. His many positions at Hopkins include director of the department of otolaryngology, head and neck surgery, and chief of staff of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Currently he is a Distinguished Service Professor at Johns Hopkins and continues to care for patients.


Charles has written more than 138 scientific papers and was the founder and senior editor of the four-volume text, Cummings Otolaryngology: Head and Neck Surgery, now in its fifth edition. He has also been president or chairman of numerous medical organizations, including the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and the American Society of Head and Neck Surgery. His many awards and honors include the Newcomb Award (from the Laryngological Society) and the Yearsley Lecture and Award (from the British Otolaryngology Society).


Twelve of his former residents are currently chairing departments of otolaryngology, head and neck surgery, at leading academic institutions. Thank you, Charlie, for your lifetime of service to the world.


The class is again diminished, this time with news of the deaths of Ron Roth and Larry Parks. 


—Bruce Sloane, 124 Hull School Road, Sperryville, VA 22740; (540) 987-8859; bsloane@wildblue.net


Reunions breed reunions. Jim Dawson wrote, “Naomi and Phil Lippincott and Lucille and I got together for the first time in more than 50 years. The last time we met was at their wedding, when I was Lip’s best man.”


Andy Turner, retired from flying for the U.S. Air Force, continues government ties. He consults in federal government contract management and assists his wife, Ellen, with her travel business. Note to Hanny Mason, who handles mini-reunions as of now: Andy proposes a mini-reunion in northern Virginia that visits the homes of past presidents and various wineries. Suggested title: “Leaders and Liters.”


Mailbox and inbox are empty except for the cobwebs and peanut shells. I can’t convince myself to bother with them. The bad news, as I wind up five years of writing the notes, is how quickly the time has gone. The good news is how many classmates I’ve had contact with, some of whom I’d never known before. 


There has to be a reason for our turning again and again to Dickey on Dartmouth. A few months ago Jim Francis was good enough to send me a talk of Dickey’s titled “The Dartmouth Fabric.” I don’t know the year or the audience. Even so I recognize Dickey’s prose as well as his passion and conviction. As education has become something you can measure with a test, his belief in the liberal arts becomes provocative and even more stirring than before. He saw Dartmouth as the apotheosis of the liberal arts college whose mission involved a double duty: to develop “the full capacity of individual power and the moral will to its decent use.” If anyone wonders why Dartmouth, there it is in a single breath. 


I think it’s fair to say that I learned from e-mailing dozens of you and writing the notes every few months that Dickey was more right than I knew about what he called “the Dartmouth fellowship.” It has been a rich lesson to learn anew. My thanks. 


With the next issue, the new class secretary Bruce Sloane takes over this column.


—Michael Lasser, 164 New Wickham Drive, Penfield, NY 14526; mlasser@rochester.rr.com


In September 1953 about 740 of us arrived on the Hanover Plain to embark on the Dartmouth experience. Now, 59 years later, some 560 of us are still the stuff of this institution; 180 are known to have passed away, and others may have died without our knowledge.


Dartmouth bonds become more important with each passing year. The College and our classmates have several methods to help us keep in contact. The Class Notes that you are reading is published six times a year and provides brief items of interest.


The class newsletter, edited by Mike Lasser, is published four times a year and provides in-depth articles and photographs of reunions and classmates’ activities.


The class website, run by webmaster Allan Vendeland at www.dartmouth57.com, provides useful and interesting information on class members, spouses, widows, children, current and planned activities, plus links to useful College resources.


Lively and timely discussions take place on the interactive class listserv. While cruising down the Danube Bill Fiero wrote, “The class listserv is an important part of my day. Discussions and class news about events and classmates is important to me.” Contact Adam Block at www.dartmouth57.org to join Bill and the listserv.


Bob Creasy—assisted by Dick Bugbee, Howie Howland, Art Koff and Bob Shirley—manages the Caring Connection to contact classmates who need support or just some friendly words during a difficult or stressful situation. If you know of anyone you think could use this help—or feel the need of it yourself—contact Bob at rkcreasy@pacbell.net or anyone in this group. Spouses of deceased classmates can receive similar help through the widow’s liaison from Cinda Ely, widow of Tom Ely,at cinda.ely@comcast.net.


Retirement has brought many of us new interests. Jay Greene, editor of the “Becoming Human” website, answers queries about human origins. He gets questions from a diverse group ranging from creationists who doubt everything to schoolchildren writing papers to professional scientists seeking help with their research.


Send me news your classmates would like to read about!


—Bruce Sloane, 124 Hull School Road, Sperryville, VA 22740; (540) 987-8859; bsloane@wildblue.net


Volunteerism has become a vital activity for many of us in recent years. Numerous classmates report that since they’ve retired they are busier than ever. Some devote hours each week to their community or College activities, often with little recognition. 


So it was nice to learn that Allan Vendeland (who also maintains the class website, www.dartmouth57.com) was named Northeast Ohio Alumnus of the Year by the Dartmouth Club of Northeast Ohio at a recent meeting. Club president Mark Heller ’70 presented Allan with a logoed outdoor vest in recognition of his years of organizing monthly luncheons for Cleveland-area alumni. You must be dishing them up tasty meals, Allan.


Get-togethers with classmates are always memorable, whether it’s our recent 55th shebang or a mini-reunion with a few friends. Delta Upsilon brothers and their families from the classes of ’57, ’58 and ’59 met recently in Santa Barbara, California, for a three-day reunion. Organized by Bob Caldwell, Dick Sutherland and Gordon Bjork, the celebrants had lunch at a local winery, toured historic Mission Santa Barbara and attended a garden party at Gordon’s home. About a dozen ’57s participated. (Were the parties as memorable as DU’s parties 55-plus years ago?) 


Death is a part of life, but it is still difficult to accept that each month another classmate or two has passed on. Word has been received of the deaths of Randell “Randy” Nord, Alan Dessoff and Fred Kumm. Our condolences go out to their families and friends.


I apologize for the sparse notes this issue. I had major surgery and was not as proactive snooping out information during recovery as I had hoped to be. By the time you read this I’ll be fully recovered. What have you been up to? Let me and classmates know.


—Bruce Sloane, 124 Hull School Road, Sperryville, VA 22740; (540) 987-8859; bsloane@wildblue.net


Classmates remain engaged in a wide variety of ways. Bill Davidow’s latest book, Overconnected: The Promise and Threat of the Internet, is available in paperback from Delphinium books. James Fallows of The Atlantic names Bill as “one of the pioneers of the modern technology” and calls the book “clear, original and worth being read.”


Bob Shirley, identifying himself as “Meats the Fighter,” achieved his Warholian 15 by appearing as an extra in the movie, The Fighter: “I was sixth row ringside during the ‘Machine Gun’ Mangin mismatch that set Micky back so much.”


Though retired from full-time practice, Jim Taylor sees patients one day a week at the Duffy Health Center in Hyannis, Massachusetts, and is board chair of CapeAbilities, devoted to providing services to Cape Cod residents with disabilities. 


Ellen and John Citron managed to move without changing post office box or phone number. They found the house they built a dozen years ago too large so bought a new one just down the road in South Harwich, Massachusetts.


Christian Weber’s widow, Joan, writes that she was part of a small group of nine that spent three weeks in Jordan and Israel, and then leased a London flat for two weeks with her daughter and grandson. 


In his recent book, The American Dog at Home, William Second devotes a chapter to Dick and Carolyn Sunderland titled “A Very Doggy Family.” 


When Gary Gilson told the listserv that he’d come upon a website with old radio shows free for the listening, so many classmates sent memories and anecdotes that I’ll carry some over to mix with regular news in the next issue. But here’s a start.


Not surprisingly, we were drawn to adventure shows when we were boys during the War. A lot of people mentioned the late-afternoon serials such as Jack Armstrong and Terry and the Pirates. 


Howie Howland got his newspapers at 4:30 every afternoon. He had just enough time to deliver all 60 of them and then beat it home on his bike to hear Captain Midnight at 5:30. 


Like Art Koff, Dave Keith had one of the captain’s secret decoder rings to decipher the secret messages at the end of the show, but he also had one from Little Orphan Annie. “I hated Ovaltine but I had to have it to get a glow-in-the-dark white plastic ring with a green glass stone. In a pitch black closet it looked just like an animal’s eye!” He also remembers that he listened to an Atwater-Kent in the living room, “its speaker hidden behind a screen with a frame shaped like a Gothic cathedral window.”


Joe Stevenson “sat engrossed, picturing Tom Mix with six-guns blazing….While listening to these shows most often I was drawing pictures of the cowboys.”


Among the lessons Bob Caldwell learned from The Lone Ranger: a love for the William Tell Overture, the word “yesteryear” and this practical tip: “If you’re chasing somebody into a dark cave from the daylight, always stop and cover your eyes with your hat so your pupils will dilate.” Keep it in mind.


—Michael Lasser, 164 New Wickham Drive, Penfield, NY 14526; mlasser@rochester.rr.com


During our 25th reunion I happened to wander past a class tent occupied by some people who looked very old to me. They were members of the class of 1927 at their 55th reunion. And here we are, walking around in their shoes. Survival may not be the ultimate goal, but it sure ain’t a bad place to start. The reunion starts on Monday, June 11. For information, contact Clark Griffiths at clarkgrif@comcast.net or check the class website at www.dartmouth57.com. 


The Dartmouth Aires’ successful appearances on NBC’s Sing-Off brought back memories of The Injunaires. The nine members included classmates Bill Gennerich, Jon White and Ed Waldron. Bill died a decade ago, but Jon and Ed are still very much with us. Ed remembers that the group called itself “the only nine-man octet in the country,” and says that, unlike the current Aires, “our choreography consisted of putting our right hand in our right trousers.” 


Ed has done several plays with the Naples Players in recent years—including My Fair Lady and Kiss Me, Kate—but bemoans the dearth of parts for what he calls “77-year-old ingénues.” He’s never missed a reunion and looks forward to the 55th.


Adam Block posted a review of Bill Edgerton’s new mystery novel, Wine Killer. Here’s part of what Adam wrote: “An impressive first novel with a surprising number of unexpected twists and turns. It’s a page turner.” In addition to his knowledge of wines, Bill is also a collector, restorer and maker of mechanical music machines. Fine wines and gadgetry play important roles in the plot.


Bruce Bernstein offers a reminder that Bob Porter, who died last year, wrote two novels based on his days at the CIA, Moscow Contrivance and Flyswatter, both still in print. Bruce adds that they were fun to read “because they were clear extensions of Bob.”


The year-old Colorado Music Hall of Fame recently inducted Harry Tuck. He and well-known rock promoter Barry Fey are its third and fourth members, joining John Denver and Denver’s Red Rocks Amphitheater. 


Jim Donnelly is one of six new board members at Lake Forest College in Lake Forest, Illinois. He remains a general partner in a Chicago-based investment firm. 


Family matters: Bob Adelizzi, from whom we hear often, and Don Adley are cousins who are also close friends. Don lives in Clinton, Connecticut, east of New Haven on Long Island Sound. He was a general contractor specializing in high-quality custom houses. He continues to race motorcycles in New Hampshire.


When the College totes up mini-reunions, it says that five classmates have to be in the same room at the same time. Yet many of us see one another in smaller groups that are no less satisfying. Elaine and I had to be in western Massachusetts some months back, and arranged to have dinner with Tom and Susan Schwartz, Bill and Roz Gershell and Bruce Bernstein. Despite ailments and infirmities, it was a joyful evening. In that spirit, on to Hanover!


—Michael Lasser, 164 New Wickham Drive, Penfield, NY 14526; mlasser@rochester.rr.com


Want a good inexpensive wine? Oenologist Bill Edgerton suggests the J. Lohr Riverstone chardonnay. “It’s available at most stores for between $9 and $12,” Bill said. “If you don’t mind an oaky chardonnay, its rich flavors of tree fruits, butter and nutmeg keep you coming back for more. Anyone you serve it to will be impressed. Our family has consumed at least 100 cases of this wine over the past decade.” Thanks for the tip, Bill, and I hope you have a large family.


Things are going along swimmingly for our 1957 class president, Bruce Bernstein. He’s a member of U.S. Masters swimming, meaning he participates in swim meets for adults. The racers compete by age and sex. Because there aren’t many 75-to-79-year-old male competitors, Bruce is almost always one of the top finishers in his races and brings home a medal or two. 


Speaking of our age group, Rod Hinkle suggests that only doctors who meet the particular specifications and characteristics of their specialty should be allowed to practice that specialty. Optometrists should wear glasses, and so forth. Thus our personal physician should be a gerontologist who is at least 75 years old. That way the doctor would know whether that “senior” pain would go away in a few days or if it was something more serious. But Rod doubts whether male physicians who want to be obstetricians would agree with this suggestion. And I wonder, Rod, would you want an 80-year-old doctor with shaky hands to give you a shot? 


Lost and Not Found Department: Dave Keith has misplaced his ’57 50th reunion windbreaker and wonders if anyone has an extra one, new or used, that they would sell or give away to keep Dave warm. Contact Dave at focalplane@cfl.rr.com if you can help. Large or extra-large preferred. 


Our class slowly grows smaller. I’m sorry to report that the College has learned of the deaths of classmates Peter Serenyi, John “Skip” Bohn and David Gregg. 


Send me your news of note!


—Bruce Sloane, 124 Hull School Road, Sperryville, VA 22740; (540) 987-8859; bsloane@wildblue.net


The May-June DAM article about Delta Upsilon’s successful struggle to pledge Ray Johnson ’59 (led by Tom Herlihy, Tom Macy, Bob Caldwell and Shelly Kjellenberg) led to email exchanges about how fraternities fared in those days when the civil rights movement was just beginning to catch the nation’s attention. Everybody who had anything to say about their national fraternity affirmed their commitments to College, class and fraternity in that order, but had, at best, a dismissive attitude toward the various nationals. 


Charlie Sellman, looking back to the Naples, Florida, mini last March, wrote that its highlight was Bob Vostal’s “supreme effort to come down from Missouri and say goodbye to his pals. He was terribly frail but had the same old warm smile and care for his buddies.” Bob died a few weeks later, but as Charlie noted, “Now that’s dedicated fellowship—College and class!”


There may be other untold stories about Dartmouth fraternities that were confronting discriminatory clauses or simply trying to diversify their memberships; change was in the air. I think it would be instructive to tell those stories even at this late date. Please send them for future columns.


Shelly and Tom Keller ran into one another on the Twin Cities Dartmouth club’s tour of the King Tut exhibit at the Minnesota Museum of Science. Shelley reports that Tom is a prominent (and still active) attorney in Minneapolis, Minnesota.


Archbishop Sergius, whom we knew as Al Burnes, sent a lengthy summary of his commitment to study and the religious life. Since 1998, when “he chose to live and work in semi-reclusion,” he has lived at Holy Transfiguration Skete in southwestern Idaho’s mountain-desert but continues his “advocacy, writing and teaching activities.” 


Having forsaken the North Country for Pinehurst, North Carolina, Joe Stevenson is a new board member for the North Carolina Symphony, “a wonderful orchestra” based in Raleigh.


The New York Times bureau chief in Cairo from 1977-1980, Chris Wren spoke recently in South Royalton, Vermont, on “The Rule of Law and the Arab Revolt: A Journalist’s Perspective.”


Clark Griffiths sends an update on the 55th, just under a year from now. He reminds us to gather in Hanover on June 11-14, and promises detailed information before much longer. “Key activities include campus tours, a panel discussion, a reception and barbecue at the Bema, a reception and dinner at the DOC House on Occom Pond, a lunch down by the river, a final banquet, and we are planning to honor Erich Kunzel.” He and the other planners are also considering a post-reunion continuation for two nights, probably at the Woodside Inn, and for the hardier souls among us, a possible pre-reunion trek up the mountain from the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge. 


Allan Vendeland sends a reminder to check the class website (www.dartmouth57.com) for upcoming reunions, events, obituaries, memorials and photographs. Allan has also added “listserv bios” of frequent contributors but welcomes corrections. A link to the bios is on the “Classmate” tab. Most of these brief comments came unsolicited (but not unwelcome) from Bob Copeland.


—Michael Lasser, 164 New Wickham Dr., Penfield, NY 14526; mlasser@rocheseter.rr.com


In the autumns of 1953, 1954 and 1955, Dartmouth’s football team won a total of eight games out of 27 played. Then, in 1956, coach Bob Blackman’s second season, Dartmouth had its first winning record since 1949. The team included nine members of the class of 1957, including Monte Pascoe and Jim Parkes, both gone now. With help from All-Ivy center Bob Adelizzi, no longer hobbling on new knees, here’s an update on the others. 


Ron Fraser had a long career in education as a teacher, coach and school administrator and then ran a regional bus company in the Chicago area, where he continues to live. Back problems and surgery have kept him off the tennis court lately, but Bob remembers Ron’s “great hands and his toughness.”


According to Bob, John Donnelly was “a true entrepreneur,” working with small venture capital startups in need of help. More recently, he gave his time to advising young CEOs about the complexities of management. These days he sits on boards, including Maurice Pinkoffs, John Griffin’s company in Houston.


Bob Rex remains interested in Dartmouth athletics. In addition to serving as secretary/treasurer of the Friends of Dartmouth Football, he mentors four student athletes. He’s also a justifiably enthusiastic golfer with a 9 handicap and introduced head football coach Buddy Teevens ’79 as the speaker at the annual Homecoming dinner at the Norwich Inn.


Retired from a long career in teaching and coaching, Lou Rovero lives on the Connecticut coast not far from his original hometown of Putnam. 


After earning his law degree from Harvard, Mike Brown had a career in professional football and is currently the owner of the Cincinnati Bengals. Looking back, he considers Blackman one of the best teachers he had at Dartmouth. “To be a successful football coach,” he says, “you have to be a great teacher.”


Congratulations to Joe Stevenson on receiving the 2011 Gift Planning Chair of the Year Award at the Class Officers Weekend last October. Joe has been conducting public interviews with musicians and conductors for the North Carolina Symphony as a member of its board.


It’s not uncommon for good news and bad to mix together. Pete and Muffin Carothers’ farm on the New Haven River in Vermont was pretty badly beat up by Hurricane Irene. The good news is that “FEMA did okay by us,” and Habitat for Humanity volunteers and church friends helped with the clean up afterwards. Pete’s conclusion: “The entire experience contained many blessings along the way.”


Bob Shirley reports that of the 18 remaining classmates who went on to Dartmouth Medical School, nearly half were at their 50th DMS reunion last summer. In addition to “Meats,” Bill Gallagher, Maury Tannenbaum, Bob Vogel, Erv Philipps, Paul Raslavicus, Nick Tschetter and Tom Watt were in attendance. 


According to Bill, Wikipedia’s entry for “beer pong” includes references to a letter from Meats to The Dartmouth Review, explaining the game’s Dartmouth origins at the Phi Gam house. We take our historians where we find ’em.


—Michael Lasser, 164 New Wickham Drive, Penfield, NY 14526; mlasser@rochester.rr.com