Class Note 1965

Our sophomore year came to a quick end in May and June 50 years ago. As always, Green Key was the highlight of our spring. For the sixth time in a row Alpha Theta won Hums and Lawrence Ferlenghetti read his poetry for us. Despite a chilly weekend, everyone had a great time. A new slate of leaders emerged for the college and the class. Dick Durrance was chosen president of Green Key, with other officers Chip Hayes, Ed Thomas, Dennis Bekemeyer and Jim Cooper. Our class officers were Pete Frederick, Rick Mahoney, Mike Lewis and Robert Shine. The next week the College marked Armed Forces Day with a parade and awards to outstanding ROTC students, including Joel Eiserman. In other things we followed, Sandy Koufax pitched his second no-hitter, the Rolling Stones signed their first recording contract, and Peter, Paul and Mary won their first Grammy for “If I Had a Hammer.” The Dave Brubeck Quartet played a concert, featuring “Take Five,” to an enthusiastic Webster Hall crowd that included many of us. 


The world we reentered that summer was in a state of turmoil. The Daily D reported that Birmingham, Alabama, police commissioner “Bull” Connor had suppressed civil rights protests using dogs and firehoses, as nearly 1,000 were arrested. The Dartmouth Christian Union collected 381 signatures on a petition to Attorney General Robert Kennedy, urging federal intervention in the trial of 12 “freedom walkers” arrested during the protests. On June 10 President Kennedy announced that he was ordering the suspension of all American nuclear weapons testing. The next day he made a speech promising a civil rightsbill that would assure “the kind of equality of treatment that we would want for ourselves.” The following day civil rights activist Medgar Evers was killed in Jackson, Mississippi. A week later President Kennedy sent what would become the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to Congress.


In June the Ayatollah Khomeini, religious leader of Iran’s Shi’ite Muslim community, was arrested in the city of Qom after speaking out against the emancipation of women in the regime of the shah. The following day protests erupted throughout the country. 


Please try to join classmates as we celebrate a collective 70th birthday with a special mini-reunion in Hanover during the weekend of July 12-14. In addition to our festivities, we will invite our “connection class” of 2015 to an etiquette dinner on Friday evening. Then we will share our common birthday dinner on Saturday evening, probably at the Dartmouth Outing Club House on Occom Pond. 


Our New England classmates have begun holding a regular breakfast in Hanover on the last Thursday of every month. They have also been inviting members of the class of 2015 and building more lasting connections. Several undergrads recently joined French and Bob McConnaughey, Betsy and Mike Gonnerman, Brigid and Bob Murphy, Sue and Bill Webster, Steve Fowler, Pete Frederick, Roger Hansen and Dave Weber. All are welcome; contact Bob Murphy at murph65nh@comcast.net. Classmates in cities around the country should consider establishing similar events on the local level.


Please send me a note about what you have been doing.


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