1938

Spring hasn't really sprung yet in Maine as this is being written, in early March, but I think it's fair to say that it's fixin' to ... and it will have definitively arrived by the time you read this.

By that time, also, you will have read the statement concerning the decision of the board of trustees on class composition, a preview of which was sent to alumni officers. That statement was for sure a very carefully worded one obviously intended to please, or at least satisfy as many alumni as possible, and to displease and dissatisfy as few as possible. Since the many ramifications of the problem were covered 'in depth' in the February magazine, your secretary will observe here only that it seems to him that the board was faced with an unavoidable dilemma: If more girls were to be admitted ... and if as many boys as before were to be admitted and if the total number of students in residence in Hanover were to remain roughly the same as before, then, given those three conditions, having one-quarter of the total enrollment off campus at any given time, as in the Dartmouth Plan (or Year-Round Operation) was (and is) the only practical solution. I think it's recognized that YRO has many disadvantages. It's just a question of whether these inevitable disadvantages are or are not more than offset by the advantages of having female undergraduates at Dartmouth, and having as many male undergraduates as before, and having the total student body in residence in Hanover no larger, or only a little larger. Personally I admire and commend the trustees' statement. I hope more alumni do than don't.

Speaking of commendation, we should all offer congratulations to George Kingsbury. George was recently presented the Keene (N.H.I.) YMCA's Red Triangle award, given for meritorious service to the Y and his community. After Dartmouth and five years in the South Pacific in WWII, George has been deeply involved in a very wide variety of Keene civic and business activities. He has been a director of the Keene Chamber of Commerce and its man of the year, a trustee of the Keene Public Library, Boy Scout activities chairman, president of the Cheshire County soil conservation district, an incorporator of the Cheshire County Savings Bank and of the Cheshire Hospital (of which he has been a trustee for 20 years, including terms as chairman and vice chairman of the board), and chairman of the Cheshire Fair horse show - to name some.

John McLane is another classmate who continues active in New Hampshire civic affairs. John has been named chairman of the foundations and trusts committee in the capital campaign of the Society for the Protection of N.H. Forests. This society invites New Hampshire foundations and selected foundations outside the state which are interested in conservation programs to share in the fund, which is aimed at strengthening the Forest Society's work in land protection, education, and forest and land management.

... On the other hand, there are a lot of classmates who don't stay in New Hampshire. According to a card from Dune Buttrick's wife Polly to my wife Anne, the Buttricks have been sojourning in Morocco and liking it fine. And from Milwaukee comes word that Shorty Pabst has been elected to the board of the First Wisconsin Corporation.

Also from Wisconsin has recently come a letter to us, his classmates, from our bequest chairman, Bob Manegold. I suggest that Bob's words about establishing an endowment fund, with particular emphasis on the personal benefit and the personal satisfaction to be derived from doing this through a life income trust, are good words, and worthy of our mature consideration, as we all become matur-er and matur-er. Since we can't take it with us, there is deep satisfaction to be had in leaving some of it to Dartmouth.

Secretary, Box 187 Damariscotta, Maine 04543

Treasurer, Old Litchfield Road Washington, Conn. 06793