Class Note 1960

Sid Goldman reports from Key West, Florida, regarding the Orozco murals, that he is not too savvy regarding devices, but he bets the device one grabs at the reserved book desk is an iPad and not an iPod (as it had been written here and which mostly plays music) unless mariachi music is played while mural watching. Sid, your scribe does not know a soroban from an abacus and still pays bills by check; he is a child of the 1930s. 


But it is known we are producing a litter of great grandchildren. There is Kaylee from Bob Fairbank. Barry Betters sports Aldyn. Bill Gundy and Jim Graham both qualify but the names escape your correspondent. For you less aggressive lads, Gordon Haw has a 10-year-old ordinary son.


Bob Conklin muses that he is not missing, and had left Dartmouth in his sophomore year in 1959 in an old Chevy (but he forgot he bought it from Ray Pong, who got it as a tip singing at a wedding). Intrepid Bob returned to graduate after faithful Army service.


Bob Sanders wonders if the class should consider perhaps a stone with a brass marker in honor of our ’mates who served or died in Vietnam.


Jim Reese’s widow, Janet, passed along the sad news that that he died on April 7 of a brain tumor that he dealt with for two and a half years. 


Frank Bell wrote again to remind us that at our 50th reunion some were wondering where Dartmouth was going to get its future American football players, considering what was seen at graduation with the international diversity of the graduating class. He is sure we will have strong Dartmouth teams in soccer (universal football) and after watching some girls practice rugby (English football) drills on the Green, the Big Green is and will be world famous for both overseas types of football played by both male and female or even coed teams. 


You may not have known that Alex von Summer, who died July 7, 1997, was Lobe at Otter of Animal House’s wedding and an alumnus whose loyalty showed in many tangible ways, Carolyn Pelzel, former vice president for development at Dartmouth, opined. He played leadership roles in capital campaigns and in the College’s real estate advisory committee. He established funds for athletics and directed gifts to undergraduate scholarships. His children Kristen ’89, Alex III ’91 and Hollis ’00 chose to establish a memorial fund in their father’s name at Dartmouth’s Rockefeller Center.


Joe Batchelder writes from Naples, Florida, that among his many Dartmouth-related activities (see Denny’s newsletter) he has a more gainful activity driving VIPs on a contract basis to the Ritz Carlton and Marriot in the area, including Judge Judy, Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich, Ozzie Newsome, Marlo Thomas, the Beach Boys, etc.


—John M. Mitchell, 300 Grove St., Rutland, VT 05710; (802) 775-3716; jmm00033@comcast.net