1929
Don MacCornack opens the New Year in high, fine fashion by inscribing on its clean new slate this excellent report:
I find myself after 24 years far enough out on Long Island to be: well insulated from my classmates, 10% suburban and 90% rural, where the GOP elephants have been in temporary quarters for the past 20 years. The trail leading to Long Island started in the Fall of '29, when I went down to Boston to study architecture at MIT. It was five years later before I left, and went back to Cleveland to practice. In 1942 I joined the antisubmarine operations research group attached to Admiral King's office in Washington. This was still on the trail because strangely enough architectural training was a prerequisite for my job. For a while in Washington I roomed with Frank Weeks, who had been my roommate in Boston 12 years before. After the war I had the opportunity of getting back into building construction as architect with the Brookhaven National Laboratory, where I am now.
"In the meantime, between 1939 and 1947, I had acquired a wife • Eleanor Mathesius of Stamford — and three children Martha, Andrew and Frederick, now 10, 8 and 6 respectively. As far as can be seen, the pattern of life is set for a while. This includes the pleasures and problems of raising a family, the trials and tribulations of civic endeavors in a small town, and our annual pilgrimage to New Hampshire. We have a farm at Sugar Hill, some 50 miles north of Hanover, which not only allows a welcome return to God's country but visits with friends all along the Connecticut Valley. These trips are always good for more than one 'That is where I . . . ' as we go by our respective alma maters in Northampton and Hanover. (I am careful not to add any lurid legends to the score in Hamp.)
"If I insult any Long Islanders by invidious comparison with New Hampshire, it is largely because my wife and I are both land-lubbers of the side-winder species. I have encountered only one really sympathetic character here, to date. During the heavy snow of 1947-8 we dug out our skiing gear and poled downtown for supplies. When we came out of one store, an old duffer was staring at our skis. It would strain the story if I said that he had tears running down his cheeks, but he did sound mighty mournful when he told me that they were the first he had seen since he left Norway 30 years ago.
"Brookhaven National Laboratory is devoted to pure research ('We don't make a damned thing'). It is operated under contract with the Atomic Energy Commission by a corporation set up by nine universities in the North-eastern United States. We have some 1400 employees, 6000 acres of land, and over 200 buildings. Most of the last were built by the Army when this was the site of Camp Upton, and have been converted temporarily for research work. Eventually they will be replaced by permanent construction better fitted for the specialized nuclear research being carried on in the fields of medicine, biology, chemistry, physics, and. engineering. The principal new construction during the past six years has been concerned with large machines notably the graphite moderated reactor and the 2.5 billion electron volt proton synchrotron. Any more amazing machines to come will be limited by cost, not by the imagination and ingenuity of the scientific mind. With all the construction activity during the past six years, and to come in the next ten or 15, perhaps the most interesting feature is its variety, ranging in complexity from a tool shed to a medical research center. Needless to say, it is a fascinating spot for anyone in the construction industry. Building gets to be almost a disease, tho', with most of us who live in second-hand houses and spend our spare time remodeling them. That, in theory, leaves no time for anything else, but by stealing moments from Peter to pay Paul we seem to get involved with PTA, Scouts, model railroads, folk dancing, and the sort of thing that went on (ugh) New Year's Eve. Clarinet lessons have come to haunt us and piano lessons are in the offing. The house rings with the gay laughter of children, the telephone rings with Mother's committee work, and Daddy's head rings period."
Another report worth waiting for all these years comes from Jim Loeb:
"Your suggestion that I contribute some information about myself comes at an appropriate moment since I am between jobs, or perhaps even .between careers. (I am embarrassed to confess that this is my first letter to you since graduation several centuries ago.) It would be impossible to telescope into one relatively brief letter the strange turns of my life during these past 23 years. These vears have included two careers as completely unrelated as any two you could imagine: teaching Romance Languages and politics. The first started innocently enough. John Minary and I decided to spend a year abroad before settling down to the business of earning a living. We went to France and lived with Prof. Xavier Morfin in Montpellier, France. Some of the Class will recall Morfin as the exchange professor of French who preceded Denoeu. (Incidentally, Morfin was an ardent royalist and Minary discovered him in post-liberation France in jail as a collaborationist, although I believe he is now farming.) I learned some French -with Morfin, but mostly playing bridge with the law students in the cafes of Montpellier. There followed a teaching fellowship at Northwestern, another year studying (seriously this time) in France, more teaching at Northwestern, an M.A., a Ph.D., a year of unemployment, teaching at the now defunct Townsend Harris High School (for bright boys and not so bright teachers) of the City College in New York, and then politics.
"Now that's a non-sequitur if there ever was one. It requires a brief explanation. I had for some time been acquiring an interest in liberal ideas and politics. When old 'Butch' LaGuardia decided to cut Townsend Harris out of the budget (for very legitimate educational reasons, although the faculty didn't quite see it that way), I took a job as secretary of a small organization under the chairmanship of Reinhold Niebuhr. This was in early 1941, and some six years later this small group, which had been bitterly anti-Communist when in 'liberal' circles anti-Communism was not very popular, gave birth to Americans for Democratic Action. I became the national executive secretary of ADA under the chairmanship of Wilson Wyatt. In view of the role played by ADA in the recent campaign as the chief 'whipping boy' of Wisconsin's contribution to senatorial obscurantism, this aspect of my career may raise some 1929 eyebrows. Our Class Notes Column is not large enough to contain the whole crazy story, but it had a kind of Orwellian quality. Especially for those of us in ADA who were lighting Communists, long Senator McCarthy was elected to the Senate with Communist support against young Bob LaFollette. I had, myself, left the ADA job a year ago last October, not for any reason of difference of opinion but merely because I thought it would be healthy both for me and the ADA to make the change after more than ten years in substantially the same job.
"I then went to work as a consultant to Charlie Murphy, special counsel in the White House. I "worked on special assignments during regular hours last winter. But during my off-hours, I spent considerable time trying to convince the Governor of Illinois to be less reluctant and less modest in his ambitions. After four months in the White House I was about to join the staff of the Democratic National Committee when the original 'small band of wilful men' in Chicago asked me to head up the organization of Stevenson Clubs around the country. I spent all of two days at that job, with one trip back to Washington to borrow one of Averell Harriman's men to head a Washington office. At that point of this last hectic year, the Governor of Illinois 'pulled the rug' by announcing that he could not accept the nomination for any other office this summer. Whereupon Mr. Harriman called me and asked me to go to work for him. And so I became executive secretary of the National Harriman Committee, and you are aware of the results. I then stayed on with Averell Harriman as his executive assistant (not in the Mutual Security Agency) during the campaign, and you are aware of those results as well.
'You suggest in your note that I might offer 'even political views, and gossip!' My views are rather fully suggested by the brief outline of my second career. I might add that I hope, and believe, that the new Administration will be better than its campaign. I sometimes think that, at least for America, Lord Acton was wrong; it is not so much power that corrupts as the desire for power, and power itself brings responsibility. As for gossip, you'll have to go to another church, for the next four years. Several weeks ago my wife, Ellen, and I celebrated our twentieth anniversary, and with the appropriate slogan: 'No time for a change!' We have Peter and Susan, aged almost 11 and almost 8. And now I'm off to a third career. It may be steadier but I can promise that it won't be any more exciting or more rewarding than the last one."
Under date of December 10, 1952, the following communication was received from a devoted classmate who has for many years given unselfishly and spectacularly of his time and talents in the service of the College and the Class:
"Perhaps you noticed the enclosed clipping regarding the amazing decision handed down yesterday by Judge Jaquith. I, for one, feel that if he makes any more judicial decisions of this type he be forthwith requested to resign from the Class. Our standards have been raised too high and our prestige is too important to temporize with such warped thinking." signed by Dick Barrett. The enclosed clipping follows:
"GI on Probation For Slapping Bride"A yer, Dec. 9 A German war bride testified today that her soldier husband slappedher face on a downtown street last night andtold her: 'This is a free country and a husband is allowed to slap his wife around ifnecessary.' Special Justice Morton Jaquithdisagreed. He ordered Sgt. Frank J. Foster, 30,a Korean veteran now at Fort Devens, on probation for six months after finding him guiltyof assaulting his wife, Songa."
Mike Ferini did an outstanding job in lastfall's Springfield Red Feather drive, compilinga top record in the business and industry division which had the best record 98%. Mike isan executive of Perkins Machine and Gear Cos.
Ben Stacey, Industrial Analyst of The FirstNational Bank of Boston, is becoming increasingly busy as a guest speaker at businessmen's meetings. Since 1941, Ben has also beenan instructor in Business Economics at Northeastern University.
Edson Phelps, superintendent of schools ofthe Lamoille North School District, Vt., hasbeen promoted to the rank of LieutenantCommander in the Naval Reserve.
Frank Kenison, Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court, has been named one of the 30 distinguished Americans to serve on the 1952 Freedoms Foundation Awards jury in the foundation's $100,000 national and school awards program.
Gerry Swope has been appointed a vice president of International General Electric Company where, as counsel, he is also head of the Company's Law Department.
Karl Michaels' son Dave was elected cocaptain of Kimball Union Academy's football team for 1953.
Bob Monahan has been seeing Trunkie andRuth Brittan enjoying a two-week vacation at Hanover Inn during the holidays, with their three daughters, Barbara, Paula and Molly whose skiing is about Trunkie's speed these days.
EDITOR'S ADDITION: An item in the BostonHerald reports that "F. William Andres was elected president of the New England Alumni Association of Phillips Exeter Academy ... at the 66th annual meeting at the Harvard Club."
Secretary, 75 Federal St., Boston 10, Mass. Treasurer, 1728 Beechwood Blvd., Pittsburgh 17, Pa.
