Kingswood Oxford High School - Retrospect Yearbook (West Hartford, CT)

Page 29 text:

WILLIAM L. MORSE Smiling Bill” joined the Class of 39 in the fourth form and immedi- ately obtained a place on the soccer squad; for the last two years he has been awarded letters as a halfback. As a freshman, Rugged” participated in intermediate basketball during the winter term; the next year he went up one step and played on the first basketball squad; and this last year he soared to unprecedented heights — he became a hoopster in that group com- posed of the cream of Kingswood’s athletes, the third basketball team. Many were the bruises Rugged gave the tender and inexperienced in those vicious fights on the floor of Soby Gym. Bill’s choice of a spring sport has changed every year: first it was inter- mediate baseball, then it was softball, and this year he is spending his time in a futile effort to catch the birdie” on the indoor badminton court. Rugged does not, however, confine his dazzling exhibitions of speed and drive only to the athletic fields of Kingswood. Any one who has taken a hair-raising ride in his ’34 Plymouth can corroborate this state- ment. It is a point of honor with Bill never to go less than eighty miles per hour on the straightaway, and his average velocity around corners has been estimated by conservative observers at about forty. This celerity is, no doubt, a great asset in his trips to Wesleyan to visit Ingy”. A full-fledged member of the U. S. Power Squadron, Rugged has a wonderful time skimming over the briny deep in his father’s motorboat. Unfortunately, the water craft does not go as fast as Bill’s flivver; but it has the advantage of being unhampered by pestiferous stop signs. Middlcbury College will be honored with Bill’s presence next year, and we feel sure that his high-speed” person- ality will carry him to success. 25

Page 28 text:

WILLIAM M. MORCOM Bill” entered the school with the original Class of ’39 way back in the fifth grade. He was the first president of the class, a responsibility in those days when we were so little and school life so strange. During the remainder of his stay in the junior school, he distinguished himself by regular attendance in Saturday morning detention and by gaining several Wyverns in both major and minor sports. He served as president again for several different terms, and in the eighth grade he led the victorious Lancaster football team and the hockey team. In the senior school Willie” entered extra-curricular activities; he became circulation manager of the Kings- wood News, managed the Dramatic Club, and began studying the piano keeping up meanwhile his interest in rifle. In athletics he played end and fullback on the intermediate football team, gaining his letter in his sixth form year; a knee injury in 1937 prevented him from taking an active part in sports during the fall term. He has also been numbered among the ranks of the famous club basketball group, playing through three seasons without sustaining any serious injury. (His opponents, how- ever, were not quite as lucky.) Outside of school William, when he isn’t running around with beauti- ful young ladies, tries to keep a decrepit model A” Ford from falling apart. He has a mechanical bent and is very much interested in engines, especially marine engines. He is also quite skillful at drawing boats and cars. To prove that his mind isn’t entirely mechanical, Bill goes in for swing music; he can play it as well as listen to it. Bill intends to follow his brothers to Princeton next year where he will try for a B. S. in engineering; and, after taking a look at his scholastic record (rumor has it that he has been seen on the Honor Roll this year), we feel pretty certain that he will succeed. 24

Page 30 text:

DAVID C. PEASLEE In the fall of 1937 came an abrupt and brutal shake-up in the regular scholastic average of the fifth form. This disturbance of the status quo came in the form of Dave Peaslee, who since then has wrought havoc with all that we ordinarily conceive to be good marks. That fall, Dave devoted his energies to playing soccer under the direction of Mr. Greene. Later, when the weather began to get cool, Dave decided that the most comfortable spot to sit and soliloquize was on the intermediate basketball team’s bench. During his spare time he attended Math Club and indulged in workouts with the chess team. The spring found him playing touch football with the track group. At commencement in his junior year, Dave continued to smash all precedents as he walked off with the Dux Prize, the Harvard Prize, the Special English Prize, and received honorable mention for the Science and Mathematics Prizes. Last fall, Dave ably managed one of the best soccer teams that ever represented Kingswood and at the end of the season gracefully accepted the ducking accorded all managers. Every winter afternoon after playing chess or tutoring some preppie” he rather disdainfully traversed twelve laps on I lazen Track. Dave played tennis this spring and, to complete his extra-curricular activities, was an able member of the publicity board and a valuable bass in the school choir. Lately he has voiced his intention of trying for most of the school prizes available to seniors and, being the out- standing student that he is, he will undoubtedly carry off more than his share. As for his outside life, Dave is rumoured to be one of the most con- sistent bachelors the school has ever seen; but one never knows, or does one? Dave has chosen to go to Princeton in preparation for his scientific work at M. I. T. where he hopes to become a research scientist. 26