(For the record, I was there; there was very little, if any, alcohol.)

Franconia College was a small college in the hostile environment that was conservative New Hampshire in 1968, in the years when public opinion was largely controlled by William Loeb and his Manchester Union Leader, reportedly called the worst newspaper in the US by Bobby Kennedy. Front page editorial screeds, replete with half-truths and outright fabrications were the most notable feature of the Union Leader, Loeb himself at the top of the lineage that now includes Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly. It was a forged letter in the Union Leader in 1972 that led to Edmund Muskie's embarrassing tirade on the paper's front steps and the end of his presidential hopes.

Franconia College students, who were generally well received in the community and in nearby Littleton, further enraged Loeb by regularly traveling to Manchester for anti-war demonstrations, some of which took place in front of the Union Leader building.

The upshot of the Union Leader article and others which followed was the ruin of the college: insurance companies cancelled policies and the college, already in debt, was foreclosed upon. Dick Ruopp, our president was fired within days, faculty resigned en masse and the bulk of the student body did not return in the fall. Franconia College held on for another 8 years before folding, but the excitement of it's early years never returned.

Here's a link to an article from Time, published over the following summer. http://www.time.com/...

It was forty years ago today that signaled the beginning of Franconia's end and I thought it worth remembering. We had some fun and we left a mark.