Class Notes | In Memoriam
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In Memoriam CHRIS DARROW Singer, songwriter, country-rock pioneer, and member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Chris Darrow died in January of complications from a stroke. He was 75. A much-beloved figure in Claremont and beyond, Darrow was born in 1944 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and grew up in Claremont. He attended Pitzer College (where he studied folk and bluegrass music) before studying art at CGU. His father Paul, an influential artist and educator in Claremont, predeceased him last fall. See adjacent obituary. Darrow was a gifted multi-instrumentalist and co-founder of the group Kaleidoscope in 1966 with fellow Claremonter David Lindley. He would go on to play with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band before forming the Corvettes, which Linda Ronstadt recruited to be her backing band. In the 1960s and 1970s, Darrow played alongside and knew many of the era’s most celebrated musicians. He recorded with dozens of artists throughout the 1970s—including James Taylor and Leonard Cohen—and released ten solo records. For many young musicians, Darrow served as a mentor, supporter, and friend. He was working on a memoir at the time of his death, according to the Claremont Courier. Countless musician tributes appeared in the days after the news of his death. “Chris Darrow died this morning,” wrote The Monkees’s Michael Nesmith. “Hard to explain his life, and harder to express my sense of loss. He was an artist, and he had a vision… like almost no other.” Ben Harper, another fellow Claremonter, tweeted the lyrics of a Darrow song. At the end of the tweet, Harper wrote, “I didn’t go to [school emoji]. I went to Chris Darrow.”
REMEMBERING PAUL DARROW Gifting the world with his artistic eye and sense of humor Acclaimed multi-media artist, cartoonist, professor, and mentor Paul Darrow passed away last fall at the age of 98. Darrow was a key player in distinguishing Claremont as an essential center of mid-twentieth century post-war modernism in Southern California. In addition, Darrow was wellknown in the Claremont community for nearly 50 years for his art and educational contributions to the Claremont Colleges and the Claremont Courier. After serving in World War II, Darrow studied art at Claremont Graduate School from 1945 – 1949. Shortly after completing his master’s degree, he started gaining recognition as an artist when his well-known cartoons began appearing in the Courier (and continued for the next 50 years). Most of Darrow’s beloved cartoons depicted his interpretation of the social and political atmosphere of the decades. Throughout his time in Claremont, Darrow’s popularity continued to grow after 37 years of teaching at Scripps College, Claremont Graduate School, Otis Parsons, and the California Institute of Technology. Darrow, along with Millard Sheets, Betty Davenport Ford, and others, were celebrated in the documentary “Design for Modern Living: Millard Sheets and the Claremont Art Community 1935-1975.” For longtime CGU professor and artist Roland Reiss, Darrow was “…an outstanding key professor in the Scripps College art program and with many students at Claremont Graduate University.” Darrow’s art extended far beyond city lines, appearing in multiple galleries across California, and his cartoons have appeared in the New York Times and New York Magazine. His talents and passion for the arts had no limits; he gifted the world with hundreds of pieces of ceramics, collages, book illustrations, photography, painting, and writing. “He brought to every situation a sense of humor that was amusing, bantering, playful, and challenging on a very subtle level. Everyone loved being around him because he brought such a good spirit to everything, including the creative enterprise,” said Reiss. Darrow is survived by his children Joan Darrow and her husband, David Lindley; Elizabeth Darrow Jones; and Eric Darrow and his wife Rochelle Darrow. He is also survived by his grandchildren Steven Darrow, Roseanne Lindley, Eric Cartwright, Mahlea Jones-Bergmann, Lauren Jones, and Bryce Darrow; and great-grandchildren Brennen, Vivienne, Desmond, and Ciel. l
THE FLAME Spring 2020
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