Lowell House Bells Fall Silent; Ringers Forget Old Tradition

The Lowell House bells did not toll yesterday, the first Sunday in at least three years that the bell ringers have failed in their duty.

Kevin J. Kaufman '76, president of the Lowell House Bell Ringing Society, said yesterday that the silence was caused by the simultaneous absence and forget-fullness of all the society's members.

Busy Day

Kaufman said he was driving back from New Haven at one o'clock. Two other members of the four-person society, Margaret Niles, '77 and Brendan Greet '77, were at play rehearsals. H. Jeffrey Bruckner '77 was at a brunch at Radcliffe.

Each said they assumed some other member would do it.

Several people in Lowell House tried to ring the bells when they realized the society wasn't doing it, a student in the House said, but they were unable to get the key to the bell tower.

The bells were installed in Lowell when it was built in 1930. A plumbing manufacturer had rescued the bells from a small Russian village that had been about to melt them down.

Elliott Perkins '23, former Master of the House, said he was surprised anyone had noticed that the bells hadn't been rung. Such a thing has happened several times in the past, he said.

As a possible explanation for the incident, William H. Bossert '59, current Master of Lowell House, said that perhaps the bell ringers were "exhausted from the enthusiasm of the previous day," referring to the bell ringing following the Yale game.