Approximately 12 members of the Class of '28, the oldest class celebrating a reunion this year, and 22 of class members' wives, widows, children and grandchildren will return to Hanover on the 26th of this month to attend their 70th and final official reunion, Reunion Chairman Jerry Sass said.
After a Friday registration, the alumni visitors will be staying at the Hanover Inn, where Sass said he has made arrangements for two gourmet dinners on Friday and Saturday night.
The guests can choose between Maine lobster, Filet Mignon and other delicacies.
"Nothing is too good for the Class of '28," Sass said.
He said the visitors will take a tour of the entire campus to see the new construction and the plans for the College. After the tour on Saturday, a class photograph will be taken on the porch of the Hanover Inn.
With the exception of an Episcopal Chapel memorial service for deceased members of the class, all other reunion events will take place inside the Hanover Inn, Sass said.
Sass said he will give class members a variety of momentos. One of these, he said will be about 20 volumes of a publication now out of print, called "Letters to Dartmouth," written by prominent former Dartmouth students over the past 200 years. The books, which Sass located in the basement of the College Co-op, contain historical facts about the College and are now collector's items.
Sass said he has also ordered six-inch wide sterling silver pins with a silhouette of "Dartmouth Row," Dartmouth Hall, Reed Hall and Thornton Hall. In addition, he said he has planned a "surprise memento" for the alumni and visitors.
The main speaker at Friday night's dinner will be College librarian Margaret Otto, Sass said. The choice of speaker, Sass said, is very fitting as one of the mementos is a book and because "we are a little more studious in memory than some of the new freshmen."
At the final dinner on Saturday night, which will be held in private rooms in the Hanover Inn, the alumni and visitors will hear a "surprise speaker," Lawrence Tweedy of Oregon, Sass said.
The reunion will end with a pow-wow, he said, and added that having grown up on Native American Land, he has "great reverence and respect for the Indians and Indian philosophy."
The pow-wow will be a meeting of the Class Council, where every member of the Class of '28 will be given a few minutes to bid Dartmouth and his classmates good-bye. Sass described this as a "good-night kiss" to the College.
Sass said he has enough memories of his four years at the College to fill a book.
"The Class of '28 is so grateful for their experience at Dartmouth as an undergraduate, and for what they learned and gained to prepare them for the rest of their life," he said.
"The twenties were pretty wild," he said, mentioning that since consuming alcohol was against the law, students had to buy their liquor on the street.
In the 1920s, Hanover was only one-and-a-half blocks long, he said, and students enjoyed eating their meals at the "Greasy Spoon," now Lou's, or had "toastsides," sandwiches, brought to their residence hall rooms.
He said he believed things today are no different, except that "there's a different crowd."
"We have another generation and you do the same things we did," he said. "You do them no worse and you do them no better. We love you."
