Along Route '66- December 2002

Co-Presidents:                         Bill Higgins, 5360 Miami Road, Cincinnati, OH 45243
                                               Steve Warhover, 33 William Fairfield Drive, Wenham, MA 01984
Vice-President & Webmaster: Chuck Sherman, 3100 Rittenhouse Street NW, Washington, DC 20015
Secretary:                                Larry Geiger, 93 Greenridge Avenue, White Plains, NY 10605
Treasurer:                                Jim Weiskopf, 13125 Willow Edge Court, Clifton, VA 20124
Head Agent:                            Bob Spence, 16 Surrey Road, New Canaan, CT 06840
Bequest Chairmen:                  Rich Daly, PO Box 39, West Boxford, MA 01885
                                                Steve Lanfer, 178 Sea Meadows Lane, Yarmouth, ME 04096
                                                Alan Rottenberg, 24 Gould Road, Waban, MA 02468
Mini-Reunion Chairman:           Al Keiller, 7 Elcy Way, Simsbury, CT 06070
Newsletter Editor:                     Bob Serenbetz, PO Box 1127, Newtown, PA 18940
                                                            Phone: 215-598-0262 Fax: 215-598-0770
                                                            Email: BobSerenbetz@prodigy.net
Class Website:                         http://www.alum.dartmouth.org/classes/66

December, 2002

Big Turnout for Mini-Reunion

Forty-three classmates, spouses, children and grandchildren turned out for the annual Fall Mini-Reunion November 1 and 2. A cold front arrived just prior to the Parade of Classes on Friday night, leaving the Green with about two inches of snow and heavy flakes during the bonfire, quite a beautiful site. Off to the side of the Green were the cranes that are now used to build the �once a year� bonfire. While they may be �woossies�, the spirit and turnout of the Class of 2006 was outstanding. As President of the Alumni Council, Noel Fidel gave the keynote speech in front of Dartmouth Hall for all alumni and students in attendance.

Wayne and Kathy LoCurto marched with brand new grandchild �Number 12� who was attending with daughter Susan Willison �95. Bob and Tina Gilbert again made the trek from Neenah, Wisconsin to visit daughter Katie �05. Gary Jefferson marched with Leslie and son Sam, while Robin and Teresa Carpenter led the class� Hanover-based contingent with daughter Abigail.

Gary and Sharon Broughton arrived from their home in New Jersey to meet daughter Laura �95, who drove up from Boston. Also driving up from the Boston area were Bill and Paula Roberts. Al and Jo Keiller had a short trip from their home in Windsor, VT.

Winning the contest for having traveled the farthest were Don and Margot Graves, flying in from Huntington Beach, CA. Don is Sales and Marketing Director for Lazar Industries In LA, a manufacturer of furniture. He and Margot have two grandchildren, Haley (3) and Ian (1). They still enjoy spending part of the summer in Northeast Harbor within Acadia National Park.

As always, Paul and Margot Doscher were outstanding hosts for the Class Pre-game Brunch. While still cold, we were treated to a beautiful clear day with snow on the surrounding Vermont hills. Frank and Marcy Blod arrived from Connecticut and Ken Reiber drove up from Dedham, MA where he is a marketing consultant for the industrial and auto markets. Son Jonathan, a 2000 graduate of Middlebury College, won a Watson Fellowship and has been traveling through Sri Lanka, India, Turkey and Italy.

I also had a chance to catch up with Noel Fidel, who retired in August as a judge from the Arizona State Court of Appeals after fifteen years. Besides his volunteer work for Dartmouth, Noel is now teaching at Arizona State�s College of Law in Tempe as the Merriam Distinguished Visiting Professor. Sons Nathan �02 and Louis �03 have followed Noel to Dartmouth; Alexander is a sophomore in high school and waiting �in the wings�.

Jim Sutherland came up from Ridgewood, NJ where he operates his own consulting business out of his home at 306 Graydon Terrace. Jim was joined by Bob and Hettie Sauer; Bob is with Hewlett-Packard near his home in Princeton, MA. Steve and Barbara Lanfer drove up from Yarmouth, ME. More on Steve later.

Our mini-reunion chair Al Keiller did an excellent job running the class meeting for our co-Presidents �in absentia�. Al went over the class� healthy financial status, prepared by Treasurer Jim Weiskopf and shared with all of us in his dues notice. Most of the meeting was focused on the Class 60^th Birthday Party to be held in San Francisco and Napa in early to mid-May of 2004. It was agreed that the �core� mini-reunion should be held on Friday through Sunday, with Thursday and Monday add-ons for golf and other recreational activities. Hotels with different price points would be blocked for Friday and Saturday nights in San Francisco. Volunteers interested in helping Al on this event can contact him at sienawine@aol.com.

There was lengthy discussion about future class projects. It was decided to continue funding two John Sloan Dickey fellowships at $2500 each per year, although soliciting more recognition for the class� contribution from the John Sloan Dickey Foundation. In addition the class voted to start a $1000 per year contribution to the Dartmouth Athletic Sponsors Program, which pays for recruiting trips to Hanover for athletes interested in the College. The beneficiary of the class� generosity will be invited to speak to the class at our annual Homecoming dinner, along with the two Dickey fellows.

After a hearty brunch served by the Doschers, it was off to the football game against Harvard, where I ran into Stan Colla, who was watching the game with President and Mrs. Wright. Although close, the Big Green lost the game in the fourth quarter 31-26 and unfortunately started a four game losing streak, which ended another disappointing season with a record of 3-7. Since 1998, the Big Green�s record is a woeful 10-39. After the game, we participated in a cocktail party at the Hanover Inn with the classes of 1963, 1964, and 1965. Wally Buschmann attended with his brother Chris �70, driving up from Wally�s home in Sidney, ME. He�s still practicing law at the firm of Weeks & Hutchins in Waterville. According to Wally, rumor has it that Gus King plans to travel around the country in an RV after leaving the Maine governor�s office in January. Don Graves passed along an article from the �LA Times� concerning the success of Gus� initiative to provide all seventh graders in the state with laptop computers.

Also attending the cocktail party was Rick MacMillan, up from Dublin, NH, where he is now CEO of The Country Hen, a company selling Omega 3 organic eggs (they retail for $5.50!!). Rick also serves as President of the Dartmouth Club of Southwest New Hampshire; classmates interested in joining can call Rick at 603-876-4156.

The annual dinner was again held at the Norwich Inn. Joining the class contingent were John and Nancy Hughes. John is with McKinley Capital Management in Deephaven, MN, a money management firm specializing in institutional clients (80% of their assets under management) and high net worth individuals.

The evening ended with a presentation by our two 2001-2002 Class of 1966 John Sloan Dickey Fellows, Andy George �03 and Tamara Taggart �03. Andy spent his time abroad working for the Us Embassy in Moscow, while Tamara provided basic health education in a rural village in Lesotho. You can read the complete presentations on the class website.

I apologize to anyone I might have missed�and a round of snaps to Al Keiller.

News from Classmates

Richard Tufaro writes, �Time to retire. After 31 years with Milbank Tweed in New York and Washington, I have decided to retire and to do some of the community service activities that have passed us by over these busy years of practicing law. Our older daughter is getting married in December. Our older son is working in Boston. Two still in college. Looking forward with excitement to a new phase of life.� Richard can be reached at 7109 Heathwood Court in Bethesda, MD 20817.

Steve Lanfer e-mails, �Nothing new at our place. Empty nesting remains a foreign concept as we still have six kids of various sorts at home. We may lose one in the next few weeks, but we expect to have ten for Thanksgiving. So we keep busy and wait for our treasure ship to come in. Next summer is the ETA.� Others of us waiting for that ship can get hold of Steve at SPLanfer@aol.com.

Also sending me an email was Neal Zimmerman: �Things continue to go OK in the Atlanta area. October weather here agrees with me as we just dipped below 70 for the first time this fall. I�m starting to get a little more active in Dartmouth activities here and have just formally joined the Dartmouth Club of Georgia. Going to see the Rolling Stones concert with wife and daughter.� Neal promised to write a note on alumni

apathy, so hopefully more from Neal in the next Newsletter. Email address is nealzim@bellsouth.net.

Walter Harrison gives us a bio of his activities since graduation: �Since graduation from Dartmouth, I went to Hahnemann Medical School in Philadelphia and then to Pittsburgh Children�s Hospital and Boston Floating Hospital, originally a boat in Boston Harbor, for a pediatric internship and residency. I have been in private practice in Lynn, MA, about fifteen miles north of Boston, since. Over the years I discovered I�ve been active in health care financing and politics, serving as Chief of Pediatrics for Lynn, Union, and North Shore Children�s hospitals and as councilor for the Mass Medical Society for almost 30 years, chairing the committee that deals with Medicaid and Medicare. I also sat on the legislative committee. At one time I was Clerk of the Corporation for Bay State Health Care, an HMO that went belly-up and was taken over by Blue Cross/Blue Shield. I�ve been extremely active with the Mass chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Along with another pediatrician, I worked with the state in the 70�s to put together Project Good Health, the Mass system of medical care for children under Medicaid. Testifying at legislative hearings and serving on two Department of Public Health committees, I received a national achievement award from the Academy.

I started and chair two committees, one dealing with pediatric compensation, coverage, and practices with HMO�s and Medicaid, the other the Children�s Mental Health Task Force, a huge coalition of groups which has increased fees for child psychiatrists, increased funding for the Parent Advocacy League, and helped establish a Governor�s Special Commission on Children�s Mental Health, on which I now serve.�

�Over the years I have sporadically seen Larry Goss, Bob Baldwin, Bill Roberts, and Bill George. Recently I met with Albie MacDonald, Executive Director of the Mass Business Roundtable, at a meeting I organized when the Academy of Pediatrics held its national meeting in Boston. I remarried eight years ago. Jackie is a peach of a woman and a nurse working in a visiting nurse association. She brought Nick and Shana into the family. Lisa is now 31 and has just recently left Fidelity; Mike is 29, living in Princeton, NJ, and runs hotels for the Waterford Hotel Group. He and Peggy brought �Good Golly Miss Molly� into the world three months ago. Danny is 25 and works in Denver for Clean Harbors, an environmental services company, while Nick is 21 and is just graduating from Embry Riddle Aeronautical next month and looking for a pilot�s job. Shana is in her sophomore year at NYU where she is currently interning at an advertising firm. All in all, I count myself very fortunate for all the good things in life that I do have and all the bad things in life that I do not have.� Walter would love to hear from old 66er�s at Harrison@massmed.org.

What I believe to be a first in the history of �Along Route �66�, an email from a class widow, Ann Zartler: �I received the �66 Newsletter on the ninth anniversary of the death of my husband Bob Zartler. So it seemed that I should take a moment to update you. On October 27, 2001, Benjamin Robert Zartler was born to Teddy and Erica Zartler (and I just returned from his first birthday!). Teddy is a research scientist at Eli Lilly in Indianapolis. Our son Jamie still lives in Portland, OR, where he is a middle school resource teacher. He is also a fantastic gardener and has a garden design business. I�m still in Jamestown, RI working as a school psychologist in Newport, RI by day and clinical psychologist by night (and weekends) in Westerly and Jamestown. I garden, play the cello, performing with community orchestra and community theater groups, and attend lots of chamber music concerts.� Thanks, Ann, for the update and for sending along the photo of Benjamin Robert. Classmates can correspond at ann@zartler.com.

Benjamin Robert Zartler

I also heard from John Hargraves, who believes this is his first communication with the Class in twenty years! �I�m currently Asst. Professor German Language and Literature, Connecticut College. Been there six years. This represents a change, for in 1986 I left business and went to Yale for a PhD in Germanic Studies. Taught there for a few years and switched to Conn. I like teaching. A lot has happened in academe in the time I was out of it! Twelve years ago I founded and still run a chamber music series called Musical masterworks in Old Lyme, CT where we also live on weekends. It�s very successful, selling out ten concerts a year. Just published a book on Music and German Literature. Also have done several translations, the latest of which will come out in the fall, �Essays of Hermann Broch�, called �Geist und Zeitgeist: The Spirit in an Unspiritual Age�. I am also trustee of the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts and am on the Connecticut Humanities Council. My wife, Nancy Newcomb, is a banker in New York.�

�We spend most of our time in NYC, although when I am teaching at Conn, I am at our Lyme place more. We are music lovers and spend time doing that, working at various non-profits, and we travel a fair amount. September 11, 2001 found me here in NYC and Nancy on a plane to Buenos Aires. We had scheduled a party-recital for the pianist Ruth Laredo that night, and Ruth insisted on going through with it as a way of keeping spirits up. It was a strange and sad but finally positive experience, where lots of friends gathered to comfort each other and hear Ruth�s wonderful playing. Went up to Hanover recently for a Horizons weekend at the Hood/Hop. It was great to see how important the arts remain at Dartmouth. Saw my old roommate John Rollins this summer; he and Ann stopped by our place in CT on their way back from NH.� Thanks, John for the update�and please don�t wait another twenty years!! John is reachable at jhargraves@aol.com.

Ted Thompson is restoring homes in Haverhill and Piermont, NH. Son Todd just had a baby daughter.

Alumni Apathy

In the October Newsletter, I asked for opinions on why the College has seen a 20 point drop in the percentage of alumni contributing to the Dartmouth Fund, paying their dues, and voting in Alumni Trustee elections. Steve Smith offered the following:

Dear Bob,

The decrease in Alumni participation in annual giving probably has multiple root causes, but I will give you one classmate�s perspective.

In addition to the economic challenges that are impacting all charitable organizations, I believe Dartmouth has some specific situations that have worsened annual giving.

I certainly agree that the current solicitation method is a lot less personal than the previous class agent network for the majority of alumni. I also tend to think the current approach focuses on the 10% of alumni who probably give 90% of the dollars. This may make sense from a purely dollar standpoint but it plays havoc on overall alumni morale and participation. This, I believe, is a serious problem that the College needs to address.

I also believe that Jim Wright�s early assault on the Greek system sent a lot of negative signals to loyal Greek alumni. The Greek system certainly needs a lot of correction, or even outright elimination, but I saw the approach as outlined in the Student Life Initiative as victimizing the current Greek students like they were the problem. I was personally very involved with an early 2001 Psi Upsilon fraternity incident (since my son was an officer of Psi U at the time) when a brother of that house chanted �Wah Hoo Wah� and some other indecent words to a female Dartmouth student. From my investigation into the situation, I found the Administration too focused on sending a message to the Greek students and too short on getting the facts of the incident (I clearly believe the Administration was way off base giving the fraternity two semesters of probation based on the facts as I came to know them. My wife and I met on campus with Dean Marty Redman and also were provided evidence of letters from Psi U written to the Dean and face-to-face meetings with the Dean asking for help with this apparent psychologically afflicted member of the fraternity prior to the incident! The Dean even reportedly told those Psi U members who attended the meeting that they were doing all the right things). You can imagine the impact this type of insensitive treatment of a serious situation might have on Dartmouth Fund participation of some of these young men after graduation.

In a separate incident, in 2000 I increased my gift to Dartmouth�s Thayer School of Engineering from $2000 to $5000 and all I got was a form letter thanking me for my donation. A year later I gave the $5000 to a local charity in my community and they thanked me personally in writing and in person. It really makes me feel with all the endowment that the College has and all the big donations that the College gets that my gift is really not important to them. Now, no one from Hanover should come to Michigan and say thanks, but how about a personal letter, an email, or a phone call? It�s simple courtesy, it�s fund raising 101, and I know it pays off.

Finally, I also know an older alumnus that served with me on the Corporate Advisory Board at the Thayer School, who was considering leaving a bequest to the School, but now is no longer planning to do so because of the frustration regarding some of Dartmouth�s current leadership.

The above situations lead me to conclude that there is an arrogance and insensitivity at Dartmouth that is negatively impacting the effectiveness of the Dartmouth Fund solicitation as it relates to alumni participation. In addition to reviewing the way alumni giving is solicited, if this arrogance and insensitivity is not addressed it will all be for naught.

Maybe I am just a statistical outlier, but for what it is worth�

Steve Smith

Thanks, Steve. Chris Meyer�s perspective will be in the February �Along Route �66�.

Dartmouth Fund

Speaking of alumni giving, Head Agent Bob Spence writes the following:

Dear Classmates,

I would like to make a case why we should consider giving to the Dartmouth Fund for 2003. As you know from my previous letter, the Fund is an unrestricted fund used for general purposes by the College. As the chart below indicates, the unrestricted portion of the net assets (restricted and unrestricted endowments) of the College equals about 33% of the total. While that portion of giving going into the unrestricted endowment has been increasing over the past five years, the needs of the institution have been growing faster. It would seem that tuition and fees are keeping pace, totaling 48% of total expenditures for 2001, up from 38% in 1997. However, if you back out scholarships, the actual number drops from 28% in 1997 to 24% in 2001. My guess is that trend is continuing.

The magnitude of gifts to the College varies with timing of major capital campaigns and fluctuations within the economy. Almost all unrestricted gifts are used to offset current operating activities. To make ends meet, however, the College now must draw almost twice the amount of unrestricted gifts from endowment income ($102 MM in 2001 vs.$51 MM in unrestricted gifts).

What this means, of course, is that in an environment where returns from investment are negative, to cover expenditures you have to raise tuition, reduce scholarships, or curtail activities (witness varsity swimming). The majority of College expenditures go for institution, faculty and student support (compensation is by far the largest category). Dartmouth�s strength and ability to attract the highest caliber of student depends upon maintaining spending levels sufficient to meet its objectives as a premier educational institution. The unrestricted gifts received by the Dartmouth Fund each year are critical to the Institution�s financial, and therefore operational, health. Without a strong Dartmouth Fund, more of the burden is placed upon endowment. Without a substantial annual inflow, the well would eventually run dry.

We, along with other classes and friends, are Dartmouth College. The support our class gives the College is a function of both our strength as a class and how we view our relationship with our classmates and the College. In supporting the College, we support our class, ourselves and our desires to help others in their quests for useful and fulfilling lives. As we are the beneficiaries of the support of others, let us also stand and be counted.

Sincerely,

Bob Spence

     Dartmouth College Key Financial Highlights ($000,000)
 
                                2001 2000 1999 1998 1997
 
   Net assets:                  2940 2968 2149 1921 1639
     Unrestricted                976  934  686  625  553
     Temporarily Restricted     1459 1550 1009  869  691
     Permanently Restricted      505  485  453  428  395
   Total Expenditures:           426  384  369  330  309

   Tuition and Fees:             150  143  137  131  124 
   Scholarships:                 (48) (46) (42) (40) (38)
   Gifts:                        107  114   02   81   90
     Unrestricted                 51   47   42   34   28
     Facilities/Loans             16   21   25   14   14
     Endowment                    28   41   22   27   23
     Life Income/Other            12    6   12    7    5
   Distributed Endowment Income: 102   83   75   57   53