At a formal banquet at Brooks House last night, Graduate Secretary Raymond Dennett '36, announced the election of J. Elden Sawhill, Jr., '43, of Lowell House, to the presidency of PBH. Sawhill, who succeeds Harry Newman '42, will be assisted by Robert G. Axtell '43, also of Lowell House.

Frequent tributes to Newman marked the ceremony, the first formal banquet to be held in Brooks House in years. The retiring president himself injected one of the few serious notes into what was otherwise a carefree ceremony, when he confessed his regrets at leaving PBH.

Voting by Mail

Voting was conducted by mail, with over 180 ballots sent out last Thursday. Two-thirds of them were returned by the deadline Monday, resulting in an election that was characterized by Newman as being the "closest in years."

Sawhill, who hails from Highlands, New Jersey, and who prepared for college at Exeter, has been a member of three committees at PBH, and for the past year has served as chairman of the Speakers Committee. He is, also a Varsity soccer letterman, and a member of the Caisson Club.

Likewise figuring in three Brooks House Committees, Axtell who comes from Evanston, Illinois, is a catcher on the baseball team and a member of the Lowell House Committee.

Becoming active immediately, the new officers will, together with the present chairmen of the various PBH committees, choose the 1942 Cabinet next week. They will then attempt to decide Brooks House policies for the coming year, and submit them to the advisery committee which meets on March 4.