Class Note 1951
Your scribe, or ink-stained wretch as some call us, will attempt to summarize his 10 years in office as the class secretary. My first of 60 renditions of Class Notes was all about our 50th reunion and how satisfying it was for us to be there. Noticing that other class secretaries employed themes to give their columns some continuity, I chose 50th wedding celebrations. That lasted quite awhile, spanning taking the kids to a resort to Ann and Dave Sargent’s decision: Their kids could not agree on a time and place so mom and dad went off to Bermuda with friends. So there! A 50th anniversary that was not celebrated, you may remember, was that of a classmate and wife who married right after Commencement but later divorced. He then married and divorced two more times before remarrying wife No. 1. She, in a terse conversation with me, declared there would be no celebration. The next theme was suggested by the DAM editors, our favorite place while undergraduates. First place for our class was the Tower Room, followed closely by venues for athletics, local restaurants and cars going to women’s colleges. In 2003 I resumed a previous secretary’s custom of sending a birthday card to classmates. The card is, of course, a watercolor of Dartmouth Row circa 1840. These cards are not cheap so Henry Nachman, then our president, and I decided to limit the mailing list to those who thought well enough of the class to provide a biography for our 50th yearbook or to have donated to our class gift or a college-related activity. That accounts for more than 400 per year and now includes widows of classmates if their husbands entered their dates of birth in a long-ago alumni questionnaire. More than a few don’t like to be reminded, but accept it rather than the alternative. The next issue of DAM will be my last and will include more remarks on 10 years as your secretary. Go online to dartmouth.org/classes/51 for obituaries of Peter Bogardus, Steve Wolfe, Dick MacDonald and Ady Berger.
—Peirce McKee, 239 Village Gate, Orinda, CA 94563; peirce.mckee@rbc.com
