“Outsells the New York Times on Patterson Court” The GOLD 50th Anniversary Edition for the Class of ’64 SCRIPTS ’N PRANKS Free to everyone / Cheap at that price June, 2014 ’64 + 50 = ’14 FINISH LINE: “We’re still standing.” GOAL FOR 60TH REUNION, “Where are we?” “What did you say?” 100% PARTICIPATION. “Who did the math?” Featuring: ULTIMATE CLASS OF ’64 SURVEY • Drones decline. Movers upbeat • Wheelchairs shunned for exercise • We’re bigger Neys (Givers) • Still macho but married still • Hunger: World’s problem except on campus • Advice to President Quillen Also, EXCLUSIVE • Killebrew: We were the “ante” generation • Will Terry: No “jerks” here • Spratt: Davidson is Agnes Scott-like place? • Honor Court’s Warren: “What I don’t see...” • Nickel: Dr. Quillen has “threads” • Alexander: Manual Labor College Called Davidson • Former Gov. Martin reflects on Class of ’64 and exorcism of a cheerleader • Prof. MacCormac: Lefty did the right thing Notes on the Campus and Beyond from Arbuckle, Earle, EXTRA, EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT! Ferris, Howell, Stephenson, Smyre, Wampler, Morrissett & Skip Jones AND CLASS ROLE (with and without faces), PRESIDENT QUILLEN RESPONDS and Amazing New Facts and Stats TO “BOYS OF ’64” Class of ’64 CONTENTS OF THE GOLD EDITION 50th Reunion Committee Cover Drawing ........................................ Joe Howell ’64.................... 1 Movers: Reunion Chair — Billy Mills The Bar Sinister: The Davidson Man .... Ches. R. Cat ......................... 3 Gifts Chair — John Spratt Masthead, Letters to the Editor, Dedication ......................................... 6 Drones Who Manned the Phones and More: Contributors Roy Alexander Howard Arbuckle Half a Century ......................................... Jim Killebrew ’64 .............. 8 Bill Barron Kelton: “Concerned (About You)” .......... Rick Smyre ’64 .................. 9 Hugh Bell Proud (and Humble) ................................ Will Terry ’54 .................... 10 Bill Ferris Civil Rights Journey ................................ Joe Howell ’64 .................. 11 Dick Fulp Lessons of the Classroom ........................ Grier Stephenson ’64......... 12 Sam Glasgow You Old “Codger” Seniors ...................... Tom Frist ’67 ..................... 12 Terry Holland On My Honor (and his) ............................ Staff Warren ’64 ................ 13 Joe Howell Davidson: The Wizard ............................. Jeff Wampler ’64 ............... 14 Skip Jones An Agnes Scott-Like Place ...................... John Spratt ’64 .................. 15 Jim Killebrew Jaded We Were. Jerks We Were Not ........ Dick Nickel ’64 ................. 16 George Little Dr. Lester’s Trend Proves True ................ Erwin Spainhour ’64 ......... 17 Joe McCutchen Davidson Was and Is a Farm .................... Roy Alexander ’64 ........... 18 Walt MacDonald Spell-Check Didn’t Work ......................... Eddie Earle ’64 ................. 19 Joel Morrissett Mr. Lloyd & Skipping Class ..................... Eddie Earle ’64 ................. 21 Lee Martin Call & Townie Reeled Me Back ............... Howard Arbuckle ’64 ....... 22 Jim Rhyne Nostalgia from an Aging Philosopher ...... Earl MacCormac ............... 23 Ivon Rohrer A Tale of Nails .......................................... Bill Ferris ’64 ................... 24 Ed Rudert Where Did I Fail You? .............................. Jim Martin ’58 .................. 25 Rick Smyre An Academic Exorcism ............................ Jim Martin ’58 .................. 26 Staff Warren Anecdotes on Davidson’s Faculty ............ Joel Morrisett ’64 .............. 26 “Vacationland Vietnam” & Porter’s Gift .. Skip Jones ’64 ................... 27 Class Secretary — Carlton Cole Editor of the Gold Edition Fallen Friends, You Are Remembered .................................................... 7 — Hank Ackerman What Kind of Guys/Gals Read Scripts ‘n Pranks ................................. 24 Essayist, Cartoonist, Conceptualist Class Bionic Man Data ..........................................................................27 — Joe Howell Faceless Names ..................................................................................... 31 Faces of the Class of ’64........................................................................ 44 Unsolicited Advice to Dr. Carol Quillen AND Response ..................... 55 Back Cover — Scripts ‘n Pranks Covers 1963-64 [The S’n P is edited once every 25 years from its Grosse Pointe, MI North office. Brought to you by principal advertisers who are either in business, defunct, Ad rates on request. Cost varies. Davidson or fictitious: College, the publisher, has all responsibil- ity. Editor and staff represented by Lyman Hattie’s Afloat Dillon before the Bar Sinister periodically. The College Laundry (New Fees) Library of Congress ISBN pending since The Scripts ‘n Pranks Edition for 60th Reunion 1960, at least.] The Fixer Company (solves all your campus problems) 2 We learn in this GOLD edition of the S ‘n P that Davidson started as a “Manual Labor College” on March 1, 1837. It took four THE BAR SINISTER years before founding Concord Presbytery “I Can. I’m a Davidson Man. I Can Make It to the Finish Line.” trustee fathers suspended an initial experi- By Ches. R. Cat ment to have students enter school not only to study, but to do so only after daily chores in college fields or shops. The chores proved to have undermined the academics, it seems, During the same month, President Grier Martin, and trustees slowly phased them out. in a guest column in the Davidsonian, spoke of CONTRIBUTIONS our class: “Davidson’s Class of 1964 of 255 men Economy was important then, up to a selected from 1,070 candidates is equal to or Articles on these pages contributed by point, and it is today. Davidson has inau- superior to the freshman class of any other men’s classmates and former faculty and staff paint gurated in 2012 another iteration of the college in the South...” an array of canvases with descriptions of what Manual Labor College, and it’s called the we went through both in college and later. Jim Davidson College Farm. Today the work is However much he thought of us, he also made Killebrew tells us about the “Half Century” voluntary, and the product is beginning to an observation that can be remembered profit- when we were “ante” being “anti.” Rick help “sustain” Davidson in a unique way. ably by trustees, faculty, staff, students and Smyre depicts an essential nature of David- Roy Alexander documents this in one of this alumni: “It seems to me that what is called a son as an “incubator” one that led him to year’s essays below. superiority complex is the most dangerous thing become a Futurist. Will Terry, who confessed facing this college in the years just ahead.” us years ago, notes that there’s a reason we At the same time, we learn on this publica- are now “Proud and Humble.” One of them, tion’s deadline that Davidson will discon- By 1964, our class was going to be transformed, seriously, is that we are “not jerks.” And, his tinue in 2015 the $80-a-year “free” laundry transitioned, if not, transfixed. The Quips and essay this year seems convincing that what service instituted 90 years ago, allowing Cranks described this process in the opening he said in 1989 about the Class of ’64 was students to do their own manual labor by verse of a retrospective poem, “I am the Student” true: “Twenty five years of Davidsonians have operating college-operated “coin” machines. (by Skip Jones) describing what “beanie”-wear- rolled through my life since you, but there One good feature: students don’t have to ing students would be facing: is a distinctiveness about you that few other use coins, and this contributes to debt-free classes can match.” An embedded memory of graduation. “I am the student. I come to etch my book of life all was the March in Charlotte for civil rights marks from the experience called college. I come our senior year, and Joe Howell vividly (as in The college now has a $560 million endow- to print on the leaves of this book the pulse of the 1989) takes us back to that pivotal event. ment, and much to the astonishment and experience called Davidson. I come to wither, praise of academics nationwide, Davidson die, decay – to change from the young boy to the As classmates moved out in chosen profes- implemented in 2009 a need-blind admis- old. I am the student.” sions, many became university professors and sions policy for its current 1,850 students, teachers. Grier Stephenson, our Summa Cum allowing them to go into the graduate world WHAT ARE WE LIKE NOW? Laude, First Honors classmate and professor loan-free. What changes! at Franklin and Marshall College, gives us a The Graduate. The S ‘n P Survey on the eve of humor-filled glimpse of the pitfalls of com- THEN WE WERE FRESHMEN our 50th class reunion, somewhat surprisingly manding a classroom. describes us as the old “boy” rather than an old When we, the freshmen of the Class of “man.” The Good News: responses depict the Tom Frist ’67, who became student body ’64, arrived on campus for orientation Sept. good health, the community-spirit, the strong president in his senior year, noted that by 5-10, 1960, the school had come a long family structure, the volunteer efforts, the service 1964 we already had developed “codger” way from manual labor and from healthy of professional life and the “bucket list” hopes of tendencies. eating. So much so that the top events of at least 95 living classmates. our first month, as described in several Staff