IT'S RIGHT OVER THERE!
THE 45TH!

The older you get, the faster time moves! When we were 40, a year was 2.5% of our lives. Now, a year is 1.5% and shrinking. So .... pay attention ... read the reunion stuff as soon as you get it and do what it says send in checks, plan travel, sign up for housing, call buddies (even call guys you didn't like), sweet-talk your wife/POSLQ about how great it's going to be (use the SHOP word), or, all of a sudden, it's going to be over and you will have missed it! The Participation Guys, Dick & Dick, will hit you with unbelievable descriptions and a put-a-check-in-it envelope for the deposit. The College will send you material relative to $²9/person dorm accommodations. JOHN GILLESPIE will send you a separate, beguiling offer to purchase a super-macho Land's End sweater with a distinctive, unobtrusive '54 emblem (separate from the chapeau and pin included in the reunion charge). You have received the new, improved Class of 1954 Directory, compiled by DICK BARKER and including hundreds of on-line addresses - a means for instant communication.

Since the last newsletter, four more '54s have signaled that we should expect them: actor TONY KANE, Doctor ED HORTON, artist/Samaritan DICK DANFORTH and the irrepressible MEAD METCALF, complete with bride CAROLYN. We're looking to harvest a high percentage of the some 200 classmates who have sent in positive responses.

The Class of 1959 is reuning at the same time as '54 and have magnanimously offered to include us in their free health and fitness testing on June 14th - "Standardized screening procedures, approved by the American College of Sports Medicine, will be used." Summaries available the next day.  Don't get trampled by the DUNTONS.

Don't forget the early morning bird walk with Mike Choukas '51. There are rumors of ostrich-sighting and, perhaps, the mystical Roc. This will be Mike's swan song (pun unintended), so let's turn out a brigade!

Partial attendance rates will be developed for any time period you can think up. A great one-day trip for those within driving distance is the Hamburgers at Heston blast. Contact the editor (cum treasurer) for info.

Apparently the College's Alumni Relations folks have detected a lack of democratic function within the various class electorates and have, therefore, demanded that the entire class be notified of the existence and the composition of its Nominating Committee. At our June reunion, new officers for the ensuing five years will be installed, having been duly elected by the Class. So..., here is the Nominating Committee, all former Class Presidents:

     DICK PAGE, Chair
     DICK BARKER
     JERRY GOLDSTEIN
     TOM KELSEY
These chaps will be happy to hear your suggestions for the offices of President, Vice President, -Secretary and Treasurer, plus the many openings on the Executive Committee. Other positions -Bequests, Head Agent, Newsletter Editor, Mini-Reunion, Class Award and Class Projects are -appointive. So fire off your recommendations. If you need addresses or phone numbers for the committeemen, contact the Editor.

Once again, New York area '54s came to the support of late-blooming actor PETE BARKER (me). Three of the four performances of "The Night Remembers", a new play, were attended by DANA and ANNE LOW, TONY KANE and Sonia Rand, JERRY and DOROTHY GOLDSTEIN and ART and LYNN RAUCH. Much appreciated. Capping the brief time on the boards, after the last performance, I met cousin JOHN CUNNINGHAM on the train home, fresh from two performances that day of "Titanic" He was amused.

Banner headlines in the Queen Anne's Record-Observer of Easton, Maryland trumpeted:   "Wilson Joins Conservancy Board!". The adulation was directed at PAUL WILSON and listed his credits as: two years of Air Force, followed by 38 glorious years at Arthur Andersen, starting in the mail room and working his way to Managing Partner and Chairman of the Board of Partners (the mail room comment was merely an editorial attempt at humor). The Board of Consenvancy 's purpose is to preserve the natural strengths of the Eastern Shore of Maryland and to manage the changes dictated by the passage of time. Some 16,500 acres have come under the watchful eye and helpful hands of the Consevancy Board. The newspaper photo of Paul reflects little change from the bare-chested sailboat captain in the 25th reunion's "Reflections".

Former leatherneck MIKE BIGGS spotted the photo (see ‘About People You Know’ News Page) of retired Lieutenant General TONY LUKEMAN, the Guest of Honor at the Corps' 223rd birthday ball in San Francisco last November….

In a recited history of Columbia Pictures in a recent issue of Variety, the showbiz magazine: "1969 Monkees producers BOB RAFELSON and Bert Schneider finance biker movie called 'The Loners', retitled 'Easy Rider'; pic costs $500,000, grosses $19 million, makes Jack Nicholson a star. 1970 - Nicholson follows 'Easy Rider' success with Bob Rafelson's 'Five Easy Pieces"'

PETER KENYON has delivered another thorough and comprehensive report on the doings of the Alumni Council. As a means of conserving that valuable resource- stuff for the newsletter, Peter's comments will be spread over 2/3 issues of the letter by theme.

"INCLUSION: As reported in the Nov.30 issue of The New York Times, the 'Ghetto' party thrown by a fraternity and a sorority, plus the graphically depicted 'Yale Sucks' t-shirt pushed diversity to the forefront of campus issues and dominated the two days of Alumni Council sessions. The Times article obviously created a problem in terms of unwanted publicity.

1. A week of talking events followed the party, featuring forums on how to bring people together. The Class of '02 sponsored a 'First Year Forum' that drew an unexpected large number. There was a 'stand-in' in Collis, a complete circle of the Green one evening, several 'speak-Outs'.

2. A first year student on one of our panels commented that there were different groups on campus that don't mix. The tendency is to seek Out like people for friends and not to try to reach Out to people who are different.

3. Dan Nelson, Acting Dean: 'The key to change is empowering students to make changes with their peers.' He also encouraged alumni to speak with members of different groups within their own classes to encourage dialogue with suggestions passed on to the College.

4. During a panel discussion on Day Two, Nels Armstrong '71, Director of Alumni Relations (a person of color) gave a highly emotional response to a question on the subject that ended when the advent of tears prohibited his continuing. Nels has been connected to the College for 30 years and talked of 'the times I did not feel welcome, felt excluded

5. In his talk at the Awards Dinner, Jim Wright devoted a large piece of his time to the subject:

a. The parties were a demonstration of ignorance.

b. He was very proud of how the student body came together in their response.

c. Dartmouth needs to work on a more inclusive community.

d. Restated his full support for affirmative action.

e. Said it was the obligation of the student body to reinforce inclusiveness.

6. The Council passed two resolutions on the subject:

a. Support for Jim Wright's comments on affirmative action.

b. Support for the College's use of financial aid

to maintain a diverse student body.

Note: Panel members reported a big value for the freshman DOC trip in terms of awareness of diversity on campus.

ALCOHOL:

1. The new system sets limits on volume, hours, underage drinking and intoxication.

2. Students still run the parties, but they are monitored by a security officer, accompanied by students.

3. How is it working? Dan Nelson: 'kinda'.

4. There will be a report at the end of the year.

The College will then decide what the next steps should be.

5. Much more difficult for the first year students to get in.

6. Control of kegs the hardest part. Note: There has been a marked increase in the number of parties that are by invitation only."

HARRY ROCKEFELLER is hoping to rent in the Hanover area for a month during the reunion period. Great way to do the nostalgia bit, combined with the Opportunity to wade around in today's campus life and students.

From DICK MAY: "My Catskill address is indeed recent. Moved here in August, mOst immediately from Chapel Hill, NC, where I'd lived for a few years after taking early retirement from the Dept. of Government of the University of Queensland in Australia. I've had some fun here 'reverting' to old activities: working as correspondent (='s freelancer, paid by the inch) for local newspaper. My three sons were raised in Australia, but went, or came to the U.S. for higher education and have remained. They attended Harvard, U. of Washington and U. of Virginia. The move to Catskill has to do with an astounding house and viewscape, distance from and proximity to New York City and love. I've been far removed from Dartmouth, physically and mentally, for most of my adult life." Let's bring him back into fold: 152 William St., Catskill, NY 12414;
dickmate @monline.net.

The football team of '25 fielded an entire squad of PhiBetes. Captain was Rhodes Scholar!

Dr. JOHN STEEL was presented the Class of 1954 Award in absentia at the New York holiday luncheon in New York (see Page 7). His absence was occasioned by the installation of a new knee - surprise Christmas gift from SUELLA. Following the good doctor and former Trustee's recovery to consciousness, the newsletter's inquiring reporter was able to gain a telephone interview and glean some interesting career and biographical information.

John claims to be the Class's most bionic -an artificial knee, hip and a heart pacer. He leaves the leaping and jumping to tennis star Suella, but does manage to work the old bones with ocean swimming while trailing his wife around the international circuit - Great Barrier Reef snorkeling, for instance.

John imagines he may know President Jim Wright longer than most '54s as Jim, as a young history prof, made San Diego a favorite stopping place as early as 1968 when Out stumping for Dartmouth.

Dr. Steel retired in 1993 as Chief of the Medical Staff of Scripps Memorial Hospital - a medical contingent of 850 physicians. He then took on the incumbent in a run for Congress, putting forth a 5-point medical program (which is now being adopted, although he wasn't). His emergence on the political scene has generated many invitations to run for State and City offices.

Two of the Steel's offspring captained Dartmouth tennis teams - '80 and '88. Activities have included teaching at UC at San Diego, workmg with XIMED on behalf of doctors and patients (negotiated a 9-story building for doctors), accumulating 70 Masters points in duplicate bridge, plowing through a Great Books reading program, celebrating his tenth Bible study program and helping second grade teachers in the areas of advanced math, reading, play reading and particular attention to slower students. Apparently, replacement body parts give you more energy and motivation to live life to the fullest. We will see John and Suella in Hanover in June. Don't get close to John with a magnet.

The response to the challenge to name our Great Issues speakers has been meager - 1. But that one was spectacular! DON SIMONDS knew he could show off, but succumbed to honesty by telling us that he still has ~l the schedules, instructions, handouts and lecture notes from the course. In reviewing his bluebook of March 18, 1954 - Foreign Policy regarding India - he found that he had used the phrase "stercoraceous content". He is currently seeking a situation today where he can use it once more. With some prodding, he recalled a Tuesday morning question and answer period following the previous evening's talk by Harry Schwartz, Professor of Economics at Syracuse and Specialist on Soviet Affairs for The New York Times. Asked how the U.S. could best meet the increasing Soviet threat, he basically put forth that we needed to out-spend them, perhaps by tightening our belts. He then proceeded to suggest that the wealthy could give up one or two houses and that the Rockefellers might do with one less limousine, eliciting the obvious chuckling from our rowdy bunch, considering that our very own un-limo type ROD was seated within striking distance of him. Sort of broke the mood.

Don's fanatic retention of records and documents undoubtedly is what caught the CIA's attention when they recruited him. After a terrific first half-year of international travel, he returned to a diagnosis of prostate cancer, elected radical prostatectomy and reports a clean bill of health. With that weight lifted, Don is now "in his second childhood, both sartorially and mentally". Good news.

PETE GEITHNER sent in a correction to his comments reported in the last newsletter. Turns out that his son in Bangkok is actually his daughter, Sarah (Adam). You'd think he would have known that. The slight allusion last month to photos of grandchildren galvanized Pete into action with questions ₉f what size, where to send them, how many entries allowed? Working on it, but maybe a few huge bulletin boards in the reunion tent. Perhaps a biased "cutest" contest.

Several months ago, in a hands-across-the-sea gesture, the newsletter posted messages to all our classmates living outside the United States. The letters included all available information on these men and asked for updates and news. In November, a response was received from YNGVAR HVISTENDAHL that was so elegant that it is reprinted here in its entirety: "Dear Pete Barker: I have received your letter with the 'research' on me, and am very impressed by your initiative. I have always been astounded by the strength and high enthusiasm of the American universities' alumni organizations, but your effort to make contact with a very peripheral member of your class must rank as one of the most energetic of its kind. European universities do not, nor seem to want to, encourage this sort of post-graduate interest and activity.

The reason you have not found much about me is probably because I came to Dartmouth in September 1952, when the class of '54 entered its junior year. I was then 22 years of age, having worked since high school in 8 different countries. Due to my father's first heart attack, the need to start preparing to take over the family ship-owning company became urgent. (Before my grandfather, there were 5 generations of sailing ship captains and primogeniture and nepotism ruled supreme). Based on prior education and greater maturity, the College gave me a year's worth of course credits, provided I passed the Freshman English exam, sat a few other proficiency tests (European History, German, etc.) and carried extra courses each term to complete the curriculum for a B.A. in 2 years. It kept me busy and, apart from the skiing and soccer, there was not much time for extra-curricular activities, and I never joined a fraternity.

My two roommates the first year were 18-year old freshmen, whose main preoccupation was how to lose their respective virginities, which, in those pre-pill days, was not as easy for nice boys from rich suburbs who knew only nice girls. The second year, I roomed at Tuck with ED HAYES, who, with BOB DURHAM and Curt Bury '53, became my best friends, but again, this kept me somewhat away from the class at large.

From Dartmouth, I went directly to Harvard Business School, graduated in 1956 and, after compulsory military service in the Royal Norwegian Air Force Headquarter's Finance section, joined the family company as cargo superintendent. This involved loading and discharging ships from Amsterdam to Yokohama, and to a large extent, protecting both ships and cargo from pilfering longshoremen, venal union leaders and corrupt harbor officials while ensuring speedy turnarounds and keeping an eye on trim, stability and buoyancy. Working my way up the corporate ladder, I became chairman and CEO in 1972 and retired in 1985, passing the helm to my younger brothers.

Along the way, I married Katherine (Inky) Karnosh, Smith '55 and friend, among others, of LIZ KELSEY, wife of TOM. We have two children, Anne Katherine, who is an expert on constitutional law and counselor to the Governor of Oslo, and Yngvar, Jr., who captained the soccer team in his senior year ('89) when Dartmouth won the Ivy League and he made the All-Ivy team. He is now a surgeon at the University Clinic of San Francisco, having decided at an early age that his father worked too hard and had about 100 traveling days abroad per year. Now he is worked 4,000 hours a year, for which he is paid about

$40,000 per year, or about $10 per hour after 20 years of education and 4 years of residency! It must be the closest thing to indentured labour still extant in the U.S. The light at the end of the tunnel is mercifully coming closer, when he obtains his specialist certification and the hours go down and the salary multiplies. There are: three grandchildren, so I am not a contender in the particular fertility competition.

Apart from being responsible for my brother Erik '58 and son attending Dartmouth, I have assisted about a half a dozen sons and daughters of friends who have decided that Dartmouth was their college of choice, the latest of whom is due to graduate this coming spring. So I have been a loyal, albeit quiet, son of Dartmouth after all.

As for opinions, I consider Dartmouth a worthy, but not particularly needy recipient of my charitable contributions. The faces of the desperate children of Bosnia, Somalia and other troubled areas in the would haunt me when I open my check book. It takes only $500 per child to make a material difference, and the multi-hundred million fund drives of the already richest universities in the world for - largely - the most favoured kids in the world seem a gross misallocation of resources. I consider the U.S. college system fairly slack and wasteful of time and money - it takes only 3 years for a B.A. at Oxford or Cambridge and I do hope that President Wright will continue President Freedman's emphasis on upgrading intellectual scholarship at the expense, if necessary, of huge sports budgets, hoopla and the enormous amount of distraction available on campus.

In retirement, I was imported to France by my second wife. Ebba Wachtmeister, sister of the former Swedish ambassador in Washington for 15 years during the Reagan and Bush era. We live in a rambling, rustic chalet in the foothills of the Jura mountains north of Gene've, with a magnificent view of the lake and Mont Blanc to the south. We are surrounded by 3 horses, 2 dogs and 1 cat, which my wife considers to be the natural and indispensable comp9nent parts of the well-rounded household. The nearest skiing facilities up to 5,500 feet are only 15 minutes away. When you are 70 years old, you get free skiing all over the Alps, so I keep in training with that in mind.

Lac Leman is nearly 70 miles long and harbours an amazing multitude of sailboats, and sports the largest single-start race in the world, the Bol d'Or, with up to 600 boats on the line, which I have had the honour to judge as a member of the international jury for several years. I have judged international world cup and championships for many years in Europe and the U.S., even in Australia. Since I have actively sailed and owned sailboats for over 60 years, I have probably committed every error and stupidity possible at sea, short of drowning (obviously), which does help when you are asked to sit in judgment of others.

Brief as this potted history is, I realize that it could be much too long for the Class newsletter, which I do receive and which I do appreciate for its light-hearted, chatty style. So I fully will understand your need to edit, cut, abbreviate and/or eliminate any and/or all of the above.

With my best regards."

Hopefully, we can look forward to hearing from our other 'international' classmates (other than ED SCOTT, that is).

SANDY GILLESPIE noticed the following item in Time relative to the "Banana Wars":

"There's something inherently smirk-inducing about a trade dispute over bananas. You've seen it in the papers in headlines like BANANA SPLIT or GOING BANANAS. But Clark Davis isn't laughing. One day the quality-assurance engineer was contentedly playing in the basement of his Wexford, PA home with his N-gauge model railroad - three lines spread over 36 square feet of diorama, styled after turn-of-the-century Europe. The next day, Davis, 66, heard from his supplier of German-made Fleischman engines that not only could the price be doubling, but the supplier's hobby shop might even be put Out of business - all because the U.S. wants to punish Europe for discriminating against bananas grown by U.S. companies in Latin America." From CLARK: "It is I! I had a communication from a wonderful hobby shop in Chicago about the banana trade wars and the fact that the duty would double the price of the good German train stuff. I took to my pen and wrote the two Pennsylvania Senators. Arlen Specter sent my letter to a Time editor. The guy called and, as they say, the rest ~ history. Trains were dropped. Specter took some license - my layout is not that grand - Palmer (son) started me again with Fleischman train gift in London."

THE CLASS OF 1954 AWARD

The world salutes those who stand up for what they believe and, particularly, those who do something about it. You have been receiving high signs for most of your life because of your dedication to your beliefs and your capacity for energizing yourself to attain goals, including a close run for Congress.

After a full tour as a Navy pilot, you took on the daunting challenge of a medical education, bouncing between San Diego and New Orleans on the way to your MD. You established a successful medical practice in California and raised five handsome children, four of whom wear the Dartmouth Green. At retirement, you were the chief of staff of your medical organization. Community involvement included the satisfaction of managing a Little League baseball team to a regional championship. The College netsters have benefited from your dogged recruitment efforts in your sunny climes.

You have a distinctive place in the history of Dartmouth College - the only challenge candidate ever to be elected Trustee by the alumni body. Your decade of service gave you the singular opportunity to participate actively in the governance of the institution and participate you did! Along with the time and effort burdens of all Trustees, your West Coast location was an additional factor and one that did not deter you from faithful attendance and deliberation. You are an avowed, upfront, in-your4ace conservative. As the old traditions of iur time on campus fade into political correctness, yours is the voice in the wilderness, lamenting their passing.

You stand tall for Dartmouth and for the class and we are delighted to honor those energies, commitments and pride by presenting you with The Class of 1954 Award.

December 1998 (signed) Robert V. Berry