Harvard University - Red Book Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

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Harvard Chess Experts Dominate the intercollegiate Tournaments Not a few members of '46 felt themselves during the war years like pawns being moved about a chessboard, but it was a small and select elite that were able to move the pieces about the boards themselves. These were the members of the Harvard Chess Club, who despite their own dwindling numbers and the disappearance of most of their opponents, put Harvard by the end of the war in position to win perma- nently the intercollegiate Belden-Stevens Trophy. Awarded for competition between Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, and Columbia, to be retained by the club winning it for live successive years, the trophy had been retained for four years by the Chess Club as it faced its 1947-48 season. The Chess Club's 1943 team gained possession of the cup by a 3-1 victory in New York's Marshall Chess Club. A 2-2 tie the next year permitted Harvard to keep the trophy. The Club won over Yale in 1945, and tied with Yale, defeating Princeton, in 1946, to gain its fourth leg on the trophy. Ten Seconds to Move As Chess Club membership grew again after the war, the members renewed their intra-club competition to de- termine the strongest players, who form the team. Harvard also entered teams in the Boston Metropolitan Chess League, and won first and third places in sectional competition. The club stages exhibitions, and has sponsored a round of the National Open, which saw some of the nation's best players pitted against each other in the Lowell Housejunior Common Room. For undergraduate competition, the Club has put on Rapid Transit Tournaments, ten seconds being allowed for each move, and hopes to arouse interest in Inter-House competition. Frank Pierce '46 fin V-12 uniformj plans his winning attack as the clock ticks off the minutes in a wartime Harvard-Columbia chess match. Nicholas Van Slyck '44 conducts at a Music Club Chamber Orchestra rehearsal. The Music Club Runs its own Chorus and Chamber Orchestra Harvard's Music Club celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 1948, and could look ahead to an active future, sponsoring its own chorus, Harvard's only chamber orchestra, and a popular series of House concerts. Founded in 1898, the Club has numbered among its members in the past such famous names in music as composer Randall Thompson '20, music critic Virgil Thompson '22, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and Harvard Professor Walter Piston '24, and the well-known conductor-composer Leonard Bernstein '39. The gilt palms of past successes withered during the war, however, and not until the 1945-46 season, under the leadership of President Nicholas Van Slyck '44, did the Club revive. Former member and composer-pianist Professor Edward Ballantine '07 served as faculty adviser, followed by Assistant Professor Irving Fine '37. The Radcliffe and Har- vard Clubs jointly presented Stravinsky's Periejzlaone in 1945. With talented pianist Noel Lee '46 as president in 1946-47, the Club formed its chamber orchestra and adopted a policy of playing yet unknown contemporary music and rarely performed older works, pieces which the public might not otherwise hear. At the Fiftieth Anniversary Concert in the spring of 1948, a successful program included the Bach Triple Concerto in A-minor for Hute, violin, and piano, with Noel Lee at the piano, a work never known to have been performed, and also the very new Soneztine for Clarinet and Strings by Club member Nicholas Van Slyck. The Club's choral group pre- sented in succeeding years a Stravinsky mass and the work Lex Nocei by the same composer. House concerts and monthly talks and performances by Boston symphony musicians rounded out the Music Club's full schedule.

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Mt. Washington snows are favorite practice slopes for Ski Club members. Lack of Practice Hampers the Ski Club in lntercollegiate Meets Skiing at Harvard has always been hampered by the dearth of suitable nearby slopes, especially for jumping and cross-country work, and, until recently, by the lack of official recognition for the Ski Team. The nucleus of the Club, its most expert skiers, form the Ski Team and represent Harvard in intercollegiate competition. The 1943-44 season was the last in which the wartime Club could enter a Team in many intercollegiate meets. Even with the aid of '46 skiers George Shedd and john E. Thayer, the lack of practice told against Harvard in the Lake Placid and Dartmouth meets, but Team members did capture first, third, and fourth places in the A.M. C. Wildcat race, and competed in the Gibson Trophy race. Despite the difficulties of competition, undergraduate interest in skiing continued during the war. The Club's 27-bunk cabin in Pinkham Notch, New Hampshire, con- structed by the members on land given in 1939 by Harvard's noted mountaineer Bradford Washburn remained open. Both undergraduate skiers and returning veterans fastened their skis to their auto ski racks and drove up on occasional winter week ends, or spent summer days and fall week ends clearing brush, repairing and enlarging the cabin, and building up the community woodpile. The 1946-47 season saw the Ski Club's membership begin to increase again to its present size of over seventy. Under the capable leadership of the next two years, including Secretary George Heller '46, the Club returned to intercol- legiate competition and sponsored several meets of its own- with Dartmouth, with Yale and Amherst, and the Harvard midwinter Intercollegiate International at Bromley, and an increased program is planned for the future. The Crimson Yachtsmen Won a First Place in the 1948 Olympics Faced by the narrow, meandering Charles River, the casual visitor to Cambridge would not suspect Harvard of being a great nautical power among American colleges. Such has, however, been the fact ever since the founding of the Harvard Yacht Club in 1887 and Harvard supremacy reached its zenith during '46 members' stay at College. Harvard members controlled the Intercollegiate Yacht Racing Associa- tion, Dave Noyes '44 and George O'Day '45 held the presi- dency successively in 1943 and 1944, with O'Day and Douglas Danner '46 successive chairmen of the MacMillan Cup. Among the many honors falling to Harvard yachtsmen were the Greater Boston championship for four straight years, the Oberg Trophy for three, and the Wood, Danmark, and Schell Trophies. A Dinghy Fleet During the stress of wartime it was only these few experts who kept Harvard's name before the sailing world. Of Club equipment and finances there were none, and of mem- bers there were few. Paul van Buren '46, Commodore of the Club in 1945, and Owen C. Torrey '47 the following year began to widen Club membership again, seeking to attract inexperi- enced as well as seasoned yachtsmen and to provide a dinghy fleet for members not sailing racing craft of their own. Har- vard's name continues to appear among the winners in im- portant races-Torrey and Hilary H. Smart '47 carried off the Intercollegiate Star Class Championship two years running, and Smart achieved the greatest individual honor a yachtsman can attain in the summer of 1948, when he and his father, racing for the United States in Olympic competition, won the Star Class yachting event at Torquay, England. Hilary Smart '47 friglatj and his father Paul H. Smart '14, con- gratulate each other on winning the Star Class Olympic yachting championship off Torquay, England, August 6, 1948 in their boat, the Hilarius. 'iv

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Harvard's Mountaineers Are World Renowned Some special elixir in the atmosphere around the rocks and icy crags on which the members of the Harvard Mountain- eering Club spend so much of their time must get into the blood after prolonged exposure, for few College activities have led their devotees to such far corners of the earth, or continued to call them from their business and professional careers after leaving Harvard. Since the founding of the Club in 1924, its members have left their pitons in crevices from the Andes to the Himalayas, and made such important contri- butions as that of Bradford Washburn and Robert Bates' expedition to Mount McKinley in 1941 to test mountaineering equipment for the U. S. Army. For undergraduate mountaineers, the HMC offers basic training in the Quincy quarries and makes short climbs on Mount Washington, Cannon Mountain, and other New Eng- land summits. The Club runs a cabin at Mount Washington, on which members base their skiing and climbing trips. Dur- ing the war, '46 mountaineers were limited to these week-end expeditions, and no major climbs could be attempted. By 1946, however, an HMC climbing party including Club President William Latady and former Presidents Andrew Kauffman, Mal Miller, and William Putnam made the second known ascent of Mount St. Elias in Alaska. The following summer, Putnam took a party on twenty-four first ascents in British Columbia's Coast Rangeg and 1947-48 Club President john Ross and six others flew into the Canadian Lloyd George Range and, besides climbing, made surveys and collected botanical specimens. The years ahead will undoubtedly see '46 alumni participating in more of these major climbs, which have brought the HMC world-wide renown. Mountaineering Club President William R. Latady during the ascent of Mount St. Elias and Hayden Peak in july, 1946. Outing Club members relax after a hiking trip. Varied Outdoor Pursuits Attract Outing Club Members Smaller in numbers but indefatigable in spirit, the Harvard Outing Club carried on a reduced schedule during '46 College years, but by 1947 had restored most of its many and varied activities, devoted to getting away from College and enjoying the outdoors. Short Sunday trips include biking around the Boston region with girls from Wellesley, Rad- cliffe, and Sargent, hiking in the Blue Hills, and Snowshoeing and skiing trips in the winter. The annual Harvard-to-Welles- ley bike race is an HOC institution, as are frequent square dances, boasting a large turnout from all the Boston area colleges. The Club arranges rock climbing, with complete instruction for beginners, on trips to Rattlesnake Crags in the Blue Hills, often in preparation for summer climbing in the Rocky Mountains and Grand Tetons. Freshmen, drawn to these activities by the physical training credits granted by the Hygiene Department, have stayed to become the Club's enthusiastic supporters. Low Cost Rentals HOC membership has provided '46 devotees not only with excellent opportunities to get together with other men interested in the outdoor life, but also with the material bene- fits oflow-cost rental of Club skiis, knapsacks, tents, and other equipment, discounts in many sporting goods stores, and the weekly issues of the Dope Sheet, a bulletin listing activities at Harvard and elsewhere in New England. An important postwar addition to the Outing Club's facilities has been the construction of the Kushner Memorial cabin, at the base of Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire, for summer hiking and winter skiing. With more to offer than ever before, the HOC again stands ready to run any out- door activity in which its members are interested. -12861