Spring is inching into northern New England despite a lot of crazy weather.

Puddles of sunshine,
Puddles of rain,
Puddles of flowers
Befuddle my brain - wtw

4/1/12 - I have finally arrived at constructing my 40 th DRUM and am wondering how many each of my editor predecessors cranked out. The quality of mine has been variable, and I am slowly running out of gas, but it's nice to have a task, and I'll hang in there until I fall into the keyboard or have one of you volunteer to take a crack at doing it.

I've had a few messages from the brothers and sisters of 1940 lately:

Allan Rosenthal called to tell me that he had moved to Hamden, CT to be near his daughter. He said that he has a mild case of Parkinson's.

3/19/12 - From John Peacock - 'Thanks for the DRUM. You are kind and persevering to keep us all in touch with our collegiate community. The photos are very helpful to keep us current on the physical changes around the campus and town.
'The mention of your fall and Bill Halsey's seems to strike a most common chord. To get down on one's hands and knees to retrieve a dropped key that has bounced under the bureau is difficult, but, boysee, the job of getting up again can be overwhelming!
'Your 'Over the Hill' poem was very appropriate - realizing that we all should appreciate what we can do - even though it takes longer. My former 15 minute nap now takes an hour.
"On the cheery side, I have started to deliver a route for 'Meals on Wheels'. I say, 'cheery' because most of my recipients are very pleased wth one's arrival on their doorstep.
"The mild winter has erupted in early spring flowers (snow drops, winter aconite, crocuses etc) which have chased away the dull thoughts of, 'Can the tax filing of 17 April be far behind?
"Did I see a review of a new 10 th Mt. Div book a few months ago? - John"

Ed: It was "Soldiers on Skis" by Whitlock and Bishop.

3/23/12 - " Pete" Gibson writes - "I gather from your last 'DRUM' (Congratulations by the way on your 39th, and all previous ones too) you need to hear 'how life is going' with us.
"After being blessed with good health for so long (95), I recently developed deficiency anemia and ended up in the hospital for several weeks. But, after a complicated battery of tests, I'm told I'll be doing much better - no broken bones or falls for me and still agile. And well taken care of at home by daughter Rosemary and husband Bob and granddaughter Hannah Rose. "Surprised to see Bud Raymond died; came to college in 1936 with him and an Evanston, IL Township high school contingent. Also sorry about the passing of Lloyd Blanchard and Dave Davenport . But congratulations to Great Grandpa Bill Huffman .
"Remember our 50 th Reunion 'War Diary'? Well now I'm highly recommending a just published 'World War II Remembered' by residents of Kendal at Hanover, treating of all aspects of the war experiences, many by Dartmouth contributors."- David A. (Pete) Gibson 15 Aloha Drive, Hadley, MA 01035-9661. (413)549-4090.

 

From Carol B Davenport (Mrs. David W.) - "Dear Ike, On March 3 I had luncheon with Melvie Cockley at Oak Harbor Retirement Community in Vero Beach, FL. She looks very well, is playing excellent bridge and is in good health. She sees her neighbors - Lee Lake and Nettie Hoyt often. I am fine and busy."- Carol B. Davenport - 7250 Tantallon Court, Sarasota, FL 34238. (941) 925-0041

 

4/10/12 - A green card from Seymour Wheelock that he wrote on both sides - "Your '39 th DRUM was enjoyable. It is good to know 63 of the Class of '40 are still on hand, most in reasonable good health although the wear and tear of advancing years can be felt in every communication, more or less.
"Our move to Taos several years ago has been mostly a positive thing although severing so many professional and personal associations was very tough.
"Are you still a threesome at home? The sociability must be a tremendous plus, that and your woodworking. I am still restoring antique clocks and wonder if you have ever seen the alumnus-donated clock collection at the College? - many very valuable pieces.
"Please excuse the chaos of this card! We are moving soon, and I have stacks of paper everywhere. In mail today was the announcement that the D.M.S. was changing name to Giesel (Dr. Seuss) Medical School. It's hard to believe this, and at the moment I am much irritated, just as I was when Northwestern U. renamed its med. School after a heavy hitter ($)! - The power of the dollar!"

4/11/12- From Jerry Schnitzer - "Thanks. I hope to send you another book this year. 'My Floating Grandmother' is doing well."

4/20/12 - Josiah Adams writes from Koloa, HI - "I could relate to a lot of what Bill Halsey reported - am almost over a bad case of shingles. Like you I have countless blessings."

Information from Dartmouth Alumni Records about some deceased 1940 classmates has often come to me quite tardily, so I recently spent time checking the internet for possible obituaries of those from whom I had not heard in a long time. I was surprised to find notices of the passing of 6 more of our class:

Welles T. Seller (Brud) died peacefully in his home in East Falmouth, MA on March 12, 2009. Brud leaves his wife, Ruth P. Seller of East Falmouth; two daughters and a son, Deborah Pigeon of Oak Bluffs, Jane S. Smith of West Springfield, and James T. Seller of West Tisbury. He also leaves five grandchildren

John H. Case died 18 May 2009 at Harrisburg, PA. No information about survivors.

Douglas B. Hunter, 91, of Simsbury, Conn. and Burlington, Vt., died July 14, 2009 in The Vermont Respite House in Williston, Vt. He was predeceased by his wife Amy.

Dr James Dana Darnley died 20 Oct 2010 at Beverly Hills, MI. He is survived by his loving and devoted wife of 57 years, Eloise; daughter, Brenda Darnley Martin (Mike) of Odessa, Florida; daughter, Deborah Darnley-Fisch, MD (John) of Bloomfield Village; son, James Dana Darnley, Jr. (Peggy) of Westborough, Massachusetts and six grandchildren.

Richard James Heer died in Columbus, OH January 7, 2011 . He was preceded in death by Juanita F. Heer, his wife of twenty years and brother Walter F. Heer Jr. He is survived by three children, Peter J (Maryta) Heer, Mendoza, Argentina, Susan K. (Jim) Ahern, Boston, MA and Timothy C. (Gillian)

Edward "Mac" Gardiner, a 30-year resident of Bainbridge Island, passed away on Friday, May 20, 2011 aged 92. He was preceded in death by his wife, Helen, and his daughter, Elizabeth. Survivors include his son, Michael, of Los Angeles, and his two granddaughters, Dr. Kris (Gardiner) Barry of Mt. Shasta, California, and Lauren Gardiner, of Los Angeles.

So we have 57 surviving classmates that I know of at the time of writing.

I imagine that some of you are wondering why 1940 has not had a column in the Alumni Magazine in the last few issues. With no one else around to write it I suppose I should be sending something in, but there's little news, and that goes into the DRUM. The only reason that I can see for writing something is that our contemporaries in adjacent classes might like to know how we are doing. So perhaps in a future issue I should repeat information from our newsletters.

5/9/12 - Desperate for '40 news to put in this edition, I decided to reach back into past years and went down to the archives at Rauner Library (Webster Hall) where I got out the file of 1940 newsletters and copied the following bit of flamboyant writing from one of my 8 School Street housemates, the late
Dave Boyle, who once said to us, "You guys are living like animals."

Here's what I found, dated May 9, 1950, 62 years ago. Scotty Rogers was the editor:

From DAVE BOYLE in Los Angeles

"Wie Geht's mit Ihnen?"

"Or as Worden would say,'Yesus Christ, Hannes, even the Race Committee is schussing it!' Inasmuch as Don is filling his Martini glass over on the other side of the pool, I shall fill in and merely add, Yesus Christ, Rogers, is it already that time of the year again?

Things have been pretty quiet since the last correspondence; those recluses of last year are still operating locally in a not so recluse manner. No new faces (of '40) have been added and none have been dropped. Tho it is small wonder about the latter considering the rough and tumble ski season just ended. What we needed was Wild Bill Halsey in our midst and they would have barred us forever from the hills. Of course you must realize that Chappie Wentworth has slowed down considerab1y and no longer strikes fear into the hearts of the gatekeepers by taking all the poles down in one fell move. It now takes him sometimes two or three fells and by that time the bystanders have retreated to the cover of the local pine. Wentworth was a disappointment this season tho, he only raced a couple of times and then took off for the Eastern Seaboard in his Cessna ostensibly to sell some of his hardware. Actually I think he was bidding on the rain-making job over New York. You never can tell about Chap, last summer we threw a big picnic out art the local polo field (due to the good offices of Bob Fletcher '39) and at that stage of the party when everyone was hitting the cans instead of the baseball, down out of the sky comes Wentworth in his silver aeroplane.

He maneuvered it quite skillfully to a landing among the prostrate forms of his classmates, climbed out and said he had had to work late which delayed him! We have always told him that he had to expect that as long as he insisted on living in Palos Verdes among the lobster pots. Incidentally, at that summer soiree for lovers of the brew - the last time Tiger Klein emerged from the oil wells of Long Beach to be counted - it may be that he and Charlie Campbell (who is a real recluse) have gone into the tuna fishing business along with Jerry Schnitzer ; the latter dropped out of sight about a year ago when writing for the Bower Boys began to pale and last heard of (via Steve Valensi , the lad with a finger in many pies) had taken to sea operating a commercial fishing boat out of San Pedro. Fred Fuld , who now sits in Harry Bridges' old office overlooking the slips, is our only other salt water member who might verify Schnitzer's whereabouts. He refuses to venture near the wharves however, for fear the press-gang will collect him for duty on an Indiaman. And you know what accounting does to your muscles.

"Had a real surprise last evening to walk in the house and find Jacoby and my wife half through my last bottle of bourbon. It seems they were celebrating Jake's new job; it took me just a minute to catch up, then found that Herr Jacoby will indeed soon have to give up lotus eating in Laguna Beach and give his all for this advertising firm. He was fortunate to go right from school to labor, not even pausing to finish off this last term. Worden and I will now have a chance to see if the Laguna Tennis Club improved his game or his taste. Looking at my dead bottle of bourbon, I think his taste is way ahead. It will be pleasant tho to have them back in civilization, tho shoes are going to cramp his style.

"As for Jones, you have got me; all I can figure is that he is flying around the country (not Wentworth style, but in style) making money hand over fist. It is rumored that he will be at reunion this June, so he'll have to speak for himself. Make him buy you all a round of drinks as a token of the Pacific Coast to the East. I understand that he is contemplating moving back to New York this summer - the skiing is better, or something of the like. Twill be a sad day inasmuch as De had the only television set hereabouts, and if I felt too good I could always go out there and watch Rourke perform. About a week it took then to recover. It is conservatively estimated (Hooper, et Gallup, et al, etc) that Rourke has set television back about ten years with his nightly stint. You lucky fellows are going to get a chance to see him at reunion I understand; see if you can get him a job with DCAC or the DBS. It isn't so bad when you consider I work eight hours a day turning out films that are considerably more depraving than Jack is in his fifteen minutes. The least Rourke can do for the Tenth is to bring back some of the dolls from his show for the few remaining batchelors like Huber etc.

"Worden has just crawled over to hoarsely tell me that he has another idea for a story, but neither of us can now remember how to spell. Don and I had planned a big ski vacation up at Aspen during the FIS where we were going to meet Gary Allen, Joe Huber, Raymond etc. Neither of us made it so we were contented to go up to the National Giant Slalom at the Sugar Bowl later on and pit our skill against the French, Austrians, Swedes etc. Don did rather well with the French Women's Team - I think they like that savoir-faire air about him. We had a hell of a good time between the bock beer and the fog on the course. I don't think anyone bothered to get our time as even the timers had gone home when we got down the mountain. We just figured that this grim international racing needed some levity and leavenlng with some old timers thirty and over I feel now that we are forty and over.

"As for Boyle, he is still mushing around the bottom of a developing tank trying to find a missing scene from 'Stromboli' so that the censors will allow the picture to be played at Webster Hall. Hals und beinbruck, Dave Boyle"

5/10/12 - So that's it for now. Spring Term classes end on May 30 th . It's hard to believe that another Commencement is looming, and I am wondering what President Kim will have to say in his farewell address. I've had a feeling that the College has been a bit rudderless since he was nominated for the World Bank job and hope that our next President will stick with it for at least ten years.

 

Best to all of you - Eyck / Ike