CMC Magazine Spring 2019

INCITE TO

INSIGHT LIBERAL AND CONSERVATIVE PROFESSORS TEAM UP TO CONFRONT IDEAS THAT TEAR CAMPUSES APART

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table of contents features

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sections

An Open Mind

From the President

“I sincerely hope this becomes a model. We should all teach with people we disagree with.”

The Hub

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CAMPUS LIFE ATHLETICS

Bursting the Bubble “It was a raw moment, and it taught me about the personal attachment a lot of us have to our political views.”

A Dialogue for Everyone “We are not seeking scoops and we are not asking gotcha questions. We are a counterweight to the 24/7 news cycle, Twitter feeds, and social media likes.”

FACULTY BOOKS

Looking Back Alumni News

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PROFILES CMCAA PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE CLASS NOTES IN MEMORIAM

Parting Shot

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Giving back to CMC

produces a meaningful and significant impact on the lives of our students. Please make a gift before the end of the fiscal year on June 30.

Melia Wong ’19 Hometown: Seattle Majors: Government and music • Resident assistant at Phillips Hall • Communications manager at Rose Institute of State and Local Government • Co-founder of Claremont Government Society • Appel Fellow • Luce Scholar • Finishing senior thesis on Civil War songs

Ways to give

www.cmc.edu/donate V E N M O : @CMC-AnnualFund P H O N E : 1-800-448-3226 ONLINE:

EDITORIAL

Thomas Rozwadowski Susan Price Valerie Ramos VISUAL

Anibal Ortiz DESIGN

Jay Toffoli ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND COMMUNICATIONS

Peter Hong

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ALUMNI ASSOCIATION COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE

Daniel L. Freeman ’96 – Co-Chair Kenneth A. Gilbert ’73 – Co-Chair Katherine K. Bathgate ’08 Emily T. Meinhardt ’10 Kimberly Munoz ’10 Robert A. J. Poy ’90 P’21 Faye K. Sahai ’90 P’22

“Part of the reason I came to CMC, and why I have been so happy, is because of the community. There is such institutional dedication to the success of students here. Alumni really devote the rest of their lives to giving back.”

Spring 2019 CMC, Volume 42, Number 1 Published by Claremont McKenna College Claremont, CA 91711-6400 Claremont McKenna College, CMC, and Leaders in the Making are registered trademarks of Claremont McKenna College, and all applicable rights to use of the trademarks are reserved. Claremont McKenna College does not discriminate on any illegal basis in the administration of its admission, educational, or employment policies and practices. Claremont McKenna College is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer. To read online, go to www.cmc.edu/news/cmcmagazine. Copyright © 2019, Claremont McKenna College

CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

from the president Dear Friends, It is April and Thanksgiving is unseasonably on my mind. Yes, this is our favorite holiday with family, old friends, and the inspiring students who joined us this year—a moment for expressing our gratitude for how fortunate we are.

And yet, in an age when we appear more opinionated about what we are against than what we are for, when we worry more about our kids marrying someone of a different political party than we do about any other social identity, the national media reports that those of us hosting Thanksgiving face a special challenge.

We struggle with the risk that a heated political discussion will ruin the occasion. Many hosts pursue one of two options. Either we invite only like-minded people, and exclude otherwise acceptable guests to avoid an unpleasant conflict. Or we include people of different political viewpoints and then ban political discussion as off-limits.

During the Family Weekend Town Hall a couple of years ago, I pointed out that each of these choices gets it wrong. We shouldn’t exclude family and friends from our most inclusive holiday that is about gratitude on the basis of their political views. And even though we may think we are being more inclusive in the second approach, the choice to self-censure the dinner discussion excludes some part of us from freely expressing ourselves at the table.

We have a third choice, I observed, as a modest social foundation for an inclusive, engaged, participatory democracy. We can commit to model and inculcate the intellectual and social commitments and skills to speak freely, listen actively, debate with respect, learn through and across our differences, reach deeper levels of common understanding, engage in effective dialogue, and collaborate on the solutions to our most complex and controversial problems. That is how we get more unum from our pluribus.

Following these comments, a couple of parents approached me. “Hiram, we have to tell you the story of our Thanksgiving last year. We decided we would invite guests who had very conflicting perspectives about politics, and we encouraged people to talk about their views.” “How did you do that?” I asked. They replied, “our son, who is a first-year student at CMC, moderated our table discussion!”

We should all seize a moment of inspiration from this story, as it both reflects and transcends the core principles, clear policies, and public recognition of the College’s commitments: our adherence to the Chicago Principles on freedom of expression, our policy rating of Green from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (the only institution in liberal arts education and the State of California), and our No. 1 liberal arts ranking (and No. 2 overall) for viewpoint diversity in the Heterodox Academy rankings.

It also inspires our investments in the programs, courses, and people highlighted in these pages, under the umbrella of an increasingly Open Academy.

From our richly diverse Athenaeum programs to the superb co-teaching in the University Blacklist; from our impressive podcast group, Free Food for Thought, to our outstanding student-leaders, like Zenaida Huerta ’20; from the open debates in the dorms and the classroom to dialogue training for orientation and student leaders, we live, eat, and breathe this vital educational imperative of our time.

Thank you each and all for joining and supporting us.

SPRING 2019

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thehub Spanish Lessons Fear the beard! Michael Scarlett ’18 is thriving in his first run through Liga EBA, Spanish basketball’s fourth league. Scarlett led his team, Baloncesto Naron, in scoring (21 points per game) through the first half of the season. “I feel that I belong on the court here,” the twotime All-American guard said of his professional dream.

Heard at the Ath Lead with Love Often, students either don’t know how to get an issue addressed on campus or see student government as a bureaucratic institution with built-in limitations.

Maya Love ’20 wanted to change that.

Love recently finished her term as president of the Associated Students of Claremont McKenna College—the first African American woman to do so.

Guided by the campaign slogan “Lead with Love,” the Denver native knew she had a special responsibility to connect with peers on issues like mental health awareness, college affordability, or diversity and inclusion. As president, she’s most proud of having increased equity, access, and resources through ASCMC’s new constitution for community service and leadership platforms.

“I’m a big believer in passing the torch,” said Love, who also stars on the CMS women’s basketball team. “It’s important that underclassmen, especially, see what I’m doing and say, ‘I want to give that a try, too. I want to be a student leader. I want to make a difference with others.’

“We’re all part of the CMC community. So let’s keep building something great together.”

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Photo: Sandy Lopez

CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

“For me, trying to ensure that there is less conflict means there is less death. It means civilians get to live life. There is nothing more important.”

—Wendy Sherman, ambassador and former U.S. under-secretary of state “Negotiating Change: What We Can Learn from Complex International Negotiations”

The List

Most downloaded senior thesis projects

2 6 6 8 8 5 How Men And Women Differ: Gender Differences in Communication Styles, Influence Tactics, and Leadership Styles —Karima Merchant ’13, psychology

A Textbook Solution Like most college students, Biniyam Asnake ’20 was frustrated by the high cost of college textbooks. How could he help students find cheaper options?

The computer science major from Los Angeles decided to create an easy-to-use search tool like Google. He taught himself five programming languages. Guided by free online Coursera classes, he wrote 3,000 lines of code. The project so consumed him that he dropped a class to make time. The result was NextDorm.college, a web platform that pairs used books with students who need them. CMC students can search the site to see if the texts they need are available, and rent them at no charge for a semester through the CARE Center.

By the end of last school year, the NextDorm team—Asnake, Ryan Bellissimo ’20, Kara Corley ’20, and Lincoln Bernard ’21—collected and registered more than 1,400 textbooks, many of them from graduating seniors and drop boxes placed on campus. With the average price for CMC texts about $70 each, Asnake estimates that students have saved more than $20,000 through NextDorm.

“I knew NextDorm would be a practical project for me to apply all of the skills I had cultivated,” said Asnake, who is planning a career in software engineering and product development. “Like CMC teaches us, you learn by doing.”

1 9 6 1 3 2 Why Don’t I Look Like Her? The Impact of Social Media on Female Body Image —Kendyl M. Klein ’14, intercollegiate media studies

6 3 8 5 9 The Evolution of the Music Industry in the Post-Internet Era —Ashraf El Gamal ’13, economics

6 1 6 6 5 Ethics and Leadership: How Personal Ethics Produce Effective Leaders —Jessica Waggoner ’11, psychology

3 9 9 8 2 Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Performance: Does it Pay to be Good?

—Harmony J. Palmer ’13, economics/ accounting

See the full list of uploaded senior thesis projects at scholarship.claremont.edu.

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thehub Soccer The Stags won the 2018 regular season conference championship, led by six firstteam All-Conference players: Jacob Mays ’22, William Birchard ’21, Adam Singer ’20, Nate Huntington ’21, Aidan Johnson ’19, and William Barton ’22. For the Athenas, Sarah Malott ’19 and Rhiann Holman ’20 were first team All-SCIAC selections.

First-team All-American Zack Rossman ’20 led Stags water polo to a 10-4 conference record.

CMS cross country teams competed at Nationals for the 10th season in a row.

Football For the first time in program history, the Stags qualified for the NCAA Division III football playoffs. They were regular season co-champions of the SCIAC for the first time since winning back-to-back conference titles in 1986 and 1987. Linebacker Mitchell Allan ’19 was named the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year while running back Garrett Cheadle ’20 (HMC) was the SCIAC Offensive Player of the Year.

Volleyball The Athenas continued their run of conference supremacy, winning both the SCIAC regular season and postseason tournament championships. CMS has now won at least a share of the regular season conference championship in each of the last four seasons. Phoebe Madsen ’20 became the second player in CMS volleyball history to earn first-team All-America honors.

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Swimming and diving Thirteen CMS swimmers and divers competed at the NCAA Division III Championships in March. The Athenas placed 22nd nationally and had seven honorable mention All-America performances. Stag diver Kendall Hollimon ’20 earned first team All-America honors for the third year in a row.

Basketball The CMS women’s basketball team celebrated the program’s sixth consecutive SCIAC regular season championship. The Athenas also won 20 games in a row — tying a school record from 2014-15. Maya Love ’20 and Lindsey Cleary ’20 were first-team All-SCIAC selections. Meanwhile, the Stags tallied their 22nd winning season in a row, placing second in the regular season. Nicolas Segura Dobjanschi ’19 was a first-team All-SCIAC selection.

—Chris Watts

CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

Emotional Intelligence Psychology professor Piercarlo Valdesolo teaches “the stuff that every student can relate to”: How emotions affect our lives. The back-and-forth with CMC students in his Moral Emotions and Trust Lab has helped Valdesolo strengthen his own ideas about emotions. Recently, he’s been thinking deeply about his favorite one: awe.

To define awe, social scientists look at what prompts the emotion. Valdesolo says two things must be present: “One is the perception of vastness—that you are seeing or thinking about something vast—whether it is physical vastness such as a starry sky, or a big idea or concept,” he said.

The second ingredient? An inability to immediately understand what you are perceiving. “You aren’t able to wrap your mind around it,” said Valdesolo. People tend to think of awe as something positive, but the uncertainty it triggers also can create anxiety or fear. A starry sky or view from a mountain peak can make someone rejoice in the magnificence of nature—or feel small and insignificant.

Experiencing the positive aspects of awe with less anxiety is a matter of becoming more comfortable with uncertainty, said Valdesolo: “The question is, how OK are you with looking around the world and not understanding everything?”

—Susan Price

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thehub

Immediate Impact The Kravis Opportunity Fund—a $25 million gift from Trustee Henry R. Kravis ’67 and the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Foundation—elevates CMC’s commitment to enroll the most exceptional student leaders regardless of their ability to pay. The gift provided 63 rising sophomores on financial aid with internship support last summer. Going forward, it will fund a summer internship or experience for every rising sophomore on financial aid.

Along with bolstering internships, the fund expands financial aid more broadly for students. Areas of support beyond tuition include: l Health insurance l Travel l Counseling and advice l General start-of-college costs l Expenses for networking trips, research conferences, and career engagement events l The calculation of home equity in financial aid (to help attract more middle-class families) “There is so much more to the college experience than what you learn in a classroom,” Kravis said, “and it is a real honor for Marie-Josée and me to help promising students to be able to take full advantage of all that Claremont McKenna has to offer.”

Synaida Maiche ’22 Kakamega, Kenya

When Maiche arrived in the fall, she met with Susan Layden, associate dean of students for academic success, to craft a budget and determine preliminary needs. Most of her fall kickoff money ($1,000 each semester for general start-of-college costs) went toward textbooks. For her Welcome Orientation Adventure (WOA) trip, Maiche also didn’t have proper clothes for outdoor use at Camp Ronald McDonald. So Layden and Conor Fritz, associate dean of admission, drove her to an outlet mall outside Claremont to buy better shoes and heavier socks.

“Coming to a new place, a new geographic region even, some of these students have never thought about what they will need or what they will be asked to do at CMC,” Layden said.

Maiche’s academic goals center on interdisciplinary science. She wants to conduct research with DNA and gene replacement. But because CMC has also challenged her to think about innovation and “the bigger picture of life” through the liberal arts, her dream is to start an NGO to promote economic empowerment for women in Kenya.

“I am driven to achieve something great here,” Maiche said. “Even if what I’m doing right now at CMC makes me miss my family and miss my home, I know that I’m in a position to build my life in a different way.”

—Thomas Rozwadowski

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CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

Guillermo Santos ’22

Liam Brennan-Burke ’21

For Santos, support from the Kravis Opportunity Fund has provided peace of mind for the first time in his academic career. He used some of his kickoff money to pay for textbooks and registration fees, make a Target run for school supplies, and return home to El Paso for fall break.

Last year, Brennan-Burke cold-emailed SafeBoda, a Ugandan motorcycle ride-hailing app similar to Uber, to ask if they hired interns. It turns out they did—usually MBA candidates from Harvard and The Wharton School.

But SafeBoda was willing to take a chance on BrennanBurke because he had his own funding.

El Paso, Texas

Santos’ father, a factory worker and truck driver, and stay-athome mother supported the family on a shoestring budget.

Paying for college or putting money into an account for daily living expenses simply wasn’t an option for them, Santos said.

Santos is also the first person in his family to go to college in the United States. His hard work in high school landed him a nationally prestigious Gates Scholarship. Coupled with the Kravis Opportunity Fund, he can keep his focus on classroom work and making professional strides at CMC. Case in point: Santos has a six-week summer internship lined up with Deloitte in Los Angeles. He’d like to major in philosophy, politics, and economics, with a goal of one day running for political office.

“I worked so hard to get here, and what CMC is telling me is that I can learn for the sake of learning. It’s a new feeling,” Santos said. “Especially in an environment like this, with people who have a history of excellence and performing well, it’s truly inspiring to be here.”

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Rochester, N.Y.

“There was no way I could have done this kind of internship without help from CMC,” Brennan-Burke said. “I didn’t have the personal funds to make it possible.”

Internships are increasingly important to high-achieving college students, but many offer little or no pay, an obstacle for those with financial need. For BrennanBurke, an economics and international relations dual major, the experience has been a game changer. Forget textbook examples. He can talk about helping SafeBoda grow from 4,000 to 45,000 rides per day during his three months there. He also managed 15 interns being groomed for full-time work in information technology and logistics.

“Doing this internship heading into my sophomore year is such a catalyst for the next three years of continued growth,” Brennan-Burke said. “It’s so unique to have a school willing to invest this kind of money, time, and effort into its students—who can then come back to campus and invest what they’ve learned back in the CMC community.”

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thehub

Keeper of The Flame

Robert Faggen reflects on friendship, book with Leonard Cohen

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otato salad is the enduring memory of Robert Faggen and Leonard Cohen’s first encounter in 1994.

While in the deli line at Wolfe’s Market in Claremont, Faggen noticed a man with a shaved head, dressed in black, muttering to himself about whether to get the red or German potato salad. It was Cohen, who was living at Mt. Baldy Zen Center. Faggen had also recently moved up on Mt. Baldy, and the two began a conversation after Cohen confirmed his identity—“I asked him, ‘Are you Leonard Cohen?’ He said, ‘Yeah man, I am.’” They exchanged numbers and started hanging out at the Zen Center.

“We just got along well,” Faggen said. “Maybe he thought he could be himself around me.”

Faggen and Cohen later ended up in L.A., living about a mile apart. They continued to hang out at the corner Starbucks or to share oysters at a neighborhood joint. The bond grew with time and misfortune. In his later years, Cohen often wasn’t feeling well because of compression fractures in his back, which were symptomatic of a blood condition affecting his bones, Faggen said.

Visiting over coffee or dinner eventually offered a peek behind Cohen’s creative curtain. It was gradual, Faggen said, maybe a decade into their friendship. Cohen would share drafts of poems as he worked on them. Faggen offered suggestions, and Cohen would often defend why he used a certain word or was fixated on a specific phrase. “I always found that part of him the most interesting,” Faggen said. “Leonard worked in his own way.

Meticulous. He would spend weeks or month honing a line or thinking about a comma.” It was an intimate process Faggen was honored to partake in with such a talented and beloved writer.

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“I never expected to have actual input in the poems. But he wanted a dialogue,” Faggen said. “I think he liked that I could serve as a sounding board for his ideas.”

The healthy back-and-forth solidified a trust between Cohen and Faggen, which led to what would become The Flame, Cohen’s posthumous collection of poetry, lyrics, journal excerpts, and self-portraits edited by Faggen. The duo worked on the book’s framework for about three years.

The Flame, perhaps more than anything, demonstrates how Cohen’s creative energy burned brightly until his last breath.

For Faggen, who was tasked with organizing the book and identifying final versions of drafts Cohen had sent him, the honor of serving as his poetry handler was enormous. So was the responsibility he felt to not only Cohen’s legacy, but his fans’ expectations.

And yet more than Leonard Cohen the writer, Faggen will remember and miss Leonard Cohen the friend. Faggen was one of the few people regularly around Cohen during his final years.

They had dinner the night before Cohen, age 82, died after a fall at his home in the middle of the night.

“Work never really consumed the basis of our conversations or interactions,” Faggen said. “With us, it was always about friendship.”

—Thomas Rozwadowski

CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

Three Questions With…

Leland de la Durantaye

Hilary Appel and Mitchell A. Orenstein. From Triumph to Crisis: Neoliberal Economic Reform in Postcommunist Countries. Cambridge University Press, 2018.

Marjorie H. Charlop, Russell Lang, and Mandy Rispoli. Play and Social Skills for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Springer International Publishing AG, 2018.

Leland de la Durantaye has created something not typically found in contemporary fiction. Hannah Versus the Tree is the story of a brilliant young woman who seeks revenge after she is wronged by her powerful family, narrated by a man who loves her.

It is a tale of vengeance, but one written in a lyrical prose-poem. The professor of literature spoke about his writing process, the nature of myth, and how teaching at CMC led to his debut novel.

You are known as a critic. What prompted you to try fiction?

I’ve always written fiction, but in the margins of what else I was doing. I had so much else to do I could never dedicate myself to it fully. I haven’t made a sharp turn away from academic criticism, but my intellectual energies right now are much more in the direction of writing fiction and essays. Being at CMC has allowed me to ask myself what my own real response to literature is, and one of mine has been to create some.

How did Hannah’s story come to you?

I was on sabbatical in Rome, where I was working on translations, when I began the book. Some of the reason it came together quickly—I wrote it in one academic year—I think had to do with being away. My method was to sit down and write whatever came into my head for awhile. Once I had quite a bit of material, I would write new material for maybe an hour and then revise what I had previously written. It felt like sketching to me.

McSweeney’s, your publisher, hails your book as creating a new genre: the mythopoetic thriller. How do you define that?

The degree to which people found it mythic did surprise me a bit. But then it struck me as right. I did not set out to create myth, but some of the elements of the book lend themselves to that interpretation. It is a story of vengeance, and much of mythic violence is vengeful. I also did not want the story to be locked into a particular sociopolitical or historical reality. Myths survive because they are outlines of action and not particularized.

—Susan Price

SPRING 2019

Henri Cole.

Orphic Paris.

New York Review Books, 2018.

Jay A. Conger and Allan H. Church. The High Potential’s Advantage: Get Noticed, Impress Your Bosses, and Become a Top Leader.

Harvard Business Review Press, 2018.

Zachary Courser ’99, Eric Helland P’20, and Kenneth P. Miller, eds.

Parchment Barriers: Political Polarization and the Limits of Constitutional Order.

University Press of Kansas, 2018.

Heather L. Ferguson, The Proper Order of Things: Language, Power, and Law in Ottoman Administrative Discourses. Stanford University Press, 2018.

Bassam Frangieh. An Introduction to Modern Arab Culture. Cognella Academic Publishing, 2018.

Amy Kind, editor.

Philosophy of Mind in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries. Routledge, 2018.

Adrienne Martin, editor.

The Routledge Handbook of Love in Philosophy. Taylor and Francis, 2018.

James Morrison, Mary Cappello, and Jean Walton.

Buffalo Trace: A Threefold Vibration. Spuyten Duyvil, 2018.

James Morrison. Auteur Theory and My Son John.

Bloomsbury, 2018.

Sarah Sarzynski.

Revolution in the Terra do Sol: The Cold War in Brazil.

Stanford University Press, 2018.

Derik Smith. Robert Hayden in Verse: New Histories of African American Poetry and the Black Arts Era. University of Michigan Press, 2018.

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The University Blacklist—a joint course taught across political lines— brings CMC’s Open Academy to the classroom

By Susan Price

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CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

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J

on Shields pauses before responding to questions. His thoughts unspool in measured doses. The California-born conservative is keenly interested in the state of the family and the interplay of religion and American politics.

Shields does not, however, shy away from challenging ideas. He has studied abortion and sexual assault on campus. Periodically, he teaches a course called Culture Wars. For his most recent book, Passing on the Right, the associate professor of government interviewed more than a hundred conservative professors about their experiences on left-leaning campuses.

So when controversy came to CMC in 2017 after a group of consortium students disrupted an appearance by conservative author Heather Mac Donald, Shields reacted with a scholar’s inquisitiveness. How warranted were concerns about free speech on campuses, locally and nationwide? Who were the speakers sparking campus disruptions, and why? And what, crucially, could be done to encourage a more open, productive discourse about difficult issues?

At the time, Shields had been thinking about the potential of coteaching, prompted by studies that found specific courses tend to attract a homogeneous group of students, even on highly diverse campuses. Bringing together professors with widely divergent

“IT WAS AN OPPORTUNITY… TO TEACH ACROSS POLITICAL LINES.” views in a single class might counter that effect and present arguments more fairly. Such a course might even offer a tonic for the partisanship corroding political debate.

The first person Shields thought of was Phil Zuckerman, professor of sociology and secular studies at Pitzer College. He had never met Zuckerman, but had often assigned one of his books, Society Without God.

Pitzer professor Phil Zuckerman (center) was the first person CMC professor Jon Shields (left) thought of when devising a jointly taught class about productive political discourse.

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CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

“I just had a sense he’d be right for this,” said Shields, who sent Zuckerman a cold email later that year. The Pitzer professor replied with a question: “Can I say anything I want and assign anything I want?” “When Jon said ‘yes,’ I said ‘bring it on,’” said Zuckerman.

Last fall, the unlikely duo co-taught The University Blacklist, a stereotype-shattering journey through controversial opinions about some of society’s most emotionally charged issues. Each week, a politically diverse group of 19 students from CMC and the other Claremont Colleges read two books—one by a liberal author and the other written by a conservative. Shields and Zuckerman presented their critiques, batted opinions back and forth, and then the students weighed in.

“It was an opportunity both to teach dangerous books in an environment where there is a lot of debate about the author’s ideas, and to teach across political lines,” said Shields, who arrived at CMC in 2008.

The class was also a simulacrum of the Open Academy, a tangible and powerful execution of the set of CMC principles to restore and propagate three pillars of intellectual life on campus and beyond: freedom of expression, viewpoint diversity, and effective dialogue.

“Freedom of expression and viewpoint diversity are imperative, yet insufficient without effective dialogue,” said President Hiram E. Chodosh. “Jon and Phil engage the most diverse, controversial viewpoints through an open, critical, and deep academic dialogue in one setting, one classroom, one community. This is an exemplar of our most important commitments, a lesson for our time.”

OPPOSING VIEWS In both manner and politics, Zuckerman is the flipside of Shields. Passion fills his voice.

He does not mince words. The California native has carved an academic niche exploring secularism, atheism, apostasy, and Scandinavian culture.

WHAT IS THE

OPEN ACADEMY? Intellectual humility. Critical thinking. Active listening. Respectful debate. Solutions to complex problems built on common ground.

These are the bedrock principles of higher education—and they help inform the three Open Academy commitments that guide CMC’s strategy to help develop the next generation of emerging scholar-leaders. l Freedom of expression: To reinforce free expression on a content-neutral basis through all programming, including orientations, the curriculum, the Athenaeum, and special workshop training. l Viewpoint diversity: To offer the widest range of political diversity and openly embrace teaching and learning from a broad range of materials. l Effective dialogue: To emphasize the ability to learn from and reconcile different viewpoints by reinforcing skills of open, engaged, and critical inquiry.

To learn more about CMC’s Open Academy, visit www.cmc.edu/freedom-of-expression.

But both professors are strong proponents of free speech on campus (for Zuckerman, one of the first surprises of the course was finding himself taking a harder line on the issue than Shields does). They met for coffee at Some Crust Bakery in the village to brainstorm the best way to conduct the class. They hashed out ideas over lunch. As they got to know one another, it became clear that a point-counterpoint debate between them would be eye-opening and respectful. Not to mention a lot of fun.

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To anchor their conversations for the class, Shields hit on the idea of assigning books by authors whose campus appearances had set off protests. They drummed up a reading list using a database compiled by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) of disinvited speakers and those whose campus events were disrupted. (CMC has the only green rating from FIRE of all national liberal arts colleges, and all universities and colleges in the state of California.) Despite the course’s eventual name, the books were not, to the professors’ knowledge, specifically banned from any university course. But using the word ‘blacklist’ telegraphed the primary, overarching discussion Shields and Zuckerman wanted to have with students about free speech on campus.

Most authors on the FIRE list—379 incidents since 2000—fall on the conservative side, so Zuckerman had fewer options. For Shields, the challenge was not to stack the deck in favor of free speech by including only the most reasonable or defensible authors whose disinvitations would seem most egregious. That meant including some media-savvy provocateurs whose work typically is not found on college syllabi, notably Dangerous by Milo Yiannopoulos. Those titles rounded out an eleven-book list that included Coming Apart by Charles Murray, Gaza in Crisis by Noam Chomsky, Who Stole Feminism? by Christina Hoff Sommers, Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis, and Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (a straw poll student favorite).

“One thing you learn is that some of the books aren’t very good,” said Shields. “Normally you would toss them out, but in this class it is not as clear.”

Zuckerman agreed that it was important to include books that had influenced the national debate, regardless of intellectual heft. “You are not reading Yiannopoulos for intellectual argument, but to know more about who this jackass is,” Zuckerman said.

“But in the context of the classroom, you have to read them all thoroughly and with an open mind. You have to engage with the ideas, not just throw them out.”

“IT DIDN’T HAVE TO BE ABOUT REACHING SHARED CONCLUSIONS.” we were reading from authors on the fringe, on the extremes. If we had just read a book on its own, it would be easy to become alarmed. But you read another book and find more balance, and then come to class and have a thoughtful discussion. You find the middle.”

AGREE TO DISAGREE

Marion Goldberg ’19, a CMC philosophy and public affairs major from New York, entered the semester most eager to read the authors known for creating conflict.

As students arrived to lower-level Kravis Center on the first day of class in September, many joked that they were on “Team Shields” or “Team Zuckerman.” The professors are popular on campus. Students describe both as dedicated and caring teachers; they are sought-after advisers.

“Going in, there were certain books people were already averse to, based on what they’d heard about the author, so I wanted to actually read them,” she said. Her conclusion? “Those authors write in a similar over-the-top way, and it seems primarily with the objective of riling people up.”

Several of the students—about half from CMC and the remainder from Pitzer, Scripps, and Pomona colleges—previously had taken classes with one of them. But Blacklist sounded different and exciting (the class had a waiting list). It was the third Shields class that Reinnoldt enrolled in.

The class dissected one book on a topic at a time, discussing one author’s views before reading the opposing take. That format revealed the importance of collecting more information and hearing diverse arguments before forming a decisive opinion, said Charlotte Reinnoldt ’19, a Seattle native majoring in government at CMC.

“I was eager to learn about these issues with the kind of professors and students who really wanted to have those conversations,” she said. “And in a more productive way than usually happens in a less formal setting or where people are not necessarily as informed.”

“With the first book you might think you really agree with an author and then you read the dissenting book and your thinking might evolve,” said Reinnoldt. “And it was important to remember 16

Likewise, Goldberg saw the course as a way to continue the evolution of her political awareness at CMC. “When students first come to college, many are still relying on the views of family and friends,” she said. “I tried to educate myself, but usually everyone I CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

was speaking to and everything I was reading was quite biased— even when people said they didn’t want to be.”

Any distinction between the teams, and perceptions of students as liberal or conservative faded quickly as they grappled with complex issues such as the Israel-Palestine conflict, the evolution of feminism, and mass incarceration. The classmates and professors got together for dinner off-campus several times during the semester, learning more about each other’s ideas and lives in a less formal setting. “People always ask where the fault lines are between campuses, but it’s not that clear cut,” said Zuckerman.

Justin Hess ’19 was a case in point. The Pitzer student described himself as the person most consistently putting forth conservative ideas in class. Hess, a sociology major from Newport Beach, Calif., admitted he sometimes avoided talking about his political views with classmates. He had no such hesitation in Blacklist.

“I really appreciated the freedom the class offered students to speak openly and honestly with their peers. We all were there to talk about controversial things and we were all game,” said Hess.

“Both professors were always willing to hear every perspective and not judge anyone.”

In the first few sessions of the class, the professors agreed on many points, so much so “that students seemed disappointed,” Zuckerman said. As the semester progressed, their differing views of political and social issues became more apparent. “We disagree on a host of issues, including welfare reform, how to

“YOU HAVE TO ENGAGE WITH THE IDEAS, NOT JUST THROW THEM OUT.” combat global warming, and how to deal with immigration,” said Zuckerman. “We just have different ways of interpreting the world.

That has been the most eye-opening for me. I always thought if you point out facts you can change a mind. But it is a worldview that someone holds that impacts everything.”

SPRING 2019

Some weeks the only common ground Shields and Zuckerman found was a very small patch. After the class read War on Cops, Zuckerman eviscerated both Mac Donald’s intentions and her empirical methods. “I had to pop some extra strength Tylenol with this one,” he joked. Shields concurred with some of Zuckerman’s opinions before making a compelling case for her support of proactive policing.

As for others on the reading list, Coming Apart made Zuckerman “even more suspicious” of Murray as an intellectual. “I just think he’s pernicious,” he said. Shields offered a similar criticism of Gaza in Crisis: “I think Chomsky violates basic academic scholarship. I just think he is dishonest on some level.”

A MODEL EXPERIMENT An unexpected reward of co-teaching this class, the professors agreed, is that it sharpened their own thinking.

“When you co-teach you realize you have a different assessment of the worth of books and ideas, and it is interesting to have the actual conversation about them,” said Shields. “Certainly, Phil said things I hadn’t considered, and that does force me to take specific objections more seriously. I may not radically rethink a position, but instead alter it in more subtle ways.”

Zuckerman found hearing both Shields and the students’ critiques of left-wing authors invigorating. “They are reading the books more critically, and skeptically, than maybe I have, and I’ve really enjoyed reading their views of things that I take for granted,” said Zuckerman.

“I sincerely hope this becomes a model. We should all teach with people we disagree with.”

Regardless of who they aligned with personally, what had the most impact on students was how their teachers not only treated one another with respect, but seemed genuinely interested in and willing to consider opposing arguments.

“Sometimes I didn’t know what to take away from a class, and in a lot of ways, that was the point,” said Hess. “There were times when a student or one of the professors said something that would cause me to go home and read more and research more. It didn’t have to be about reaching shared conclusions.”

Or as Goldberg succinctly put it, learning how to negotiate tricky conversations will benefit students no matter where they end up after college.

“Start from the common ground,” she said. “There are a lot of big ideas most people agree on. But instead, it seems we’d rather focus on the small things we disagree about.”

17

“It doesn’t take courage to leave a political party. It’s like changing your socks.”

—George Will, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist “The Political Argument Today”

“Those of us who oppose censorship have an especially strong moral responsibility to do everything we can through the powers of free speech—through organizing, through education, through counterspeech—to oppose hatred and discrimination.”

—Nadine Strossen, professor of law, New York Law School “HATE: Why We Should Resist It With Free Speech, Not Censorship”

AN OPEN PLATFORM The Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum speaker series and student-run Free Food for Thought podcast (read our feature on p. 22) are just two of the outlets that presenters can use to escape their echo chambers and engage in thoughtful dialogue with CMC’s campus community.

Here are some recent reflections from invited guests:

“We might not all agree, but the fact that we’re talking about criminal justice reform, the fact that we’re talking about the income divide in real ways, the digital divide in real ways, I think that puts us on a path to actually fix these things and become a country that really does look out for everyone.”

—Amanda Andrea Renteria, political aide, 2018 candidate for California governor “What the Changing World of Politics Means for Our Collective Future”

“I’m not saying don’t be outraged. There are things to be outraged by. But if everyone is turned up to 10, it’s a disaster.

And our country is going to fail.”

—Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist, professor of ethical leadership at New York University “The Rise and Fall of a Tribal Species: Why America and its Universities are Malfunctioning”

“The line should not be, ‘I disagree with what you’re saying.’ The line should not be, ‘What you’re saying is disrespectful.’ The line should not be, ‘What you’re saying is obnoxious, even offensive.’ But I do think there is a line when someone becomes dangerous, and in that regard, you have to say, ‘I don’t think it’s responsible to present that person with a forum.’”

—Jelani Cobb, writer, The New Yorker, professor of journalism, Columbia University “From Marching to Kneeling: The Evolution of Civil Rights”

“You should not be a Republican just because you’re white. You should not be a Democrat just because you’re black. You should not be a leftist just because you’re gay. You should think for yourself.”

—David Boaz, executive vice president, The Cato Institute “Left, Right, and Libertarian in America” 18

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BURSTINGTHE BUBBLE

Zenaida Huerta ’20 is as politically active as it gets. But just being around like-minded progressives? No thanks.

By Thomas Rozwadowski

SPRING 2019

19

Whether in class or through her work at the Rose Institute, Zenaida Huerta ’20 said she has been exposed to a wealth of political ideas and attitudes at CMC.

W

hen George Will visited the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum in early November, he saw a familiar face at the head table—appropriately, seated directly to his left.

Zenaida Huerta ’20 showed the conservative columnist a photo they took together at the Philadelphia Marriott during the 2016 Democratic National Convention. She also reminded Will why she was at the DNC as the youngest delegate representing California. Huerta earned the nomination as a Bernie Sanders presidential campaign “super volunteer.”

Her political allegiance must have amused Will, because after Huerta stood and asked him a question during his Ath talk, he remarked that everyone at dinner should be careful since she was a “Bernie Sanders operative.”

conversations with liberals and conservatives who, like Will, aren’t ever joining the Bernie bandwagon.

She wouldn’t have it any other way.

“The risk these days for anybody who is politically active is that they get locked into a particular perspective. Zenaida is refreshing in her approach,” said Ken Miller, associate professor of government. “She’s exactly what CMC has always prided itself on: someone who is engaged and active, but is open to real discussion about real differences.”

DOING WHAT’S RIGHT

“And when he came back to his seat, he told me that I was ‘far too smart to be a Sanders supporter,’” Huerta said. “Quite the backhanded compliment!”

Huerta grew up in Whittier, the daughter of Henry and Martha Huerta, who met as employees at the California department of labor. One of her earliest memories is sitting atop her dad’s shoulders at a May Day parade. Henry was an AFL-CIO campaign manager who supported the unionization of car wash workers in Los Angeles.

Huerta, a government major, takes politics seriously—but not so seriously that she can’t enjoy good-natured ribbing from one of the leading conservative voices in the country. She isn’t naturally defensive, anyway. Huerta felt a kinship with Sanders because he talked about issues she cares about: universal health care coverage, income inequality, campaign finance reform, and veterans care, to name a few. Yet just as she’s met other Sanders supporters on campus, Huerta has also had spirited

Politics, particularly the topic of workers’ rights, often made its way to the Huerta family dinner table. But it was her grandfather Juan, a quiet organizer with the United Farm Workers of America in the Salinas Valley, who left the biggest impression. When she asked him in grade school why he would often work for no pay and sacrifice time with his wife and five children to join the UFW movement, Juan told his granddaughter, “It was a lot of work.

But it was right.”

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CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

POLICY AND “THIS IS WHAT THE REAL POLITICS Breaking bread with strangers. Engaging on a human level.

WORLD IS LIKE. NOT EVERYONE AGREES WITH YOU!”

“I think it’s why I approach politics with a deep sense of justice, a moral conviction,” Huerta said. “Part of my identity is doing what’s right.”

At the urging of a friend, Huerta attended an August 2015 Sanders campaign rally in Los Angeles. She was a 17-year-old political novice—and the fiery candidate’s message hit her like a lightning bolt. Shortly after, she started a Lancers For Sanders club at La Serna High School. It had the intended effect of drawing peers to join, but also prompted fellow La Serna students to start a young conservatives group as a counterweight.

“My high school was not known for being politically active, so it was something new that a lot of us were feeling in the moment and experiencing together,” Huerta said. “That kicked off some fun and interesting debates at my school, and it’s how I began to form arguments for progressive ideas that only grew stronger as I did more work for Sanders.”

The healthy back-and-forth extended to the surrounding Whittier community, where Huerta spent hours after school and on the weekends canvassing for Sanders. Knocking on doors made her anxious. “You never knew who was going to be on the other side and how they’d respond,” she said, but Huerta learned to be observant and find common ground with strangers. For example, when approaching a house that had a well-manicured garden or intricate rock and water fountain, she would try to connect on environmental issues. Huerta also has 12 relatives who served in the United States Armed Forces dating back to World War II. An American flag or “Support Our Troops” ribbon would be a starting point. But her personal attention to veterans’ issues forged a deeper connection with undecided, even opposing, voters.

“I remember talking to one particular veteran who told me he hadn’t voted in quite some time. When I brought up my family history and how important veterans’ issues were to me and my vote, he cried,” she said.

“It was a raw moment, and it taught me about the personal attachment a lot of us have to our political views.”

SPRING 2019

Listening. This was all routine for Huerta before she even stepped on CMC’s campus as a freshman. When she arrived for the academic year, Huerta had her eye on the Rose Institute of State and Local Government.

Now in her third year as a Rose research assistant, Huerta promotes speaker events and leads on issues related to California politics, health care disparities, and campaign finance in state legislative races. Local politics is her passion. For the past two years, she served as a Democratic state central committeewoman for the 57th assembly district (her hometown of Whittier), a position meant to hold elected officials accountable. Running for re-election this year put her back on the door-knocking circuit, meeting with more strangers and learning about their personal struggles, whether related to housing affordability or a neighborhood fracking issue.

“I identify with California,” Huerta said. “I know that people say all politics is local, but I really want to be invested in the important issues here. I want to see the difference at my home.”

Beyond the public side of her political engagement, Miller is more impressed at how Huerta digs into the actual work of confirming why she believes what she believes. He found it telling that instead of a glamour position in Washington, D.C., she took an internship last summer with California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones in Sacramento.

“It is a part of the government that doesn’t have a profile in terms of partisan orientation,” said Miller, who is also associate director of the Rose Institute. “Zenaida really cares about health care policy, the nuts and bolts. She wants to understand how this all really works, so she found a way to do it.”

Miller sees Huerta as someone who has a long-term objective to “not just be a political person, but a policy person.” Her analytical approach reminds him of what the best lawyers learn early—in order to successfully advocate for what you believe in, you have to understand the opposite position first.

“A big reason why I chose CMC is that I knew I wanted to pursue a public service career, so I was going to have to engage with people who disagreed with me. And I know there are people here who disagree with pretty much everything I believe in,” Huerta said with a laugh.

“But it’s also the part of CMC that, I feel, is most in touch with reality. This is what the real world is like. Not everyone agrees with you! I can’t imagine what it would be like to go to a school where everyone thinks like me, only to be shocked and appalled to find out that once I leave college, that’s not always the case.”

21

DIALOGUE EVERYONE A

CMC’s Free Food for Thought podcast has a clear mission: Satisfy student hunger for productive conversation

Upstairs at the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum, in a converted office with black soundproofing material cascading down the walls and a hunk of electronics on a table, Nandeeni Patel ’21 and Zach Wong ’19, quickly review their notes. All set.

Today’s guest, Benn Steil, senior fellow and director of international economics at the Council of Foreign Relations, arrives. It’s 4:28 p.m. The trio exchanges handshakes and hellos before they settle at the round table and adjust their mics. How’s the sound? Good.

And they’re live.

“Where was a place that you had to pivot in your life?” asks Patel, a philosophy, politics, and economics major. From there, they wind through questions about his writing process, The Marshall Plan, Steil’s goals at CFR—the discussion, as Patel intended, taking its own organic shape.

5 p.m. The students thank Steil. The mics go cold. That’s a wrap on another episode of Free Food for Thought.

Now in its third year, FF4T—the name is a nod to two college student favorites, free food and interesting thoughts—is a podcast with a clear mission: to amplify the impressive voices of the leaders, academics, artists, and alumni who speak at the

By Susan Price

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“WHEN WE GET A THOUGHT LEADER TO BREAK AWAY FROM PREPARED REMARKS AND TALK ABOUT PIVOTS AND MEANING IN THEIR LIVES, THAT IS SOMETHING PEOPLE CAN’T GET ANYWHERE ELSE.”

Ath each semester. It is also an organic example of how to bring valued CMC tenets—free speech, viewpoint diversity, and effective dialogue—to a creative, popular format that students can own.

“We are not seeking scoops and we are not asking gotcha questions,” said Richard “Skip” Wiltshire-Gordon ’19, the podcast’s director. “We are a counterweight to the 24/7 news cycle, Twitter feeds, and social media likes. We seek the productive dialogue that is talked about a lot, but that we are actually having.”

Listeners tune in via iTunes, Stitcher, or SoundCloud.

They don’t, however, hear a version of the presentation Ath speakers give in the dining room downstairs. The podcast’s mandate is to travel wherever a conversation wants to go. Explore previous research. Tangential ideas. Surprising connections. But what makes FF4T worthy of any playlist is its focus on the personal: highly regarded people opening up about their road to success, potholes and wrong turns included.

“We think of it as gathering hundreds of people around the head table at the Ath,” said Wiltshire-Gordon, a government and history dual major.

SPRING 2019

23

Author Benn Steil (left) chats with Nandeeni Patel ’21, Zach Wong ’19, and Richard “Skip” Wiltshire-Gordon ’19 before recording the Free Food for Thought podcast.

STUDENT DRIVEN In the fall of 2015, Shivani Pandya’s father casually mentioned his surprise that more colleges didn’t have podcasts. Pandya ’18 didn’t know much about them, but instantly thought of Ath speakers. They already come to campus to talk with students, so why not give them another way to have conversations? Priya Junnar, the Ath’s director, enthusiastically agreed.

Using software downloaded from the Internet and handheld mics they stored in Ath manager Dave Edwards’ office, Pandya and a co-host launched FF4T with an interview of comedian Kamau Bell in January 2016.

24

Over the next few months, the growing not in the sense of balancing liberals and team conducted several more interviews conservatives, but with the aim of building and built a website where people could a staff with a broad range of opinions, access them. They recruited and trained interests, and experience. more students, including Wiltshire-Gordon. “The breadth and diversity of the team shows As it became clear FF4T had legs, Junnar up in the conversations,” he said. “No two are suggested the podcast take up residence alike.” in a rarely used office across from hers. With Launching any new venture comes with additional funding from the Ath, the team challenges, and FF4T has not been without bought more sophisticated equipment stumbles.

An alumni series was started and and set up their new digs—instructions scrapped (Wiltshire-Gordon said it may for installing soundproofing supplied by start again). The time between an interview Google. being conducted and going live could drag This academic year, the podcast’s team is on for weeks because of busy schedules 18 strong. About nine students conduct (These days, episodes have posted regularly interviews, with others handling scheduling, on Tuesdays and Fridays at noon.) technology, marketing, and other logistics.

Guests, however, have been singing the When hiring potential student hosts, podcast’s praises from the start. Junnar Wiltshire-Gordon said they seek diversity, recalls early guest Randall Kennedy, Michael

CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

R. Klein Professor of Law at Harvard, saying the students had the “best questions anyone ever asked him.” Chef, restaurateur, and Fresh Off the Boat author Eddie Huang, at first reluctant to participate, commented afterward that he “would give all of them a job.” After Wiltshire-Gordon and Pandya interviewed director and producer Lynn Novick, she sent a note describing their conversation as “the most thoughtful and interesting” she’d had all year.

“I was enormously impressed with your preparation, seriousness of purpose, and professionalism,” wrote Novick, who most recently directed The Vietnam War documentary. “You asked many questions I had never been asked, and as a result we were able to explore some profound issues and themes.”

SIGNATURE STYLE During that February 2018 conversation, Novick told listeners she’d entered college to become a doctor. Columnist Jonah Goldberg said his path to writing commentary began when George Will called him an “idiot.” Steil was in graduate school at Oxford when he decided to pursue his passion for academics rather than pursue a more practical path as his parents urged him. Those tidbits came in response to a question about inflection points in their lives or careers—the first of two questions that bookend each episode.

The podcast’s closing inquiry is tailored for its primary audience of students: what does success mean to you, and what advice would you give college students defining it for themselves?

Those signature questions—along with always having two hosts—anchor the disparate episodes into a coherent series.

And they open doors to a guest’s personal narrative, revealing aspects from their lives and careers that go unmentioned in other settings.

“When we get a thought leader to break away from prepared remarks and talk about pivots and meaning in their lives, that is

SPRING 2019

LISTEN

ACCESS THE FULL ARCHIVE OF FREE FOOD FOR THOUGHT ONLINE AT FREEFOOD4THOUGHT.COM.

something people can’t get anywhere else,” said Wiltshire-Gordon.

The approach, said Patel, also helps “humanize” the speakers. “We hear about their failures and their setbacks, as well as their work,” she said. “For students, that has a real impact.”

Case in point: Patel is interested in international relations and foundation work. A recent interview with Joshua White, a fellow at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and The Brookings Institution, gave her a better idea of what her own future might look like. “He is doing exactly what I want to be doing, and that interview inspired me in a way just hearing his talk would not have,” said Patel.

ROOM TO EXPLORE After researching a guest’s work, students prepare a list of questions for the show.

The hosts meet several times before each episode so each knows what facets of a guest’s work their co-host most wants to explore. “Whatever the hosts want to ask is up to them,” said Wiltshire-Gordon, noting proudly that there isn’t any faculty or staff approval for questions.

Yet as most interviewers discover, conversations often have a mind of their own. That’s the fun part, said Wong, though it also can be challenging. In their recent interview with Peter Berkowitz, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Wong and his co-

host were eager to talk about the guest’s ideas about conservatism. But some of Berkowitz’s answers threw them off course.

They stopped recording the interview and took a moment to regroup before continuing along a different route.

“There was so much more we wanted to ask him, but time is limited and we are trying to curate a cohesive experience for our listeners,” said Wong, a philosophy, politics, and economics major.

While students benefit from talking with guests about their research and their work, some of the most impactful takeaways for the hosts—and listeners of all ages—are moments that can shift perspective. In readying for his interview with Emma Dench, history professor and dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, Wiltshire-Gordon discovered she often says she “hates the Romans.” Why, he asked, spend so much time studying Ancient Rome if she finds so many aspects of the society repulsive?

“She said she wants to understand people who have views that make her angry,” said Wiltshire-Gordon. “We were able to delve deeper into how that is rare—usually people shut down their empathy if they hate a certain group, but for Professor Dench, her anger drives her to understand them better.”

It was the kind of conversation—revealing, fluid, educational—that students work to produce week after week. “And one of the beautiful things about FF4T,” said Wiltshire-Gordon, “is that it is not just for us, but a dialogue we are able to share with everyone.”

25

There are many roads, but one destination.

April 25-28, 2019

www.cmc.edu/alumniweekend

26

CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

looking back

Alumni News PROFILES 28

CMCAA PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE 30 CLASS NOTES 31

IN MEMORIAM 50

SPRING 2019

DINNER PARTY Shared, formal meals have long been part of CMC’s tight-knit culture.

27

MD edia

oc

‘Dr. Tanya’ makes the rounds for children’s health

By Susan Price

28

CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

T

wo weeks after giving birth to her second child, Dr. Tanya Remer Altmann ’94 was heading to New York to appear on Today for the first time. The California-based pediatrician was boarding the plane (breast pump in bag) when a producer called to say they changed the topic for her segment—to a study being released the next morning that she didn’t know much about. “I thought about saying no, but I knew it was my big chance,” said Altmann. As soon as the plane landed, she began researching—and continued well into the night. Altmann arrived on set before dawn the next morning, groggy but prepared.

That spot, 11 years ago, led to dozens more. For the next two years, Altmann appeared monthly on Today, often making the cross-country trip in one day so she’d be back home in Calabasas before her kids’ bedtimes. Dr. Tanya—as she’s known to her fans—has become a frequent guest on CNN, Fox News, and shows including Live with Kelly and Ryan, The Doctors, and KTLA 5 Morning News in Los Angeles.

“Nothing makes me nervous anymore,” said Altmann, the mother of three boys, ages 4, 11, and 13. “Now it is just part of what I do to help educate people about children’s health.”

Altmann lives at high speed. This past February, she opened Calabasas Pediatric Wellness Center, where she and her staff offer medical care as well as guidance on nutrition, lactation, and other subjects to help parents raise healthy kids. Altmann’s first book in 2008, Mommy Calls, grew from the notes she took while answering frantic parents’ calls as a resident at UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital. She’s written four more, including the top-selling What to Feed Your Baby and the just-released Baby and Toddler Basics. Altmann is often quoted in publications from USA Today to Newsweek, and she consults with companies on the design and marketing of products for children.

It’s no surprise that as an American Academy of Pediatrics spokesperson, Altmann helps train other doctors to speak at events and in the media.

“It is just what CMCers do,” she said of her breakneck schedule. “We are hard workers. We have diverse interests. My CMC friends are living all over the world, running companies, doing amazing things. I think

SPRING 2019

we are all trying to make a difference in the world in our own way.”

Altmann grew up in Claremont—her father, Donald Remer, is Oliver C. Field Emeritus Professor of Engineering Economics and Management at Harvey Mudd College and her mother, Louise Remer, was professor of engineering at Cal Poly Pomona. She expected to attend college in another state. But when the time came, she knew CMC was the best choice for her.

spotlight

“I was strong in math and science and knew I wanted to become a doctor, but I wanted to attend a liberal arts school,” said Altmann. “I thought it would help me learn and grow as a person, and it did. CMC is where I learned to write and communicate well.” Still, the math and biochemistry dual major admits she told her parents “to pretend I was in school on the East Coast.”

A self-described news junkie, Altmann squeezed in a few broadcast journalism classes while in residency at UCLA. A local station offered her a job as a health reporter, and while it was tempting, Altmann stayed committed to her dream of pediatrics. But she’d been bitten by the media bug. “My passion is for all of us to raise healthy children, and through the media I can share what I know with so many more parents,” she said.

Juggling it all would be impossible without the help of her husband, Philip Altmann, an entertainment attorney with Universal Pictures, and the support of their extended families.

But as she tells other doctors when they ask how they might also get on TV, balancing medicine and media comes down to a whole lot of hustle.

“I tell them it means getting up at 3 a.m., and they usually change their minds,” she said, laughing. “I love working with kids and families every day, but it also means a lot when I hear from a parent who says reading my book kept them from rushing to the ER or that their toddler is no longer a picky eater. I just love being out there helping families raise healthy, happy kids.”

29

CMCAA president’s message Dear Fellow Alumni, We are at an important crossroads in the history of the College. As we approach our 75th anniversary, we reflect on how far we have come, where we stand in higher education, our history and founding, and our increasing importance as a leader in education globally. We also turn to our alumni—13,000—small by comparison but mighty by impact. Without our alumni, we simply could not be where we are today.

Our alumni are, in many ways, the glue that holds the institution together—both to present day and to our past. We rely on alumni not just for philanthropic support, but to help us recruit the best and brightest students, assist with job, internship, and shadowing opportunities, serve on numerous boards, and help grow our regional and on-campus programming.

The CMC Alumni Association has made it a priority this year to grow engagement both on and off campus. We want to enhance opportunities for our alumni to interact with the CMC community. That way, we can support one another and our students. As we approach Alumni Weekend 2019—April 25-28 to celebrate our “4”s and “9”s—we encourage all alumni to come back and reconnect, or engage off campus, in preparation for our alma mater’s 75th birthday.

In honor of our 75th, we also look at what makes CMC unique in the world of higher education. Intellectual thought and political diversity are some of the most important and identifying characteristics of CMC, and I am proud to support the initiatives of the Open Academy to ensure our students and institution stay true to our original values. To be a future leader, one must understand all sides of the argument and be exposed to diverse viewpoints and opinions. I hope you will join me in this exciting, and much needed, initiative.

I thank you for your continual support of the College, and look forward to seeing you on campus or around the world.

Paul “Pablo” Nathan ’80 President Claremont McKenna College Alumni Association

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CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

Missing your class?

class notes JIL STARK ’58 writes, “I am writing this brief update while Jack and I are at the class of ’57 Reunion in Carmel. We had a fabulous daylong tour of the Scheid Family Vineyard and learned about all the up-to-date technology at this cutting-edge business. We have recently returned from a weeklong fishing trip on the Alagnak River in the Alaskan wilderness. Jack caught numerous huge Silver Salmon, trout, Grayling, and Dolly Varden every day, and I stayed clear of the bears. We have just spent five months at our 1924 cabin on Silver Lake and are planning to return to our home close to CMC in mid-October. Best wishes to all.”

’57

BERNIE MARSHALL writes, “In October, 17 of our

classmates gathered at Carmel’s Quail Lodge for three days of reunion and good fellowship. In attendance were: BURT and Phyllis CORSON, JOHN and Lee DEVEREUX, SCOTT and Sally EVANS, RUSTY and Bebe GROSSE, DICK HAUSMAN, PETER KEADY, BERNIE and Mary Ann MARSHALL, GARY and Marilyn NEUHOFF, DEAN PAINTER and partner Jim Vilnow, WALT PARRY, DON and Fernanda SAMMIS, AL and Shirley SCHEID P’82, REID and Georgia SHANNON, JACK and JIL STARK ’58, TOM and Judy USSHER, GALEN and Mary YOUNG as well as honorary class member Fred Prager P’99 P’01, along with his wife, Eileen.

“One of the highlights of this reunion was a full day’s tour of facilities and operations at Scheid Family Vineyards led by our classmate AL SCHEID P’82 and his son, SCOTT ’82, COO of the company. Al and Scott exceeded all expectations in showing what a first-class management team they have and in organizing an outstanding day of education and entertainment.

“Grape farming on some 4,000 acres is carried out at several locations up and down the Salinas Valley. Various members of their staff gave excellent presentations, emphasizing how they push for sustainability throughout their operations including sustainability for employees. It was evident this is an organization that captures and utilizes data in every facet of its activities. Al was the gracious host at a sumptuous luncheon on the patio of the Scheid tasting room in Greenfield, followed by a tour of the state-ofthe-art wine making facilities and tastings of Scheid varietals both in Greenfield and the Scheid wine tasting room in downtown Carmel.

“Reunion attendees were privileged to be joined for this day by CMC President Hiram Chodosh and his wife, Priya Junnar. President Chodosh spoke about recent accomplishments at the College as well as the College’s plans for expanding and integrating computer and data science coursework into the liberal arts curricula.

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Go to page 49 to learn more.

“Among the classmates we missed seeing this year was our designated ‘roaster’ and prize giver FRITZ DELBRUECK. When contacted by your correspondents, Fritz pleaded to an overloaded social schedule which was keeping him on the move in Oregon circles. It’s nice to hear that one more class member is working hard at maintaining our reputation.”

BERNIE MARSHALL ’57

berniemarshall@verizon.net REID SHANNON ’57

reidshannon34@gmail.com

’58

GORDON MCKINZIE reports that he just

completed a 12-week course at the Museum of Flight in Seattle to become a docent. He enjoys it immensely, and finds it feeds his passion for airplanes and his interest in communicating with many old timers (like himself ) who have varied backgrounds in aviation. Many of his docent buddies are retired military and airline pilots and engineers, and the “war stories” are plentiful, warming up the gang before they meet their museum guests out among the artifacts.

Ironically, the very same aircraft (a Northrop F-5A fighter) that Gordon worked on in the early ‘60s at Edwards AFB is hanging from the ceiling. His fingerprints are all over the airplane, and you can bet that he has plenty of anecdotes to share with his unsuspecting visitors!

ROBERT MCCRARY ’58

1703 Milan Ave. South Pasadena, CA 91030 Fax 626-441-0501 bigmacbob@aol.com

’59

The class was saddened to hear of the recent death of classmate LEN MATSON. Len will be remembered fondly as a good friend.

RAY REMY writes, “On a personal note we were recently blessed with the arrival of our third great-granddaughter.”

Ray also confirmed that our class dinner at the reunion in April will be graced with the presence of JACK ’57 and JIL STARK ’58.

’59ers, don’t forget to make your reservations for our 60th, April 25th through the 28th. See you there!

BOB BEASLEY ’59

bobbeasley38@gmail.com

I was heading into the end of 2018 with lots of fun, including attending the Children’s Institute Cape & Gown Gala November 14, 2018, honoring BOB and Beth LOWE for their support of this special Institute helping children in Los Angeles. Also looking forward to a two-week cruise in the Caribbean in late November. But “life is about what’s happening when you are making other plans” so on Thanksgiving day I was having surgery for a detached retina with terms like trans pars plana vitrectomy, membrane peel, and retinectomy. No flying or driving and keeping my head down on a chair for weeks!

’62

BRENT HOWELL reached out and said his wife Beth had several operations as well. He then said he would be at a daughter’s wedding up north and we agreed that 2019 would be our year.

BOB LOWE indicated he just got back from Saudi Arabia.

TAIN BODKIN has emailed about world events but also maintains that he has discovered several medical breakthroughs. I believe him since he looked like he was 45 years old at our last class reunion. He might be starting a women’s health spa where he would be the trainer and applicator of special creams to maintain beauty for women between the ages of 18 and 40. He has also sent pictures of his Pacific Ocean home in Baja.

If you would like a copy just email me.

No doubt many of you have had similar unwelcome health events. It’s part of the process. I have 10 books to read, which were accumulated for my cruise that did not happen. If you would like some titles just let me know.

MARSHALL SALE ’62

505-690-0299 m_sale@msn.com

LARRY FORD writes, “Fortunately, we had a healthy year and our family members are doing well. Our Florida home, Sarasota, is booming so we see build up in traffic and local activities. Our Colorado home, Salida, is also booming so everyone seems to be following our choices which is both good and bad. We like the positive aspects but also yearn for the good old times. So far, my favorite fishing spots seem to be holding steady. Last year, I added a new fishing destination to my plans. Turns out New Orleans has an excellent fly fishing environment for big Redfish on a fly rod. Great fun to catch 20-plus pound Redfish when sight fishing in shallow water.”

’63

DICK MCKAY writes, “I deal with some knee and back issues, but that does not stop our traveling. This year

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’63 Making a difference “I have shifted from full-time trial work for paying clients (including contingency fee cases) to spending more time on pro bono matters.

I’m pleased to say one of the most rewarding trial victories in my 52year career was a few months ago when a federal jury in Los Angeles returned a unanimous verdict for two Hispanic immigrant clients against a major real estate investor/ landlord who tried to double their rents and evict them, and made the mistake of violating the Fair Housing Act—causing a disparate impact on a protected class of persons. The jury awarded each of them $50,000 for compensatory (emotional damages only) and $500,000 each for punitive damages for wrongfully trying to evict them. A life-changing event for the clients—and super rewarding to me personally.”

—KENNETH CHAITE ’63

included two weeks in Tahiti, one week in an overwater bungalow on Moorea, and then 10 days aboard the Paul Gauguin. Next came a cruise to the Baltic including Stockholm, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Tallinn, Copenhagen, and London. We did New York at Christmas, and Copper Mountain skiing after. My passions are still fun with the family, skiing, and ham radio. I still run one aviation social organization (Red Barons), write a monthly news article for another, the QBs, and am president of a HOA at Copper Mountain Colorado. I’m retired, right?”

BARRY ZALMA writes, “Last year was interesting since I had some serious arterial problems and a heart attack I didn’t know had happened. It ended with the excellent surgeon—John Robertson—at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica redoing all of my arterial plumbing and giving me an extra 30 years, which should take me to 106. I retired from the active practice of law and had to stop acting as a testifying insurance expert for six months while I healed. As a result, I was able to spend more quiet time writing, and have published several books on insurance law, insurance claims, and insurance fraud on Amazon; four new ones by Full

32

Court Press and on Fastcase; a new one published

by Reuters; and a new one published by the ABA. I am totally back to normal and have a few expert files to work on. I keep writing and enjoying my retirement from the practice of law and now only work eight hours a day, five days a week.”

JIM MASON writes, “I am still living in the Sierra Nevada town of Mariposa near Yosemite National Park and still work three 12-hour shifts a week as an Emergency Room Technician (EMT) in the Emergency Department at John C. Fremont Hospital in Mariposa. I do quite a bit of volunteer work, including one weekend a month at Henry Coe State Park in Morgan Hill. Other volunteer work includes the Mariposa County Arts Council, where I am on the Board of Directors and treasurer. I am also a volunteer with the Mariposa County Sheriff’s Office, and do some patrolling and event security as well as being a member of the Sheriff’s Tactical Emergency Medical Support Team.”

BOB BOIES writes, “Barbara and I celebrated our 40th anniversary in June. We traveled on a cruise in Russia, and enjoyed a trip with our granddaughter (to Paris) to celebrate her birthday.

This Christmas, we saw her debut with the San Francisco Ballet in The Nutcracker. I played golf with my grandsons today (they are on break from college). I am an occasional consultant for my daughter’s company (Audition Dancewear), and enjoy the fact that both of my daughters live nearby. I’ve enjoyed 18 years of retirement from my career as a teacher and school principal (Tustin HS and Newport Harbor HS). I still see RUSS IUNGERICH and GEORGE DAVIDSON from our class, as well as my roommate ORLEY ASHENFELTER ’64, BOB WALKER ’64, and DOUG NOBLE ’64. I enjoyed our 50th and 55th reunions, and seeing CMC friends at the Res Publica luncheons in LA and the OC.” JOHN WELLS writes, “It’s nice to know that there is another classmate from western Colorado. A lot has happened this year in my part of Colorado. I was divorced in January and moved from a large, hillside home on the Crystal River to a small golf club home in Glenwood Springs. My address is still at Carbondale, since I still live closer to the Carbondale post office. BILL BAKER and I attended the memorial service for JOE BATTAGLIA in August. It was a sad occasion, but well done and well attended. We were sorry that we did not see more CMC grads in attendance. I have spent the last month, including the holidays, recovering from my third back surgery. I know I’m getting too old for this.

I should be getting back to a more normal routine in another month.”

KENT GREENE writes, “I continue to live in Carlsbad, just a short walk from the La Costa Resort, where I spend much of my day. I plan to live here until my time runs out. I still work and enjoy helping my clients, many of whom I have worked with for 20-plus years, providing software to meet their needs. These are good people and it’s my privilege to be able to help them make their businesses profitable. Aside from working, I play tennis or pickle ball and work out in the gym every day, and

do (but don’t enjoy) yoga. It’s pain and suffering, but needed as my aging body gets stiffer every day.

“I enjoy reading a lot. My favorite authors include David Brooks, Yuval Noah Harari, Stephen Pinker, and Carlo Rovelli. I never imagined that history and quantum physics could be so mind-blowing. Thank goodness for Audible and Audm.”

DON JAMES writes, “My wife, Sue, and I continue to enjoy good health and an active lifestyle. Last June, we celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary in Big Sky, Montana with a family reunion that included horseback rides, river rafting (some class II and III rapids), and tours of Yellowstone National Park. This was followed by our annual trip to Grindelwald, Switzerland for a month of hiking in the Alps. We have rented an apartment in a chalet for a number of years from a local Swiss family that lives upstairs. Without a car, every day involves a lot of walking even if it’s to catch a bus, train, gondola, or boat. It’s great exercise and we have yet to tire of the view from our terrace of the North Face of the Eiger at sunrise and sunset. We have also enjoyed the sense of fellowship that has developed over the years with many of the local merchants and residents. When we are not in Switzerland, we enjoy walking on the beach in Kailua, Hawaii, which is about ten minutes from our house. Life is good. Aloha.”

DAVID FORREST writes, “The urges that led me to be the author of ‘The Wanderer’ in the Collegian back in our senior year are still at play in my life. After three years of working with the military in Hawaii (where my son was stationed), I am now the staff psychologist at Clallam Bay Corrections Center, a 900-man state prison on the northern edge of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington.

No cell service out here, but then you can’t bring a cell phone into a prison anyway! My current contract expires in May, so maybe I’ll retire this year. Maybe.

“In October, I reconnected with an estranged brother, who with his lovely wife, took me in while I recovered from an illness and operation, a true silver lining. My son, Chris, now has his dream job working at the Pentagon in an internal Air Force strategy think tank called Checkmate. His desk covers the Indo-Pacific region (China, North Korea), so he’s in the middle of these exciting times.”

WILLIAM HOLLINGSWORTH ’62 reports WILLIAM E. CASSELMAN, II passed away on September 10, 2018,

and writes, “Bill and I roomed together our last two years at CMC. We were put in a room at Harvey Mudd in the fall of 1961, as the CMC campus was full, and we were returning after a year off. Bill attended Bradley University after the campus police followed the path of spilled red paint from the red-painted statues at Scripps to his dorm room in the Quad. He was asked not to come back his sophomore year. I had flunked out, worked a year, and returned to redeem myself.

After graduation in 1963, Bill went to Washington, D.C. attending George Washington University Law School and served on Congressman Gerald Ford’s staff. After law school and working on the Nixon presidential campaign, he was hired by the White House to work as a congressional liaison under Bill Timmons. When Ford became vice president, Bill became Ford’s counsel to the VP, which got him out of the White House

CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

before Watergate. He served President Ford and had a distinguished law practice in Washington, D.C. until his death. He has two daughters by his first marriage and is survived by them and his widow.”

check on family commercial real estate investments there—and I stay in pretty good touch with RICKY LAZARUS from our CMC class. Hope all in the Class of ’64 are well and happy.”

All: We continue to receive updates from you in response to our inquiries; thanks very much to those of you below who answered the call. New contributions show again the varied and interesting lives our classmates have led.—Bill, Larry, and Steve

ED SELF writes, “I was profiled in the CMC alumni

LARRY FORD ’63

lford@me.com

’64

BOB BRUNING writes, “We are now up to

14 grandchildren (counting my wife’s four daughters and my son and daughter). My son and his wife had their first child, a boy, so the Bruning name lives on! We really enjoy spending time with each of the families (they are all in California). It’s like a vacation weekend when we’re with them. I’m still doing FO-type consulting. This year I helped a $200-million revenue company redo their $40 million in loans. Since leaving the last full-time job when the company was sold in 2013, I’ve enjoyed the projects without having to work at finding them.

“Trudy is still working and volunteering part-time. My volunteering time is spent helping a couple of charities raise money. With our less-intense work schedules, Trudy and I have expanded our travel horizons. We had gone to a resort in Jamaica in the spring for eight years, but last year we spent two weeks in northern Italy, and this year it was two weeks primarily in Botswana. Next spring, we hope to meet a grandson in Europe where he plans to attend a university.”

RICHARD HAWLEY writes, “After losing my fiancée in 1986 to cancer, I tried marriage again and succeeded! Elizabeth Lavine and I were wed on November 18, 2017. We live in Campbell and she is a life/spiritual coach. We plan to move to a mellower climate in a year or so, Santa Cruz.

“My son, James, is the convention manager at a hotel in Los Angeles, and raises two children. My daughter also raises two children and is a full-time mom. Outside of friends and family, my greatest interest is growing a spiritual life in yoga. For me, yoga is about the ‘union of the individual self with the Universal Self,’ and has the amazing benefit of removing the me from the equations of life. This makes life beautiful always, as it was meant to be.”

JEF MATTHEWS writes, “After selling both Tucson new car dealerships in the ‘80s (Chevrolet and Dodge/Rolls Royce), as well as our Dollar Rent-A-Car dealership, I’ve been active in real estate brokerage. About five years ago, I added real estate brokering in Mexico, as well. I spend as much time as I can in San Carlos (Guaymas), Sonora. However, I am in Tucson, Ariz. much of the time because my mother is still very active. She lives at home alone, reads three-plus books a week, does crosswords and spreadsheet accounting daily, and feeds 200 pounds of bird seed monthly to her ‘friends.’

I also get to south Florida a couple of times a year to

SPRING 2019

magazine after I won an Emmy. I have been retired for longer than I can remember. My first producing job was in the early 1970s on the TV series Emergency! when I was the youngest producer in Hollywood. The crew, all older than me addressed me as Mr. Self. This made me uncomfortable, so I told them to call me Mr. Ed, a reference to the talking horse. I still use that moniker with friends, and consider myself ‘The Talking Human.’

“My first contribution to TV was creating a villain for the Batman series, Egghead, played by Vincent Price. He appeared once using my story, and later in an episode in which I had no involvement (except for a residual check). My proudest achievement isn’t The Incident starring Walter Matthau (the Emmy project), but Help Wanted: Male starring Suzanne Pleshette. The reason for my pride is that nobody at CBS believed in the project, and in fact tried to prevent it getting filmed, but through perseverance, I prevailed and it proved to be the highest rated MOW of the year. Along the way, I was supervising producer on Sarah, Plain and Tall, the highest-rated Hallmark Hall of Fame of all time. It starred Glenn Close and Christopher Walken.

“In 1970, I wrote a paraphrasing of The Night Before Christmas to make it about the birth of Jesus instead of the arrival of Santa Claus, and am currently pursuing having it made into a wall plaque to offer for sale next November. I’ll post it to you if you’re interested, and if I can figure out how.

“I’m also a recovering alcoholic, three years sober.

I returned to what had been a brief sojourn with Christianity after I sobered up, and that faith has made a world of difference during my reclining years.”

LOU LAGRAVE writes, “I retired at 59 from The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, and moved from Orange County to Arizona. I soon found retirement to be a bit boring. I entered a new field and went into advertising sales, rising to executive director of sales for a weekly newspaper in our area. In 2007, I joined the Times Media Group in Scottsdale, now located in Tempe, where I still work part time as a senior account executive.

“While staying active with work, we have still managed to visit five continents, and I do volunteer work with the City of Phoenix and in our local community. The latest overseas trip fulfilled a lifelong bucket list item for me by taking a photo safari to Tanzania. After a couple of road trips and some fly fishing last year, this year looks like a trip to Switzerland and Austria. Hope my classmates are all enjoying good health.”

LANCE VINSON writes, “I have not been a diligent correspondent, so this update will begin in fall 1964 when I entered Georgetown Law School. I missed my graduation ceremony three years later, as my marriage to Marilyn McDonough, with KEN HENDERSON as best man, took priority that day (at Claremont, Ken had set us up on a blind date). After a brief stint with a Los Angeles law firm and with the draft looming, I joined the Navy as a JAG attorney. I didn’t exactly ‘see the

world,’ but we did get to experience living in Maine and Puerto Rico. During our time in Puerto Rico, our family expanded to include our two sons.

“When my Navy obligation ended, Marilyn and I moved—with our two sons in diapers—to Chicago where I joined the U.S. EPA and began my career as an environmental lawyer. I quickly found that I enjoyed the combination of law, policy, and environmental science, as long as someone else was the scientist. After four Chicago winters, this California boy moved his family to Denver to join the EPA’s Rocky Mountain regional office. We enjoyed our five years in Colorado, but as EPA matured as an agency, it became more bureaucratic, which led to my joining Pennzoil Company in Houston as environmental counsel. Any concerns I had about ‘switching sides’ were quickly dispelled, as it was clear that Pennzoil was serious about meeting its environmental obligations, and I wound up staying with Pennzoil until retiring in 2002.

“We moved from Houston to Austin, Texas several years ago to be closer to our older son, Eric (also a lawyer), and his family, and love it here. The University of Texas has an outstanding lifelong learning program, which we joined immediately and is at the core of our day-today intellectual and social life. The travel hasn’t slowed down, either. Our 2017 journeys included celebrating our 50th anniversary on a sailboat in the Virgin Islands, and our 2018 travels took us to Oregon; Hokkaido, Japan; and England, Scotland, and Wales.

“Few people, however, accumulate as many birthdays as we have without serious setbacks, and not all of my news is upbeat. We lost our younger son, Gregory, in 2008 to diabetes, which he’d dealt with since infancy.

That loss has taught us a lot about grieving, but we’d rather have remained ignorant. I speak for both of us, however, when I say that despite the ongoing pain of Greg’s loss, we realize that in the big picture of human experience, we are at the fortunate end of the scale.

Life is good, and I hope that is true for each of you.”

LARRY BERGER ’64

laurencewberger@gmail.com BILL DAWSON ’64

billdaws@comcast.net STEVE HALLGRIMSON ’64

steven.hallgrimson@berliner.com KEITH NIGHTINGALE reports that his travels in 2018 consisted of constant travel to Hawaii to manage/counsel his daughter, his annual trip to Normandy for the D-Day anniversary with the troops and GE, and a sojourn into the Alaska Inside Passage. Travel plans for 2019 include the 75th D-Day anniversary and frequent travel to children/ grandchildren with check in hand. For good books, Keith recommends Churchill: Walking with Destiny.

’65

PAT MULLIN writes, “On December 20th, Sherry and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary. Upon returning from Vietnam in 1968, JOHN GREEN ’66 and his wife Beverly suggested I meet this Texas girl when I served in Mineral Wells, Texas as a U.S. Army helicopter instructor. The rest is history and now I have

33

successfully completed my first fifty years’ probation of marriage. I have been enjoying the very interesting military combat writings of KEITH NIGHTINGALE on Facebook. Great stories, Keith! Sherry and I will be on Maui from February 18 to March 20. Any other classmates there then? We will start our cycling training for our July Iowa bike ride on Maui.”

TONY CHILDS checks in with, “next trip is in March to Siberia, included will be the Road of Bones. I’m doing it in winter on Ice Road so we can experience cold life in Siberia. Yes, there will be a survival kit in our vehicle— just the two of us with our Russian pal and the driver of

’67 That fateful day “One of my most vivid memories of CMC occurred during our freshman year, November 22, 1963 to be exact. I was coming out of class around 11 a.m. and JACK INFRANCA was passing by.

He said that President Kennedy had been shot, but he kept on walking without saying anything else. Thinking that was strange, I turned around and said, ‘Jack, finish the joke.’ He stopped, turned, and said that he heard on radio that President Kennedy had been shot. Others started gathering and said they had heard the same thing. We rushed over to the Hub to listen to the news. Around 1 p.m., I went to my American government class taught by first-year lecturer Werner J. Dannhauser and the class watched the small portable TV set that he had brought into the room. During that class we heard that the terrible news was true and that our president had been assassinated. Over the years, whenever the subject came up, we all remember exactly where we were when we first heard the news about the assassination. American innocence was lost that fateful day.” —LOREN SATTINGER ’67

the special vehicle.”

PETE FEUILLE’s widow, Susie, wrote that she is doing OK but misses him.

DEAN DAVIDGE sends an update, “I’m pretty much recovered from my eye surgery last October. Having to follow the doctor’s order to be a couch potato for almost three months was almost worse than the operation. I had joined a HIIT (high intensity interval training) class at the local YMCA about a year ago and getting back to it is really hard after the long layoff. I must say I’ve felt better and been healthier (other than the eye problem) since I started the class a year ago.”

GREG SMITH writes, “Trip earlier this year to Egypt. Flew there from Tel Aviv. Will wonders never cease? I strongly recommend the trip to Egypt to see the tombs and temples.

Astonishing what the Egyptians were able to do more than 3,000 years ago. Planned a trip to the Arctic for this coming June—on an ice cutter (if there is still ice to cut). The come-on is polar bears. Also travel to Israel a couple of times a year, as one of our sons and his family live there. Reading an excellent book on Churchill by Andrew Roberts (Note: same book Keith recommended). Kids and grandkids doing well, and like many of you, passing the big 75th.”

JOE BRADLEY and his wife enjoyed attending the 100th ROTC anniversary at CMC. Classmate WALLY DIECKMANN also attended.

“Marilyn and I have two cruises planned for 2019: a trans-Atlantic crossing to Amsterdam and the Norway coast in April/May and a Med cruise in October. I’m currently enjoying reading Leadership in Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin.”

Fiery escape “PAUL SCRIPPS, TOM BURTON ’68, and JOHN PETTIT were scheduled to descend on my home in Malibu—the same day the Woolsey fire arrived. This was to be a makeup get-together to replace our annual yacht trip on Paul’s Miramar. That trip had to be cancelled because of an unfortunate mechanical problem. Fun and games were carefully planned, but I had the foresight to call it off as soon as I saw the smoke. The participants, fortunately, missed having to fight the fire and get stuck in Malibu for a week or so.

I’m sure everyone saw the news coverage, which I missed, because of no power: cell, land line, and Internet for more than two weeks. I have learned from the past 45 years that your house will burn unless you stay and personally fight for it. Five neighbors and my wife, Robby, managed to save most of our neighbors’ homes along with my house. All in all, it was a very exciting time and proved that this 73-year old guy can still get pumped up with adrenaline.”—JOHN MAZZA ’67

JOE BRADLEY ’65

jbradley2004@verizon.net BOB NOVELL shared the following update: “Sharon and I were able to do the Danube River trip (Budapest to Prague) except the water level was too low and we were bused from Budapest to Vienna where the boat portion finally began. It was a great trip and resulted in many fond memories. We shared stories and tales with a wonderful group of people we met on the boat. The conversations with European colleagues reminded me of the richness and importance of history. A highlight of the trip was sitting in the corner of a hotel lobby in Prague at 3 a.m. with two shipmates and watching the Dodgers in the World Series.

’67

“I stumbled through my German throughout the trip but had fun with lots of hand signals. I also read two books on the trip, Short History of WWI and WWII by James Stokesbury—and, no, they were not short. These books reminded me of the 100 million people who died in Europe in the 20th Century.

I have embarked on writing a short history of my life

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’67

and plan to add some pictures, as well. I’m not writing a book, but want to put down in writing some of my life experiences decade by decade. It has been a fun project. A generation or two from now, someone in my family may want to read it. Some of you may want to think about doing the same thing with your life story.

We have all had some marvelous experiences and stories to tell.

“Our last set of Class Notes was amazing. I hope you took time to read the wonderful stories and experiences that were shared. Kudos to ROBIN BARTLETT for his work in putting these Class Notes together. When I tell people about our class reunions, I say that I come back to reunions to see roommates and friends in my dorm and perhaps some teammates, but I always end up making new friends.”

RAY WHITE is planning to retire in May. MARTY KAPLIN contributed the following. “I closed my family’s 93-year-old, three-generation business in 2006. I had no intentions of following my predecessor’s tradition of dying in the business. So, what do you do when you retire at age 60? Fast forward to 2018 where I’ve been a volunteer with SCORE (Service Core

CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

of Retired Executives). SCORE is the nation’s largest nonprofit network of volunteer, expert business mentors, with more than 10,000 volunteers in 300 chapters. It provides free counseling services for entrepreneurs and business people who are having problems. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the experience. If you’ve retired or about to and wondering what to do with yourself, I suggest volunteering might be just the ticket!”

STEVE WOODWORTH filled us in on his wine country

travels, “2018 was a very busy year for Robin and me, due largely to family additions and celebrations, travel temptations (eyes larger than the stomach), and health rehabilitations. We did our share (... and then some) of wine tasting and buying in Arizona, Nevada, California, and Washington. Our current inventory is in no need of replenishment.

“During our July trip to Seattle and environs we had a great reunion with JOHN GREEN ’66 and DICK GLASSBURN ’66 and their spouses. In short, the year flew by, and we felt much more familiar with airports than our outdoor patio. For 2019, we have resolved to stay more at our ‘home resort’ and enjoy the desert air and open space. I remain busy with company board and mentoring activities, and Robin is painting and has joined the board of the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. Although not seasoned Arizona veterans like classmate STEVE GRIFFITH, Robin and I can honestly say that we have (after ten years of commuting and five years of permanent living) fully embraced the state and its plethora of amenities, resources, incentives, and activities for proactive, gray-haired types like us. So, if you find yourself at or near the Valley of the Sun, let us know. We have lots of room, a welcoming patio, and natural preserve—and plenty of wine that we love to share.”

STEVE GRIFFITH brings us up to date on spring training in Scottsdale. “For the past five years, several CMCers from the Class of ’67 have gathered in Phoenix for a spring training rendezvous. Joining me in Scottsdale for a few days of baseball watching, swapping stories, hanging out, having a few beers, and catching up with each other’s goings-on have variously been JOHN PETTIT, RON DOUTT, LES WAITE, BILL SLAVIN, and JOHN PYLES. The guys also manage to play an occasional hearts game ’til the wee hours of the morning. Griff regularly tries to “shoot the moon,” but Les always succeeds. The hearts game for John, Ronald, Les, and Griff started in their freshman year at CMC, usually after a Shakey’s Pizza run. PETE WILKINSON plans to join us on the trip.

SANDY MACKIE provided a comment: “Cindy (Hoyt) and I are enjoying the quiet retired life in snowy Winthrop, Wash. The news of 2018 is the arrival of our first grandchild, Jasper Alexander Mackie. For classmates in the Seattle area looking for unique produce and great chicken, my father, David Mackie, and mother, Bonnie, are organic farmers who can be found every Sunday at the Broadway Market under their Skinny Kitty Farms logo.”

JOE JOHNSON followed up his article in the last Class Notes with this helpful addition. “There is a lot of information about Keto diets on the Internet. The

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’70 Words of wisdom

principles are simple. When I am out to dinner, I find it easy to find a fat-laced paleo/keto item on the menu. I can still drink wine (which only has 2 to 4 grams of carbs in a six-ounce glass). I also look for items with “net carbs”—this is food with carbs less than fiber. I use heavy whipping cream in my coffee, since it has the fewest carbs of any creamer. This is just the way we eat now. It combines with our exercise routine to produce an active and energetic lifestyle.” For more about his nutrition approach, contact Joe directly.

WILL THOMPSON passed along the following story. “Life is good in Mill Valley. I continue to toil in the multifamily real estate industry. We rejoined our partnership with Trammell Crow Residential in 2015 and have four large apartment communities under construction in the Bay Area and a couple more in the pipeline. I continue to have fun at work.

“Leslie and I have experienced the health issues of our generation. I’ve successfully moved on from cancer in 2012 and a cardiac event in 2015 with a little scar tissue here and there and a stent in my LAD. Leslie suffered a six-week hospitalization with pneumonia in 2012 and now suffers from COPD. We travel less but I still get out to Colorado to ski the Rockies every year. She was really impacted by the poor air quality in the Bay Area from the fires in 2017 and 2018. The deaths and destruction in both were astounding. We had close friends barely escape the Paradise fire in November with their pets; losing their home, cars, and 35 years of accumulated possessions. Almost 20,000 buildings were destroyed and folks in that area are still suffering. Consider a contribution to North Valley Community Foundation’s Camp Fire Relief Fund to help out. You can find them at www.nvcf.org.”

JOHN PETTIT tells us about a favorite experience.

“My wife, Patricia, and I have had the opportunity to join several personal tours conducted by the curators of various exhibitions at the Getty Museum. One such tour was conducted by Elizabeth Morrison, Ph.D., who is the Getty’s curator of illuminated manuscripts. After an hour-and-a-half tour, which included a detailed explanation of every piece in the exhibition and lengthy Q&A’s when prompted, our group of eight was taken to “the vault” to see several pieces that are held behind the scenes. Each piece we were shown was more strikingly beautiful than its predecessor, and then Ms. Morrison brought us to the grand finale.

“It was a book that had taken ten years to produce from ca.1420 - ca.1430. Pre-Gutenberg, it was created by hand. The title of the book is French, but it translates into English as The Adventures of Gillion De Trazegnies, a knight who participated in the Crusades. There are approximately 100 pages in this book, all printed on vellum and the binding is in perfect condition. Each page has copious filigree around the edges, and within the filigree the story is

“GLENN WARING has volunteered to serve as the new Class Liaison for the Class of ’70. To start, he asked for life tips from classmates: “I figure most of us in the class of ’70 are now in our 70s, and we could share a few updates on enjoying the eighth decade.”

• “Strength through rest. Cousin Helen Pashgian (Pomona) got us hooked on this—it was her father’s favorite reminder. Structure. I find this is an age where it’s great to have some methodology like a weekly lunch, a bi-monthly overnight group, and some annual outings.

Sometimes I don’t want to go, but I’m always glad afterward. I really treasure the long-term associations—amazingly, I’m in partnership in a small venture with a friend I met in fourth grade. Using Airbnb all over, finding extended family under a single roof makes for great memories. Cutting back after 20 years of corporate and another 25 years in private counseling for CEO’s. Parting with clients is tough—as much as ten hours a month with some since March of 1994. But holding on to just a few favorites is going to be fine, and I’m looking forward to new endeavors, time with four grandchildren, and a great wife of nearly 40 years.”—GLENN WARING ’70 • “My all-time favorite concept is: This too shall pass. I’m one of these people who has been interested in the stock market since I was a kid and I’ve made a hobby of following it whether I’m actually investing in it or not. Anyway, when you follow the stock market, you really see that this too shall pass.”—CHARLES DAVIS ’70 • “My motto is ‘Beware of averages—they are never right.’ Water is only three feet deep on average, but you still drown.”—BRIAN PUTT ’70 • “I have learned several things: 1. As Karen, my wife, always said, you should retire to something not from something. 2. You are exactly who you are when you retire that you were before. Same interests, different schedule and remuneration. You join boards and donate time and money so you can do what you used to get paid to do. 3. It’s a lot of fun being retired.

More helping, no hierarchies.”

—ROBERT MILNES ’70

• “Time cures a lot. Wendy and I enjoy being with our family and church community. Eating solid food remains high on the list—I’ve still got my teeth.”—JOHN HOW ’70 • “Why do we have to choose between cursing the gloom and lighting a candle? Why not a little of both?”—BOB KEATLEY ’70

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told in black ink in Latin. In the middle of each page, surrounded by the verbiage of the story, there are spectacularly detailed illuminated miniatures showing the action as described on that page. These illuminated miniatures, still in pristine condition, are what make the book something I will remember forever. The book looks as if it was just published, with every page carefully designed by hand nearly 600 years ago.

None of the pages have been torn out to be auctioned or sold page by page to collectors as is the case with many rare books of this nature.

This book is one of the most impressive artistic items I have ever seen, and Ms. Morrison told us that the acquisition of this book at auction at Sotheby’s in New York for the Getty Museum was ‘the highlight of her career.’”

STEVE RUDD reported that he and his partner, Martie, have been together for the past 14 years. Life has been great, he said, and the couple enjoys travel tours, doubles tennis, theater, concerts, speakers, clubs, and most of all their shared family life with four daughters, four granddaughters and three grandsons.

After some dating struggles, Steve admits, “I finally got on the right track with the right woman and with the assistance of my Rotarian friends—a very worthwhile organization.” Feel free to contact Steve for more on his dating perspective.

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DICK BAUMER updated his rhino counter poaching story that appeared in a previous issue of CMC Magazine. “I am very pleased to announce that GEOS Foundation (Global Exploration & Oceanographic Society) and Dyck Advisory Group (DAG), our operating partner, have entered into an agreement with Peace Parks Foundation (PPF) to provide technical support for the restructuring and management of counter-poaching operations in the four national parks in Mozambique. The parks, which include Maputo Special Reserve and Limpopo, Banhine, and Zinave national parks, comprise approximately 5.5-million acres of critically important conservation land.

“The new partnership with PPF makes us one of the largest and most respected wildlife charities in Africa and our mission is key to protecting and restoring wildlife throughout the continent.

PPF’s mission is to preserve and connect vast swaths of conservation land across international boundaries. This kind of ‘connectivity conservation’ is critical for allowing wildlife to reestablish ancient migratory routes, preserve genetic diversity, and re-wild areas where animal populations have been decimated by war and poaching. PPF now controls approximately 250-million acres of prime wilderness areas across ten countries in southern Africa.”

JOHN PERCY is keeping busy, which makes sense for someone who has attended 1,600 plays/musicals, 200 ballets, and many hundreds of art exhibitions. “After CMC, I attended and graduated from the University of Illinois Law School, served 18 months in the Army,

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Tribute to a friend ORMOND RANKIN ’71 shares the following tribute to his friend and classmate GUSTAVES PAIGE HIATT III, who passed away April 24, 2018, from prostate cancer

in Parker, Colorado. “He led a wonderful, full life and will be missed by all.” Reach out to Ormond for the full obituary.

“Most of Paige’s mentoring happened as an informal, hilarious long-term friendship in a group of CMC grads, plus Chip Clements (ANDY CRAWFORD’s high school tennis partner). The group was named ‘Friends United for Backpacking, Angling, and Recreation’ (FUBAR). It was a group created after a backpacking trip in the early ’70s into the San Gabriel Mountains with multiple CMCers, including JERRY MEYERS, TERRY PRINGLE, OLIVER COOLIDGE, PAIGE HIATT, ORMOND RANKIN and a number of other friends. A few years later, Oliver, Paige, Chip, TERRY BARNES ’70 and our significant others got together for a few days of food and camaraderie in the Bay Area. This led to Oliver suggesting we make this a regular event, and over the next 36 years, we met most years with anywhere from two to six of us in various venues.

“The early events were mostly backpacking trips into the Sierra, Sawtooths, White Clouds, and into Yosemite. Later we branched out into sailing (Catalina, Nantucket to Newport), canoeing the Boundary Waters, a few of our weddings, skiing Breckenridge, hitting family vacation retreats (Red River, N.M.; San Juan Islands; Nantucket; Wisconsin Farm; Idyllwild; West Ossipee, N.H.; San Diego); motorcycling (Yosemite, Northern California Highway 1); America’s Cup; and Montana guided fishing. The events always included catching up, learning, and celebrating. Each event had its stories like the time Paige and Ormond canoed the Boundary Waters with REX HIATT ’74 (Paige’s brother) and his son. After one long and arduous portage between two lakes, Paige and I opened our backpacks only to discover they were loaded with a few heavy rocks in addition to our supplies!

“When I think of Paige, I think of a principled man who was a self-examined person—always learning, contributing, laughing, and helping others as friends. He developed his character over many years of this self-examination and showed up as a high integrity, honest, trusting, and transparent individual with a passion for sports, friendship, the outdoors, and group get-togethers. He was genuine and could howl with the best of them. Paige had a great sense of humor and I will always remember laughing with him over our 51-year relationship. The humor of life was always present.

Even during our last FUBAR event, which was held in his rehab room two weeks before his passing, we relished in his enthusiasm for life, positive nature, and the significance he brought to our group. May peace always be with him.”

spent nine months working on political campaigns, visited most of the archeological sites in the Middle East over the winter of 1972-73, practiced law for 18 years, served as a judge in the Missouri Division of Workers’ Compensation for 18 years, and retired in 2010. Though I really loved my job, my last year before retirement was spent in a constant state of exhaustion from long hours at work, long hours planning my travel, and taking trips. The year before I retired, I took 18 trips. Now, my life in retirement is so busy I wonder how I ever had time to work.” John also updated us on his love of opera. Reach out to him for more about his

biggest passion.

VAN SMITH contributed this excerpt from an essay he called “Ye Hurdles Must Ye Leap.”

“What has recently become well established in pedagogical circles and in psychology has long been old hat to parents watching their children learn, namely that we do not progress toward a new goal in even, measured steps. Instead, we clear some hurdle and master a new skill, and then begin to mill around on the new level, at first not too uncomfortably, until we recognize what the new issue is, whereupon we start to make the new attempt. At first, the difficulties which arise are taken in good faith, as part of the territory, and CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

we start making a more concerted effort to acquire the new skill. But the difficulty of the new conquest starts to be nettlesome, then vexing, and then downright infuriating. We’ve had it, we don’t have to take this— who do they think they are?—and other causes for impatience begin to prevail. And we become nasty and unpleasant, just like we were before the last hurdle.

DAN ALTEMUS writes, “In the run up to our 50th reunion—the big event is scheduled for April 23-26, 2020—DAVE OFFICER and I have begun to search out the members of our class to get a rough idea of who is still sentient, and whether they may be interested in attending the reunion event.

“There are no guarantees on getting over the various hurdles that confront us. Suffice it to say that we’ve gotten over whatever hurdles that have stood in our way to reach this point. And also suffice it to say that there’s no assurance that we’re to get over the hurdle, whatever it is, that presently confronts us.” Contact Van for the full text.

“If folks have an interest, contact either Dave or me and we will follow up. In addition, even for those who will not attend, the school will be preparing a questionnaire/survey for each classmate to complete.

That information will be compiled into a booklet for all.

Finally, the College has suggested that we form a small committee to spread the search and work. As all of us had different circles of friends and roommates, the thought is that such a committee might be useful in tracking down as many classmates as possible.”

FRED MERKIN reflected on a letter he wrote to Dr. John K. Roth, Edward J. Sexton Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, about Elie Wiesel’s Night. Roth remains a leading authority on the Holocaust and was a friend of Wiesel.

“More than 50 years previously, as a CMC student, I had the good fortune to have taken a stimulating course on Logic taught by Dr. Roth. Later, he did me the honor of agreeing to read my senior thesis. With this project, I returned after that long passage of time to my familiar and welcomed role as Dr. Roth’s student.”

Here is an excerpt from Fred’s letter: “Reading Night and reflecting upon its message have reinforced my long-held belief that today’s world desperately needs an international mechanism by which murderous tyrannical regimes and nonstate actors are neutralized quickly once they have sufficiently demonstrated their odious character. Sadly, the world today is not up to the task. Far too many of us avert our eyes away from atrocities reported in the news. Too few of us are willing to support international intervention to eradicate these political cancers until metastasis has occurred. It is to be recalled that Winston Churchill called World War II the ’unnecessary war’ simply because Hitler could have been stopped early on at several points without undue difficulty.

A higher level of consciousness is what is required.

Following your talk, one questioner asked what could be done in this regard. In our brief discussion later, I repeated the question. In both instances, you gave the only sensible response—each of us should do what we can.” Reach out to Fred for the full book review.

ROBIN BARTLETT—finally—your 1967 Class Liaison for CMC, is happy to report that his oldest son, Dr. Jason Bartlett, married Alexa Vacaro in a beautiful ceremony at St. Peters Church, Danbury, CT, on December 30, 2018. Just in time to file joint income taxes.

ROBIN BARTLETT ’67

Rbbartlett01@gmail.com

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SPRING 2019

ROB BLY ’69

rob.bly@gmail.com

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MERTON GOLDMAN asserts, “Best to all and look forward to seeing you in 2020.”

CHARLES DAVIS is also on board, “I do intend to be there for the 50th reunion.”

DAVID BEEBE writes, “Hey, I’m alive and well in Amherst, Mass., a retired attorney, looking out the window at a blustery morning, about an inch of snow last night. But it’s bright and sunny, and another day in 20-freakin’-19!”

GLENN WARING ’70

waringg@gmail.com

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DAN COOPER writes, “I heard from DOUG CAMERON, who remains in Chicago but

is planning a spring visit to Tucson. We hope to get together and, after nearly 50 years, it is about time.

“I had dinner with AL DAUBER a few weeks ago. He’s had some health setbacks but his sense of humor remains the same. Dauber, in case you missed it, was mentioned in the new ROBIN WILLIAMS ’73 biography as was DICK GALE. ‘A Night with Al Dauber featuring Robin Williams,’ held in the spring of 1970, remains a legendary event in the College’s history. I was there.

“Speaking of Dick, my wife, Jayne, and I travelled to San Diego in September to attend his well-deserved retirement party. I was honored to speak at the event and did manage to mention an incident or two from our days living together after graduation from CMC. But the California Teachers’ Association has lost an invaluable employee who worked tirelessly for its members and for the students of California.

“Also at the party was ALAN LOEWE, who I had not seen since graduation. Alan looks great and is enjoying retirement after a long career as a litigator. Speaking of retirement, I see DON KLEIN often as a group of expublic defenders meets for lunch regularly and Klein is able to pull himself away from his busy schedule to join us. He also is loving retirement.”

DAN COOPER ’71

5036 N. Calle Bosque Tucson, AZ 85718-6302 520-529-9427 dcooper@cooperudall.com

Ah, another new year. And we keep moving along. Most of us have recovered from our 45th reunion by now and are gearing up for the next one. The news this time covers the spectrum.

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First in is MARLO LEWIS who writes, “Our son, Parker, expects to get his Associate of Arts degree in mathematics this year and plans to study mechanical engineering at Cal State Long Beach in the fall.” Cheers and congrats all around.

And in big congratulatory news, REID DABNEY tells us that he married Sherry May on December 16, 2018, in Berkeley. His son, CRAIG DABNEY RDS ‘12, was the sole CMC representative at the small gathering. Sherry is an accountant and has children and grandchildren of her own. “Ergo, I’m now an instant grandfather in addition to being a husband.” Our very best wishes and here’s to popping the champagne. We look forward to meeting her at our 50th reunion.

’73 History lesson DR. CRAIG LUTHER, Class of ’73, is the author of a new book, The First Day on the Eastern Front. Germany Invades the Soviet Union, June 22, 1941 (Stackpole, 2018). In the spirit of Martin Middlebrook’s classic First Day on the Somme, Luther narrates the events of June 22, 1941, a day that saw German military might at its peak, making it appear as though the Soviet Union would be easily conquered. By looking at one of the pivotal days of World War II, the book examines high command down to the tanks and soldiers at the sharp end, covering strategy as well as tactics and the vivid personal stories of the men who crossed the border into the Soviet Union that day.

Luther, a retired U.S. Air Force historian who lives in Tehachapi, Calif., has also authored Blood and Honor: A History of the 12th SS Panzer Division and Barbarossa Unleashed: The German Blitzkrieg through Central Russia to the Gates of Moscow, June-December 1941.

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PAUL FISHER writes, “The 45th was a great reunion!

Of course, seeing all who attended was super. Great catching up with those who don’t regularly attend.

Missed seeing some of those who regularly do but couldn’t for health reasons. The status update from President Chodosh was not only reassuring about the direction of CMC, but inspiring. Given the political climate these days, Professor Pitney drew quite a crowd, and it seemed to me the comments by some of the attendees were quite insightful. Hope we have a great turnout for our 50th. After 39 years in the communications business (television distribution and programming, as well as high speed data), I am really enjoying retirement, seeing grandkids often, playing golf a couple of times a week, and having occasional meals with fellow CMC classmates (PETER GASTALDI, KEN GILBERT, RON HANNI, and TOM KEENE). In between meals, I went on safari in Kenya and Tanzania in August.

A trip of a lifetime and then some.”

We also hear from DON WADDELL, who reports, “Following our great reunion, I went home to ask how I got so old. My wife, Tami, and I traveled to Europe in September for our third cycling adventure—this time in Slovenia, Italy, and Austria along the Julian Alps.

We made it through 125 miles in six days without an incident until the last day, when my wife took a fall. She used this as reason to not ride but to go to the spa at the resort where we were staying instead. We finished the trip with a week in Germany in the Black Forest and the Rhine Valley. I am looking forward to our 50th.

CHIP ALLEN acknowledges that it is really he, the full figure of a neophyte yogi (his words), in the photo on page 25 of the prior CMC magazine issue. But he points out the photo did not properly reveal that across the narrow quadrant of the yoga mat at 6 a.m. was classmate LOWELL SEARS, a 25-year veteran of yoga and one who should be so recognized. As Chip observed, “If karmic justice all balances out, I should be hit by a meteor.”

MARK ROSENTHAL gives us this update, “I am now more actively involved in medical research than when I was a professor at UCLA. I’ve been working on two very promising inventions. One is our discovery of a plantderived estrogen that is safer than the prescription medicine. My group just received a National Institute of Aging grant to support molecular characterization of the estrogen in order to synthesize it so we can get FDA approval. Also, our group has developed a handheld device that uses patterned electron energy to repair damage inside any injured or diseased tissue in the body. We’ve treated over 1,000 chronic pain patients to get them off narcotics and other pain medications and have used this devise to reverse dementia in Alzheimer patients.”

And from ROGER WINSBY, who writes, “2018 was bitter and sweet. My wife, Suzanne, passed away on April 18; we had been married for over 42 years. Her health had been in a serious decline for the last ten years. She was brave and remarkably upbeat given the physical indignities she suffered. Two days before she passed away, our fourth grandchild, Beatrice Elena Winsby, was born in Miami to our son, Joe, and his wife. We have been very fortunate to have wonderful children, children-in-law, three granddaughters, and a grandson.

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Our daughter, Alix, organized an amazing celebration of life for her mother at the arts center in Concord, Mass., where Suzanne had a studio for 25 years. The gallery and hallways were covered with Suzanne’s paintings, her only one-woman show. Thanks to PAUL BENINGER for attending.

“In non-family news, I remain in close contact with JOEL JUTOVSKY. He is retired now and busier than ever. JEFF TAYLOR ’74 introduced me to a company where Jeff has been an outside director that needed a new valuation firm. Jeff and I have worked together for the last three years, and that has been fun and educational.”

KEN GILBERT ’73

4308 Goodfellow Drive Dallas, TX 75229-2816 214-353-9828 kpgilbert@sbcglobal.net

total for my career, including eight years as a deputy attorney general for the state of Idaho. I divide my time between the Bay Area and Cape Ann, Mass.”

REX CLEMENT writes, “I have just recently celebrated my seventh year at Tesla. What an incredible journey it has been. I have been instrumental in launching Model S, Model X, and now Model 3. I’m a senior manufacturing engineer in plastics at Tesla. We mold some of the interior, and most exterior, parts of all three models. It has been an extraordinary ride these last seven years learning how to build world-class electric cars. Next up is the new Roadster, Model Y (a mini-SUV) and the semi-truck. When I first started here I was told we wouldn’t last two years, and electric cars will never make it. We proved them all wrong and have turned the automobile market on its collective head. There are many more exciting things coming up for Tesla. Stay tuned.”

AL HARUTUNIAN III ’77

Not much reported from the Class of ’74 except for folks that wrote in that they were disappointed they would miss our 45th reunion in April 2019. DICK ARCHIBALD and Harriet are out of the country for the month of April. RILEY ATKINS, DAVE KITCH and their spouses will be in Croatia and Slovenia. And FRANK HOBBS (who reports he hasn’t missed a reunion since we graduated) will miss his first one as he, too, will be traveling to Europe. Maybe we should be having the reunion on the Continent? Did I miss the memo?

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Hope to see them at the 50th—and the rest of you in Claremont at the 45th reunion from April 26-April 28.

SKIP WEISS ’74

skipweiss@aol.com KEVIN HALVORSON writes, “I divorced in March of 2018 after eight years and have six months to go for my MBA from the Universtiy of Oregon’s Portland Executive MBA Program. I plan to move to the northwest Portland area this year after ten years in Alaska. Thirty-five years after leaving Xerox in 1983, after five years with them out of college, I am working with Xerox again in Alaska handling the State of Alaska—which is the largest organization in the state with 18,000 employees. This position is challenging and gives me time to commute to Portland every other weekend for school. I am looking for opportunities in the Northwest with my shiny MBA and suggestions on where to live in the Portland area.”

’77

CHRIS HEFFELFINGER writes, “I’m still practicing law

in San Francisco, and active as a board member for Legal Aid at Work in San Francisco and the Nepal Youth Foundation. Son James finishes his six-year stint in the U.S. Navy next July and starts Harvard Business School in August.” (For those unfamiliar with the name, Harvard Business School is probably better known as the ‘Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University of the East.’)”

GEOFF THORPE writes, “I retired from Chevron in San Ramon after 20 years as tax counsel there, with 38 years

619-844-5960 al.harutunian@yahoo.com The winner in the category ‘Most Devoted Grandpa’ goes to JOHN SHEAN, who reports that he is still living the life of a retired grandpa in Kansas City, Mo. He says, “I’ve gotten pretty good at KC BBQ with my pellet smoker.” He also reports that he gets to play golf about once a week with his son. John says, “Every time I question my decision to retire early and move 500 miles from my home of 29 years, I simply pull out a photo of my grandson. As the ad campaign says, ‘Priceless!’”

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Dr. MOHAMMAD AL-SABAH reports that he was busy last summer speaking at the Global Dialogue conference in Dublin, Ireland, the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) in Paris, and as a copanelist with Andrew, the Duke of York, at Oxford University.

CRAIG BENTLEY is looking forward to some R & R after retiring from his day job managing a video department at UC San Diego, and refocusing on Imageworks, the video production company he’s run in San Diego for 30 years. He’s looking forward to working on passion projects and creating videos that fit his affinities.

MARK SCHWARTZ attended CMC’s Impact Weekend last October. Mark was the elder statesman of his group, which included GEORGIA TUCKERMAN ’22, BRUCE SOLL ’79, Anne Cunningham Carson, Lisa Schwartz, JOHN FARANDA ’79, and GARY CARSON. RICK VOIT writes, “I pushed the retirement button at Merrill. That is, they pay me out over four years and during that time I’m ‘of counsel’—meaning I check in with the office from time to time. What a change! The time gets sopped up as an unpaid volunteer working with Youth for Christ out of Denver, Colo. At YFC, we’re in the middle of a campaign to serve one million kids in various cities, with a big tab necessary to get that done.”

Other than that, he likes flying his airplane and hanging out with his wife, Emily.

STEVE BRAM reports that in January 2019, he celebrated 35 years at George Smith Partners, the

CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

’77 Water works STEVE NICKOLAS, Class of ’77, was recently profiled in BevNet magazine. He talked about co-founding Hawaii’s first bottled water business in the early ’80s, distilling water in his kitchen. Within 18 months, they hit $1 million in revenue, ultimately making $3 million at the company’s peak. He traveled extensively (Egypt, Israel, Kenya, Marshall Islands), building more than 50 bottling plants throughout the world, often amid political instability and armed guards.

In 1991, Steve moved to Arizona with plans to take advantage of the booming national marketplace for bottled purified water. He came up with a company name of “APANI,” as an acronym for water “as pure as nature intended.” He inked a deal with the San Francisco Giants for the first custom label and sports branding ever for the water business. Ultimately, he obtained custom-licensing deals for all major league baseball (for a paltry $5,000), the NFL, NBA, and NHL. In 1995, an investor took over APANI (generating $36 million annually), which ultimately led to Coca-Cola taking control and changing the name to Dasani.

Steve then moved on as a pioneer in custom-labeled water in Hollywood under the name “Bottled Water Images.”

His next venture was Alkaline Water Company. He and his business partner used a sophisticated electrolysis process to purify tap water and incorporate trace materials to raise the pH to 8.8, with the product called “Alkaline 88.” In three years, they went from $600,000 to $12 million in annual sales through 35,000 stores nationwide.

Steve has remained philosophical about his career path, saying, “Alkaline 88 is today, by far, the most healthful premium water on the market. But there will be something else down the road in another few years, and I hope to be part of that.”

SPRING 2019

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Always with a smile The Class of ’79 was very sad to learn the news of our classmate BRIAN AMES’ passing.

Some memories: • “Brian was the RA of the Beckett dorm. It was the first dorm with no cleaning services, and they used that money to have parties like the Beckett Jazz Festival. Beckett installed a kitchen. Plus, the dorm had a section dedicated to women CMCers. He was a true leader. Very calm under fire.”

—CLIFF HOCKLEY ’79

• “I’m shocked by Brian’s passing. As our RA, he was a great ally and fun guy. Tough when he needed to be, fun the rest of the time. Sorry to hear this news. Sadly, we’re all getting older.”—ERIC WEBER ’79 • “Brian was brilliant and a kind soul. Frank Verderame and I lived with Brian in D.C. one summer. He always wore a great smile. He was also best friends with Professor Richard Wheeler (government) while we were at CMC. He would sneak over to Wheeler’s house to drink wine, snack on cheese, and debate Wheeler on international affairs.”— ANDY ABRAHAM ’79

• “I remember sitting on the beach in Virginia Beach and Brian commenting that it was nice, but it wasn’t a California beach. Brian loved the California beaches. He was a great guy, taken from us too soon.”

—FRANK VERDERAME ’79

• “My main memory of Brian was that he always had a smile and was a really terrific person to everyone he met.”

—RUSS GREENBERG ’79

largest privately-owned commercial capital advisor in Southern California. The company arranges more than $2 billion of financing a year, and Steve serves as the company president and broker. Steve’s notable deals included a $220 million construction loan in Culver City, a $110 million bridge loan in La Habra, and a $30 million land loan for a proposed resort in Napa Valley.

Steve is still happily married to Julie (for 35 years) and reports that his son, Ben, has won two Grammys as arranger for Pentatonix. His daughter, Alanna, had her wedding in March. Steve sees MARK SCHWARTZ and DAN GOLDZBAND from the class.

For those of you philistines in the class, Pentatonix is a renowned a cappella group from Arlington, Texas (I

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’79

Googled it). It is certainly nice to see that in a class full of doctors, MBAs, lawyers, accountants, bankers, and other left-brain thinkers Steve raised a creative right-brain thinking child.

I am happy to report that my son, BRIAN CHMELIK ’18, graduated from CMC in May, and even happier to report that he has a selfsustaining job in a private equity advisory company in La Jolla. The graduation speaker was Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund. She was introduced by a graduating senior whose claim to fame, at that point in his life, was being a Jeopardy! contestant. Ms. Lagarde won the crowd over when she noted that she was used to being introduced by presidents and finance ministers (like our classmate Dr. Mohammad Al-Sabah), but this was the first time being introduced by a Jeopardy! contestant.

FRANK CHMELIK ’78

Chmelik Sitkin & Davis 1500 Railroad Ave. Bellingham, WA 98225-4542 Phone 360-671-1796 ext 204 Direct 360-306-3001 Cell 360-223-5633 Fax 360-671-3781 fchmelik@chmelik.com Classmates WHIT LATIMER and SCOTT ANDERHOLT won the Virginia Country Club Member Guest Tournament in November 2018, but more importantly, they beat classmates ERIC AFFELDT and DALE YAHNKE in the 2018 BUGS (Butt Ugly Golf Society) reunion at the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills. Anderholt added some more details: “My college roommate, Whit, and I won his member/guest golf tournament for the third time. In addition, the Berger Boys, Eric, Whit, Dale, and I got together over New Year’s in the desert to play golf for two days, swapping the same stories we’ve swapped for the last 40 years. Seems like yesterday that Eric, as the RA in Berger, and us, were all having a great and memorable senior year.”

’79

KENT BRAITHWAITE and his wife JENNY ’78 have both “retired from our careers in public education. Upon my retirement, my then-congressman (a former student/protege), Dr. Raul Ruiz, went into the Well of Congress and read a tribute to me and my dubious career which is now in the Congressional Record. A majority of the local city council, the mayor, the elected county executive (county supervisor in California), and the state assemblyman, as well as Congressmen Ruiz, were all former students. I left town quickly and moved to my vacation home in Huntington Beach, where the Democratic Party won every Congressional seat—Dick Nixon’s home county. The three kids, now

aged 38, 35, and 27, are pursuing varied careers in public administration, entertainment, and corporate HR. I’m staying busy in the literary field, writing my next work and judging a major literary award (which I can’t reveal until April). I’m also traveling extensively while enjoying working for Orange County’s two professional major league sports teams. If anyone needs bar recommendations in Surf City, let me know.”

STEVE GARCIA proudly writes, “My oldest son, Brad, got married to the former Kianna Couture of Manchester, N.H., at the Four Seasons Oahu Ko Olina Resort on September 24, 2018. It has now been five years since I started my own law practice, Garcia Legal, A Professional Corporation, focusing on real estate litigation, and I’m loving it.”

STEVEN TRENHOLME writes: “Thirty-two years ago, I very deliberately moved to Paradise, Calif. The name well described it. I loved living there. As you no doubt already know, the town of Paradise was destroyed in a fire this past November. Both my home and my law office were destroyed, along with 90 percent of the homes and structures in Paradise. I safely escaped without any injury, but driving out of town was a surreal experience with flames on either side of the road just a few feet from the car. Thankfully, my wife was out of town. Since the fire, we have been the beneficiaries of so much generosity and kindness.

Friends opened their home to us and allowed us to live with them for two months. Last week, we moved into a home we have purchased. Our new home is almost completely furnished with things given to us by friends and my wife’s family. I want to give public recognition and thanks to MICHAEL GABRIEL for offering to drive from his home in Portland, Ore., to give me suits to wear (all my clothing was destroyed); to CLINT GREENBAUM for offering to fly us to New York to de-stress and relax; to KEVIN WHITE ’80 for sending me photos of my mother (all my photos were destroyed in the fire); and to JON LEHMAN ’76 for listening to me ramble on during three or four dozen phone calls since the fire, and also for sending photos. Losing my community has been hard, but the kindness, support and love of friends has been heartening.”

Finally, a quick poll!

• How many members of the CMC Class of ‘79 will attend the 40th reunion (April 25 to 28)?: 21 (Clint Greenbaum); 22 (Eric Weber); 32 (Steve Garcia); 33 (Scott Anderholt); 40 (Kent Braithwaite); 42 (Russ Greenberg); 44 (Don Logan).

• Which member of the CMC Class of ‘79 will wear the ugliest outfit at the class reunion dinner? (as voted on by attendees—Don Logan is barred from voting): David Kent (Latimer); John Faranda (Greenberg); Don Logan (Weber); John McDowell (Greenbaum and Garcia) OK, I let Logan chime in for the ugliest outfit at the class reunion: “LOL, you sure? Do you really want to bet against the guy—as I’m ‘barred from voting’—whose pocket square matches his tie and who has his shirts monogrammed with initials at the left wrist? (By the way, that would be a fun question for the next class news: where do you put your monograms on your shirts? And do you put the initial for your last name at the end, or as a larger size in the middle? Greenbaum, CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

you’re the original fashionista and I’m sure I remember you wore a monogrammed bathrobe when strolling the corridor in Berger Hall).

CLINT GREENBAUM ’79

61 Seafield Lane Westhampton Beach, NY 11978 cgreenbaum@aol.com It’s hard to imagine that the Class of 1980—the first four-year co-ed class at CMC—is getting ready to celebrate our 40th Reunion next year at Alumni Weekend 2020! I hope you will all plan to attend what promises to be our best reunion ever to be held from April 23-26, 2020.

’80

LOU CARON writes, “In June 2016, I stepped into the

role of president of the Printing Industries Association of Southern California. I am the third president in a trade organization that was formed in the 1940s, so my predecessors had incredible tenure. This is my first time in a not-for-profit organization, which is a bit of an eye-opener. One of my first duties was to visit the owner of a printing company in Ontario called Bertco.

The owner, CHUCK STAY ’64, was a CMC grad and unfortunately passed away a few months ago. Right after this, our auditors showed up to ’bayonet the wounded and I find out that the staff includes a young lady from a school that few would know—Scripps College. Kids are off the payroll. My wife is working. The wine cooler is filled. Golf game sucks. What more could one ask for?”

PATTY (HARPER) WILMINK writes, “I definitely plan on attending. I don’t think I have been back on campus since the 20-year reunion. After CMC, I returned to Tempe, Ariz. I got a Masters of Engineering in industrial engineering from Arizona State University. I went to work for US WEST and later Bellcore as an engineering manager. I quit working in 1995 after my second child was born. I am married and have three adult children.

Kelly (25) is also an industrial engineer, Donnie (24) is a mechanical engineer, and Claire (22) is taking a year off school to live in Paris. She is also going to get a degree in engineering from ASU in 2020.

“I recently completed a Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim hike of the Grand Canyon. I did my first one 30 years ago. It changed my life. For my 60th birthday, I wanted to do it again. I went a lot slower this time.”

Carrie George also reports that a lot of CMCers were in attendance at her daughter Leah’s wedding in September, namely, DITMAN JOHNSON ‘79 (Carrie’s husband!), FRANCES (BURKHART) GHOSE ’99 (Carrie’s niece), NORA STUDHOLME ’14, ALEXANDRA COOKE ’14, KENDYL KLEIN ’14, BENNETT JONES ’14, ANTHEA WAXEL ’14, LEAH (JOHNSON) SHANKLAND ’14, CLAIRE PETERSON ’14, ALEXANDRA SLOVES ’14, CAMERON RUBY ’14, KATIE RODIHAN ’14, HEATH HYATT ’12, BRYANNA MOORE ’14, TOM GEORGE ’86, and ADRIENNE JOHNSON ’16.

WAYNE SLAVITT ’80

wayneslavitt@gmail.com

JANETTE WHITE SHELTON writes, “Greetings from beautiful Del Mar. My husband, Doug, and I live in the house in which I grew up. I am retired from the University of California and volunteering most of my time at the zoo, church, and for a local club.

I also chaired my 40th high school reunion committee and was fortunate to catch up with ANNE AMES during the weekend’s events. Doug travels much of the time, so my dogs and I hold down the fort. Our oldest son, Reiner, is 23 and an EMT here in town so we see him often—occasionally as he goes screaming down the street with the lights and siren. Our youngest son, Sparky, is 21 and a senior at the University of Alabama in Huntsville studying aerospace engineering.”

’82

GIGI BIRCHFIELD-BAUTE writes, “I am still managing partner of the Los Angeles office of Major, Lindsey & Africa, a global legal search firm with offices around the world. I specialize in recruitment for in-house clients, for roles at all levels and in all industries—can’t believe I’ve been doing it for 18 years, far longer than I practiced law!

“I’m still in close touch with AMIE (FRIEDLANDER) YEHROS and DENISE (TROTTER) ELIOT. I occasionally run into JANE SEMEL and DANA WIEGER ’83, and follow MICHELLE (DAVIS) STRATON on social media along with others. After many years working with CMCAA and with the Berger Institute, as chair of the Berger Board this year, I remain very involved with the College. My eldest graduated from CMC in 2012, so I’m also a parent of an alumna!

Back in time What would you like to return to CMC to experience again or for the first time? It might be a night in your old dorm, attending a Tower Party, eating in Collins, or studying in Honnold Library.

The Class of ’80 weighs in with suggestions: • “I was a bit odd at CMC; a community college transfer, married with one daughter (son born during finals week of junior year.) I lived off-campus and worked 30 hours per week. Needless to say, my experience was not typical of the average student. The No. 1 CMC experience I’d do again and again is enjoy the excellent speakers at the Athenaeum. If I had the opportunity to ‘do over,’ I’d be a typical student—able to experience all that CMC has to offer as a full-time, live-on campus student. When I read CMC Magazine, I’m often envious of the many stories of the fantastic relationships and bonds made while studying and living together.”

—BROOKE TRAUT ’80

• “The Buffalo Inn, The Wash, and then Walter’s for breakfast!”—BOB FARRA ’80

SPRING

• “A get-together of our study group, conversations with a professor, such as Gordon Bjork, and I would love to learn what teaching methods have changed since we attended.”—PAUL NATHAN ’80 2019

• “I would like to wander around the new athletic facility and, if the timing works, to watch some volleyball or other sporting event. I would also like to see the exhibit (in Bauer) of original documents signed by each of the presidents.”—JOHN BOLMER ’80

’80

• “I would love to spend a sunny afternoon playing golf and drinking beer with our friends.”—STEVE CASSELMAN ’80 • “Because both my daughters went to CMC (classes of ’14 and ’16), I’ve been back to campus and spent time in a North Quad dorm (Green instead of Wohlford, but close enough. Sort of.) Anyway, that took care of my interest in seeing if North Quad rooms were really bigger and better than other dorms (bigger—maybe, better— that’s still a matter of taste) and cured me of any desire to spend the night there. As for dining in Collins—well, never again is soon enough! In my current incarnation as, shall we say, a mature adult, three things I’d like to do are: audit a few political science classes from a really good prof, bask in the lovely weather (it’s a dreary January day in Seattle as I write this), and hang out with the old CMC gang. See you at reunion!”—CARRIE GEORGE ’80

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“My middle child graduated from USC in 2017 and works for Caruso in leasing, and my son is a junior at CU Boulder. We still live in our long-time family home in Los Feliz, now as empty nesters—with my mom and our beloved dog, Milo, holding down the fort.”

COLIN HAYWARD writes, “I sold my umbrella design and manufacturing company after 28 years in business in Santa Barbara. Then picked up stakes, loaded up the minivan, and moved to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, for a couple of years. After returning to Santa Barbara, I formed Hayward Group Real Estate with my wife, Monica, as part of the Village Properties brokerage.

’84 Legally speaking United States District Judge ANDREW GORDON, United States Magistrate Judge SUZANNE (HORENSTEIN) SEGAL ’82, GREG KOLTUN, and JEROME HAIG headlined a legal presentation and discussion at the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum entitled “The Supreme Court and Beyond: What’s Next in the Legal World.” The event was presented by the Claremont Journal of Law and Public Policy, an undergraduate journal published by students of the Claremont Colleges.

Each of us presented a variety of interesting and timely topics, with fantastic participation by current students (even those from Pomona).”—JEROME HAIG ’84

“Our 13-year-old son, John, is excelling academically at the local junior high school and focusing on basketball after his parents put the brakes on his first love— football. I’m the head coach for his team this year and we’re off to an inauspicious start, but look forward to seeing individual improvement for every player instead of racking up the wins (OK, admittedly, this is Plan B).

visiting the campuses and enjoying the mixture of familiar and new! We can’t wait for our next get together!”

CAROL (MENDEZ) MABEE writes, “After CMC, I went through the PA (physician assistant) program. I worked as a PA in internal medicine and the emergency room for 25 years. I am currently retired, enjoying myself with my husband (who is still working part time) and my pets. I have a horse, three dogs, three chickens, and two birds. I am waiting for my husband to retire fully, which will be sometime this year. We are still deciding whether to move out of Southern California. We try to stay active but as we get older, our bodies start to get more aches and pains from arthritis, but we try to work through it.”

ALICIA (HALL) GOLD writes, “I continue to live in the Seattle area with my husband of 31 years. The kids are pretty much grown and out. Becky graduated from Scripps in 2015. She played lacrosse for CMS all four years (thank you for the idea, Jodie Burton) and ended up coaching high school lacrosse, basketball, and volleyball for her old high school.

She’s now in her second year of medical school at Washington State University. Andrew graduated from Chapman University in May 2018 and moved back to Seattle. He’s working remotely for his current company, but is on the hunt for a job in marketing.

Our youngest, Matt, is a freshman at Chapman. He’s at the business school there and playing lacrosse, as he did in high school. Adam and I finally closed Gobble—way less stress in our lives! I’m still working at The Overlake School as the athletic operations manager. I handle uniforms, scheduling, and a bunch of other logistics for our 50-plus teams and 80-plus coaches. In addition, I’m fortunate to have an 8th-grade homeroom and be able to coach— this school year, it’s middle school volleyball, JV girls basketball, and JV girls’ Ultimate. On top of that, I also teach six different cooking camps during our summer program. Fun side note: WENONA SMITH STRAFFORD’s boys and my youngest were in the same graduating class at Overlake!”

SAM WALKER writes, “I have been working for The Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. as a writer for their fundraising efforts since 2004, and worked for them from 1992 to 1998 as their manager of editorial services. Between those two jobs, I worked for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Michigan (a state think tank) as editor of all their research papers and op-eds. Before that, I was a TV news reporter in Virginia Beach, Va. Hope all my fellow graduates are well!”

CHRIS TOWNSEND reports, “I hosted Class of ’82 friends, DARREN CHANEY (who flew in from Kansas City), JIM GERVANG, MIKE SEDER, and STU WILLIAMS (who flew

“Met up with DON LOGAN ‘79 recently at a neighborhood wine-and-cheese event. He’s one busy guy, president of the Santa Barbara Scholarship Foundation, and coordinator for the Santa Barbara CMC Alumni Chapter, etc. Anyone traveling to Santa Barbara in 2019, be sure to give me a heads up, we’d be happy to show you around town if it’s your first time!”

in from Seattle) for the Raiders game versus the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, December 2, 2018, at the Oakland Coliseum in the Townsend Public Affairs (my firm) suite. Also, STU WILLIAMS brought his daughter Boo to the game, as he was visiting her at Santa Clara University the day before.”

ANNE AMES, SUZY PARKER, and CATE (SAFRANEK) DAPRON write, “The three of us got together for an

nohemi.ferguson@gphlawyers.com

overnight in the Claremont Village. We had a blast 42

NOHEMI (GUTIERREZ) FERGUSON ’82

JEFF RYAN writes, “I just got back from Thailand, where I vacationed with my daughter for nine days. Lovely country.

My daughter is a second year at Stanford Law School and will be working at Skadden Arps as a summer associate this summer, splitting time between their NYC and Palo Alto offices. I had a great year in 2018 and was able to pay off my mortgage, as well as buy my parent’s home in Maine.”

’83

TAMMIE (CALEF) KRISCIUNAS ’83

tammiekrisciunas@mindspring.com ROD STREEPER moved his wife, Jeannine, and daughter, Irene, back to SoCal two years ago to buy a Screenmobile franchise in San Diego.

He’s busy now making screen doors and screen windows out of his hometown in El Cajon. Jeannine is working at Grossmont College, Irene is busy studying at UNLV, and son, Steven, owns and runs an escape room in the Hillcrest area.

’84

ED TRUMBULL writes, “My lovely wife, Debbie, and I are grandparents to four wonderful children, who are ages 3 and under, with a fifth grandchild expected in March.

We’ve discovered that as a grandparent, what’s old is new again. You read to your grandchildren, get down on the floor and play dinosaurs, and reenact light saber scenes out of Star Wars.

“Professionally, I’m a vice president for ICF, an international professional services firm that specializes in disaster recovery, workforce innovation, and inclusive economic transformation. Our firm is performing substantial work in Puerto Rico and I’m leading a new project in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Should your travels take you to St. Thomas, St. Croix, or St. John’s, let me know.”

JEROME HAIG ’84

jeromehaig@me.com We celebrate the 33rd year since our graduation when Peter Ueberroth, commissioner of baseball and chairman of the United States Olympic Committee, served as commencement speaker. We’re the last class with “Claremont Men’s College” on our diplomas and the “Best Class Ever,” coined by devoted, former scribe STEVE TAO.

’85

Professor Michael Riley, film scholar and author, passed away in December (Note: see the In Memoriam section for his full obituary). We’re thankful to PETER OTTE, who penned a fitting tribute to one of our most gifted educators. Dr. Riley created traditions as the founding director of the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum, which perpetuates his memory today. Riley was an inspiring mentor to many students of our era.

SCOTT PRITCHETT writes, “Our daughter, Haleigh, graduated from FIDM in Los Angeles with a bachelor’s degree in interior design last June and is now in her sixth month at Ware Malcomb Architects in San Francisco learning the commercial interiors business.

CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

Our son, Matthew, recently was promoted to account executive for Skedulo in San Francisco. He handles a sales territory for the company’s enterprise software product for mobile workforces. Life is good when you have both kids out of college and gainfully employed!”

RICK WENTZEL writes, “In December, we went to Dallas to watch our daughter graduate cum laude from Southern Methodist University, with a degree in accounting (yes, following dad’s footsteps). Then off to New York City for a few days to see the city all decorated for the holidays. She will be starting with PwC in Los Angeles. Now it’s back to work serving not-for-profit organizations and thinking—how much longer until I want to retire?”

TIM BURBERY writes, “I’m currently taking a semesterlong sabbatical from Marshall University in West Virginia. I teach English, and am researching some of the many fascinating intersections of the humanities and sciences, including topics such as Dante and quantum biology, geomythology, and the effects of Einstein’s relativity on the literary imagination. (Professor Quinones’ Dante class was my favorite college course). Had a nice exchange with KATHRYN (GRIESINGER) PIEDRA ’84 a few months back. As for ’85 folks, I’ve kept in touch a bit with DAVID YOO and GREG TASHJIAN, though honestly, it’s been too long. Our son and daughter are both in high school, so we’ll be gearing up for the college admissions process before too long. Yikes!”

DAVE EASTIS ’85

7davide007@gmail.com

’88

MIKE SEKITS writes, “I recently cofounded an investment firm to invest in financial services and technology companies. We specialize in mortgage, asset management and insurance.

“I have been living in Manhattan Beach for 25 years and have three sons. Nick is a junior attending Whitman College with CARLA HAMILTON RAPP’s son. Garret is a senior in high school and applying to colleges, including CMC, and my youngest, Daniel, is a sophomore at Vistamar High School in El Segundo.

“I recently spent the weekend in Cabo hanging out with ROB KETTERER ’85, TRISTAN BARRIENTOS, and JOHN WINKENWERDER. And I see JOHN SPROUSE every few months at the local Manhattan Beach barber shop.

Always eager to reconnect with CMC alumni.”

EDDIE THOMAS writes, “This past fall, I took a position at Georgia College and State University, where I teach in the accounting department. I received my Ph.D. from the University of Florida in December 2017.”

Our younger son is graduating from Rose-Hulman in May with a degree in chemical engineering. We are extremely proud of them both.

“Last year we hosted ROGER DALE here in Hawaii, as well as met with JON RUDNICK in Kansas City. I’ve seen MIEMIE (WINN) BYRD ’89 here on the island. Thanks again for reaching out and a big Aloha to our amazing classmates!”

CLYDE HINSHELWOOD writes, “My daughter, Siena, started studying history at Scripps in September.”

BUD COPPERSMITH writes, “I was disappointed to miss

our 30-year reunion last summer, but am happy to see many classmates posting updates on Facebook. I’ve remained busy running the family logistics company, now in our 71st year, and still find new challenges and opportunities in international trade every day.

My Sagehen wife, Julianne, and I were lucky enough to celebrate the marriage of our eldest daughter in November, welcoming a new member to our family.

I’m also pleased that she returned to SoCal to become the fourth generation of Coppersmiths in our company.

We are also happy (and bewildered) to now be empty nesters, as our second and third children are attending

spotlight Shamil Hargovan ’10 CEO and co-founder of Wiivv

Stepping up: A job at Hewlett-Packard put Hargovan on the path to explore 3D technology.

At Wiivv, he’s making custom-fit apparel— starting with a version of the sandals Hargovan pretty much lived in while on campus.

Consumers use Wiivv’s app to take photos of their feet, and the app converts the data into a digital map used to manufacture custom footwear. The 45-employee company now has offices in San Diego and Vancouver, and just inked a deal with Dr. Scholl’s to make insoles using Wiivv’s tech. “Going to CMC was the best decision of my life. I was exposed to enough tech that I knew it was an exciting place to be,” the Australia native said. “I guess I always expected to become an entrepreneur at some point, and now is the time to take risks.”

BILL GUM writes, “Two years ago, I retired after serving 28 years in the Army. My last assignment was at the U.S. Special Operations Command in Tampa, Fla. I had an amazing career and wanted to continue serving with the military as a government service (GS) employee. I was blessed with a GS job working for the U.S. Army Pacific Command in beautiful Oahu, Hawaii. I’ve been in the job a few years now and am loving life! My wife and I have two sons. Our oldest is a lieutenant in the Air Force serving as a researcher and is currently in Ohio getting his master’s degree in nuclear engineering.

SPRING 2019

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Natural fit PETER CALTAGIRONE, from the Class of ’04, was recently recruited by Alaska’s new governor to serve within the administration as special assistant to the commissioner of Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources. He will have a hand in shaping policies, statutes, and regulations regarding the continued development of Alaska’s natural resources. Peter anticipates having a small role leading up to the first lease sales within the ANWR Coastal Plain. He’s “both excited and honored.” In his spare time, he’s continuing to build his Alaska flight hours doing a lot of bush flying.

This past summer he received a type rating on the Cessna 185 on floats—a fun, classic bush plane with lots of horsepower.

universities away from home. Looking forward to a great year in 2019 and wishing all the Stags and Athenas continued success.”

DALE BATHUM writes, “I am now living in Sun Valley, Idaho, if anyone is visiting.”

ADAM and Rita GOLDSTON are preparing for the nest to be empty, as well. “Our son, Josh, is deploying with the U.S. Army on an anti-terrorism mission to Thailand and the Philippines. Our son’s battalion will also visit the Republic of Palau, the first such visit of active duty infantry since the 1970s. Our daughter, Lauren, is a high school senior and just months away from being off to an amazing college. Please let us know if your travels take you to Manhattan Beach. We have empty bedrooms!”

IMAD ELIAS writes, “I’ve been a partner at the Law Office of Mann & Elias in Los Angeles for 20 years, specializing in employment litigation, but more recently have moved with my family (wife, Kari, and three boys) to Orange County. The firm recently expanded the law practice and we have opened a second office in Irvine, and working on opening a third office in Northern California soon. On the social front, just raising the three boys, all named after soccer players, Beckham (13), Owen (10), and Donovan (8).”

GRAHAM IRWIN writes, “2018 was a busy year for us, and 2019 is shaping up the same. The boys, Finely (10) and Lucas (7), are joyously engaged with school, Magic the Gathering, school plays, reading, indoor soccer,

44

’04

cycling, and video games. They’re looking forward to the start of Little League again.

My wife, Alisha, is running her successful lifestyle and clothing stores, along with an interior design and staging business.

Renovation of our “Tuscan ruin” in Fairfax proceeds apace. After two years of construction, we’re looking forward to wrapping up the first phase. Vocationally, I am about to finish the build out of my new architecture studio in San Anselmo, an easy bike ride downhill from home, and a strenuous ride back. I’m working on two Passive House retrofits of homes in the Silicon Valley and a new design/build venture with a builder partner, developing a prototype for the ‘Eichler of the future’ in Fountain Grove. We’re grateful, happy, healthy, and basically ‘well-guided Marin hot-tubbers!’”

’94

CHIP NIERLICH ’94

Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher LLP 555 Mission Street, Suite 3000 San Francisco, CA 94105 cnierlich@gmail.com

SEAN ELSBERND writes, “after finishing off my six years as Senator Dianne Feinstein’s state director, and helping her get re-elected to her fifth term, I have returned to San Francisco City Hall to serve as Mayor London Breed’s chief of staff.”

’97

WILL BALLARD ’97

wballard@mailframe.net AIMEE (JONES) AVER ’97

aimeeclaire@me.com

CAM TREDENNICK ’88

camtred@me.com

’89

’90

TODD THOMAS ’89

8709 E Spanish Barb Trl Scottsdale AZ 85258 480-466-5839 toddthomasaz@yahoo.com

TATIA PRIETO writes, “I

graduated with my doctorate in educational leadership from the University of North

Carolina at Charlotte and, as my husband says, have reached the end of ways to spend money on degree programs. I had some of my coursework research published in a book on education in China and am working on a full-length book about education in the United States. I continue to consult full-time in the K-12 space; consequently, I spend a lot of time in rural towns with populations less than 500.

“Our oldest son, Jaime, is currently racking up student loans at the University of Toronto, pursuing an MBA. Our daughter, Reagan, has successfully launched from undergrad and is working at Disney. Our youngest, Lucas, is finishing out his last year of high school and has committed to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (Daytona Beach campus) for next year. He’s also enrolling in Army ROTC, so I’ve been having fun getting him ready and trying to get back to sub-eightminute miles myself (spoiler alert—I’m not getting there anytime soon). If anyone is passing through the Charlotte, N.C., area, I’d love to catch up.”

FAYE (KARNAVY) SAHAI ’90

fkarnavy@gmail.com

’99

The class of ’99 reunion committee cannot wait to see the rest of the CMC alumni in April. If you haven’t registered, you can do so online! Not your reunion year? Register and come anyway!

This quarter, Professor KRIS BURRELL writes: “I’ve had a couple of essays about Martin Luther King, Jr. published online—“Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Greater Vision: Bending the Arc of Time Towards Justice.” Public Seminar. January 15, 2018, and “To Build a Mature Society: The Lasting Legacy of Martin Luther King’s ‘Beyond Vietnam’ Speech.” Gotham Center for New York City History Blog. November 15, 2018.”

“I also have a chapter coming out in April in an edited collection with New York University Press in The Strange Careers of the Jim Crow North: Segregation and Struggle Outside of the South. My chapter is titled, ’Black Women as Activist-Intellectuals: Ella Baker and Mae Mallory Combat Northern Jim Crow in New York City’s Public Schools During the 1950s.’

“I’ve also been fortunate to have presented on Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights movement in New York at several venues in 2018, including the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Bloomfield College in New Jersey, St. Paul’s Church—National Historic Site in Mount Vernon, NY.” SARAH (BARZEN) SLAYEN reports: “I just started a new job as associate general counsel at Personal Capital.

I’m excited about the company and thrilled about the 12-minute commute!”

We’re thrilled for you, too, Sarah! That sort of commute in the Bay is priceless and well-deserved.

Kris, Sarah, and I (Cami) look forward to seeing you in April. But whether or not you can join us in person, we wish our CMC ’99 friends and the rest of our alumni family a fantastic 2019.

CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

LOUIS LEVINE ’99

571-331-7844 llevine@ngpsoftware.com 1999cmc@gmail.com CAMILLE GRIEP ’99

camillegriep@gmail.com

’02

Your scribe reports that Brian and I welcomed our third daughter, Annalise Margaret, on October 30. Her big sisters, Avery and Amelia, think she’s terrific!

She is!

KAITLIN (GIBSON) WATERSON ’02

kaitlin.waterson@gmail.com

’04

Your class scribe writes: I’m still in Seattle doing my startup lawyer thing. Bought a house on Bainbridge Island with my wife, Sophie (Hume), and taking the boat to work. My daughter, Louisa Mary Avent, was born on January 21, 2019.

MEGAN BROTHERTON just got engaged this year, so while she is directing her feature film, The Bachelorette Party, she’ll also have a real bachelorette party!

AMY WALTER BEISEL moved to Germany one year ago

with her husband (Chase) and three daughters (Lucia, Madeleine, Sophie), and is working for the research publisher Wiley. She invited me out for a pretzel and a half-liter the next time I’m in Bavaria, but I’m sure the same goes for all of you if you find yourselves in the neighborhood!

ABBIE (JOHNSON) WEIBEL and her husband, Jay, welcomed daughter Ellis Lee Weibel on December 7, 2018, in Longmont, Colorado. Abbie writes, “She’s our beautiful, wiggly string bean—and growing quickly!”

The new mom and dad are feeling incredibly blessed.

And tired. Like looking into the future for me!

RACHEL SIFUENTES had been a federal law clerk for several years, but is finally getting back into private practice. She started a new job at the firm of Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila in their San Francisco office in February. According to Rachel, “New city, new job, and looking forward to new friends and experiences, but dragging the same old husband and dog with me to the city.” I’m sure there are classmates in SFO looking forward to seeing Rachel more often!

MIKE AVENT ’04

518-88-AVENT mike.avent@gmail.com

in full-service interior design, as well as remodel and construction design.

CARL MARRONE ruined my fantasy football season, beating me by less than two points on a 75-yard Randall Cobb touchdown. Fortunately, Carl didn’t reach the championship match.

RICK SCHWARTZ has a lot of exciting changes in his life.

He and his wife welcomed a daughter, Rosanna, and Rick began a new job as a partner at Browne George Ross LLP in Century City.

SCOT MATAYOSHI was elected to the Hawaii State House of Representatives and was recently sworn into office. Congrats, Scot!

CLARIBEL GAMBOA and JONATHAN MEDINA welcomed their second child, Samuel Medina, in September.

AUSTIN HENKEL continues to frequent the saunas of San Francisco on a regular basis. He has a guest pass if any ’06ers want to join him.

ERIN SEDLOFF and TED DAYNO sadly left San Francisco for San Diego with their daughter, Makena. Erin claims she misses me and San Francisco, but I’m not sure I believe her because she’s enjoying the San Diego beaches, sunshine, and French fry-filled burritos too much.

KEVIN BLAIR ’06

kevinmblair@gmail.com

’09

HEIDI DENENHOLZ writes, “I moved up to Redwood City about six months ago and am loving Northern California! I’m now a small animal veterinarian— graduated from UC Davis in 2015.

Looking forward to our ten-year reunion, and let me know if you’re in the Bay Area.”

COURTNEY (CRONIN) DEBEAUCOURT writes, “It’s been quite the past year! In just one year, I married my best friend, Rich, in Del Mar. Afterward, I took a two-month sabbatical and Rich quit his job—we spent our time honeymooning in Thailand for a few weeks (where I got to play with monkeys and elephants—so cool!). Then we sold all of our belongings to prepare for our move to Connecticut. We moved cross country in our small sedan with our 80-pound Goldendoodle, Maverick, in the back seat and spent a month visiting ten different states. We got to see everything from buffalo roaming in Zion to a honky-tonk in Nashville! After a long trip, we bought a house and are now living in Guilford, Conn. I am working in insurance at Aon. Rich is a project manager at Sikorsky and we are both looking forward to seeing everyone at the ten-year reunion this spring!!”

CAMILO CUELLAR ’09

’06

The Class of 2006 continues to be busy!

Things are going well for BEN HOSTE. He is currently studying at the University of Arizona in Tucson working toward his MFA in studio art.

BETH BRUNNER is now located in Seattle, where she continues to work on interior design, but has transitioned to running her own firm, Quartz & Bone.

She began the firm in September 2018 and specializes

SPRING 2019

ccuellar09@cmc.edu

RDS’10

It’s been a while since we’ve shared updates on the M’10 Class:

In the San Francisco Bay area, ALEX BONNETT ’09 is in his fifth year working at investment bank Houlihan Lokey, where he is a vice president—consumer, food, and retail. JEFF CLARK is in

his eighth year with The Vita Companies, an insurance company offering employee benefit brokerage services, where Jeff has worked in a couple of different roles. ZACH ENGLAND ’09 is in his ninth year at Harris Williams, which he joined right after graduating, and is a vice president in the investment bank’s Consumer Group.

BRETT KOCHER was previously teaching in New York at Ithaca College, and has recently relocated to NorCal, teaching part time at Sonoma State University. He wrapped up 2018 by successfully defending his Ph.D. dissertation and is on track to formally receive his Ph.D. in May. Thereafter he hopes to remain in academia.

Congrats Brett!

Old roommates BEN TABORSKY and PATRICK FOLEY are both in the Bay area tech scene. Ben is a data scientist at Affirm, Inc., a fintech company that provides lending and consumer credit services. Patrick is an algorithm developer at Stitch Fix, a firm that provides an online subscription and personal shopping service.

In the New York City area, EDDIE and MEG (PINTER) CONRAD are balancing finance careers with parenting: their daughter, Elin, is now a 1-year old, crawling and talking up a storm! Other parents in the area include ALEX SHAKIBNIA (daughter, Ava) and MIKE SHAUGNESSY (son, Michael). Alex has settled with his family in Westport, Conn., and is a principal at lower-middle-market private-equity firm Gemspring Capital. Mike lives in Brooklyn and works in downtown Manhattan as a vice president at RBC Capital Markets.

ERIC SEUBERT is also in New York now, working in the field of management analytics at First Republic Bank.

In SoCal, HUNTER METCALF ’09 is launching a career in private equity at investment firm Pacific Growth Investors after recently completing his MBA at UCLA Anderson School of Management. ALISTAIR THISTLETHWAITE is in his ninth year at Caltech Investment Office, which he joined right after graduating, and is a director responsible for the endowment investments in real assets and fixed income, among other areas. JONATHAN LEONG recently relocated to SoCal after getting married this past December. Old roommate SCOTT HUAN ’06 was no doubt in the wedding. Jonathan is still running Aumakua Capital Management, a U.S.-based asset management firm he founded, but he also somehow manages to maintain part-time teaching positions at Oregon State University, Santa Monica College, and Claremont Graduate University, in addition to advising on a friend’s Hong Kong-based private equity firm.

Two classmates are currently in Boston (or nearby). JEFF BEMOWSKI ’09 recently completed his MBA at The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and continues to pursue his interests as an entrepreneur, building a new business. MICHAEL MCCULLOCH has recently landed as vice president at the premier private equity investment firm, Providence Equity Partners.

According to our tally, SCOTT HUAN ’06 and SOFI SOLLEY-GUTIERREZ are our only two classmates that continue to live and work outside the U.S. In Shanghai, China, Scott is a director of market analysis and forecasting for health systems in all of Asia Pacific for leading health technology company Philips. In

45

spotlight Tina Nguyen ’11 Staff reporter, Vanity Fair POLITICAL EVOLUTION: As a CMC government major and during the first years of her reporting career, the Boston native identified as “a fairly diehard libertarian,” Nguyen said. After leaving D.C. and spending a few years as a food blogger, she landed at Vanity Fair’s online magazine, The Hive— the day after Donald Trump was elected. A scathing review of the restaurant in Trump Tower put her on the media map. She now covers politics for the site. “You work really, really hard, and I know a lot of journalists who burn out because of it,” Nguyen said. “But any time you manage to make an impact, it feels really, really frickin’ good.”

46

CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

the Mexico City area, Sofi is the loving mother of two young children and, since leaving Claremont, has had experience in both academia and wealth management.

Our East Coast hold-out, NATHANIEL KIECHEL, is now an uncle to an awesome nephew and niece and still loving his work at Sidley.

In the Chicago area, MELANIE XUE continues her career in academia and is now a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University. Since leaving Claremont, she has obtained her Ph.D. in economics from George Mason University, and made stops at Brown University, UCLA Anderson School of Management, and the USDA Economic Research Service prior to landing in Chicago.

And on the coast, MICHAEL LEVITIN is crunching away in Venture Capital in Orange County and volunteering with the Jewish Federation & Family Services. He’s now the philanthropy chair and loving the opportunity to give back.

Last but not least, ANDREW KNOX gave up his incredible views of Denver from the C-Suite at Fortune 500 company DaVita and is now enjoying the world of small business ownership. He acquired a pair of drug testing companies which typically provide services to large companies in safety-sensitive industries (construction, oil and gas, trucking, warehousing and distribution, etc.).According to Andrew, it’s been quite a ride!

MAXWELL VAUGHAN is now working at TELEO Capital, a Los Angeles-based PE firm, and hasn’t given up his Southern California lifestyle yet. He and Strieter are catching up over dinner soon.

And I, CHRISTOPHER STRIETER, am still doing wine things at Senses while exploring a few other business models for my next steps. There’s real estate development, a modern wine-fulfillment company, and a fun web tool/app to help friends get together more often in queue. We shall see.

ALEX SHAKIBNIA M’10

CHRIS STRIETER M’11

alex.shakibnia@gmail.com

cstrieter@gmail.com

ED CONRAD M’10

edwardtconrad@gmail.com ALEX VARGA received the 2018 William Koury III Outstanding Alumni Award at the Claremont Accounting Association’s 37th Annual Spring Awards Banquet at the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum. Alex was presented with the prize by Professor James Taylor, who touted the critical assistance Alex has provided to CMC students pursuing the accounting profession.

Alex, who has an MBA from CGU, is an audit manager at Deloitte in Los Angeles.

’11

DIVYA VISHWANATH ’11

dvishwanath@gmail.com KATHRYN MGRUBLIAN ’11

kmgrublian@gmail.com

RDS’11

Happy New Year from the Masters of 2011! We got a great round-up of updates with some notable

developments to share.

TRAVIS HULL moved to the Netherlands for a special projects role implementing robots for his company’s European organization. He fully looks forward to assimilating as a Euro expat and traveling the region.

Reach out if you’re anywhere near.

LAURA JILETA is expecting a baby boy in April! Very exciting news and we’re so happy for her.

REENEE GARCIA recently became engaged and is

looking forward to her Singapore wedding in October.

HARSHA TATA may have given his first, possibly second, update since graduating, so we are very excited about this—he’s in Dubai working in management consulting and loving it. He’d love visitors, so keep him posted.

FELIX MENG is celebrating life with magnums of Senses Wines (produced by Strieter) and splits his time between Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai. He also wants visitors.

SPRING 2019

’13

The Class of 2013 celebrated our five-year reunion in June 2018—and some of us are still recovering! But since then, we have several updates from our class.

Several of us have moved to or from other schools (although none will have a place in our hearts like CMC). WENDY QIAN is in the second year of her Ph.D. program in modern South Asian history at Tufts University. CONNOR O’BOYLE is also in Boston in his second year of med school. JACKIE COBURN is in Philly in his second year of dental school. SEAN SMITH started an evening MBA program at Chicago Booth (where he also works full time). JEFF MACDONALD started a joint degree program, getting an MBA at Stanford GSB and a Masters of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and his new wife, ISABEL HARBAUGH, is wrapping up her Ph.D. program at Harvard, where she and Jeff share an apartment with KELSEY GROSS. COREY BICKLER just graduated from dental school and is now working as a dentist in Albany, Ore. SHANE KUNSELMAN graduated from Yale Law School and CLARE RIVA also finished her law degree from Stanford. ELISE YOSHIDA finished her doctorate in clinical psychology from the PGSP-Stanford PsyD Consortium. She then promptly moved back to SoCal and got a Disneyland annual pass. So, if anyone wants to meet up in Long Beach or have a Disney day, she’d love to catch up!

RILEY (THOMLISON) BECHDEL and her husband, Jeff, recently bought a house in Washington, D.C. where they live a streetcar distance from CMC couple ERIN (ELFRINK) and JESSE (’11) BLUMENTHAL. JEN NAJJAR also moved to the district, to start at DOJ as a trial attorney for the Environmental and Natural Resources Division. She can often be found scouting out comedy shows with fellow District of Columbia resident ELLIE BECKETT, who, by day, works for a nonprofit doing economic development work for Native Americans, and by night, bartends on Capitol Hill. QUINN CHASAN is also in the district, where he is the head of customer analytics for Google Cloud Public Sector. CAROLINE NYCE moved from the district to San Francisco last fall to help open up The Atlantic’s West Coast offices.

In California, ELLE PETIT is still living in SFO with her boyfriend and their kitty, Muni. In September, they adopted a Corgi mix rescue puppy named Juno! They recently celebrated SUBIN KIM’s 28th birthday with JJ SUTTLE, KYLE SHIPLEY ’12, SACHI SINGH ’12, and STEF CHAN ’11. NOAH ABOLAFIA-ROSENZWEIG is coming up on his two-year mark as a prosecutor, and is now assigned to crimes against police officers. DRAKE ESCROFANI is still in Los Angeles doing design work and looking for full-time graphic design roles, and new recipes to try—if anyone has any leads! SUNNY TSAI and JEN GOOD also remain in Los Angeles. Jen and ELHAM ALI ’15 started a company, Peacefully, in October to help people prepare for end of life. They are working out of Cedars-Sinai, and Peacefully will launch at the beginning of February! KATE JOHNSON remains in the Bay Area (when she’s not travelling all over the globe for work) at Juntos, and often sees newlyweds HARMONY PALMER and JEN RINGOEN ’12.

PRISCILLA HSU moved back to Los Angeles from Brooklyn, N.Y., so hit her up if you’re in the area. ANNA BRILL moved to New York with husband Matt Hasling, where she is putting that literature degree to use at Skyhorse Publishing. She also gets to see old roommate AVANTIKA SAISEKAR, who moved to New York last year to work as the vice president of sustainable investing at Wafra Inc. There, she leads the sustainable investing group, implementing environmental, social, governance (ESG) metrics within private equity. She left ARIEL KATZ and JAKE ROTH, who both remain in the Windy City.

ILAN BEILAS has also started his exciting new job as the head of analytics for Business Insider.

Exciting things are happening for the class of 2013!

Thank you to everyone who shared an update. To be included in future editions of Class Notes, send us an update any time at cmc2013classnotes@gmail.com.

ELIZABETH (ELLIE) BECKETT ’13

Ellie.BeckettVT@gmail.com CLARE RIVA ’13

clare.riva@gmail.com LAURA EPSTEIN writes, “It’s been quite the year—I got engaged to Evan, whom I met shortly after graduating, and we’re getting married in June. Fellow CMC ’14 graduates CLAUDIA RAIGOZA, CHRISTINA BRANDT, and CAITLIN HIGHLAND will all be in my bridal party! I also worked in Michigan for six months to help elect now-Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin, and I recently started a new job as the communications director/senior adviser to Congressman Antonio Delgado.”

’14

KENDYL KLEIN writes, “I’m now living in NYC by way of Chicago, Ill. Missing ALEXANDRA COOKE, GABE SIEGEL, and JORDAN STEIN, but excited to be living in the Big Apple! I live with JAKE WEYERHAEUSER ’13 and spend as much time as possible with fellow CMCers: ANTHEA WEIXEL, NORA STUDHOLME, JAMES HAVLICEK, ERIC VAN WART, JARED THOMAS ’15, and the elusive CLARK KISSIAH.” ALEXANDRA COOKE writes, “Living in Chicago, but visiting NYC and SFO frequently for work. Newly engaged. Excited for five-year Reunion.”

47

’13 Wedding bells CMCers from the Class of ’13 are tying the knot left and right—ETHAN GILBERT is living in Denver with his new wife and their dog, working his dream job in sustainability for Prologis.

Congrats Ethan! BRANDON BAK is getting married in Oahu in March.

In December, he joined Alteryx as a sales engineer working in Irvine. SARA BIRKENTHAL is living in Cambridge, Mass., and finishing her last year of law school as a visiting scholar at Harvard. She got married in September in Manhattan, N.Y., after meeting her husband three-and-a-half years ago at CMCer MEREDITH REISFIELD’s birthday party in Washington, D.C. CMCers ANNA JOSEPH and MACIE LEACH celebrated the special day with them, with Anna serving as their officiant and Macie as a bridesmaid.

Sara would love to connect with any CMCers in the Boston area! ISABEL HARBAUGH and JEFF MACDONALD are getting married in February in Mexico, and their wedding party includes a whole slate of CMCers from the class of 2013: AVANTIKA SAISEKAR, KELSEY GROSS, ELLIE BECKETT, SUNNY TSAI, JEFF VIGNOS, PRISCILLA HSU, QUINN CHASAN, and ZACH DORAN. It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly ten years since they started hanging out at the Knotts Scary Farm trip during freshman year. Finally, in birth news, PATRICIA (INGRASSIA) DEANGELIS expanded her family—this time with a new baby.

Welcome, little Sophia!

(before his departure to NYC). I was in Los Angeles for Friendsgiving with MELISSA BECKER and HANNAH DUNHAM to celebrate, amongst other things, the engagement of MARINA GILOI.” ALEXANDRA COOKE ’14

acooke14@cmc.edu MERRIEL FOSTER ’14

merriel.foster@gmail.com

’16

MICHELLE GOODWIN was recently

promoted to assistant vice president at Barclays Capital. Some of her clients are even CMC grads, too! In her spare time, she volunteers for two organizations in the city and goes to every Oakland Raiders home game. Since graduation, she has traveled across the U.S. and internationally to see CMCers, including but not limited to: JOHN MARSHALL, JOSH BOREN, JUSTIN BECK, HUNTER ASHBURN ’17, HEATHER COUSINS, KATIE SAVARD, CHRISTINA STRAEHLE, KAILAS MENON, KETHAN REDDY, OLIVIA LANARAS ’17, and SAM BLOMBERG. Go Stags!

KELSEY (HEFLIN) RIDLEY married CAMERON RIDLEY ’15 on March 10th, 2018, in Dana Point. They met in the environmental leadership class in the spring semester of 2014, and got engaged August 5th, 2017. Two of the bridesmaids were KAITLYN KELLEHER ’15 and LINDSEY BETTS, and JOSH NAON ’15 and MARTIN SARTORIUS ’15 were two of the groomsmen. Kelsey writes, “Several other CMCers attended our wedding as well! We had a fantastic one-week honeymoon in England and Scotland.” Kelsey is continuing to work at Transom Consulting Group in Los Angeles along with MAKARI KRAUSE and KATIE KUOSMAN ’17, and Cameron graduated in May from USC Law School and has begun clerking for a judge in Riverside.”

ANNA BRITO reports, “In the past six months, OLIVER SEIFERT, EMILY ZHANG, and ANTHONY DAVANZO have run into CHAD TARPLEY ’15 in both Cusco, Peru, and

Lake Tahoe, totally unplanned.

ANNA BRITO ’16

annacbrito12@gmail.com JACK FERNANDES ’16

Fernandes2019@lawnet.ucla.edu MADISON GEPHART ’16

madison.gebhard@gmail.com KELSEY GOHN ’16

KelseyGohn@gmail.com EVAN MOLINEUX ’16

EMolineux16@students.claremontmckenna.edu MAX ZIPPERMAN writes, “I moved to NYC!” CARLY LENDERTS writes, “2018 was a busy year! I

bought a condo in Denver and started a new job working in real estate development. It turns out that working in real estate does not make one good at home improvement or interior design. The new gig has me making frequent trips to the Bay Area—excited to catch up with more CMCers. I’ve already seen ALEX BENTLEY, ANKIT SUD M’14, and ADAM GRIFFITH

48

CALLA CAMERON writes, “I’ve just started my second year at Georgetown University’s M.A. in global, international, and comparative history, in which I study modern Latin American human rights and transitional justice issues. I plan to continue my scholarship by publishing a master’s thesis on the connections between the transitional justice regimes in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile.”

’17

STEPH WONG checks in from the District of Columbia, “I’ve been living in D.C. for a year now working for House Leader Nancy Pelosi in her Capitol office. It’s been a blast so far and I’ve had the chance to hang out with fellow CMC ‘17 alumni AARON YANG and ANNA SHEPARD, who also have done stints on Capitol Hill in the past year. In my free time, I’ve been playing for the local women’s rugby club, Northern Virginia (NOVA), but I’ll always be a Claremont Fox at heart!”

KATELYN FAUST is currently completing a masters in secondary school education at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.

VEDA BELTRAN writes, “After graduation, I permanently relocated to D.C. and have been working on Capitol Hill for Senator Tim Kaine. Academically, I also am pursuing my master’s degree part time at Johns Hopkins University. Life has been amazing, but I definitely miss the SoCal weather.”

HALEY GOODMAN is in her second year of teaching eighth-grade science in Boston, Mass. Her students are keenly aware that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. In her free time, she works part time for a craft hard cider company and still rock climbs regularly.

ZOE PINCZOWER writes, “In June, after returning from an amazing trip to Israel, I started a new job at Netflix in the corporate post-production department. I couldn’t have been more excited to move my little sister, LuLu, into Pitzer for her freshman year of college. Can’t wait to go back and visit her/one of my favorite places!”

KRIS BRACKMANN reports that she fell in love with Spain and returned to teach for another year. Although she’s retired the old basketball shoes, she keeps up on sports by playing and coaching beach volleyball.

SARAH SANBAR writes, “I have been working in Iraq and Kurdistan, doing protection work for internally displaced persons and refugees with the Danish Refugee Council. Our work has mainly focused on responding to the needs that arose from the operation to take back Mosul last year, and though it’s pretty grim work, I’m loving it. Much love to my fellow CMCers.

Keep in touch and let me know if you’re in/going to the Middle East!”

JULIEN CHIEN is currently living with RYAN SUNG ’18 in San Francisco and enjoying the Bay Area tech scene as a software engineer at a startup.

ALEJANDRA VÁZQUEZ BAUR writes, “Following my graduation from CMC in May of 2017, I moved to sunny Miami, Fla., to join Teach For America. I currently teach ninth-grade algebra 1 intensive at Miami Northwestern Senior High School and sponsor our school’s Latinx Culture Club. Outside of my TFA commitment, I also teach group and private Latin dance lessons, tutor high school math, study Portuguese at the local community college (Miami-Dade), interview CMC prospectives, and I’m currently applying for graduate school in Latin American and Caribbean studies in immigration. Come visit me in paradise!”

PARKER MALLCHOK writes, “I’m thriving in San Francisco, working at Zumper as a business operations manager.

I travel between Chicago and Denver partly for work and partly for fun. I’ve also started a food Instagram

CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

spotlight Vanessa Gill ’18 CEO and co-founder of Social Cipher GAME ON: As a teenager with Asperger’s, Gill taught herself how to make social connections by studying movie scenes and soundtracks. Social Cipher, a video game that Gill created with Anastasia Ibrahim ’18 and Amy Wu ’18 as juniors, helps kids on the autism spectrum learn emotional cues through an interactive platform. In January, Gill wrapped up a prestigious Halcyon Incubator fellowship in Washington, D.C. “I went into Halcyon immediately after graduating with a neuroscience degree and barely any business knowledge, so I had to learn all of this fast,” Gill said. “At first, I was overwhelmed with all that I didn’t know, but then I realized that it was similar to making sense of my humanities classes through what I learned in my science classes.”

Submissions To send a Class Note to CMC, please contact your Class Liaison.

(@kitchen_on_cole) to share my passion for cooking, eating, and hosting dinner parties.”

DINA ALUZRI writes, “Adult/working/real-world life, as intimidating as it is, is the best next chapter you can hop into. I am so thankful to CMC for all the tools to succeed in this chapter in my life. It’s been about a year and a half since I graduated and I’ve never felt more prepared for any challenge that comes at work. I am currently working at Cloudflare in San Francisco, along with a couple of other CMCers, all on separate teams and individually making a difference. We are known as the ‘CMC mafia’ because nothing gets in our way.

“Best of all, my friends have become my second family.

We continue to add on to our memories from CMC to now. It’s a blessing to have such an amazing support system up in the City. And everywhere you walk, you’re sure to run into another CMCer.”

SPRING 2019

COLE MORA writes, “After kicking off post-grad life with my first role at Highspot—a SaaS startup in Seattle—I found myself at a good company that just wasn’t the right fit. After some reflection and amazing conversations with people around me, I decided to keep looking for the right next step. Some time off for travel, networking, and friends led me all over the country for a few months before I found that next step with Infosys Consulting. Now I am helping organizations in the fields of manufacturing, high tech, and enterprise strategy and architecture, and learning a lot in the process. Personally, I have been grateful to stay so close to so many of my CMC friends—it reminds me of how lucky I am to be a part of our community.”

COLE MORA ’17

cmora17@students.claremontmckenna.edu

Is your class missing? Contact ClassNotes@ cmc.edu to submit or volunteer to become a Class Liaison. A full listing of liaisons is also available under the Connect tab at online.cmc.edu.

CMC does not accept engagement, prebirth, or legacy application announcements; fundraising or solicitation notices, obscenities; libelous, defamatory, or harassing statements. All submissions to Class Notes are subject to editing for style, clarity, context, length, and strict adherence to content guidelines.

Please be advised that the editorial staff neither guarantees the validity of any Class Notes information in this magazine nor is responsible for the appearance of any inaccurate or libelous information.

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In Memoriam 1940s DANTE VADALA ’48, of Colorado Springs, Colo., died

January 20, 2019. After serving in the U.S. Navy on the USS Patapsco in the South Pacific during World War II, Vadala became CMC’s first student body president. He then earned an MBA at Harvard Business School. Vadala had a long and successful career as a systems analyst in a wide range of industries and companies. His greatest joys came from his family, golf, gardening, the St. Louis Cardinals, his ’66 red Mustang, volunteering at the Olympic Training Center, and enjoying all that Colorado offers. He is survived by his wife, Gail; three children; four grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

1950s WILLIAM T. HAMMOND ’50, of Ojai, Calif., died November 13, 2018. A former partner in the Yorba Oil Company, Hammond established the William T. Hammond ’50 Alumni Fund Scholarship at CMC. He was also a major supporter of the College’s Washington, D.C. semester program.

HAROLD G. STANLEY ’50, of Fallbrook, Calif., died

September 20, 2018.

CHARLES R. “BOB” SUTHERLAND ’50 P’71, of Lincoln, Calif., died July 18, 2017. A native of Berkeley, Calif., Sutherland served in the U.S. Navy before attending CMC. He then worked as an assistant vice president for Wells Fargo Bank and managed several branch banks in the Bay Area. After retirement, he lived in Oakland and Rossmore before moving to Del Webb’s Sun City in Lincoln, Calif. He loved the great outdoors, wildlife, and birds, and enjoyed hunting, fishing, golf, gardening, and his family. Sutherland is survived by four children, 10 grandchildren, and 15 great-grandchildren.

DAVID S. MACALPINE ’51 P’76, of Pebble Beach, Calif., died November 30, 2018. A U.S. Army veteran, MacAlpine earned his undergraduate degree from CMC and his law degree from Southwestern University.

He was manager of the trust department and vicepresident of the Monterey branch of Security Pacific Bank. An avid golfer, MacAlpine was a long-time member of the Monterey Peninsula Country Club. He volunteered as a bell-ringer for the Salvation Army at the Pebble Beach Post Office. He is survived by his wife, Paula; two children; three grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

LAWRENCE R. MCNAMEE ’53, of Pacific Palisades, Calif.,

died November 30, 2018. After serving in the U.S. Army as a member of the commanding general’s staff, antiaircraft command, McNamee earned his B.A. from CMC and his M.A. in public administration from Claremont Graduate School. He had a long and rewarding business career with General Dynamics, Arthur D. Little, Booz

50

Allen, and Hydril Corporation before creating his own consulting company, The Diogenes Group. He then was CEO of Radiant Technology Corporation, which manufactured silicon chips used in the solar panel industry. McNamee enjoyed travel, fly fishing, golf, photography, and sailing, as a longtime member of the California Yacht Club. He also served on CMC’s Board of Trustees and endowed the McNamee Scholarship Fund. He is survived by his wife, Mary Ann; three children; and six grandchildren.

ALBERT TIPPENS JR. ’53, of Kenilworth, Ill., died January 1, 2019. Tippens graduated from Culver Military Academy before enrolling at CMC. A dedicated member of numerous organizations, including the Chicago Symphony, he was honored by social services agency Lawrence Hall for 50 years of service. He was an accomplished pianist who played almost every day and a world traveler who enjoyed going to France every year. Tippens is survived by his wife, Elicia.

WILLIAM S. TELLAM ’54, of Ramona, Calif., died October 13, 2018. As founder of Tellam and Wettig Construction, he was a pioneer in opening roads and bringing water to the Rancho California/Temecula area; he was appointed to the State Water Quality Control Board by Governor Ronald Reagan. A third-generation cattle rancher, he supported his local 4H and FFA by supplying show calves. Tellam was a four-time World Champion Team Penner who competed throughout California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado; his teams earned significant wins at the Justin National Challenges at the Lazy E Arena in Guthrie, Okla. and the Avi Casino in Laughlin, Nev. He was an original inductee of the United States Team Penning Association Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas.

Tellam was a member of the California Cattlemen’s Association, San Diego Imperial County Cattlemen’s Association, Los Senderos riding group, and Rancheros Vistadores (Los Flojos camp). He is survived by his wife, Eileen; four sons; and a grandson.

ALLEN TINKLEY ’54, of Los Angeles, died August 31, 2018. With Lou Robin ’53, he founded Artist Consultants Productions and promoted more than 5,000 concerts for artists including the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Johnny Cash. He is survived by his wife, Diana, and three children.

DONALD M. NORMAN ’55, of Newport Beach, Calif., died

October 9, 2017.

PHILLIP N. CUTTING ’58, of Pasadena, Calif., died September 1, 2018. Cutting served as president of the CMC Alumni Association from 1976-1977, and was a member of the CMC Board of Trustees from 1983 to 1986.

CLARK FERGUS ’59 died January 20, 2017.

1960s JAMES BASSET ’61, of Polson, Mont., died October 20, 2017, after a two-year battle with throat cancer. Before attending CMC, he was a four-year letterman in track and football at Claremont High School. A successful businessman, his last project was building a restaurant, the East Shore Smoke House. He is survived by his wife, Janice; a daughter; two stepdaughters; and a granddaughter.

JERRY J. SYMCOX ’61, of San Marcos, Calif., died May 27,

2018.

ROBERT W. SUNSHINE ’61 GP’18, of Santa Ana, Calif., died October 8, 2018. A U.S. Army veteran, Sunshine was passionate about his family, business, the beach, and bocce ball. A former basketball player and one of the Stags’ biggest fans, in 2017, the team captain award was named in his honor. He is survived by his wife, Sylvia; three children; eight grandchildren, including Caroline ‘18; and one great-grandchild.

BRADLEY J. BENSON ’62, of British Columbia, Canada, died July 29, 2018. He came to CMC from Shattuck Military Academy in Faribault, Minn. After graduating, he joined the U.S. Army and served in Nuremberg, Germany. He then worked for U.S. Steel in Chicago before moving to West Vancouver, B.C. As founding director and longest-serving chair of the Sunshine Coast Conservation Association, Benson was involved in the formation of the Tetrahedron Alliance. He earned the John Hind-Smith Award for his commitment to the environment. Benson is survived by two children and two grandchildren.

JOSEPH BATTAGLIA ’63, of Whittier, Calif., died August 8, 2018, from complications of Lewy body dementia. At CMC, he served as student body president. In the U.S. Army, Battaglia earned the rank of first lieutenant while stationed in Kaiserslautern, Germany. He and his brother Paul founded Battaglia Associates. Inc., and built homes throughout the San Gabriel Valley. He then launched his own company, Joseph E. Battaglia, Inc. Battaglia was a member of Glenkirk Church in Glendora, where he helped start the financial freedom ministry, cooked for the homeless, and served as a deacon and an elder. He also served on the City of Glendora’s Beautification Committee and Planning Commission. Battaglia is survived by his wife, Catherine; two sons; a stepson; and five grandchildren.

JAMES R. RIDGWAY JR. ’63, of La Jolla, Calif., died September 11, 2018. After graduating from CMC, he joined Investors Diversified Syndicate in Minneapolis, Minn. before starting a long career with Merrill Lynch, where he was a vice president and top institutional trader. Ridgway served on the school board in Bernardsville, N.J., was an active Cub Scout and Boy Scout leader, and volunteered at the Matheny School for children with special needs in Peapack, N.J. He is survived by his wife, Susan; eight children; three step-children; 19 grandchildren; and two greatgrandchildren.

STEPHEN A. HASELTON ’64, of Santa Barbara, Calif., died in 2017. He and his wife, Toni, donated more than $5.5 million to a fundraising campaign to help rebuild Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.

THOMAS B. HOFELLER ’65, of Raleigh, N.C., died August 16, 2018, of cancer. After serving on a U.S. Navy destroyer in the Tonkin Gulf during the Vietnam War, Hofeller earned his B.A. at CMC and his Ph.D. at Claremont Graduate University. He was co-founder and senior technical consultant, then assistant and associate director, for the Rose Institute of State and Local Government. A nationally prominent redistricting expert, Hofeller created a computerized mapping system for the California State Assembly and oversaw data operations for the Republican National Committee. He also served in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and as the staff director of a House

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committee overseeing the census, before returning to redistricting full time as a consultant for the Republican National Committee and other groups. He is survived by his wife, Kathleen, and a daughter.

ROBERT F. WILLIAMS ’65, of Minneapolis, Minn., died May 28, 2018, of complications from Parkinson’s disease. After graduating from CMC, he played French horn with the Honolulu Symphony. Williams then earned a Ph.D. from the Eastman School of Music and taught at the University of Calgary before embarking on a career managing large computer systems at Honeywell. A tennis enthusiast, he took on leadership positions in several local programs, developed a World Team Tennis corporate league in the Twin Cities, was named WTT community director of the year in 2007, and received the Delaine Mast Award from Billie Jean King. Williams also loved classical music and travel. He is survived by his wife, Andrea; two children; and six grandchildren.

DREW G. HARPER ’66, of Laguna Niguel, Calif., died July 31, 2017. He served as an officer in the U.S. Air Force.

A passionate man with limitless energy, he enjoyed volunteering and was deeply ingrained in the special needs and Christian communities. In retirement, he enjoyed traveling with family. He is survived by his wife, Kay; three children; and two grandchildren.

JESSE B. “BEN” NEWKIRK III ’68, of La Mesa, Calif., died

July 10, 2018. After earning a Ph.D. in psychology from Claremont Graduate University, Newkirk served as a professor of psychology and held the distinguished chair in mathematics and science at Grossmont Community College. A model train and airplane enthusiast, he participated in and organized the All Gauge Toy Train Association and First Weedwacker Aero Squadron model aeronautics club. Newkirk also served nine years as a reserve officer and consultant for the San Diego Police Department, where he was an active competitive marksman and achieved a distinguished master rating in police pistol combat. He is survived by his wife, Pamela, and three children.

MICHAEL J. BURKE ’69, of Scottsdale, Ariz., died September 11, 2018, of a heart attack. A two-sport athlete at CMC, he played football and baseball, and participated on a baseball team that traveled to Europe.

After college, Burke served with the U.S. Army in Korea. He then worked for Proctor and Gamble before starting his own businesses in the fields of residential construction and financial services. He was a Rotarian with the Phoenix Arcadia Rotary Club and highly involved in Dementia Friendly Tempe. He is survived by his wife, Sharon; two children; four step-children; 16 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

WILLIAM M. WEST ’69, of San Jose, Calif., died May 12,

2018, of acute myloma lymphoma. After graduating from CMC, West earned a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Chicago. He worked as a certified public accountant in private practice for many years. A Ragtime jazz enthusiast, he attended the West Coast Ragtime Festival annually.

Dr. Michael Riley Professor of film and literature, 1968-2001 Founding director of the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum When the Athenaeum moved from the President’s House to a new, endowed campus building in the early ‘80s, Michael Riley was asked by then-CMC President Jack Stark ‘57 GP’11 to build a speakers series. Riley already had a reputation for leading popular campus panels and bringing influential thinkers to his classes.

“I think what got me the Ath job, frankly, is that Jack decided that if I could get all these people (to my film classes) without paying them a dime—having no budget at all—then maybe I was the guy to run the Ath,” joked Riley in a 2001 interview with the College.

Riley created the inaugural Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum program that featured Holocaust survivor and author Elie Wiesel, author-historian Daniel Boorstin, former Presidential candidate John Anderson, film and television director Delbert Mann, and author Anne Rice. From hiring student associates to help with programming—a precursor to today’s Athenaeum Fellows—to dining at a head table with fine cutlery and linens, Riley shaped CMC’s campus culture for generations.

“Groundbreaking,” said Jil Stark ’58 GP’11, wife of President Emeritus Jack Stark and a former Athenaeum director. “When you look at the history of the Athenaeum, and in particular, the speakers that have come to CMC through the years, that all started under Mike.”

Professor Michael Riley stands behind Academy Awardwinning director Delbert Mann during a meeting with students in this 1971 photo.

Riley’s most well-known course was Film and the Novel, which became a core requirement for a bachelor’s degree in film criticism in partnership with Pitzer College. The class compared novels and their film adaptations.

Gradually, it evolved into a deeper exploration of film narrative with selections like Joseph Losey’s The GoBetween, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation, and Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now. Together with James Palmer, Riley authored a scholarly study of Losey entitled The Films of Joseph Losey in 1993. A few years later, Riley published a candid dialogue called Conversations with Anne Rice: An Intimate, Enlightening Portrait of Her Life and Work. Riley brought the popular Interview with the Vampire author to CMC before she became a literary star.

“When I first met him, I could tell immediately that Mike was one of the smartest people I’d ever met,” said Peter Otte ’85, a literature major who served as one of the first Athenaeum associates under Riley. “I would come into his office with a question, sit down, and struggle just to keep up with the way his mind moved from idea to idea.

“He always challenged me to think. He was an incredible mentor.”

Riley was born on July 12, 1935 in Dallas, Texas. He served as a supply captain in the Air Force from 1956 to 1959 and earned his Bachelor of Arts in Finance from Southern Methodist University. It wasn’t until he moved to California, however, that he found his intellectual calling—history and literature, particularly the works of Charles Dickens.

Riley graduated from Claremont Graduate School in 1968, and that same year, began his teaching career at Cal State Fullerton and as an assistant professor in the literature department at Claremont Men’s College. He became a full professor of film and literature at CMC in 1992.

Through his teaching, Riley inspired countless film and literature aficionados who would go on to careers in entertainment. An understated part of his campus legacy, Otte and Stark said, is how he mentored gay students. Riley, who was openly gay for most of his CMC tenure, guided undergraduates during an era when being truthful about one’s sexuality could have serious consequences.

“He helped a lot of students through some really difficult times,” Otte said.

Riley retired from teaching in 2001 and lived in Pasadena and Dallas before moving to San Diego, where he died Dec. 18 at age 83. He was buried at Oak Park Cemetery in Claremont.

—Thomas Rozwadowski, with special thanks to Peter Otte ’85

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Ricardo Quinones P’88

A Claremont Odyssey

Professor of comparative literature, 1963-2002 Founding director of the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies

Author Sam Quinones reflects on his father’s journey across time and ideology

M

y dad grew up in an enclave of southern and eastern European immigrants who crowded into the First Ward of Allentown, Pennsylvania. Work was easy to be had at the breweries where his father worked, or at Bethlehem Steel or Mack Trucks. Few kids went to college.

But he wrote well. He found work as a night copy boy at the Morning Call newspaper, where one New Year’s Eve he carried the news that Hank Williams had died. A friendly priest told him he was “college material.”

So, alone, my father boarded a bus and left Allentown for Northwestern University, intending a career as a reporter. There, he fell under the mentorship of Donald Torchiana, the scholar of English literature, and that changed his career path. At Northwestern he also met my mother, Lolly Brown, from a well-to-do family in Des Moines. They fell in love and married, though he had no money so she paid for the wedding ring.

They spent their first two years of married life in Europe on a Fulbright Scholarship, studying in Italy, France, and Germany. In 1959, they returned to the states with me, now five months old, and to Harvard, where he earned a Ph.D in comparative literature under Harry Levin, who introduced him to the Renaissance.

Claremont Men’s College hired him in 1963. We drove across the country in our beige Buick, with my dad telling me and my brother Nathanael stories of Odysseus along the way.

CMC became part of our childhood. We swam each summer at its pool.

Watched dominant Stag basketball teams under CMC’s late, great Ted Ducey P’73. In my dad’s cluttered Bauer office, we helped him paginate his first book, The Renaissance Discovery of Time.

He loved the school, that he could encounter students everywhere.

My dad admired Robert Kennedy, campaigned for him, and told me once of a waitress who said she wouldn’t vote for him because someone would kill him if he won. He woke me early that morning in June to watch as Frank Mankiewicz announced RFK’s death.

He protested the Vietnam War, and voted for George McGovern; his hair grew shaggy and his beard appeared. At a demonstration he took me to on the CMC track, I had a shirt stenciled with a clenched fist—something

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I came to believe a house without books is like a city without trees.

to do with the 1969 Student Moratorium. He once took my brother Ben to a sit-in, and he received a nasty letter from a colleague. Family friends were artists and poets. Dinner guests discussed Richard Wright and John Coltrane.

Yet the 1960s fit my dad, a child of Allentown’s traditionbound immigrant enclave, only part way. He was already over 30 and a father of four when the Summer of Love happened.

By the end of the 1970s, he was fading from the Democratic Party, which he believed had left him, though his favorite presidents remained Harry Truman and John Kennedy. He railed against what he saw as the stifling of discourse by conflating social activism with art and scholarship.

In 1979, I was away at UC Berkeley. My brother Nathanael had grown into a rebellious kid. One early morning, coming home on the Pomona Freeway from a party, Nathanael was in the passenger seat in a car with some friends.

The driver fell asleep and slammed into a car parked by the highway. My brother died instantly, the only one hurt in the car.

My mother had bone cancer by then. She died three months later. They’re buried under a tree at Oak Park Cemetery This crushed my father. He had seen too much death too young. His mother and father had both died before he was 22. He now raised my two youngest brothers—Ben and Josh ’88—alone while I was away at college.

Without the influence of my mother, and his politics changing, so did his CMC friends. Chemistry professor Tony Fucaloro was over often. His CMC colleagues helped him navigate life during those years. Mike Meyers P’03.

George Dunn ‘72. Bobby Trujillo ‘74. Mike Rothman ‘72. Colin Wright. Freddy Balitzer P’88 GP’21. Ed Haley. Charlie Lofgren. I’m missing a few.

They played basketball at the CMC gym, and a lot of poker, occasionally at the home of Randall Lewis ‘73 P’10 P’11 P’13. Some of them were involved in

CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

the Reagan campaign. When I returned home, dinner companions discussed Milton Friedman; I was given a book by Jeane Kirkpatrick for Christmas. My dad’s politics, though, were never strictly liberal or conservative. They were an amalgamation of ideas and values accumulated through life and literature, independent above all.

He met Roberta Johnson, a Kansas University professor of Spanish literature. They fell in love, married in 1998, and four years later, he retired.

In retirement, even as Parkinson’s Disease slowly captured his body’s terrain, he was a dynamo. He wrote three books of literary criticism. He also produced five books of poetry, which tended toward storytelling.

Books were the only material possessions my dad loved. We had them everywhere and I came to believe a house without books is like a city without trees.

At his home, his shelves remain the earthly expression of his fertile mind. One of his favorite poets, Robert Frost, stands in between Joseph Stalin and Martin Luther. Henry Kissinger’s World Order next to Lord of the Flies. I hesitate to disrupt their placement, afraid that there was some system at work, but probably not. I think he enjoyed throwing ideas together and seeing what the collision produced.

On Christmas Eve, when our families were about to meet for dinner at my house, we thought it best he not come over but instead head to a hospital for his low blood pressure. It didn’t seem safe. But he insisted on being at the dinner. Marlon Batiller, his dearest caretaker, told him, “If you can stand, I’ll take you.” He stood. On this, his last family Christmas dinner, more fragile than ever at age 83, he read For the Union Dead by poet Robert Lowell.

A few weeks later, on his last time out of bed, my father asked Marlon to pull him up and into his wheelchair, and roll him into the dining room. There, on the table, sat the readings for his next project. It was to be a book about the 1800s. His reading for it included Treasure Island, Huckleberry Finn, biographies of U.S. Grant, Napoleon, and others.

That morning, emaciated, he sat in his wheelchair beside his books. He held the Grant biography. Then he leafed through the Napoleon. The books were new, and thick, and heavy. He re-read a bit from each.

Finally, he placed them back on the table and he sat in the chair in silence just looking at them one last time. And after a great long while, he asked his caretaker to wheel him down the hall and back to the bed, where, two days later, he died.

—Sam Quinones is the author of Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic

SPRING 2019

1970s CHARLES E. “CHUCK” CURTIS ’70, of Hawthorne, Calif., died October 31, 2018, of complications of an upper respiratory virus. He served on the CMC Alumni Association Board of Directors from 1987 to 1992. He is survived by his widow, Rose.

ALAN J. RAPPOPORT ’74, of Bellevue, Wash., died

February 18, 2019. A Magna Cum Laude graduate with departmental honors in political science, Alan also received a master’s degree from the Columbia School of Journalism. He began his career as an investigative broadcast journalist and spent eight years on the air in Phoenix, where he won three Emmy Awards. Alan later coached senior executives of Fortune 100 companies, Hollywood stars, and other leading industry professionals on public speaking and crisis management and communication. He is survived by his wife, Barbara; two daughters; and extended family and friends, including his fellow CMC ’74 “brothers,” Riley Atkins, David Kitch, and Kim Ledbetter, all of Portland, Ore. THEODORE L. “TED” JACKSON JR. ’76, of Los Angeles, died September 12, 2018, hiking in the Sierra Nevada. He earned a B.A. in literature from CMC and a B.B.A. from California State University, Sacramento.

After joining the California State Parks Department as a ranger cadet, Jackson served in Southern California and the Folsom Lake State Recreation Area. He then transferred to headquarters in Sacramento, where he worked in the human rights office and as liaison to the Park and Recreation Commission, which oversees the Department of Parks and Recreation. Jackson also served as district superintendent of the San Joaquin District, chief of the Southern Field Division, and chief of operations.

LUIS P. MORA ’77, of Etiwanda, Calif., died August 18, 2018, of cancer. After attending CMC, he served as a medic in the California National Guard. Mora then went on to a long career as a computer programmer, designing custom programs for small businesses throughout Southern California. He appreciated music, comedy, and movies, as well as lending people a helping hand, whether it be a neighbor, a friend, or a random stranger with a flat tire at the supermarket. He is survived by two children and two grandchildren.

1980s DANIEL H. BIGG ’81, of Chicago, died August 21, 2018.

A harm reduction advocate who worked to expand the use of opioid overdose reversal medication, Bigg was cofounder and director of the Chicago Recovery Alliance, a primarily mobile support organization that offers education, care, and recovery help for people addicted to drugs. The Drug Policy Alliance, a nonprofit advocate of harm reduction in drug treatment, awarded Bigg the Norman E. Zinberg Award for Achievement in the Field of Medicine in 2015. He also was named a Chicagoan of the Year for his efforts to quell overdose deaths. He is survived by his wife, Karen, and three children.

REMY C. ROCHFORD ’81, of Irvine, Calif., died November 21, 2018, of leukemia. She earned her B.A. in political science from CMC, and pursued a professional career with Digital Equipment Company, selling computers and software. Rochford was passionate about mentoring young girls to become strong, independent women through career development. She is survived by her husband, John, and two daughters.

GARY D. EISENBERG ’85, of Charlottesville, Va., died December 23, 2018. At CMC, he majored in political science and played competitive water polo. He began his professional life in Washington, D.C., then lived in Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, and China. Upon his return to the United States, he earned his J.D. from Georgetown University Law School and worked as a corporate attorney in New York City. He then relocated from Brooklyn to Charlottesville, Va. A witty conversationalist and voracious reader and eater, he was interested in cooking, wine, history, and politics. He is survived by his wife, Ira, and daughter.

2000s MARGARET H. “NELLIE” HAUFF ’05, of Vail, Colo., died October 10, 2018. After graduating from CMC, where she was a leader on the tennis team, she sought adventure around the country, living in five states over 10 years. She returned to her home in the Vail Valley in 2016. A lover of dolphins, sea turtles, dogs, and cats, Hauff advocated for animals both professionally and personally. She was an avid amateur photographer.

Hauff is survived by her parents, Brian and Jeannie.

2010s ERIC CRAMER ’18, of San Diego, died February 26, 2019.

A biophysics and French double major, Cramer was a scientist at heart. He loved Bach and playing pool.

For his college essay, Cramer wrote about finding opportunities in simple places, like benches. He wrote, “On a bench you can meet someone new. On a bench you can get to know someone better. On a bench you can get to know yourself better.” Cramer is survived by his parents, Peter and Michelle.

JEREMY PETERSON ’18, of Princeton, N.J., died February 19, 2019. An economics and psychology dual major with a leadership sequence, Peterson had an adventurer’s passport. Among the places he traveled: Colombia, Cuba, France, Honduras, Hong Kong, Italy, Iceland, Mexico, Panama, Portugal, and Spain. While Peterson loved art, books, music, and film, he reserved his greatest enthusiasm for food—from hog wings at the Amish market to multicourse Michelin-starred tasting menus. He is survived by his parents, Jason Peterson ’85 and Audrey Chen, and sister, Avery.

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CO N TAC T:

Office of Planned Giving 400 N. Claremont Blvd., Claremont, CA 91711 www.cmc.edu/pg (888) 311-4717 CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

parting shot

SPRING 2019

CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE 500 EAST NINTH STREET CLAREMONT CA 91711-6400 A D D R E S S

S E R V I C E

R E Q U E S T E D

Join in the Journey More than 700 family members gathered on campus in mid-February for a successful Family Weekend 2019.

Highlights included a sold-out hike and Saturday night dinner, Donuts with the Deans, and an engaging Town Hall and Q&A with President Hiram E. Chodosh.