CMC Magazine Spring 2020

SPRING 2020

“We both desire to improve lives.

We want to make our country better.”

TOM LEPPERT ’77, CANDACE VALENZUELA ’06, AND THE RESTORATION OF OUR FAITH IN POLITICS

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table of contents features

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sections

Common Ground

From the President

“That’s not Republican, Democratic, liberal, or conservative—that’s just good government.”

The Hub

On the Record

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CAMPUS LIFE ATHLETICS FACULTY BOOKS

“Being in the know, having an excuse to pester people with questions—everything about journalism clicked for me.”

Looking Back

Public Art/Liberal Arts

Alumni News

“This public art is a symbol of our growth and maturity as a College.”

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PROFILES CMCAA PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE CLASS NOTES IN MEMORIAM

Unconventional Brilliance “Scientist, businessman, and strategist, he was always thinking ten steps ahead.”

Parting Shot

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In a time of crisis, your support makes all the difference

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the CMC community took care of its own.

Staff members reached out personally to each student to ensure their safe and timely departure from campus. Faculty pivoted inperson lectures to virtual instruction. The entire community rallied to provide on-the-ground logistics: everything from booking flights and securing storage to assembling wellness kits and moving furniture.

This rapid response was made possible with support from donors—like you—who provided the resources needed to quickly and efficiently care for our students in this time of crisis. But there’s still more to do.

As we continue to anticipate the unexpected, gifts to the Crisis Response Fund will provide for the ongoing needs of our students: adequate lodging, nutrition, mental health, supplies, and necessary technology. Gifts can be made at online.cmc.edu/crisisresponsefund or by using the return envelope included in this issue.

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from the president Dear Friends, In uncertain, unsettling times, it is important for all of us to look inward and remind ourselves of our duty to a shared purpose and greater sense of humanity. When problems appear too big or too complicated, we can start by asking ourselves a few, simple questions. What is our calling? What does the world need from us? What role can we play?

It’s how we will face and address the major forces in our world today: globalization and exponential technology, crime and safety, war and peace, disease and its cures, economic growth and inequality, the environment and sustainability, poverty and free enterprise, refugees and immigration, polarization and division. To grow our ability—to understand, confront, mitigate, overcome, resolve, reform, innovate, disrupt, survive, and thrive—depends on one human capability: our ability to learn. To learn harder, deeper, broader, higher, and put that learning to work.

This means not simply telling others what to do, but inspiring them by example to work together to find solutions. Not just to point out what’s wrong with the world, but to understand and help fix it together.

Not just to serve ourselves, but to put our attention on others and commit to the success of those around us. Not just to focus on the results, but instead, the principles, values, and qualities of a deeper ethos—the compass to the dilemmas we face.

This is the responsible leadership we preach and practice as a CMC community. It is also what comprises this latest issue of CMC Magazine—through the open dialogue and commitment to systemic change shared by political opposites, Tom Leppert ’77 and Candace Valenzuela ’06; through the fierce protection of truth and institutional integrity that guides New York Times journalist Michael Shear ’90; through the devotion to greater inclusivity and opportunity for underresourced communities found in the bridge-building nonprofit work of Chelina Odbert ’99, and through the creative inspiration and bold experimentation on display in our latest public art project initiated by Christopher Walker ’69.

In this issue, we celebrate the courage and collaboration that has guided 25 years of the Kravis Leadership Institute, a two-day anniversary event we were proud to host on campus in March alongside Henry ’67 and Marie-Josée Kravis. Their duty to CMC’s shared purpose and greater sense of humanity informs our latest ambition, Project 20/20: Envisioning the Future through a Multidisciplinary Lens, launched earlier this year to encourage institute-wide research and academic leadership around society’s biggest challenges.

Lastly, we fondly remember two valued members of our community, trustees Thomas Neff ’76 P’21 and Raymond Remy ’59, both dedicated, innovative problem solvers who were shaped by CMC, and in turn, shaped all of us.

Wishing you health, happiness, and safety,

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Heard at the Ath Global Connections Will Cullen ’19 has big plans for his future— and the future of the world. Cullen is the first CMC graduate to receive the prestigious Schwarzman Scholarship, a fully funded oneyear master’s degree program at Tsinghua University in Beijing. He will be one of 145 students from across the globe to study at one of China’s top universities.

Cullen, an environment, economics, and politics major from Bethesda, Maryland, will work on sustainable development, with a goal of fostering cooperation between India, China, and the United States. He’s currently studying Hindi in Jaipur, India, as part of a U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship. “With a deeper understanding of China’s leadership on renewable energy development, I hope to lead multilateral climate change negotiations at the United Nations and facilitate a global clean energy transition to mitigate the effects of climate change,” Cullen said.

Picture Imperfect For someone who doesn’t spend a lot of time on social media, Tori Johnson ’21 sure knew how to make a bold, visual statement about it. As part of her summer Creative Works Fellowship through the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies, Johnson created a papier-mâché dress that serves as a mirror for how Instagram can negatively affect self-identity, especially in women. The avant-garde dress is dotted with Instagram symbols and images from most-followed celebrities—the black-and-white motif a critique of “smiling depression,” or the pressure to always present one’s best self as if nothing is wrong internally. With seamstress skills stemming from childhood—Johnson joked that her favorite toy growing up was a hot glue gun—the economics and accounting major wanted to create something visually striking with a powerful message. “As mental health awareness continues to improve, social media could become an opposing force. It propagates the idea that you must look perfect, be perfect. The conversation we have around its influence is important to me,” she said. Read more about her research and dress inspiration at www.cmc.edu.

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“I have not exactly ridden off quietly into the sunset.

I do speak out, and it has come with some costs.

But this country stands for something.”

—John Brennan, former CIA director, “Honor and Integrity: A Life in Public Service”

Monumental Impact Jil Stark ’58 GP’11, already a beloved, permanent fixture in the hearts and minds of CMCers across all generations, is now part of the physical campus forever. A 30” bronze sculpture of her head (with a scarf flowing downward) was installed in the north courtyard of the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum during a winter ceremony honoring Jil’s legacy as “CMC’s first lady.”

The event marked the culmination of more than two years of planning and fundraising by Class of ’57 members John Devereux, Rusty Grosse, and Peter Keady P’86 GP’21. “Jil has touched so many of our lives. She’s done more than we know to help Claremont McKenna College become such a remarkable place,” Devereux said. At Keady’s suggestion, the College commissioned Bruce Wolfe—a renowned artist and sculptor who has created pieces honoring Margaret Thatcher and Frederick Douglass—for the bronze artwork outside the Ath. Accompanied by her husband, President Emeritus Jack Stark ’57 GP’11, Jil said she was “honored beyond belief” by the sculpture, but didn’t feel the attention was warranted. “Because I just had fun,” she said. “Jack had a lot of work to do. But I had a really, really good time.”

Michelle Johnson Photography

Current Athenaeum director Priya Junnar noted the importance of “this very special moment, in this magical corner of this thriving campus, flanked by the jewel and the crown—Jil’s house, the Athenaeum.”

Calling Jil “an exemplar to all women leaders on this campus,” President Hiram E. Chodosh pointed to the Starks’ loving, familial bond as setting the tone for CMC’s communal expression of social warmth that continues to this day.

“Jil, your impact on us is monumental,” Chodosh said. “And to honor that monumental impact, the Class of ’57 and the College have created this monument to you.”

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Henry ‘67 and Marie-Josée Kravis meet with Linnea Uyeno ’20 (right) and Kravis Prize winner Sakena Yacoobi.

Learning to Lead

Abai Houser ’22 admitted that he wasn’t always the most supportive swimming and diving teammate. Amanda Goldman ’23 confessed that she was terrified to speak in public or open up to new friends. Jordan Venglass ’21 shared how he was rejected for 100—yes, 100—internships.

One by one at the Kravis Leadership Institute’s 25th Anniversary Conference, CMC students humbly reflected on some of their most challenging life obstacles. Yet thanks to their involvement with CMC and KLI, they’ve been empowered to build resilience and empathy, cultivate meaningful relationships, and—as expressed in the KLI mission— lead courageously, creatively, and collaboratively now and in the future.

“The range of leadership opportunities CMC has provided me are endless,” said Josiah Tarrant ’22, a First-Year Guide, admission tour guide, and CARE Center fellow from Connecticut. “Specifically, my involvement in KLI and the numerous speakers and mentors they have brought me in touch with has expanded my community and given me a space to challenge myself with new perspectives and creative problem solving.”

The two-day KLI celebration began with a March 5th reception and dinner in the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum and continued with a conference at Roberts Pavilion tied to CMC’s Project 20/20: Envisioning the Future through a Multidisciplinary Lens. The conference’s three faculty panels focused on leadership intersections around democracy, the environment, and the economy.

David Day, KLI director and Steven L. Eggert ’88 P’15 Professor of Leadership, also shared some of the foundational elements of KLI these past 25 years—“first principles” that encourage diversity and dialogue, interconnectedness, and the use of evidence-based

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Project 20/20:

Big Questions, Bold Solutions

practices. Leadership development requires hard work over an extended period, Day said, noting that “it’s not a pass to an amusement park, but more like a gym membership” that requires constant maintenance.

Upon celebration and reflection over both days, KLI advisory board chair Doug Peterson ’80 P’14 P’15 said he was appreciative of how eponymous founder Henry Kravis ’67 had the courage to “experiment and use CMC as the college that would take on the leadership mantle.” The benefits of his decision, which were captured in a video that debuted at the dinner, continue to reverberate.

“When I get calls from my friends whose kids are looking at CMC, they all talk about the leadership mandate that the College has today. KLI, as an organization, has made that even more important,” said Peterson, president and chief executive officer at S&P Global in New York City.

With an eye on asking big questions, tackling complex problems, and offering CMC leadership solutions to benefit our collective future, the College has initiated a series of thoughtful collaborations from its 11 research institutes. Project 20/20: Envisioning the Future through a Multidisciplinary Lens launched earlier this year to encourage institute-wide research and dialogue about issues that are contributing to growing uncertainty in the world.

The collaborations are also an effort to amplify how CMC’s liberal arts approach to problem solving can best influence multiple spaces in society.

“Liberal arts colleges lend themselves to more interdisciplinarity, but it’s not always obvious what can be done with that approach,” said Shana Levin, associate dean of the faculty, Crown Professor of Psychology, and George R. Roberts Fellow. “But those key liberal arts perspectives of critical inquiry, the importance of cross-communication, and—with CMC, in particular, our mission-specific focus of leadership in government and the professions—provide a tremendous opportunity.”

While several of the institutes have collaborated in the past, Levin said there is more intentionality to the future-oriented approach of Project 20/20. Already this year, discussions have been held for Women in Leadership, the Future of Work, and KLI’s 25th Anniversary Conference on Democracy, the Environment, and the Economy. Working groups have further convened to discuss several big themes that will be announced soon.

“Our research institutes and academic departments are uniquely equipped to engage in programming that asks the larger questions we need to tackle as a society,” Levin said.

“And above all, we want to set up our students to think about these local, national, and global problems from various perspectives—to then ask the right questions and go about finding real solutions.”

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thehub Empowering Experience In fall, 11 CMC students were funded by the Soll Center for Student Opportunity to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration, known as the world’s largest gathering of women technologists. The results were immediate for computer science majors Jennifer Zhuge ’21 (Palo Alto, Calif.) and Nina Samko ’21 (Moscow), who received multiple internship offers on the spot. “None of that would have happened if we hadn’t been at Grace Hopper,” Zhuge said of the first CMC cohort to attend. “Companies want to see students face-to-face. And I feel like that’s what CMC is so good at helping us with—how to be confident and share our strengths. It really mattered in those rooms.” Read more about their experience at www.cmc.edu.

The Opportunity Strategy A new report from the American Talent Initiative (ATI) celebrates Claremont McKenna College’s work as a national leader in building academic success and opportunity among middle- and lower-income students.

the skills needed to have difficult conversations and identify with one another across social barriers or ideological difference; and CMC’s ten Scholar Communities, special cohorts that help highneed students, promote special interests, and grow communitybased partnerships.

Since the launch of the Student Imperative five years ago, CMC has raised more than $200 million in short- and long-term President Hiram E. Chodosh is also one of four college presidents resources to broadly support students. The College also more invited to contribute to an ATI-sponsored panel discussion, than doubled its percentage of first-generation college students— “Leading a Comprehensive Strategy,” later this year. ATI is up from nine percent to 21 percent between 2016-2019. Its share comprised of 130 public and private institutions united in the of Pell Grant recipients grew from 12 percent to 20 percent in the common goal of enhancing efforts to recruit, enroll, and support same period. lower-income students.

“Consistent with its small size and culture, CMC has developed campus-wide programs that support its increasingly diverse campus community in a personalized way, on the basis of each student’s strengths, needs, and connection to college mission,” according to the ATI report, “Expanding Opportunity for LowerIncome Students.”

Recognized efforts include the Kravis Opportunity Fund, established through a $25 million gift from Henry Kravis ’67, to remove a wide array of financial barriers beyond the cost of attendance; The CARE Center (Civility, Access, Resources, and Expression), which encourages the CMC community to develop 8

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Phoebe Madsen ’20 Santa Barbara, Calif.

Economics and finance

In 8th grade, Phoebe Madsen ’20 had a list of athletic goals tacked to a bulletin board in her bedroom. At the top: Play college volleyball and win a national championship. “It’s crazy that I got to accomplish both at CMC,” Madsen said. Some unspoken goals that have since become reality for the senior setter/right side hitter: Two-time first-team All-American, two-time AVCA West Region Player of the Year, two-time SCIAC Player of the Year, No. 2 in CMS history for aces (184), and No. 5 for assists (2,622). But it’ll always be the team honor—2017’s National Championship, where Madsen served game point—that will define her CMS career. It was made even more special because she shared the moment with her sister and teammate, Clara ’17. “Playing two more years after that, and having some tough playoff exits, made me realize how unbelievable that season was—how many little things have to go right to win a championship,” Madsen said. “My senior year was definitely the most emotional, though. For two hours a day, I got to play a game I absolutely adored with some of my best friends. That will always be special to me.”

FOOTBALL

Record: 5-5 Team honors: Sixth Street Trophy over Pomona-Pitzer Individual honors: First-Team All-SCIAC: Jett Zeimantz ’20

SPRING 2020

VOLLEYBALL

Record: 27-4 Team honors: SCIAC Regular Season and Tournament Champions NCAA Second Round

Individual honors: First-Team All-America: Phoebe Madsen ’20 SCIAC Athlete of the Year: Phoebe Madsen ’20 First-Team All-SCIAC: Phoebe Madsen ’20, Melanie Moore ’21

WOMEN’S SOCCER

Record: 11-5-4 Team honors: NCAA Regional Champion and Round of 16 Individual honors: First-Team All-SCIAC: Rhiann Holman ’20

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thehub Thomas D’Anieri ’20 Wellesley, Mass.

Philosophy, politics, and economics

Thomas D’Anieri ’20 saved his best for last. In muddy conditions at the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships in Louisville, Kentucky, D’Anieri finished third, posting a final time of 24:55.2—the second-fastest 8K ever run by a CMS cross country athlete. “With three miles left, I said to myself, ‘OK, you’ve got 10 more minutes of cross country in your life. This ends when you graduate,”’ said D’Anieri, who also earned All-America honors. “Ten minutes left.

What do you got?” The internal challenge has been nothing new to D’Anieri, whose four-year CMS career has been a lesson in patience and humility after losing his junior year to an Achilles injury. The slow road to recovery meant months wearing a boot, rehabbing on a bike, and biding his time while waiting for a return to form that was never guaranteed. “A lot of my motivation was looking at the competition and saying, ‘They haven’t been through what you’ve been through,’” D’Anieri said.

“When you’re hurt, you often can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. But being successful in the postseason helped me prove something to myself. I wasn’t just a participant—I was a competitor again.”

MEN’S SOCCER

Record: 16-4-2 Team honors: SCIAC Regular Season and Tournament Champions NCAA Regional Champion and Round of 16 Individual honors: SCIAC Athlete of the Year: Adam Singer ’20 First-Team All-SCIAC: Adam Singer ’20, William Birchard ’21, Samay Rahim ’22, William Barton ’22 10

MEN’S WATER POLO

Record: 18-12 Team honors: USA Water Polo Division III Finalist Individual honors: First-Team All-America: Ethan Lewis ’20 First-Team All-SCIAC: Ethan Lewis ’20, Zack Rossman ’20

MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY

Team honors: SCIAC Champions NCAA Qualifier (6th place) Individual honors: All-America: Thomas D’Anieri ’20 (3rd place) SCIAC Athlete of the Year: Thomas D’Anieri ’20 SCIAC Champion: Thomas D’Anieri ’20 First-Team All-SCIAC: Thomas D’Anieri ’20, Kyril Van Schendel ’22 CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

Maezelle Millan ’21 Fontana, Calif.

Economics

Point guards are often seen as natural team leaders, coaches on the floor. Maezelle Millan ’21 doesn’t shy away from those responsibilities. In fact, her take-no-prisoners approach to defense is a tone setter for her CMS teammates. “I take getting scored on personally,” Millan said. “You have to.” Millan began watching the NBA, particularly the Los Angeles Lakers, while growing up in the Philippines. When her family moved to Southern California, she continued rooting for her favorite team while training with her dad, a talented player in his own right. Defense was her forte early on—and she knew on days when her shot wasn’t falling or things weren’t coming together offensively, she could at least be aggressive on that underappreciated side of the floor. Millan has started to see her defensive tenacity pay off. To start this season, she earned back-to-back SCIAC Defensive Player of the Week honors, a sign of her growth as a leader entering her junior year. “I love watching NBA players like Rajon Rondo or Chris Paul. They’re smaller guys on the court, but they’re up in everyone’s business. They’re pests,” Millan said. “I embrace that role. It shows that you don’t need to be the tallest person on the court to make it hard for other people.”

WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY

Team honors: SCIAC Champions NCAA West Regional Champions and Qualifier (20th place) Individual honors: First-Team All-SCIAC: Brooklyn Button ’22

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Men’s Basketball

Record: 19-7 Individual honors: Second-Team All-SCIAC: Jeremy Horn ‘20

Women’s Basketball

Record: 19-8 Individual honors: First-Team All-SCIAC: Lindsey Cleary ‘20

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Policy Matters S

hanna Rose is not a political junkie. At all. “I find the horse race aspect so uninteresting,” Rose said. “Nope, my heart is more in the policy. How do we solve the problem?”

That makes her the perfect problem solver to direct CMC’s newest major—public policy, naturally—which was added this academic year. The reason for the upgrade from a sequence was simple. Students interested in government and economics were asking for a complementary package of courses that would best prepare them for public policy internships and graduate school, along with roles in consulting, the nonprofit sector, and at think tanks.

“CMC has such a fantastic foundation in political philosophy and American political development. So, it’s really exciting for us to give students some more tools: Analytical and quantitative tools, critical thinking tools, even the writing of memos and policy reports is much different than a research paper,” said Rose, associate professor of government.

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Rose, who has spent much of her career studying health care policy, said CMC’s public policy approach is bolstered by analyzing real case studies. As student interest spikes in areas like climate change and the environment, homelessness, and education, it’s important to show them real examples that capture the complexity of getting policy passed, or in a lot of cases, seeing where things so often break down. The major capstone, Policy Lab, also puts students to work on policy projects with real clients like the Brookings Institution, Bipartisan Policy Center, and RAND Corporation—“an opportunity not many undergrads at liberal arts schools get.”

“We offer a nuanced understanding of what it means to make policy in the world—allowing students to interact with a lot of different perspectives,” Rose said. “I think that gives everyone an appreciation for how to enter a policy discussion with humility.

Students will often say, ‘I didn’t think of that,’ or ‘I wish I had added that to my memo.’ The class becomes a team that is trying to tackle a difficult problem together.”

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Three Questions With…

Tamara Venit-Shelton

As a social historian, Tamara Venit-Shelton finds joy in detailing the lives of everyday people. The CMC history professor’s latest research yielded extraordinary insights as she chronicled the centuries-old influence of Chinese medicine in America. Her book, Herbs and Roots: A History of Chinese Doctors in the American Medical Marketplace, considers how we determine what’s credible in medicine, as well as how cultural stereotypes take hold and get exploited—even by those being oppressed.

Your previous book, A Squatter’s Republic, was about land and politics in California. What drew you to Chinese medicine as a research subject?

I was living in Oregon and became aware of a Chinese doctor named Ing Hay and this quite remarkable apothecary (now a heritage site and museum) he operated from 1887 to the 1940s. I started wondering what other Chinese doctors were in the United States. I kept finding more men and women working as Chinese herbalists dating back to 1799. It was also new and exciting for me that the research included oral histories. Through a network of friends and family, I was able to locate the American-born children of Chinese herbalists. Many of them had stashed away in Tupperware bins their parents’ old business records, letters, advertisements, and prescription pads. One woman in Tucson, Anna Don, had boxes and boxes of records and artifacts left over from her dad’s business. I was able to arrange to have it all deposited into special collections at The Claremont Colleges. Now, any researcher can go to our Honnold/Mudd Library and look through Anna Don’s family papers, which for me, as a historian, is a really gratifying thing.

What about your research made you think it would be compelling?

Chinese doctors marketed their services by promoting what we might think of as natural medicine. That’s a preconception many Americans still have—that Chinese medicine is more natural and safer. As a historian, I wanted to interrogate that concept. What does it say about America, at this modernizing moment, that people sought out alternatives to mainstream scientific medicine? I think it says a lot about the anxiety with which Americans confronted modernity.

How did Chinese practitioners succeed during a time of racism?

One way was by capitalizing on it. A lot of the book concerns the ways Chinese doctors used racialized expectations of their backwardness, their anti-modernity, to attract American patients. Some Chinese doctors wore suits and ties at home and then went to the office and adorned themselves in silk robes because they knew that’s what patients expected. They turned anti-Chinese racism to their advantage, and in so doing, they perpetuated the stereotype.

—Dennis Arp

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William Ascher and Shane Joshua Barter, eds. Internal Migration: Challenges in Governance and Integration.

Peter Lang, 2019.

Shane Bjornlie. The Variae: The Complete Translation.

University of California Press, 2019.

Andrew Busch. A Brief History of Public Policy Since the New Deal.

Rowman & Littlefield, 2019.

Andrew Busch, John Pitney, Jr., and James Ceaser. Defying the Odds: The 2016 Elections and American Politics, Post 2018 Election Update. Rowman & Littlefield, 2019.

Roderic Ai Camp and Shannan L. Mattiace.

Politics in Mexico: The Path of a New Democracy, Seventh Edition. Oxford University Press, 2019.

Lily Geismer, Brent Cebul, and Mason Williams, eds.

Shaped by the State: Toward a New Political History of the Twentieth Century.

University of Chicago Press, 2019.

Mark Huber. Probability: Lectures and Labs. Mark Huber, 2019.

John Pitney, Jr. After Reagan: Bush, Dukakis, and the 1988 Election.

University Press of Kansas, 2019.

Alex Rajczi. The Ethics of Universal Health Insurance. Oxford University Press, 2019.

Ronald Riggio P’10, ed. What’s Wrong with Leadership: Improving Leadership Research and Practice, 1st Edition.

Routledge, 2019.

Shanna Rose and Andrew Karch. Responsive States: Federalism and American Public Policy. Cambridge University Press, 2019.

Janet Kiholm Smith and Richard Smith.

Entrepreneurial Finance: Venture Capital, Deal Structure, and Valuation, Second Edition. Stanford University Press, 2019.

Sherylle Tan and Lisa DeFrank-Cole, eds. Women’s Leadership Journeys: Stories, Research, and Novel Perspectives.

Routledge, 2019.

Norman Valencia and Jerónimo Pizarro, translators. Infierno: Comedia, by Dante Alighieri. Ediciones Milserifas, 2019.

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How do we, as Americans, work together to create political and social change in a highly polarized climate?

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Perhaps it can start with a good faith conversation about what unites us.

INTERVIEW BY PETER HONG PHOTOS BY JUSTIN CLEMONS SPRING 2020

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The U.S. political environment is increasingly polarized. Studies by the Pew Research Center have found 85 percent of U.S. adults believe the tone and nature of political debate has become more negative in the past five years, and Americans are deeply divided on issues such as immigration, climate change, and the composition of the U.S. Supreme Court.

In this election year, CMC asked two graduates who have served in elected office for their views on polarization today, how we might bridge our divides, and the value of a CMC education in preparing students for thoughtful and collaborative engagement in public life.

Tom Leppert ’77 was elected mayor of Dallas in 2007. He resigned his seat in 2011 to run for the U.S. Senate, but was defeated in the Republican primary. Leppert’s distinguished business career has included serving as CEO of several firms in five industries including, Kaplan, Inc., The Turner Corporation, and Castle & Cooke Properties. He also serves as chairman of the board of several other companies. Leppert has been a CMC trustee and was awarded an honorary degree from the College in 2008. He endorsed Donald Trump in the 2016 election.

Candace Valenzuela ’06 was elected to the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Board of Education in 2017. She resigned her seat in 2019 to run for Congress in Texas’ 24th District, and will compete in a May runoff election after finishing in the top two during the Democratic primary. Valenzuela grew up in El Paso. Her family was homeless for a period, during which she remembers sleeping for a few days outside a gas station convenience store in a makeshift bed of blankets in a plastic kiddie pool. She credits public schools and social services as a safety net that helped her develop into a top student able to attend CMC. Valenzuela was inspired to run for office by the election of President Trump, which she saw as a threat to many public institutions.

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What drew you both to CMC? Leppert: My father died when I was very young and he left my mom with a lot of problems. She didn’t have an education and was the secretary for a small mortgage company in Arizona for 40 years. I would see executives, men who made substantially more than she did, seek her advice or input on major issues. But without an education and being a woman, her opportunities were limited.

I didn’t know much about colleges, but I knew I wanted to go to a small school. Some friends were driving to Southern California and dropped me off at CMC for what was going to be a 15-minute tour. The person who met me happened to be the dean of admission, so 15 minutes turned to three hours and he admitted me on the spot, starting the next month. That day and CMC led me to Harvard, a White House fellowship, and my first CEO role at 34. I still look back at that day as the foundation for all the opportunities I have experienced.

Valenzuela: I went to CMC undecided. I took Professor Peter Skerry’s Government 20 class.

He was a conservative, and I remember sitting down with him outside the Hub and he said, “You’re a gov student. You’re a gov major. You have been very passionate about your issues back in El Paso, in Texas, and here—and this is a part of you.” He was absolutely right.

We

“ may advocate different policies for how to get there, but we can work together.”

I immersed myself in political philosophy. I ended up doing the D.C. program, and ironically, I didn’t feel like D.C. was a great fit for me. It felt cold and transactional. But I still was very passionate about issues affecting folks. My CMC experiences shaped me that way.

How did you develop an interest in running for office?

Leppert: If you had asked me six months before I got into the race about the idea for running elected office, I would have laughed at you. I was actually talked into it by several leaders in the community. I had been actively involved in the community, including serving as the chair of the regional chamber. They came to me and said that city government was dysfunctional and I could add some value. I have always seen businesses as having an obligation to the wider community and I decided to enter the race, the last to enter. Seven months later, I was elected with 60 percent of the vote and wide support from all parts of the community.

What you do in elected office makes a difference. Candace, being on the school board, can affect kids—and that is a leverage point for the community, for those individuals, and for their families long into the future. If I can set up a city that’s strong, if I can improve public safety, if I can have educational programs that contribute to the kids, if we can do some things on the environmental front that make this a better place to live and provide a higher quality of life, that makes a difference.

Valenzuela: When I graduated, I worked at a girls’ group home for a little while. I wanted to do something so different from what I’d experienced in college. I also felt very strongly about giving back. I’d gone from poverty and having intermittent electricity and heat at home to a place where I had maid service. And it was very difficult for me. Working at a girls’ group home, I got to see the inner workings of a lot of systems that I hadn’t been exposed to before—even in my own poverty, I had a lot more stability than a lot of these young ladies, and that was something I carried with me.

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But it all kind of came together when I saw a candidate like (Donald) Trump talking about rapists and criminals coming over from Mexico. I mean, my great-grandfather came from Mexico and he fought in World War I. He put his life on the line. And generations after have done the same. I didn’t just see that as insulting. I can be insulted. I’m a big girl. I saw it as an existential threat, because as soon as you start dehumanizing folks like that, what comes next?

At one point, somebody was saying, “You know, we need somebody to look at running for school board.” And I looked for somebody else, too—someone with more experience. But I’d been working in different roles around education—public, private, and charter—for years. And I had this government background. I said, “You know, I love this. There are things that I need to fix and I am in love.” It’s almost the same love when I first walked into a CMC classroom as a prospective student and listened to the discourse they had in those rooms. I said, “I don’t completely follow what’s going on here, but I need to.” Badly.

We should teach a little more

“

about forgiveness rather than condemnation so kids feel safe to express themselves.”

So, I filed, and people told me I couldn’t do it. They patted me on the head, almost literally, and said, “You’re going to have to run, like, five times.” I knocked on people’s doors. I asked them what issues their community was facing, what issues their students were facing. And I ended up defeating an 18-year incumbent.

What are some of the challenges you worry about in our polarized climate?

Valenzuela: I believe accessibility to running for office is in jeopardy. I’m serving (on the school board) alongside amazing people with varying backgrounds. Their political careers are capped by the lack of access to money. If you don’t have personal money or fall into line in an ideological sense with donors, you will be eaten alive by somebody who is willing to go to large corporations and do what they want. The lack of campaign finance reform and fiscal transparency is an obstacle to discourse. It’s a problem for both sides.

Leppert: The system in Washington is broken. We’ve created a system in which a lot of good people do the same bad things.

Because of gerrymandering, there is almost complete unanimity (on party lines). Very few Congressional seats are even competitive in a general election. This has forced candidates on both sides to focus only on primary elections and move to the extreme to avoid being “out primaried.” We can begin to fix it by changing the way we vote in primaries. In addition, our representatives in Congress spend far too much time fundraising, and their votes are more for election survival than addressing problems.

Valenzuela: The death of local journalism is a major concern. As newspapers die, there are no reporters looking at school board meetings like mine, or covering city councils. It is at that level where people begin to get involved in government.

Leppert: How do people get access to information now? The local newspaper is a dinosaur. On TV, a lot of the large players are playing ratings games and are tilted, catering only to the segment they target. There is no accountability, no desire to be fair. We ought not to kid ourselves. There is no intent to be objective

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Given how often you interact with the public and discuss politics, do you feel there’s been a breakdown in civil discourse and the free expression of ideas? What role can higher education play in shaping those principles in young people?

Leppert: When I was at CMC, I found that everyone had the opportunity to put their opinion forth. There was a sense that the value of a college education grew with perspectives from all angles, all parts of the spectrum. CMC was probably more conservative, but there was no shortage of students who were liberal, who put forth a lot of innovative, creative ideas. That was important to me.

Valenzuela: CMC gave me a great framework to know what good government looks like. I got that working on my thesis with Professor Mark Blitz. In our study of Hobbes, Kant, and the European Union, my thoughts on democratic ideals and practices formed. It really gets me when people who oppose my ideas accuse me of never having read the Constitution. I’ve read the Constitution! I’ve read the Federalist Papers and the Anti-Federalist Papers! This is my foundation, too!

We need to protect dialogue. College is a time to explore ideas, good and bad. When I was in college, Twitter did not exist.

Mark Zuckerberg and I were in college at the same time. Now, kids are documented to death. Everything they say or do has the potential to be televised across the world. You’re supposed to be able to make mistakes in college. It’s a time when you might have great opinions or terrible opinions. We should teach a little more about forgiveness rather than condemnation so kids feel safe to express themselves.

You’ve both mentioned the need to fix our broken political system, promote dialogue, and get both parties working together. Is common ground possible? Where can it begin?

Leppert: Candace and I were just talking about the importance of fiscal transparency. She’s very focused on those issues with the school board. That was a big part of what I was doing as mayor. I think there’s a lot of common ground in that. That’s not Republican, Democratic, liberal, or conservative—that’s just good government.

Valenzuela: Knowing where our money is going, how it’s being managed, making sure that information is accessible, voting information in particular. I had to govern from the minority in terms of my own perspective. And I was fine with it. I wasn’t always going to get the things that I wanted, but ultimately when you have the same driver, you can move forward together.

People want to do what’s best for our kids—that transcends party lines.

Leppert: I’ve spent a lot of time on education, and that’s probably an area where people can be engaged constructively.

We can disagree on policy; that gets us to better policies. We should agree on the importance of education—and how it addresses the most important challenges for the future. We may advocate different policies for how to get there, but we can work together.

Do you have hope for the future? What keeps you inspired?

Leppert: In this country, you still have more opportunities than any place in the world, or that you’ve ever had in history. You can constructively criticize. But I don’t want to lose sight that we have a great deal here, and the opportunities and rights afforded to people are unlimited and far beyond any other place. Candace and I both desire to improve lives. We want to make our country better.

Valenzuela: That’s also one of the reasons I’m compelled to do what I’m doing. HUD got us temporary housing. Food stamps made sure that my mother was able to feed me and my younger brother—who was an infant when we were homeless and fleeing from violence. Public schools are the last thing that you would ever expect to be under attack—yet they are, from various angles and levels.

We do have a lot to love about this country—and we need to be thinking about the level of jeopardy some of those institutions are in and what we need to do in order to fix them.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

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On the Record Michael Shear ’90 has seen all sides of Washington during a storied political journalism career DIANE KRIEGER

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A

seat in the White House briefing room. Michael Shear ’90 had coveted the throne of political journalism ever since he was a kid.

Turns out the seats are “very uncomfortable and very close together.”

Washington press corps veterans have said the iconic West Wing theater feels like the coach section on a packed flight.

“I spent years in that damn room,” groused the longtime New York Times Washington correspondent. Still, it never gets old.

“So much history took place there,” Shear said. “You’re looking at the press secretary talking about some huge decision the president is about to make.

Those are the moments you pinch yourself and say, ‘I’m really here. This is what I always imagined I’d be doing when I was a reporter at the Claremont McKenna Forum.’”

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Reached by phone in mid-January, the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and Beltway insider paused to reminisce about old school days at a particularly hectic moment in his life.

President Donald Trump’s impeachment was in full throttle and had become his beat at the New York Times’ Washington bureau. Shear was also in high demand as a CNN political analyst. And he was promoting his recently published book, Border Wars: Inside Trump’s Assault on Immigration.

Co-authored with New York Times colleague Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Border Wars grew out of a long exposé they had written in December 2017.

Shear and Davis conducted some 150 insider interviews, producing an exquisitely detailed and fully footnoted, even-handed, behind-the-scenes account of Trump’s No. 1 policy issue.

Neither had written a book before, and Shear found the process both joyous and agonizing.

“Some parts are really solitary, but I found it absolutely liberating. I was able to dig into things the way a daily journalist can’t,” Shear said. “It was also valuable to have someone to share it with.

Whenever Julie and I had one of these fantastic interviews, the next morning we’d be texting each other with lots of exclamation points. ‘Can you believe he said that?!!’”

Last November, Shear discussed Border Wars at the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum. It was his second appearance in the popular lecture series.

He’d previously headlined a 2016 conversation on politics and journalism with Obama administration assistant press secretary Brandi Hoffine ’06.

Both times felt like a homecoming. Thirty years ago, Shear was an Ath fellow. Back then, he brought leading political journalists like Los Angeles Times cartoonist Paul Conrad and New York Times columnist Tom Friedman to campus.

Now he was the big-name journalist on the stage.

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Michael Shear ‘90 chats with student moderators during his recent Athenaeum talk.

‘Everything clicked’ The son of a patent attorney and a children’s theater organizer, Shear found his calling early at The Epitaph, the nationally respected student newspaper at Homestead High School in Cupertino, Calif. “Being in the know, having an excuse to pester people with questions— everything about journalism clicked for me,” he said.

Shear entered CMC as a sophomore transfer student, having initially chosen UC Irvine. Attracted by the mega-campus’ bustling daily student newspaper, he grew to dislike the anonymity of its cavernous lecture halls. CMC’s intimacy proved a far better fit. For extracurriculars, Shear threw himself into the Claremont McKenna Forum and The Collage, a fivecollege student newspaper.

But it was CMC’s Washington Program 22

that sealed his future. Shear interned with the Los Angeles Times’ Washington bureau that semester. “I had a desk between two famed Watergate reporters—Ronald Ostrow and Bob Jackson,” he recalled. Shear had close to 40 bylines that semester, including a couple on the front page. The high point: jostling with seasoned Capitol Hill reporters to interview Senator Ted Kennedy the night the Senate rejected former Texas Senator John Tower’s nomination for defense secretary.

assigned to the Fairfax and Prince William County beat. For 15 years, Shear paid his dues covering cops, school boards, city councils, and Virginia politics. He got his break in 2007 when he was promoted to national political reporter and deployed on the campaign trail with John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and the rest of the Republican field.

“The person I covered the most was McCain. I have hundreds of hours of tape recordings from the back of the ‘Straight Talk Express,’” Shear said. “Criss-crossing “I was on cloud nine,” he recalled. “I Iowa, you’d ask him questions, and he thought: ‘This is exactly what I want to do.’” would answer. I had never covered a Shear went on to earn a master’s degree in candidate in that way before. Most are public policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School pretty guarded with the press. When McCain became the nominee, he got of Government before embarking on his much more skittish. But when we’d see career as a political correspondent. His him in the Senate afterward, all of us who first job was reporting news from sleepy were on that campaign would have an Polk County for the Tampa Tribune. A year later, he moved up to the Washington Post easier time catching up with him.”

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Changing landscape In 2008, Shear made it to the White House briefing room. Two years later, he slipped one seat over from the Washington Post’s to the New York Times’ reserved spot in the second row. He’s been there ever since, with detours on Air Force One during President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, and his temporary assignment as a Hill correspondent covering the Trump impeachment.

Looking ahead, Shear is sanguine about the future of his profession. An avalanche of online platforms is changing the landscape of political journalism.

The Trump presidency has also created unprecedented challenges for reporters, but “it’s never an easy relationship,” he noted. “My wife can describe to you the screaming 5:30 a.m. calls I used to get from (Obama administration senior advisor) Dan Pfeiffer, who was constantly in my face about stories he didn’t like,” Shear said.

“In those days, it was always individual stories, individual disagreements about a fact or an interpretation. What has changed now is the fundamental assault that this president has waged on the institution of the press. It’s much more global and fundamental. And it’s from the top, so that trickles down to everybody in the White House.”

At the same time, the press does itself and the country no favor by joining the Resistance, Shear said adamantly.

“I really worry that we’re taking the bait,” he said. “We shouldn’t be seen as the opposition; we should be seen as the place where people can get the facts. I know that’s old fashioned, but I worry that at some point Donald Trump will be gone, and we, the press, are still going to be here. We don’t want to be seen as having gone to one side or another.”

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Extra! Extra!

A FEW MORE NEWSWORTHY OBSERVATIONS F R O M M I C H A E L S H E A R ’ 9 0.

On the White House press briefing room: It’s not, by any stretch, a comfortable place to work or to be. That said, when I walk through the gate and down the driveway that leads to the briefing room, I still get a chill.

On journalism and competing narratives: I understand the critique of objectivity, and I reject that. There’s a value in having an institution that attempts to describe a reality without purposeful ideology pulling in one direction or another. My father, who is very liberal, loves to quote back at me a lot of what he gets on Twitter or from Rachel Maddow. I’ll say, “Yeah, but Dad, I was there, and that’s not what actually happened.” It’s no different if you watch Sean Hannity or someone else on Fox News. I can’t imagine how we move forward without some ability to say, “OK, neither of those things is true.”

On the campaign trail: Campaigns are like being on vacation. It’s an artificial existence, in and out of vans, in and out of hotels. The relationships you build are intense. Some end up becoming lifelong friends. I remember Christmas Eve 2007 in Iowa playing blackjack with these two Democratic strategists for hours in the Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino. I still keep in touch with both of those guys.

On campaign reporting’s toll: I was on the road 300 days of the 2008 Republican presidential primary cycle. My kids were 8 and 5. We had a map of the U.S. in the family room and a little picture of an airplane with my face on it. They would move the airplane to wherever I was. From New Hampshire to Iowa to South Carolina to Florida back to New Hampshire. It was very sad.

On the inspiration to write his first book: It would be a different kind of adventure if I did one by myself. I hope it happens, but I think it will be a little while. I need to recommit to daily journalism for a couple of years. I tell people the only way you can write a book with any success is if it’s bursting to come out of you. If you’re just doing it to check off a box, to say “I have a book,” it’s just too much work.

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Four bold, brilliant Carol Bove sculptures enrich the campus experience for all ALLISON ENGEL

SPRING 2020

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O

n the crisp morning in midJanuary when four of her massive sculptures were being installed outside Collins Dining Hall, internationally renowned artist Carol Bove arrived to oversee their placement.

Already at the site was Trustee Christopher Walker ’69, chair of CMC’s Public Art Committee and, more significantly, the art lover who commissioned and donated the four extraordinary works.

As Bove approached to greet Walker, the two dissolved into a spontaneous, heartfelt hug. “This has made the top five moments of my life,” Walker said, emotionally.

Bove replied with emotion of her own. “It’s so meaningful of a commitment to keep them together,” she said. The four pieces are Bove’s largest permanent public installation, and her first on a college campus. They include: • “Four Loops,” a tubular glyph of polished steel, painted white, whose loops appear to float in space. It provides a modern, almost digital counterpoint to an imposing California live oak tree.

• “Lingam,” created in 2015, also from rusted steel and petrified wood, stands 120” high. The two steel and wood vertical sculptures, sited near Chinese flame trees, were previously exhibited to great acclaim in New York City and Leeds, England.

Bove’s sculptures join three other works installed in recent years to create a diagonal swath of significant public art on campus: “From the Mountain to the Sea,” a painted and neon tube abstract mural

by Mary Weatherford in the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum; a 40-foot white, stainless steel totem between Appleby and Phillips halls that was one of the last works created by artist Ellsworth Kelly, and “Meet in the Middle,” a sculpture of streetlights and benches in front of Roberts Pavilion designed by the late conceptual artist Chris Burden.

“This public art is a symbol of our growth and maturity as a College,” said Emily Meinhardt ’10 of San Francisco, an alumna trustee and member of the Public Art Committee. “These sculptures are a landmark experience on the campus.”

Walker, a trustee for 28 years, said the sculptures were something he could uniquely contribute to CMC. He’s an avid art collector from Los Angeles who has served on the boards of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art. He’s also donated and loaned many pieces to CMC. Walker credited Trustee George Roberts ’66 P’93, who donated the Burden and Kelly sculptures, for providing a blueprint for his own philanthropy.

• “The Enigma of Pleasure,” a collage of contorted scrap metal, folded and crushed steel, painted orange, and a highly polished black steel disc. This sculpture and “Four Loops” were created specifically for CMC in 2019.

“I followed in George’s tracks,” he said.

• “Cretaceous,” created in 2014, a 144” high vertical sculpture made from rusted low carbon steel and petrified wood.

Walker also praised President Hiram E. Chodosh for his enthusiastic support. “Hiram is a true visionary and appreciates how art makes

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about

the artist

Carol Bove (b. 1971), who was born in Geneva and grew up in Berkeley, California, studied at New York University, where she was later an associate professor of studio art. She has worked in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood since 2000, occupying a former brick factory filled with heavy machinery needed to create her enormous works.

She has had numerous solo exhibitions around the globe, including at The Museum of Modern Art in New York (2013), The Common Guild in Glasgow (2013), the Palais de Tokyo in Paris (2010), the Tate St. Ives in England (2009), and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston (2004). Bove has participated in group exhibitions internationally, including the Venice Biennale in Italy (2019, 2018, and 2011), documenta 13 in Kassel, Germany (2012), and the Whitney Biennial in New York (2008). Currently, she has a twoperson exhibition with sculptor John Chamberlain at San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art. Bove has been represented by David Zwirner since 2011.

a campus special.” Chodosh, who greeted artist Bove at the January installation by declaring her works “absolutely brilliant,” said her sculptures “unleash the power to disrupt and inspire our engagement with the physical environment in which we live and learn.”

It is significant, emphasized Walker, that thousands of students will interact with the sculptures—for multiple generations. “They will not be tucked away in someone’s yard,” he said. Bove was also fond of the walkways and green space outside Collins for the same promise of interaction and reaction.

“It’s a pause between avenues. It has a relationship to the dining hall.

There’s a particular view that’s really privileged, but then you have these walkway views that are very dynamic,” she said.

Bove, who grew up in Berkeley, was appreciative to be the youngest woman artist with public art at CMC. She said her own introduction to art was through public examples she encountered while walking across the UC Berkeley campus. “Unlike going to a museum, on a campus, it is not your intention to seek art. It’s incidental exposure.

The repetition of that exposure speaks to your subconscious mind and makes for interesting conversations,” Bove said. Abstract sculpture, in particular, “holds a place for meaning,” she added. “I’m always giving people a difficult problem to solve.”

In 2018, an Art Advisory Panel was formed for the commissioning process and requested proposals for public art from four celebrated artists, each of whom came to campus that year and selected a site for their proposed works. Philipp Kaiser, a well-known curator and the chief executive director of artists and programs at Marian

SPRING 2020

Goodman Galleries in New York, Paris, and London, was a member of the panel that selected the Bove sculptures. A former distinguished fellow in the humanities at CMC, Kaiser has been following Bove’s work for more than 15 years as he served on exhibition juries.

Kaiser said that Bove’s proposal creatively fulfilled the committee’s desire to push artists to do something special and new. “Bove’s practice plays with different sculptural elements,” he said. “There’s variety, diversity, and different languages, but everyone claims a shared space. It’s like a chess game.” The four Bove pieces also play with the architecture at CMC, he said, and are “perfect for a college campus.”

“We’re not going to have a museum. We’re not going to have a sculpture garden,” Walker said. “These sculptures along with other present and future public art loans, gifts, and acquisitions throughout the campus are going to be part of the academic life at CMC.” To that end, Walker said, confetti seating will be installed near the Bove site next summer so that students can contemplate the sculptures at length.

“Chris Walker’s extraordinary generosity and leadership, and Carol Bove’s vision and brilliant creativity, join here to put the public arts in the heart of the liberal arts at CMC,” Chodosh said.

View a photo gallery of the Bove sculptures at www.cmc.edu.

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UNCONVENTIONAL BRILLIANCE

Illustration by Sergio Ingravalle

An outside-the-box thinker, Thomas Neff ’76 P’21 crafted a transformative legacy of scientific innovation, inspiration, and service to others DIANE KRIEGER

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T

he first time Harvard physician-researcher Bill Kaelin contacted FibroGen, the staff scientist who took his call could barely hide his amusement.

It seemed preposterous to suggest—as Kaelin had—that the compounds they were tweaking to block a chemical modification in collagen, with the end goal of treating fibrosis, might also yield novel therapies for anemia, kidney disease, heart attack, and stroke.

The conversation ended quickly. A dead end.

Fifteen minutes later, Kaelin’s phone rang. It was the FibroGen scientist calling back. He wasn’t amused anymore.

“Start from the beginning,” he said.

Turns out his boss, FibroGen founder, chairman, and CEO Thomas B. Neff ’76 P’21, had overheard that scientist in his Bay Area headquarters “giggling about some crazy researcher from Boston who had this crazy idea about the regulation of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF).” Though Neff had no Ph.D. or M.D. after his name, he instantly connected the dots between collagen and HIF, the chemical modification called prolyl hydroxylation, and anemia. What’s more, it would explain why some of FibroGen’s lab rabbits had mysteriously produced too many red blood cells in trials.

Thus began a scientific collaboration that would span a quarter century and earn Kaelin the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine this past December.

“Tom predicted many years ago that I would win the Nobel Prize. I told him: ‘If I do, it’ll be because FibroGen takes our research and turns it into a useful drug.’ Which they’re in the process of doing,” said Kaelin, who joined FibroGen’s scientific advisory board in the late 1990s.

CEO who never followed a straight line,” Chodosh said. “He could decipher the fine print in any complex set of regulations, reconcile statistical abnormalities in any study, explain the basic science and its implications for new applications in life-saving drugs. Law, policy, government, biology, economics, finance, accounting, statistics, leadership—all were fuel to drive the gears of his powerful brain.”

At first glance, Neff seemed perfectly average. Born June 18, 1954, in Spokane, Wash., he grew up in Anaheim, Calif. His father was an aerospace engineer; his mother a travel agent. All through high school and college, Neff worked on beaches as a lifeguard. He married a girl he knew in high school, Donna Wengert Neff, whose family ran a transportation business.

But Neff saw the world through a unique, highly calibrated wideangle lens—a fact that was already evident from his time at CMC. While double majoring in molecular biology and government, Neff stayed for a fifth year to take extra classes in neuroscience, modern dance, piano, and the 14th Amendment. He took full advantage of The Claremont Colleges, enrolling in any class that sparked his interest, including ones at Claremont Graduate University.

“Tom took huge course overloads. He just wanted to learn everything—and he came remarkably close to doing so,” said Elliott, who was Neff’s government thesis advisor. That thesis tackled strict scrutiny and constitutional law. Neff’s biology thesis focused on protein modeling.

“He was always outside-the-box. He never did anything the conventional way,” Elliott added.

“It’s sad that Tom is not here to see his vision fulfilled.”

People sometimes were slow to recognize Neff’s polymathic gifts.

Between classes, he exceled in water polo. An all-conference player for four years, Neff was known as the team enforcer. Tall and muscular, he seldom combed his hair.

RENAISSANCE MAN When Neff died suddenly on August 25, 2019, his life’s work was finally bearing fruit. The breakthrough drug, roxadustat, was transforming the treatment of chronic kidney disease in Chinese patients on dialysis.

“It took a while to realize he wasn’t a caveman,” recalled teammate David Kavrell ’77. Other players were sometimes surprised to discover “he was really the most brilliant guy” in the locker room. “Tom was scary smart and scary good,” said teammate Mike Sutton ’76, CMC’s director of athletic advancement and Neff’s roommate the summer they worked as lifeguards at San Clemente beach.

“Tom lived long enough to see his miracle drug approved in China and delivered to patients there, an immense milestone. But not long enough to count up the thousands of lives it might save in the future,” said mentor and CMC professor emeritus of government Ward E.Y. Elliott.

Speaking at an open mic during Neff’s September 8th memorial service in the Bay Area, Kaelin called his longtime collaborator “one of the smartest people on the planet.” The Nobel Laureate, a professor of medicine at Harvard University and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, particularly admired Neff’s ability “to absorb information incredibly quickly and to be laser-focused on what he was trying to accomplish.”

CMC President Hiram E. Chodosh delivered a eulogy at Neff’s memorial.

“Tom was a Renaissance student, a Renaissance man, a Renaissance

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‘HE WANTED TO DO MORE’ Neff’s post-graduate path continued to swirl outside-the-box. He considered studying medicine and law at Duke University, but instead accepted a yearlong fellowship from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation to study “parapsychology” in Denmark and Great Britain, along with “suggestology” (a teaching method based on the free state of consciousness) in Bulgaria.

Next, he enrolled at the University of Chicago for graduate studies in economics and finance, but he left after 15 months to work in investment banking, first with PaineWebber and then with Lazard Freres & Co., quickly establishing himself as a rising star. A 1991 poll in Institutional Investor named Neff one of 40 under 40 future financial industry leaders. He was 36.

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In another outside-the-box move, Neff walked away from banking in 1993 to start a biotech company with the vision of curing fibrosis, a debilitating disease with few treatment options.

“Tom and I talked a lot, and I understood his motive in founding FibroGen and why he worked so hard,” said Peony Yu, the company’s chief medical officer. “He had this very successful career as an investment banker. He could have easily retired. The reason he founded FibroGen is because he wanted to do more. He wanted to create medicine for patients with unmet medical needs.”

Chodosh, too, was struck by Neff’s humanitarian zeal.

“In an era when so many are focused merely on how to grow wealth, Tom dedicated his life to preventing human illness and misery. He lost way more sleep worrying about how patients would live through clinical trials than he did over FibroGen’s stock price,” he said.

ALWAYS THINKING AHEAD Neff’s other great passion was Claremont McKenna College.

He was named a trustee in 2002—and became the “living embodiment of CMC’s mission in the sciences,” said Board Chair David G. Mgrublian ’82 P’11. “Tom saw CMC for what it was, and he loved the College. But more importantly, Tom saw what CMC could be, and he did everything in his power to help the College realize this potential. He knew how critical scientific knowledge was to leadership in business, government, and the professions—and rightfully, he led the Board science strategy.”

Over the years, Neff served on the Advancement, Academic Affairs, Budget and Audit, Finance, and Executive committees, and he chaired the Audit and Compliance Committee from 2005 to his passing. A leading voice for enterprise risk management, ethics, and compliance, Neff spearheaded efforts to focus Board attention on institutional challenges such as sexual assault and student mental health issues.

“Tom was very dedicated to CMC,” Yu said. She remembers many FibroGen executive meetings cut short because Neff excused himself to deal with College business.

His loyalty was also rooted in gratitude. “CMC prepared Tom very well with his dual degree in science and government,” Yu noted. Without any formal postgraduate science education, Neff capably directed research at FibroGen until 2008, when Yu came aboard as chief medical officer.

She remembers her first interview for the job—it lasted nearly five hours.

“That never happens. CEOs are busy,” she said. “But if Tom wanted to learn about a person, he took as much time as he needed.”

His investment banking experience had included funding drug startups like Amgen Clinical Partners and Royalty Pharma. Combined with his medical investigator’s mindset, it made Neff a uniquely productive biotech executive.

“Scientist, businessman, and strategist, he was always thinking ten steps ahead,” said Yu. “He was a unique individual—a very methodical 30

critical thinker, and also very patient and disciplined.” The latter traits proved essential, given that it takes decades to bring a new drug to market and the cost can run upward of a billion dollars.

“TOM SAW WHAT CMC COULD BE, AND HE DID EVERYTHING IN HIS POWER TO HELP THE COLLEGE REALIZE THIS POTENTIAL.”

Neff’s decision to seek drug approval for roxadustat in China first, with parallel efforts in Japan, Europe, and the United States, was revolutionary. So was his decision to partner with two pharmaceutical companies to manage distribution in different geographic markets.

His scientific contributions were no less meaningful. Neff was a named inventor on more than 130 U.S. patents, patent applications, and their foreign counterparts. As roxadustat approached the finish line of drug development, Neff stayed involved in the clinical research. He was a co-author on nine scholarly articles in recent years, including two that made history in the elite New England Journal of Medicine. They were the first in the journal’s history to feature Chinese principal authors writing about China-facing Phase 3 trials.

A LANDMARK LIFE Wengert Neff remembers life with her husband as unpredictable, but unfailingly interesting. He was always wondering, always questioning.

“Even in the face of what would seem obvious to others, he questioned. He was accustomed to others not following his reasoning,” she recalled. “Yet, despite his complicated nature, he cherished pure, simple, and uncomplicated love. Especially his love for our four children—Maddy, Elena ’21, Dylan, and Ally.”

His appreciation for—and expression of—pure and simple love is also why Neff dedicated the last 27 years of his life to serving others.

Since 2018, roxadustat has been available in China for the treatment of anemia in patients on dialysis for chronic kidney disease. The condition affects an estimated 120 million people in that nation alone. The first-in-class drug was approved for use in Chinese patients not yet on dialysis in August 2019, a few days before Neff passed away. Japanese approval for patients on dialysis followed in September.

If FDA approval goes smoothly—submission happened in December 2019—the American rollout of roxadustat could begin in early 2021. Also in the pipeline is FibroGen’s other first-in-class drug, pamrevlumab, with Phase 3 trials underway for the treatment of pancreatic cancer and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Neff didn’t live to see some of these landmarks. Nor did he get to see Bill Kaelin receive the Nobel Prize, as he had correctly predicted he would a quarter-century ago.

But he knew all the pieces were in place. It wasn’t a question of if, but when.

His life’s work marches on.

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looking back

Alumni News PROFILES 34

CMCAA PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE 38 CLASS NOTES 39

RIGHT ON CUE Students bond over billiards in the original Story House.

IN MEMORIAM 67 SPRING 2020

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CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

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EVERYBODY

A SPACE FOR

Building bridges has a special meaning to designer and community connector Chelina Odbert ’99

Thomas Rozwadowski

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A

BOUT a decade ago, Chelina Odbert ’99 received a

surprise letter from a friend and fellow CMC classmate. The letter contained an admission: when both were students together, he had been skeptical of her motivation to care so much about helping others.

“He said that in the past, it was not something he could appreciate—almost like an apology for doubting my sincerity,” Odbert said. “Then he wrote, ‘I know that was only due to my own cynicism and shortcomings.’ It was an incredibly heartfelt, touching sentiment.”

Odbert wasn’t shy about owning her do-good distinctiveness at CMC. She cared about causes. A lot.

Her passion for community outreach and conversations about race, inequality, and social justice started in her Sacramento hometown, blossomed at CMC, and has continued to shape a winding, liberal arts-inspired career that’s taken her to several countries, Harvard Graduate School of Design, and ultimately, the intersection of Skid Row and the Fashion District in downtown Los Angeles.

For the past decade, she’s been executive director of Kounkuey Design Initiative, a design and community development nonprofit that partners with people from under-resourced communities to build healthier, more connected neighborhoods.

Her firm dedicates itself to “participatory design,” an approach based on the idea that community members’ expertise is just as important as the designer’s in creating successful, sustainable projects. Designers are trained to think about entire systems—”the intersection of complex physical, social, and economic questions,” Odbert said. Her projects in marginalized communities often means working alongside residents who have solutions to the systemic problems facing their community, but lack access to the resources and decision-making power at the federal, state, or local government levels.

“Sometimes our design work is about building things. But other times it’s not as easy as identifying a missing park and then building one,” Odbert said. “Often we have to ask,

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‘What’s driving the inequity here? It is policy based?’ That could be a zoning code making it possible to build a landfill in one community and not in another—which affects the health and quality of life for certain residents. Or sometimes what’s really driving inequity is the lack of good data. In that case, we begin working with local residents to collect data and share it, with the intention that it will lead to more equitable decision-making and resource allocation.

“Really, this work is about helping underserved communities access the same system that other people benefit from.”

CREATING CHANGE Raised in a Mexican-Serbian-American family and guided by the influence of a grandmother who worked as an informal activist for immigrant workers, Odbert’s original motivation at CMC was to “empower others through education.”

The intimate, interconnected liberal arts experience at CMC allowed her to explore a range of academic and social interests, all of which contributed to who and where she is today. A senior class president and ardent “people connector” on campus, Odbert started the Welcome Orientation Adventure (WOA) program for first-years. She worked on research at the Claremont Autism Center at a time when the issue wasn’t prevalent in the mainstream. Her senior thesis as a Spanish and psychology double major was on alternative education programs for low-income elementary school students in Pasadena.

Odbert didn’t just want to talk about change. She wanted to create it.

“One thing I loved about CMC was the drive and commitment of all the students there, and I definitely think that rubbed off on me,” Odbert said. “My career goals were

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not in investment banking or politics, so that made me a little different. I knew I wasn’t the kind of person who would thrive in a corporate job—and I even took an internship at Bank of America to prove it to myself (laughs). Ultimately, the way I chose to use my version of CMC passion, drive, and education was to change social and economic outcomes in high-need communities around the world.”

After CMC, Odbert lived in Honduras, teaching 6th grade and helping locals in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch—the first time she saw “how communities got built.” Once back in L.A., she decided to scratch an artistic itch, a design bug that always felt more like a hobby than a career to her. Working as an interior designer of luxury homes and boutique hotels showed her the power of design, but she thought that power could be more mission-driven; a tool for social justice. Through CMC connections, she landed a yearlong Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarship to study architecture and urban planning in Mexico. She moved on to Harvard and a Master of Urban Planning: the marriage of design and policy work she had been craving.

Kounkuey Design originally started as a project with five Harvard classmates working in the informal settlements of Nairobi, Kenya.

“Residents told us they needed clean water, decent sanitation, income generation, a place to grow healthy food, and a place for their kids to play. We kept asking ourselves, ‘How can we do all of this in a single project?’” Odbert said. “The answer became what we called a Productive Public Space. A park that works harder for the community.”

Upon returning to L.A., she continued developing various projects under the Kounkuey (Thai for “to know intimately”) banner. In 2010, she made a commitment to pursue the mission full-time. She’s now executive director of a staff of about 50 (in four locations: L.A., Coachella Valley, Nairobi, and Stockholm).

BUILDING CONNECTIONS Odbert credits CMC with giving her the tools and confidence to pursue a career calling that didn’t exist on paper. Design?

To alleviate problems? For the public good? It has opened up opportunities for research and engagement she couldn’t have imagined, including a prestigious Knight Foundation Public Spaces Fellowship last year. Odbert is one of seven nationwide fellows who received $150,000 to “unleash creativity” on a project of their choice. With the money, she plans to investigate how U.S. public spaces can be more gender-inclusive—an idea influenced by a project she worked on with her students while teaching at Harvard.

After a decade at Kounkuey, Odbert is most proud of the connections she’s helped build—idea to implementation,

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problem to solution, dissension to conversation. Turning vacant lots into weekend swap meets or play spaces in urban Los Angeles neighborhoods—while overhauling citywide policy along the way—has been immensely rewarding: tangible progress she can see and touch. But the mental and emotional hurdles to get a project started often are more daunting than the physical ones.

Odbert cited her work in an unnamed rural community where the divide between residents of color and those in political power led to a lack of trust. Instead of seeing that personal and political gap as unsolvable, Odbert worked with both sides to collaborate on economic, social, and cultural progress that not only would uplift the community, but lead to more money and resources. The project ultimately was a success—and credit was shared by officials and neighborhood residents for coming together to serve the greater good.

“My job is to get people access to things they need—but that also requires helping groups understand each other better. My approach to those conversations was formed during my time at CMC,” Odbert said. “Not only did CMC help me better advocate for the things I care about, but it opened me up to the influence of ideas that, at face value, may not have fit perfectly into my social or political box. It is absolutely why I have confidence in my ability to be a bridge builder and a connector in so many different spaces.”

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CMCAA president’s message Dear Fellow Alumni, This is my last letter for CMC Magazine as association president. It comes at an unprecedented time for the College, as the remainder of spring semester transitions to virtual learning and cherished events like Alumni Weekend and 5-Year Reunion are rescheduled for future dates—hopefully when the world is not at such a distance. Or when we return to some degree of normalcy.

It has been two unbelievable years serving you and our association. Chapter programming enhancement, growing support for the Soll Center for Student Opportunity, increased alumni and reunion weekend programming and attendance, and strengthening your CMCAA Board have been priorities of mine—and I am pleased to see significant progress on all fronts. On July 1, Emily Meinhardt ’10 will take over as Alumni Association president, and I am confident she will bring her San Francisco Chapter, alumna trustee, and board leadership experience to move our Association, and the College, ahead even further.

Over the years, across the globe, I have asked alumni, students, and parents what similarity they see between CMC and other higher education institutions. Some institutions graduate near the equivalent of our entire alumni population every year. For us to continue our successful path, we need to build our network and engage with one another and the College even more. Engaging does not only imply supporting our Alma Mater with philanthropy, but also participating in chapter programming, helping us recruit the best CMC students, visiting with classmates during your reunion, and beyond. Especially at this time, with the challenges of the job market and travel restrictions likely having an impact through summer, the viability of student internships, future jobs, and job shadow experiences are a major priority. You are all critical partners in connecting and interacting with students, be it remotely or in a home city or region, to support one another and the College.

It has been an honor and an absolute pleasure to lead a team of committed volunteers who are so dedicated to shaping the future of our Alma Mater and Association. If you meet any of them, please thank them for their time and dedication. Finally, we look forward to future announcements regarding CMC’s 75th anniversary, which is just over one year away. We should all be proud of what CMC has achieved in such a short period of time!

If there is anything your Alumni Association or the Office of Alumni and Parent Engagement can do for you, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thank you.

Paul “Pablo” Nathan ’80 President Claremont McKenna College Alumni Association 38

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Missing your class?

class notes Pacesetters ’48 ALUMNI WEEKEND

2020

Go to page 65 to learn more.

’49 ’50

Alumni Weekend 2020 has been rescheduled for October 8 to 11. Keep up with the latest updates at www.cmc.edu/ alumniweekend.

JIM STOESSEL ’50

44 Westvale Meadows #A Concord, MA 01742-2855 978-369-2104 jhstoessel@comcast.net

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ALUMNI

TOM NATHAN, who is always

eager to connect with 2020 CMCers, received a surprise call from SANDY DORFMAN and his wife, Barbara, who were in New York for the leaf-turning autumn cruise up the East Coast to Nova Scotia. They were unable to connect personally, as they were between plane and boat. In the meantime, Tom and his family are keeping busy, taking a short trip to Seattle and Bainbridge Island and hosting a first birthday party for his first great-granddaughter. The party of 17 included his exwife, Anne, Scripps ’57, as well as guests who came all the way from Florida. He is looking forward to Thanksgiving when they will all convene again for turkey and football. Tom hopes to make it to Southern California to relive old high school memories, riding his motorcycle in the now burned-out hills surrounding Castaic, Agoura, and Saugus.

WEEKEND

Alumni Weekend 2020 has been rescheduled for October 8 to 11. Keep up with the latest updates at www.cmc.edu/alumniweekend.

TOM BERNSTEIN ’55

tlbernstein@earthlink.net In April 2019, Lee and JOHN DEVEREUX attended the annual Scholarship Luncheon on campus and enjoyed meeting with recipients RUBEN CASTRO ’20 (Houston) and BRANDON RUIZ ’21 (Santa Ana, Calif.) of the Jack L. Stark ’57 Endowed Scholarship Fund, as well as TORBEN DEESE ’22 (Sumner, Wash.), recipient of the J. Timothy Green Memorial Scholarship Fund. The notes from these scholars are heartening and remind us that any contribution we direct to our class scholarships can help make a difference.

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John and Lee also had on their agenda a tour for the 75th anniversary of the Normandy invasion areas. A

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highlight of the event was the chance to hear lectures

by Professor David Eisenhower and later to meet and chat with him and his wife, Julie Nixon Eisenhower.

Commented John: “David was a wonderful wealth of knowledge about his grandfather, worth the trip to hear him and talk with him and Julie.” John noted that the visits to the critical invasion areas constituted a most moving experience.

During the summer, the Devereux duo visited with Bebe and RUSTY GROSSE. Rusty surprised John with a large picture/portrait which they choose to name “The Three Centers” featuring Milt Schroth, Pomona ’55, John, and BILL VAN HORN ’58 GP’21. The three of them were named all-SCIAC centers in 1954, 1956, and 1957 respectively—a noteworthy accomplishment.

On a visit to Santa Barbara, John gave Bill his copy of the portrait. On hand to witness were Kay Van Horn, the original photographer, FRED HAYWARD ’58 P’82, and HARRY WRIGHT ’71, unofficial historian of CMS football. Continuing their adventure, John and Lee had a visit with RANDY CHURCHILL at his “very classy, well equipped RE/MAX office” in Camarillo. John says Randy looks great, is still quite active, and runs a successful company.

One datum surfaced during the Devereux visit with the Grosses, John reported. Rusty and Bebe now have six great-grandchildren. We believe this puts them in the lead for the Class of ’57 great-grandchildren derby.

Any challengers out there?

An off-hand comment in a note written by RICHARD “DICK” BAIRD caught our eye, and what a trove that proved to be. Dick has recently formed a new business, Richard and Grandson’s Airport Ride Service, and says it’s great fun being in business with his grandson. They have three drivers and over 500 clients. Dick married Nancy Pitts (Scripps) during our sophomore year. They have lived in Laguna Beach the past 32 years and Dick has been self-employed throughout his post-military life. That career has encompassed several different ventures: boat manufacturer, power boat dealer, real estate broker, mortgage loan broker, stock day trader, world traveler. Dick and Nancy have two sons, four grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

Congratulations, Dick, on a lifetime of achievement and ongoing adventure.

In July, Mary Ann and BERNIE MARSHALL made a junket through various parts of the West Coast and took the opportunity to have a visit with Sally and SCOTT EVANS in Santa Rosa. Though he had some health issues to deal with, Scott was looking well and now reports he’s back in tip-top health. We were treated to gracious hospitality and appreciated the chance to see Scott’s excellent collection of Millard Sheets’ art.

Continuing their summer of travels, John and Lee Devereux made a visit to Honolulu, where—among

’57 Remembering Reid The saddening news of REID SHANNON’s passing came after our deadline for submissions in the last issue, but we still want to pass along some sentiments from DANIEL “BURT” CORSON: “Phyl and I always considered Reid among our closest friends, starting at the beginning in the fall of 1953. We bonded during the soph-frosh indoctrination and continued through four magnificent years. When one of a tight-knit group leaves us, it’s a time of solemn assessment of a cherished relationship. Aside from all of Reid’s involvements, which were numerous, he always remained a mild, gentle, and considerate gentleman. I have been honored by his constant friendship and extraordinary personality for 60-plus years.” Burt spoke at length at Reid’s celebration, and it was greatly appreciated. More than one classmate said his rendition of “The Badger” writing on an imaginary blackboard brought happy tears to their eyes.

other pleasures—they enjoyed a Chinese luncheon hosted by STUART HO, who, they said, “is doing well and still in possession of his calm demeanor and keen sense of humor.” On returning stateside, they paid a visit to PETER KEADY, partaking of a barbecue with Peter and friend Marsha at Peter’s home in Menlo Park.

John, over these many years, has done an outstanding job of keeping in close touch with classmates and other CMC grads, giving generously of his time and resources to support the school. Our class owes much to his warm and generous support.

Speaking of the aforementioned Peter Keady, it’s a pleasure to say that he has kindly agreed to be our co-Class Liaison. You can expect to hear from him often as he works at digging up news from all of you. Here is Peter’s initial contribution to our notes: “As we all look back at our lives, we can recount all the good years and 39

some of the bad years. We are getting older and how many more years do we have? The view here is that in 62 years we have all accomplished a lot, brought families into the world, met with our classmates, and heard all the stories. We were prepared by our College to go out and accomplish some things. That means having goals, structure, and the discipline to carry them out so you have a feeling of accomplishment.

Those who have passed are watching to make sure we meet the objectives we set for ourselves. It is important to treat our fellow man or woman with honesty and integrity. That being said, treat your fellow person with respect and be humble. We have learned to exercise our bodies and we all feel good about ourselves. We are proud of our class because we have done it all.”

Don’t stop now as we are all on the crest of the wave!

Saddened, we must report that classmate JERRY LA DOW, sailor and seaman extraordinaire, succumbed peacefully to a lingering illness in November. One classmate remarked that Jerry was always a person worth listening to. What more can we say?

BERNIE MARSHALL ’57

berniemarshall@verizon.net PETER KEADY ’57

boscar123@me.com The class was saddened by news of the recent passing of our classmate, RAY REMY. Ray was a true leader, a friend, and longtime CMC trustee who will be missed by his classmates, as well as many outside of our class. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.

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BOB BEASLEY’59

bobbeasley38@gmail.com

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ALUMNI WEEKEND

2020

Alumni Weekend 2020 has been rescheduled for October 8 to 11. Keep up with the latest updates at www.cmc.edu/ alumniweekend.

POSITION OPEN

alumni@cmc.edu MARSHALL SALE reports, “Not too much to report this quarter but there was one interesting memo on TAIN BODKIN living in Ensenada, Baja California. His home overlooks the beach just 80 miles south of San Diego. Unfortunately, his house was invaded; he put up a great fight but ended up in the hospital for shoulder surgery. DUKE WYATT kept me in the 'loop' and I do have some pictures of Tain in his hospital bed (he said at a modest $1 per photo ;-)). He still looks great. Many of you are celebrating age 80 but not me. I still have months to go!”

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MARSHALL SALE ’62

505-690-0299 m_sale@msn.com

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LARRY FORD reports: “Gennifer and I are back in our Florida home on Longboat Key, near Sarasota. This year has been quite eventful. I have had one of my best fly-fishing years. One of our granddaughters is having a terrific sophomore year at Northeastern in Boston. We had a scary evacuation caused by a forest fire near our home in Salida, Colo.

And most importantly, we remain healthy. During the summer I had two fishing trips to Montana and two in the local waters of Colorado. Fly fishing is a very special activity. It takes skill, patience, persistence, and, of course, some luck. This year I hit the luck jackpot. All four of these summer trips were outstanding. Perfect weather, hungry fish, good fishing partners, and lots of fun. The two trips in Colorado were to sections of the river I have never been able to access due to water conditions or weather issues. This year we hit it right.

The first day our boat landed 101 trout, which was a new record for the fly shop and the guide. The next week I went out again with another buddy and landed 140 trout. I doubt we can ever beat those numbers, but of course we plan to try again next year. On the family side, we have a granddaughter that selected Northeastern for college, where you go to school for five years to get a degree that requires one year of coop work in your field of study. She is just completing her first semester as a sophomore and soon begins a 6-month co-op for which she competed with other students, created a resume, and learned how to do job interviews and how to make career choices. Her major is business and MIS. Her first job is with a very successful high-tech firm in the marketing area. Pretty impressive. Our other news was not a planned event.

We live in a small town in Colorado for the summer that is surrounded by BLM and National Forests that are mostly wilderness domains. During September, a lightning strike started a fire in a very remote area that did not have any roads or homes. The fire expanded gradually due to favorable winds and weather. Then one night, after the fire had burned for about three weeks on the backside of the mountain, the winds changed and things got scary. The police woke us up at 5 a.m. and advised evacuation within three hours. You would be surprised how much you can pack in three hours. Fortunately, the Forest Service brought in heavy equipment, planes, helicopters, bulldozers, and a lot of crew and saved all 103 homes that were evacuated. We arrived a bit early to Florida with a bit more excitement than we needed.”

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KENT GREENE writes: “Happily, I am still able to write software that my clients find useful. Gotta keep the brain working every day or it’s gonna get lazy. Away from the office, most of my time is spent at the gym, yoga, tennis, and pickleball, all enjoyable and very social activities. I did a brief fishing trip in September on the Klamath River with some buddies. King Salmon were plentiful, large, and fierce. The river and country up there are spectacular. My wife and I enjoyed a Smithsonian trip to Greece earlier this year. My son and his family live about 40 minutes north of us, so we get together periodically. He is now older than I like to imagine myself to be. I spend a lot of time reading. I give high marks to Malcolm Gladwell’s new book Talking to Strangers and Bill Bryson’s The Body.

Unbelievable stuff. I’m pretty sure I do more reading now than I ever did at CMC. I was a terrible reader back then. Since my sight is not what it used to be, I am grateful to have Audible and Audm, which are real blessings. My memory isn’t what it used to be (actually never very good), so I often read or listen to a good book twice, taking frequent notes to drill it into my skull. I just got off the phone with DICK EDELMAN. He says he’s feeling well. He fell and broke his hip a couple of months ago, but that is now completely healed.

He continues to cheer on the Dallas Cowboys, but that appears to be a risky proposition to me. Dick is in regular contact with his first wife (Cindy Waltermeyer of Scripps) and also his second and third wives. He’s fortunate to have three daughters who visit him often.

I can attest that Dickie’s attitude and sense of humor are fully intact and that he’s always a great pleasure to talk to.”

From DICK MCKAY: “Still retired and still traveling. This spring we went to France for the 75th Anniversary of D-Day. We stayed in an incredibly huge, beautiful, and quite reasonable chateau in Bayeux, and had a car so we saw it all. It was truly amazing, from the DC3s dropping Airborne soldiers on June 5, 2019, to all the celebrations on D-Day on the 6th, to the many, many parades that included tanks, half-tracks, Jeeps by the hundreds, ambulances, deuce and a half’s, and everything you could imagine. The last parade on Sunday, June 9, in Sainte-Mère-Église had 600 vehicles of all types. That is also the village where the night paratroopers landed in the center of the Germans and one was left hanging from the church steeple—a dummy replica is still there. It was beyond amazing and probably will be the last of the really big celebrations of D-Day since all of the WWII vets are timing out. We returned to Paris for a week and took the Eurostar 185 mph train through the Chunnel to London for another week. In the year, we also went to Lake Havasu, Maui, New York for Christmas, Colorado for skiing—always on the move. Health is as good as it gets in a senior gent, and I will keep traveling until the body says ‘enough.’ I still run rental properties in California and Colorado and play with Ham radio and get the most out of every day.”

From BARRY ZALMA: “Fully recovered from major bypass surgery and back to work as an insurance consultant and expert witness since I had my law license become inactive. I have published multiple books through major publishers like the ABA, Full Court Press, and Thomson Reuters. Also, many on Amazon.

Retirement to me is to only work five days a week, 40 hours a week, and walk three to five miles a day to keep the cardiologist away. Details at www.zalma.com/blog/ insurance-claims-library/.”

From BOB BOIES: “Barbara and I are doing well and enjoying an active retirement. Barbara is a new member of the Board of Directors of Long Beach Opera, and has traveled to Germany and New York on opera tours (without me). She especially enjoys Wagnerian operas, which are a bit long for me. We did travel to Boston to see my daughter in the Boston Ballet’s production of Giselle. I enjoyed a trip to Santa Clara to tour the campus with my grandson, Matt, who is a senior majoring in economics and data management.

My younger grandson, Chris, joined us from Portland

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where he is studying in the business school at the University of Portland. Their dad flew up on Sunday and he took us and two of Matt’s fraternity brothers to the 49ers game. The new Levi’s Stadium is spectacular.

Barbara and I are going to Paris, Egypt, and Jordan the first three weeks of January on a Smithsonian tour, which is something I’ve wanted to do since I was a kid.

I’m still playing golf, enjoying my three reading groups, and trying to keep fit by swimming and working out.”

of the Israeli equivalent of the U.S. Center for Disease Control. He was very good at the history, current conflicts, and bringing Biblical stories to life as we toured the countryside and Jerusalem.

LARRY FORD ’63

“We took advantage of a Regional Bridge Tournament at Sea with Larry Cohen (25-time national champion) as our instructor. This took us from Barcelona (again) to Fort Lauderdale in about 20 days. The bridge competition was so intense that we never left the ship. Two sessions of tournament play every day with instruction in the morning. We could also have played at night but were exhausted by the daily routine.

lford77@me.com GILL FERREY: “Still acting as general partner of a family limited partnership in real estate. The almost 50 years of concentrated effort have been both challenging and rewarding. We still live in Berkeley and purchased a second home in Napa Valley in 2014 just before the earthquake here. We survived it and the terrible fire of 2017, which wiped out 14 homes on our street alone. Restored two Porsches in 2016-17, a ’58 Speedster and a ’68 912, both in pristine condition. All four of our children are married and three have two children each. Jon lives in Lake Oswego, Ore., where he is a very successful freelance sports photographer, as well as doing a lot of work for Getty Images; Jessica lives in El Cerrito, Calif., and is very active in fundraising with her daughters’ schools; EMILY ’03 lives in Whitefish Bay, Wis., and is a residential real estate agent; and TOM ’03 lives in Foster City, Calif., where he is a clinical biotech. All are healthy. Lotta and I just returned from Berlin where we celebrated the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Wall.

Great ultimate result. I have amassed a large collection of militaria which will be permanently displayed shortly.”

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Next spring, BILL DAWSON, LARRY BERGER, and JOHN TYNDALL are taking a tour of France’s World War I and II battlefields, from the mountainous Vosges region near Switzerland, across northern France to Ypres in Belgium, and then southwest to the Normandy beaches. Adding French cuisine and a Parisian séjour to the mix helped to move the idea from “whim” to “let’s do it.”

BILL DENKER is living in a small hillside suburb of Mexico City. He lived there before coming to CMC, as his father worked for DuPont, and located his family there. After graduating, he spent a good deal of his time mountain climbing in various places around the world, “living in a car and sleeping in a hammock between two trees,” is his interesting way of summarizing it. He steadfastly refuses to use email, preferring more antique methods of communication which are sufficiently broad to include pen, paper, and the telephone. Although not married, Bill feels that a case could be made (and has often done so) that he is “married to The Sleeping Lady,” a mountain near where he lives (and apparently exempt from the “#Me Too” movement).

JOHN HEATON: “Our most recent cruise was from Singapore to Barcelona and the highlights for us were Petra, Luxor, and Israel, where we had not previously been. We had a wonderful private guide in Israel whose father was an Israeli diplomat with postings in Scandinavia and Boston, and whose mother was head

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“However, the highlight of the trip was our Suez Canal crossing, where we passed the USS Abraham Lincoln and its carrier strike group on its way from Norfolk to the Middle East at about noon one day. The ships were so close we could almost touch them.

“You can see that Ann and I are enjoying ourselves.”

KEN HENDERSON: “The Central Oregon Coastal Stags continue to have lunch each Wednesday, including STAN HAHN ’63, RALPH NICHOLS, and myself plus a few local pals; it’s now been over three years since we lost ERNIE DOUD ’63. In September we continued a 52year annual tradition of convening as TTS, often with spouses. This year at North Lake Tahoe included JOHN TAYLOR, PHIL MANN, RALPH NICHOLS, KEN HENDERSON, ED NATTRASS ’63, STAN HAHN ’63, MARTY BRANTLEY ’65, and a late scratch BOB CAMPBELL ’65. Other folks are amazed at these wonderful friendships that began at CMC so long ago!”

MARSHALL JARVIS: “Joan and I attended a new exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, with TOM KENNEDY

and his Joanna. The exhibit was a collection of Nubian art from an area in Egypt just south of Abu Simbel, the UNESCO site of the Ramses statues, which Joan and I visited on May 10, 2019.

“Joan and I visited Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.

What was especially interesting on Ellis Island was the large staircase that every immigrant was required to ascend. Doctors stood at the top of stairs culling out those who had trouble climbing the stairs. That was the only physical exam for most immigrants.

“I then climbed the interior of the statue’s 355 steps to the crown over the statue head. The arm to the torch is not open to the public so I could not climb to the top.

The original torch has been replaced recently and is now in a new museum.”

STEVE MCCLINTOCK: “I have been a member of the Back Country Horsemen of America for nine years. Our volunteer mission is to ‘Keep Trails Open for All’ and ‘Keep Public Lands in Public Hands.’ I was the Arizona representative to the national board for five years.

We have 11,000-plus members in 32 states. Given my 35 years in Citibank’s International Group, someone thought—not sure why—I could help them set up an endowment fund: the BCHA Legacy Fund. The establishment of a fundraising program for a nonprofit has been a new and interesting challenge. Think carefully before you do such a thing. We changed our mission statement for the Legacy Fund to ‘Keeping Trails Open for Future Generations.’”

WES NAEF: “Mary and I had a spectacular trip to Chile in

July to observe the total solar eclipse there.”

DOUG NOBLE: “My travel consists of extended stretches twice a year in Mexico’s over-hyped tourist destination, San Miguel de Allende. But I’d also like to tout the documentary films of two fellow CMC alumni, CHRIS TEMPLE ’12 and ZACH INGRASCI ’12, whom I met at our 50th reunion. Between their sophomore and junior years, they filmed Living on One Dollar about spending two months living (themselves) in extreme poverty in a Guatemalan highlands village. In early 2014, they filmed Salam Neighbor about spending a month in a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan. They are about to come out with a new film, Five Years North, about two young Guatemalan immigrants in the U.S.—highly recommend them all!”

EVAN PORTEUS: “I’ve been enjoying the lack of stress in my retirement. Ann still enjoys teaching at the School of Education at Stanford. We visited Wrangel Island, Russia, with National Geographic this year. We visit Hawaii each year and enjoy our time with our classmate JOHN MARRACK and his wife, Stephanie.

Our eldest, Matt, runs a lab at the Medical School at Stanford, mainly working with gene editing. Our next eldest, Kim, runs the Institute for Rural Education and Development in New London, South Africa, and has an 8-year-old daughter. Our youngest, Brad, is part of the leadership team of a company based in Amsterdam, having moved there from Singapore a couple years ago. He and his wife, Jenney, have two sons, Wilson, 18, and Lex, 15.”

TOM KENNEDY: “Joanna and I have been married for 55 years—the ’62 Starlight Ball flame (Palm Springs arranged by roommate DICK SMITH!) still burns brightly.

We have lived in Brookline, Mass., only a mile from Fenway Park, for 45 years, and raised three children; all are married, with eight grandchildren. We have a daughter living in Ann Arbor, Mich. (teaches in Ypsilanti; husband works for Ford Motor), our youngest son is in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. (works for the PGA Tour; wife is a teacher), and our other son is in Wellesley (works for the Red Sox, wife manages the family’s busy schedule).

The latter, who used to get into the ballpark on my Clergy Pass as a kid, now invites his father to join him in the president’s suite! 2018 was magical for the Sox, with Joanna and I able to celebrate a World Series victory and join the team on the infield at Dodger Stadium for the celebration. Surreal. Had a tour of Claremont before Game 3. 2019—a ‘wait ’til next year’ experience! My fan loyalty has landed me on the Red Sox Hall of Fame Committee—we have great material to choose from!

“I retired from the banking world in 2008—ministry in the marketplace—doing community reinvestment oversight for several banks based in Boston, covering New England. Now I am the volunteer chair of trustees of Sherrill House, a skilled nursing/rehabilitation facility in Boston. I also am president of the oldest charitable society in the USA, Boston Episcopal Charitable Society, which was founded in 1724. Keeping up with charitable work, following the activities of grandchildren, and rooting for the Red Sox keeps me busy. Had hospitalization this October to remove a benign brain tumor doctors were following for the last 10 years. All good. Keep my hand in ministry with occasional preaching, weddings, and funerals.

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’65 Helping hands MARC SHAYE shared an article describing his efforts to deploy a Water Wagon, “a fully mobile and self-sustaining water purification system capable of producing about 3,600 gallons of safe drinking water per hour, running round the clock,” in Puerto Rico following the destructive hurricane that struck the island. For nearly five decades, Marc (currently Of Counsel to Lippitt O’Keefe Gornbein, PLLC of Birmingham, Mich.) has practiced in the area of environmental law and occupational safety, wading through the legal aftermath of hundreds of natural and man-made disasters.

“I’ve built my practice based on my professionalism as a lawyer, but also as someone who could spell pH,” he observes with a smile, “I’ve always had an interest in the chemical, engineering, and technical aspects of what the law could represent.

That kind of discipline has served me for my entire career. But nothing prepared me for what I observed of this disaster and the scope of humanitarian needs in the wake of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.

Sending thoughts and prayers just wasn’t enough. We knew we had to do anything we could to help.” Read more at https://bit.ly/2tsOkP8.

Meanwhile, life has been very good to the Kennedys.

We are thankful for the many blessings of family and friends who continue to enrich our lives. An invite: any classmates coming this way, maybe we can take in a game at The Cathedral in the Fenway!”

JOHN TAYLOR: “Greetings from Granite Bay! I attended our reunion in the spring. Not a big turnout, but good to see everybody. The campus is so different than in our time! I do keep in touch with classmates RALPH NICHOLS, PHIL MANN, KEN HENDERSON, and

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RUSS AHRENS ’63. Saw them at a recent annual gathering we had at Lake Tahoe, along with other alumni STAN HAHN, MARTY BRANTLEY, and ED NATTRASS ’63 (I have known Ed since the seventh grade).”

LARRY BERGER ’64

laurencewberger@gmail.com BILL DAWSON ’64

billdaws@comcast.net STEVE HALLGRIMSON ’64

Steven.hallgrimson@berliner.com

’65

ALUMNI

KEITH NIGHTINGALE

writes, “Just returned from visiting my old unit, 1-75th Rangers, in Savannah. Spent a week with the finest troops on the planet no one ever hears about. What they do on a nightly basis in the wilderness of Afghanistan is pretty extraordinary. My book, Just Another Day in Vietnam, was published by Casemate Publishing on Amazon. My book on the Iran Rescue and rise of special operation forces will be published in the spring. I encourage everyone to buy cases as stocking stuffers and leave effusive reviews on Amazon. Conducting battle staff rides in Normandy this anniversary period—show up and you get a free tour. Still killing gophers and raising limes in Ojai.”

WEEKEND

2020

TONY CHILDS and his wife, Susan, are featured on the cover of the November/December 2019 issue of Pickleball Magazine. The feature article discusses Tony and Susan’s travels over the years, as well as their current interest in Pickleball. (https://bit.ly/2NESESm) GLENN CARLSON has moved after 47 years in the same house. “Within a six-week period I bought a condo near Denver and sold my house in El Granada, Calif. No more yard work and a third of living space to maintain. It has been a great experience so far. Twenty inches of snow outside.

So, being from California, I walked to a tavern less than a block away for some wine and a bowl of chili. Life is good.”

WALLY DIECKMANN writes: “I haven’t written any books, but recently I read a new ‘favorite,’ Whiskey When We’re Dry by John Larison, a first-time novelist. Our travel schedule was limited during the two years I was supervising construction of our new home on the site of my parents’ home on Point Loma. Travel picked up in 2019 with a May trip to Florence and Rome preceding a Riviera cruise that included a stop in Monaco for the Grand Prix. In September, we went on a contemporary art lovers’ group tour to Iceland and Scandinavia, which included visits with artists in their studios. An afternoon visit with Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson, a multidisciplinary artist, was a highlight. Kjartansson shared a video he made of Pinetop Perkins, a member of Muddy Waters’ band, playing an upright piano months before his passing at 97. I closed out 2019

travels with a bucket list-worthy four-day drive from Munich to Lake Garda, northern Italy, and back in an Audi R8 Spyder. Hadn’t had that much power under the hood since driving to Riverside in LARRY LAUNER’s 409.”

GREG SMITH checks in with, “All good. Doing some writing, getting some articles published, lots of travel, president of our synagogue. Our 12 grandchildren are growing up and still wonderful; our four kids, too, are doing fine. Recently took a cruise to the Arctic, then drove around Norway. Fiftieth wedding anniversary in January. February in India. Just finished Churchill’s four volume History of the English-Speaking Peoples. I don’t recommend it (too much emphasis for me on a couple thousand years of battles) except for its British take on the American Revolution, War of 1812, and American Civil War. Also interesting discussion of the expansion of America.”

JOSEPH BRADLEY and his wife, Marilyn, enjoyed two trans-Atlantic cruises in 2019. “In March we cruised from Fort Lauderdale to Amsterdam with stops in the Azores, D-Day beaches, Bruges, Amsterdam, and the Norway coast. In October, we cruised from Rome to Fort Lauderdale with stops in Spain and Portugal. Look forward to the 55th reunion.”

JOE BRADLEY ’65

jbradley2004@verizon.net “We enjoyed our visit to Vietnam a great deal,” wrote CHIP HARDINGE. “We went to Hanoi for three days and then up to Sa Pa, a city up in the mountains in the north part of Vietnam. The country was beautiful, and the people were extremely friendly. I was very curious as to how they would react to Americans after our difficult history from the ’60s. But they were warm and helpful and very proud of their country everywhere we went. One thing that we found helpful as we toured Vietnam, as well as China, Thailand, and India, was to try to forget where we came from and our way of life. Asia is a whole new world and a very different one. The population numbers are staggering and most of their governments and cities are overwhelmed by the masses. Yet the crowded conditions are the only way they have ever known of living and the people seem to thrive on it. We planned our trip including Vietnam, Thailand, and India by ourselves using Tripadvisor and had great success. The recommendations (for airlines, hotels, and tour guides) proved to be very reliable. I recommend making sure to read the various reviews supplied by the end users to help guide your decisions. The services recommended were informative, comfortable, and very inexpensive.

We stayed in small hotels that were stuck in the middle of the rabbit warren streets and found them charming, very comfortable, and very clean. And by the way, no, I did not go to Vietnam while in the service. My Army time was all spent in the U.S.—primarily Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. I hope this information is helpful to classmates planning trips to East Asia. If you get a chance to visit it will be time well spent and you’ll enjoy yourselves immensely. My best to all!”

’67

Several classmates asked FRED MERKIN to comment on his quadruple bypass surgery on July 18, 2019. And,

CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

worthy of his status as an accomplished attorney, he has provided a report on his experience which bears careful reading and analysis by all classmates now in our 70s. He writes:

from family and friends (including CMC classmates), and deeply indebted to all those stellar medical professionals who gave their very best on my behalf.”

“I am happy to report that the surgery and recuperation went quite well. Pain relief medication was discontinued early on. Other medications, mostly heart related, were administered and continue to the present in one form or another.

“One of the gifts my wife and I have received over the years,” reports BILL STEUBEN, “is the repeated request from our two kids to plan a trip back to Mexico City to visit where Jean was born and grew up—and where we met in high school.

This year, we accomplished half of that request when my daughter and her family joined us to stay in the city we had not seen in 20 years. Obviously, the landscape has changed since Jean and I graduated from the American High School 55 years ago. While I learned to drive there, I had no desire to repeat the task (thank you relatives and Uber).

“After about six weeks, I commenced a two-per-week, two-and-a-half-month rehabilitation program at a cardiac rehabilitation center run by the hospital.

That program was one part education and two parts supervised exercise. Blood pressure, oxygen levels, and heart rate were closely monitored by medical staff before, during, and after exercise. Four stationary exercise machines were employed. As participants exercised on the machines, their hearts were carefully monitored through a device hanging from the neck and electrodes attached to the chest. I completed the program about four months after the surgery.

“On the other days I walked for exercise, walking 10 minutes three times, with about five-to-seven breaks.

To put this in perspective, upon returning home I was having difficulty with walks of three minutes’ duration.

Each walk presented a formidable challenge as my body tried to adapt to doing what it once did without much difficulty. My cardio-pulmonary system seemed up to the task, but my leg muscles were protesting. I have made considerable progress since then. I walk and exercise at my old gym on alternate days.

“From the outset I was not placed on a specific diet as such, but throughout I have been advised to avoid food and drink that are not ‘heart healthy.’ One educational guide I was provided states that this means eating more fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, foods high in unsaturated fat, and non-meat protein, and less of high-fat animal products, foods high in sodium (salt), added sugars, snack foods and fast food, and alcohol. Since the surgery, I have chosen conservatively to refrain from any alcohol until at least I am much stronger. At that time, I plan to revisit the issue.

“I learned that I have atrial fibrillation (often referred to as ‘A-Fib’), an irregular and often rapid heart rhythm that can increase the risk of strokes, heart failure, and other heart-related complications. This arrhythmia seemingly can come and go mysteriously. When I had A-Fib briefly at the hospital, I felt as if I had a mild case of the flu. A couple of months later I became sick (general weakness and difficulty sleeping), but it did not seem as if I had a cold. Shortly thereafter I learned that I had A-Fib, only to see it vanish a few days later.

In a subsequent two-week study of my heart, it was revealed that 96 percent of the time, my heart was in proper rhythm. The doctors told me the remaining A-Fib four percent, unfortunately, means I must be treated accordingly.

“At this writing, I can say that overall I continue to make steady progress. I am less pleased by the reality that I still have a long way to go before returning to full health. Demanding challenges remain. Overall, I am lucky just to be alive, grateful for the moral support

SPRING 2020

“I won’t take you all the way down my memory lane, but please know that the love and excitement I experienced in Mexico D.F. returned as we tried to put the pieces together. The reaffirmation of love we have for the people and culture displaced the bustle and magnitude that confronted us. Street vendors hawking replicas of jerseys being worn by the national soccer team as it advanced in the World Cup. My neighborhood in San Angel Inn where we rediscovered the homes of famous Mexican painters Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and David Siqueiros.

The “welcome home” affection of my wife’s extended family that is a mixture of Mexico and England, creating accents with a unique sound and expression.

“The ultimate shocker, however, was to return to our alma mater, the American High School. An open campus in a nondescript residential area had grown into a closed institute with a guarded parking structure and dramatically bigger campus. We found ourselves looking for familiar sights of buildings, memories, and links to the past. THERE! The three-story building that housed our auditorium on top—that’s where they evacuated the entire high school when it was rumored a large contingent of demonstrators were planning to march on our school. This was during the U.S. blockade of Cuba.

Thankfully, the rumor died with no sign of a protest. However, as we were escorted around campus, we bumped into large posters near the sporting venues—photos of sporting teams of the past. On the second floor of the sports complex: my 1962 AHS Baseball Team! I was absent the day the picture was taken—drats!

Next, the new indoor swimming complex: a huge photo of the 1962 AHS Varsity Basketball team—and there I was! Number 13! Now, understand, there were less

’66 Lifelong learning ROD LINER recently shared this memory after reading President Chodosh’s letter in CMC’s winter Honor Roll.

“The phrase ‘you learned to learn’ really resonated with me. The vast amount of knowledge that has been added since my graduation in 1966 cannot possibly be mastered—BUT the process of gaining and assessing new information, the skill, can be taught. I am a prime example of that. I was a history/literature major and became a high school history teacher after getting my M.A. and teaching credential at Stanford. The late Bill Arce helped with a laudatory letter—I was proudly labeled “scholar/athlete.” I played four years of football at CMC and was a four-year captain (also scored four touchdowns in the Rose Bowl).

The education I received 50 years ago is still manifesting itself in my world view, my diagnostic skills, and my ability to lecture to some very highly educated and accomplished clients in the world of travel. I can honestly say I have used the knowledge gained from EVERY single one of my classes.

In conjunction with my 33 years in the classroom, my wife and I have personally planned and conducted over 90 tours to all parts of the world—all countries in Europe, Japan, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Australia, New Zealand, and our favorite country, India (six tours). While we hire local guides, I always prepare historical lectures, accompanied by hors d’oeuvres and plenty of wine. I have also lectured on location: D-Day beaches, Vietnam Cu Chi tunnels, Taj Mahal, Hiroshima Memorial, Namibia Dunes, Auschwitz, Dachau, The Great Wall, Churchill War Rooms. The skills I gathered at CMC has made me a life-long learner and given me the gift to express myself without people running for the exits.

So, thank you, CMC. We did well together.

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than a half-dozen posters on campus. (That’s 56 years: can’t these people come up with more current shots?)

Anyway, thank you, AHS, for the chance to impress my daughter and grandkids. By the way, don’t look for any signs of my sporting career at CMC—even though I was on the freshman team that won the tug-a-war during orientation.”

“I am not sure I am the best resource for reading books,” comments MIKE DONOVAN, “since I rarely read any books that are ‘new.’ Mostly I read an author’s entire works from start to finish, hopefully in serial order so I know that I am getting all the details of the main character’s life. Anyway, here are a few recommendations.

“I have read quite a few books about Italian detectives.

The most popular author is Donna Leon, who writes mysteries about Commissario Guido Brunetti of the Venice police department. She wrote the first book, Death at La Fenice, in 1992 and has continued from there on. So far, there are 25 books in the series that I have read. One of the things I like is that the decadence of the Italian Justice System is exposed; the well-to-do criminals and murderers frequently don’t get punished as they should be. There is also a German set of DVDs which has English subtitles.

“The next best series has been written by Andrea Camilleri. His character is Detective Salvo Montalbano in the fictitious Sicilian town of Vigata. These books are very well-written. One of the stories has some serious results because one of the characters has an American girlfriend named Andrea. In Italian, Andrea is a man’s name. There is a series on Netflix, which is also very good. If you understand Italian, you will have problems because much of the dialogue is in the local Sicilian dialect. The English captions are great, if not exactly word-for-word.

“One other set of Italian detectives was written by Michael Dibdin. There are 11 books about Aurelio Zen, who is a disgraced detective because he keeps finding government or police officials who he uncovers. The powers that be keep moving him from place to place because he is such a good detective, and the ones he is investigating want him far away from them. There was a TV series which played on PBS, but I think it was only three books worth.

“I also read the Stieg Larsson Swedish series about the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Unfortunately, he died after the third book. Thankfully, David Lagercrantz was given the task of continuing Lisbeth Salander’s story. He has written the next two books in her series. One of them, The Girl in the Spider’s Web, recently came out as a movie.

“My final recommendation is for the English author, Ann Cleeves. She writes about two detectives, Vera in northern England (at least eight books) and Jimmy Perez in Shetland, Scotland (nine books). The Shetland series on Netflix is also quite good.” Mike invites classmates to visit his website for more information: www.donobug.com.

STEVE RUDD reports that he just donated his share of his law office building in Silicon Valley to his CMC Charitable Remainder Unitrust. The $1,000,000-plus gift will provide lifetime income to Steve Rudd and Martie Vaughan and will endow the “Steve Rudd CMC Student Scholarship Fund” for need-based student

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scholarships after their deaths. Asking if the Class of ’67 ABC Scholarship Fund might have been a beneficiary for his bequest, Steve responded that, in all modesty, he does not qualify to contribute to that worthy and impressive cause. He continued, indicating that the only problem with his contribution is that it looks like peanuts compared to HENRY KRAVIS’ contributions over the years. In view of that, he initially asked the CMC Development Office if he could endow a tennis court net replacement fund, as he lettered in CMC varsity tennis in ’64 and ’65.

Steve and Martie continue to travel. This fall they toured in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark, whose Corps of Discovery constituted the first Americans to cross the North American continent over and back in 1804 and 1805. It was inspiring to drive through the vast plains of Montana, to cross the scenic Bitterroot Mountains in Idaho, and to float down the Snake and Columbia Rivers.

A brief message from PAUL MCCONNELL indicates that he and his family will be moving to Australia next year after being in London since 1972. He promises to send a longer story for the next issue.

Living in Seabrook, Texas, halfway between Houston and Galveston, EARL LIGON indicates that he left the San Diego County Counsel’s office in 2006 and moved his family to the area. He reports that they love it there.

“The people are great. The cost of living is much less than California. The culture is more family oriented than California. Let’s just say we have no desire to return to California.

“Our four kids are all doing well. The oldest is a licensed aesthetician. The next oldest is a vet in Aubrey, Texas, tending to horses. The third just graduated from Stephen F. Austin and has a job (yeah!). The fourth is a senior in high school, working and doing well academically. He also runs track when he finds time and took third in the district finals last year.

“I practiced law for 32 years. It was a varied career. I was counsel for SDGE (now Sempra). I had a varied career at SDGE practicing in admin law, contract and construction law, corporate and securities law, and trial law. I left there when it looked like they might merge with SCE and became counsel for Hartford Insurance.

That was all trial law. I joined the County of San Diego as senior deputy county counsel and worked the entire time defending law enforcement, both deputies in the field in law enforcement and those that worked in the detention facilities. I met a slice of life in defending those suits that was not prevalent in the CMC dorms.

During all that time, I made investments. I now manage three companies that have bought and leased single family residences. One is with my brother and sister.

The second is with my family. The third is on my own.

“While this keeps me busy, I am blessed with the fact it also allows flexibility. I have had time for my kids. I learned Texas geography by traveling with my kids to soccer matches, soccer tournaments, and other activities. Since coming to Texas, I have made my family and my kids my priority. Texas is a family-friendly environment. For one thing, people want and have kids and enjoy them. For another, they have more of them and enjoy them.

“My wife just retired from Starbucks. The great thing about having worked for Starbucks is that she now gets a free pound of coffee every week for the rest of her life.

Everyone is healthy in my family.

“I would encourage all those CMC classmates who are reading this to concentrate on family and kids. It has meant the world to me.”

JAY KNIGHT writes: “Yo, ROBIN BARTLETT, I’ve got a couple of things for you. First off, I am going to be retiring from the practice of law this year after 48 years.

It turns out practice does not always make perfect, so old lawyers don’t die, they just lose their appeal (ouch!).

Since 1976, I have specialized in employee benefit law—of which President Trump once said, ‘Who knew it was so complicated?’

“Second thing is a favor. Go to the Ukraine, no wait, that’s a different guy. Instead, expect an email from Andy Van Horn. Andy and I went through junior high and high school together in South Pasadena (VAN WEBSTER was also in our class), and Andy was at Harvey Mudd whilst I was mostly in attendance at CMC. It turns out he played baseball with STEVE GRIFFITH while we were all in Clareville. La Cañada Flintridge is starting to look like Maine in the fall, so I am off to rake leaves.

“I wanted to mention a few things about retirement because I have not handled it very well so far. I liked the law until one day I got up and decided I had had enough. I changed law firms three years ago because my old firm did not have a clue about dealing with my client base—clients whom I had worked with for decades and whom I wanted taken care of when I was no longer working. So, I have spent the last few years introducing the clients and the new firm, slowly cutting back on my workload, and can now leave knowing my longtime friends and clients will have good representation going forward. So, as I have cut back work, I have started tidying up (I think that is the current correct term) stately Knight Manor. We have way too much stuff; we still like the house, although it is too big but in a good location. But I am feeling overcome with clutter. Also, Connie and I have a little traveling planned after the first of the year. Then I need to figure out how I want to spend my time—ah! there’s the rub.

“As my distance from graduation lengthens and the College changes (OMG, they have women in the dorms now, did you know?), it is hard to put my CMC experience into current context. My son got accepted to CMC and even got the McKenna Scholarship. That was years ago, and he chose to go elsewhere, which worked for him. But if he was accepted now at the top of my not shabby earnings, I could not afford $50K per year for four years. So, briefly put, although I am interested in the changes being made, as those changes in academics, administration, the campus (thanks to KK&R for massive alterations to the campus), and the big, glossy magazine, increase over time, I have had little context with which to relate. I really like the Class Notes and sometimes wish I had been at CMC all four years so I could have made more friends. (CMC was the first college I returned to, and that was my senior year.) But the hard tradeoff was a year studying in Germany, which provided the most intellectual and cultural growth of my college years. A lot of the CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

’67 Lambert the Lion In memory of LAMBERT CEDRIC THOM. Our classmate, Lambert, passed away on Oct. 23, 2019, at his home in Tiburon. He will be missed. Some memories: “Lambert Cedric Thom, a 5-foot, bowlegged Chinese man, was one of the most All-American guys I ever knew. While Lambert was dealt an inferior physical body, his strong intellect and dogged determination pushed him through great physical adversity and helped him achieve great success.

“Lambert was the second son of the second son, a hallowed position in Chinese culture. He was destined to be the protector of the family, a role which he fulfilled most honorably—even though he could neither walk nor drive his wheelchair straight. (As an aside, at the conclusion of the last evening of our 50th reunion, he rammed into one of the campus walk guard posts; flipped his motorized wheelchair on its side, and was sent to the hospital for a brief checkup. But Lambert just brushed it off and kept on charging forward as always.)

“Lambert took after his father, Buck, a swashbuckler from way back. Like his father, he tried to talk tough, know all about business, and achieve status talking about money and sports—and under all that bravado was a heart of gold.

I thought of him as ‘Lambert, the Fearless Lion.’ When I Googled this phrase however, nothing came up until I found ‘Lambert, the Sheepish Lion,’ the Disney cartoon story of a little lion cub that the stork mistakenly delivered to a mama sheep. The other lambs teased him without mercy because he could not headbutt very well. Finally, he became the hero of the flock when he defended his mother against the big bad wolf, something that the other sheep could not do.

So, I think of Lambert as the lion cub who was dealt a harsh medical condition, but refused to let it stand in his way as he faced the world.

“Lambert loved football and would have loved to play, even though the only position he could have qualified for would

students I met while at CMC are lost or have passed.

The ‘In Memoriam’ section, sadly, helps me understand why I don’t see a few guys around like I used to.

“Although I am advised that you need a precise, trenchant, and scholarly plan for retirement, I am not concerned that something interesting will turn up as it always has in my life. One idea: Maybe now I can read some books other than ERISA, the Internal Revenue Code, and Regs. Now that is an idea.”

SPRING 2020

have been the football! He also loved to sail and had a sailboat and a crew. Even after he was relegated to a wheelchair, his crew would strap him near the stern and off they would go. Sometimes in rough seas, he would be the only one who refused to turn back!

“Lambert, in the proud Hawaiian tradition, was always up for going to or throwing a good party. One time my wife, eldest daughter, and I blew into town and were greeted with a party at his home. I have a mental picture of my daughter getting sick over the front rail of his house while I gazed at the gorgeous view of the Golden Gate Bridge and the city before me—all in good spirits at Lambert’s impromptu house party!

“I met Lambert on the first day of college, about the time of our notorious class haircut. He was stomping down the hallway like Scrooge McDuck; the school had put up a welcoming sign on his dorm room door which read, ‘Welcome Thomas Lambert.’ He was having none of it and was going to get a new sign made. People were going to know who he was. I knew who he was: ‘Lambert, the Fearless Lion.’”— FRANK PETTERSON “Lambert was a very funny guy. If you ever saw him in action at a Korean bar on Hotel Street in Honolulu, you would be amazed. He had a great life and accepted his disabilities with a smile.” — JOHN MAZZA “While I didn’t know him that well at CMC, nor in the years that followed, and despite his medical issues, Lambert had a GREAT attitude and presence at the reunion! His ‘nurse’ was a charmer as well.” —DENNIS MANN “It was wonderful to see Lambert at our 50th reunion. He was so active and enthusiastic throughout the program. He was right out front with a huge smile on his face in our class reunion photo—a position he was so deserving to fulfill.”

—BOB NOVELL

BOB GROOS would like classmates to know that he has recently created his own website: Robertgroosphotography.com. “It is a blog focusing upon two main themes: travel adventure and birding.

I’ve got a big backlog of blogs to create, so there will be regular monthly postings if you are so inclined to return occasionally.” Bob encourages all to enjoy and share.

VAN WOLBACH commented that “efforts to enhance the sandhill crane habitat have stalled this summer

because of flooding along the Platte River. Flooding was even worse along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, but the conservation team is now back at work creating a slough running through the property, taking down trees and power lines and replicating native grasses. This may not sound exciting to many of you, but recently while walking the property, I flushed a few dozen prairie chickens and a couple dozen wild turkeys while geese flew overhead. It made me feel very good

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’67 Making up for lost time “I went home!” writes BOB NOVELL. “One day 15 years ago, I received an email from a second cousin, Pierre, in France asking if I knew what happened to my ‘three lost brothers.’ I did not even know Pierre existed. Born in the 1870’s, these three men were my grandfather and his two brothers. I learned that Pierre was a retired Airbus engineer, my age, a delightful man who seemed to come out of nowhere and who I called ‘the ghost.’ Pierre was trying to put a family tree together. Two of the ‘lost brothers’ had immigrated to California, leaving one behind in France who eventually inherited the family farm. It turns out that the two lost brothers who came to California never wrote to the brother in France and they lost track of each other.

“Sharon and I traveled to France last year, starting in Paris, then branching out to the English Channel with stops along the way. We toured Normandy (very humbling), stayed in beautiful cities, chateaus, and wineries, ate some amazing meals, and eventually reached the southwest corner of France, near the Pyrenees to visit Pierre and his family.

I was surprised to learn that there were multiple families in the area with whom I was related—many of them drove one day to meet Sharon and me. Much of what we experienced reminded me of growing up with my parents and my French grandmother. The trip to France was wonderful. It is a beautiful country full of small unique areas. It is well worth a visit.”

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and thankful.” More information about the Crane Trust and viewing excursions can be obtained by contacting Van or visiting the Crane Trust website at https:// cranetrust.org/visit/crane-viewing-tours/overview.html.

AL CARPENTER is a man of few words, but he squeezed out a few memories of life at CMC. “My most memorable moment at CMC was walking through the quad and learning that JFK had been assassinated. I worked hard to just stay in school, as I was not a great student. I worked at Honnold Library just to get a little money for coffee or a burger at Stinky’s. I played some sports to get a break from academics. My claim to fame is watching my soccer team, then called the “Men’s Soccer Club of the Claremont Colleges” beat UCLA 1-0. I sat on the bench because I was not as nearly as good as the starters. UCLA was the Division I national champs that year and we beat them. Teammates were from CMC and Pomona. The starters were Frey, Modem, Enoc, six Nigerians, an English wide receiver, and a Brazilian. That gave us a real edge. We received no funding. We were just a club. And who can forget our freshman haircuts.

“I met my wife, Daisy Low, Scripps ’67, on a blind date set up by RICK OLSEN. There was a volleyball game behind Wolford Hall and Rick pointed her out to me. I invited her to the Hub and spent 10 cents for coffee.

Rick thought the two of us would hit it off because we were both from ‘the East’—me from the East Coast and Daisy from the Far East.” Daisy reports that for the price of a cup of coffee, Al even got his papers typed. Al and Daisy live in Riveredge, N.J., and welcome phone calls and communications from all classmates.

Our classmate, RUSS CHUNG, is another one of those guys who is short on words, but this message comes from his Facebook page and communications from his sister. Russ writes: “This was a big surprise! I was at Big Bear Lake to support the Kodiak 100 Ultra Marathon when I had intense pain in my stomach. After some tests I learned that I had a perforated duodenal ulcer.

I was taken to Arrowhead Medical Center in Colton where I had surgery. I’m happy to report that the surgery was a success.”

Russ’ sister added that she was able to reach Russ at the hospital. He is doing well after surgery. All his vitals are normal, but he had IV’s coming to his arms to give him fluids and meds and a tube from his nose to his stomach. His complaints included moderate pain when moving and dry mouth from no liquids orally, plus an inability to charge his cell phone. A friend looked after both his precious Jeep and dog while in the hospital.

Russ reports that he has recovered nicely but would not wish the experience on any classmates.

“In July, Margie and I celebrated our 50th anniversary,” reports JIM CARSON, “with our entire family (11 of us) on a cruise to Alaska. For the grandkids, the highlight was the endless availability of food on the ship. For the two of us, in addition to a wonderful time with family, the close-up view of the Mendenhall Glacier, the sounds and sights of multiple calvings of the Hubbard Glacier, and our day-long trip deep into Denali National Park were the highlights we enjoyed most. We saw caribou, moose, bears, Dall mountain sheep, lynx, and marmots. We never did see the Denali peak, although it was poking up majestically through the clouds as we

flew out of Fairbanks. If you have not been to Alaska, go and do so before it melts!”

ROBIN BARTLETT, your Class Liaison, had the pleasure of attending a recent New York Chapter alumni event.

The evening was filled with marvelous exchanges with current students and alumni. One thing I learned from the evening’s festivities is that the New York Chapter is now larger than San Diego. More than 140 students, parents, alumni, faculty, and staff attended the New York gala.

Members of the College leadership reported some amazing new strategic initiatives, and I wanted to provide a summary of the presentation since our own HENRY KRAVIS continues to occupy center stage with an innovative program known as the Kravis Opportunity Fund (KOF). It is my understanding that Henry played a significant role in the construct of the program, working closely with President Chodosh, the dean of students, and admissions and advancement officers.

Here are a few important facts revealed in the evening’s report: The Kravis Opportunity Fund was established in 2018 with a $25 million gift designed to ensure that a CMC education is within reach for every student. Student success requires more than mere access to funding of tuition and fees, and KOF attempts to level the playing field for students whose families have fewer resources.

The fund offers a range of supporting benefits including:

• Access to funding for a first-year summer

experience, including relief from the student’s summer savings expectation/necessity, for all firstyear students on need-based financial aid;

• Start-up funding of $2,000 per student for the

lowest-income students (approximately 50 per year) to help cover expenses during their transition to college;

• Family travel funding for visiting campus (e.g. family weekends, graduation);

• Support for health insurance expenses for students from outside California (low-income students from California can access low- or no-cost health insurance from Medi-Cal, while students coming from other states often do not have the same access);

• Financial support for unexpected emergencies that may arise during the school year; and

• Over the long term, relieving the calculation of

home equity in financial aid in order to attract more middle-class families. This allows the College to offer much more competitive financial aid packages to middle-income students and dramatically reduces the burden on middle and moderate-income families who purchased their homes years ago and have remained in expensive real estate markets throughout the U.S.

The impact of Kravis Opportunity Fund support facilitated assistance for 64 family members, supporting 46 students, to return to CMC for Family Weekend 2019 to experience a slice of their student’s experience. It is expected that future assistance will be provided to even

CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

more family members. This amazing feature of the program shares the benefit of CMC with the student’s family and allows for them to better support their student.

For one student in the Class of 2022, support from KOF provided peace of mind for the first time in his academic career. This student was one of 34 freshmen who received $1,000 in kickoff funds at the start of each semester. He used his money to pay for textbooks and registration fees, make a run to Target to buy school supplies, and return home to El Paso, Texas, for fall break. The rest is being saved in an emergency fund. This student is the first person in his family to go college in the U.S. His hard work in high school also landed him a nationally prestigious Gates Scholarship.

Coupled with KOF, he can keep his focus on classroom work and making professional strides at CMC rather than working at part-time jobs to scrape by.

When speaking of this opportunity, the student said, “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. Especially in an environment like this, with people who have a history of excellence and performing well, it’s truly inspiring to be here. It’s been such a relief to let go of the mental toll that comes with worrying about finances. I always say, having money is not everything, but not having it is.”

just get anyone dumb enough to accept my groveling request for help. So far, I have told six classmates that there will be little work involved in putting together the reunion and that I will do everything. I just need their names on a list so it will look like this is actually a group effort. (It was a small lie. We literature majors remember Tom Sawyer getting the fence painted. Or something like that.) Anyhow, six incredibly kind, magnanimous, caring (and gullible) classmates have already volunteered. They are JOHN FISHER, JEFF MASON, BILL SCHILLING, BOB GOLDICH, DON KLEIN, ORMOND RANKIN, and DAVID HATTON. And I need others, so let’s hear from you out there.

The committee so far has a strong contingent from Berger Hall. I told the Alumni Office that because of all the Berger boys on the committee, it is likely that, as part of the reunion, there will be an Andy Choka Day celebration (look it up, you non-Bergerites)—as well as a renewal of the Berger Belchout. (Apparently the College did away with both traditions some years ago.) When I mentioned this to certain members of the College administration, I was met with what seemed to be stony silence. Maybe they were just shocked and pleased that old traditions will be reborn.

In short, anybody else who would like to volunteer to help (with little responsibility) just let me know.

That is it for now. I hope to hear from all of you.

ROBIN BARTLETT ’67

Rbbartlett01@gmail.com

’70

ALUMNI

JON HENRICKSEN reports,

“Just a note to let you know that I am a retired municipal court judge here in Oregon, but I am still practicing law full time (for the last 46 years.) For the last 36 and a half years, I have been deeply involved as a circuit speaker around the country, Canada, and Europe for the lifesaving program of Alcoholics Anonymous.”

DAN COOPER ’71

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

WEEKEND

2020

Alumni Weekend 2020 has been rescheduled for October 8 to 11. Keep up with the latest updates at www.cmc.edu/alumniweekend.

POSITION OPEN

alumni@cmc.edu

’71

I start these notes with the sad news that MIKE LEHRER died on Oct. 20, 2019.

Mike was a big man in many ways: height, intelligence, and decency.

There is little news otherwise as, apparently, the class is challenging me just to make stuff up. And, if I don’t hear from you clowns soon, that is just what I will do. Of importance, however, is that we are now less than 18 months from our 50th reunion.

I have yet again been asked by the College to chair the reunion committee and gladly accepted. This is the fifth or sixth reunion I have chaired, and each time the College gives me a present. Nothing says fashion like a tie with the CMC logo on it. This time, however, the College has asked me to form a committee of prestigious graduates. Failing that, they said I should SPRING 2020

’73

As usual, there’s a wide variety of Stuff and Things going on in our class these days.

Of particular note is that PAUL BENINGER was a keynote speaker in the fall 2019 Athenaeum speaker program. Paul’s talk was “Saving Magic Johnson: The Long and Complicated Race for Cures.” He recounted his experience at the Food and Drug Administration early in the HIV/AIDS crisis and how the crisis changed the way the FDA reviewed drugs. There is a brief summary of his talk in the Athenaeum section of cmc.edu, and it is posted on YouTube (cleverly titled YouTube with Paul Beninger ’73 P’09). Paul’s invitation to speak followed a chance meeting with Priya Junnar (Athenaeum director) while they were in line for lunch at our 45th reunion!

Paul also mentions that he “was recently promoted to associate professor at Tufts, which goes to show it’s never too late to contribute in the academic world. I am blessed to have another opportunity.”

Congratulations and well done twice, Paul. (Read more about Paul in his Alumni Spotlight!).

STEVE MCGANN writes that his international consulting company is now well established with a variety of projects. He also reports that he is now a senior fellow at the Center for Australian, New Zealand, and Pacific Studies at Georgetown University. “This position gives me a policy platform from which to pursue academic work on these regional issues.” Well done, Steve.

MARK ROSENTHAL summarizes what he is experiencing amid his various scientific research activities: “Amazing how long it takes projects to become profitable. Still brewing many ideas.”

KEITH STUMP checks in: “Any classmates or alumni thinking about moving to Sequim or Port Angeles, Wash.? If so, I have a house for sale for you. When my house finally does sell, and when I complete moving my stuff into storage, I’m planning on taking a road trip. Not up to the caliber of the Animal House one, but a drive across the continent to see places I’ve only read about or seen in movies and to visit relatives and, hopefully, friends from Claremont Men’s College and The Claremont Colleges. I’ll keep you posted on my plans, so you have advance notice of my coming— instead of a surprise knock on your door. My best to all my college friends and classmates, especially as we all confront the increasing recognition of our limited time on this beautiful world we’re blessed with.”

And CARL FALCO is also undergoing a major move.

“Lots going on here in N.C. We moved out of our home of 36 years and into my parents’ home a couple of years ago. Our old home is renovated and rented out to a long-term tenant. We are about 60 percent finished with renovations to our new house while we are living in it. I do not recommend this approach to anyone.

Living with only one sink (in the kitchen), no oven, and a house full of dust and construction debris is no fun. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and Christmas will be much better in the renovated home with two kids and their families coming from out of state. More exciting than all of this is the growth rate of the family—both our daughters are expecting. This will bring our grandkid total to six. Our grandparent duties continue to increase, which is a great thing!”

ROB WAGNER reports, “Life is going well for me, and I still enjoy working at Korn Ferry. My wife, Carolyn (Scripps ’72) and I recently bought a house in Ojai, a lovely little town not far from Santa Barbara. I drive in to the Century City office a couple days a week, which is manageable during off hours while I work from home the other three days. My wife and I visit BILL SIMMONS and his wife occasionally in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where they moved full time a few years ago.

They have a nice life in this charming (and safe) town of 125,000, and they travel regularly.”

And in a sad note, the saddest of all, we learned of the passing of BOYD HUDSON. He was a roommate, friend to many of us, tennis partner, avid CMC supporter, Alumni Association past president, College trustee, husband to Alice, and father of two CMC alumni daughters (CLARE ’05 and EMILY ’12). As classmates said: always upbeat and positive, with a smile and positive attitude, with a hearty laugh. Never said a bad word about anyone. One classmate described him as the “quintessential California dude.” We will all miss him.

KEN GILBERT ’73

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

47

spotlight Paul Beninger ’73 P’09 Associate professor of public health and community medicine at Tufts University CONTINUING CRISIS: Paul Beninger ’73 P’09 recalled the haunting chant of gay rights activists outside Food and Drug Administration (FDA) headquarters in Washington, D.C., during the early years of the HIV/AIDS crisis. “Give us the drugs,” the activists implored during a protest outside the FDA, where Beninger began his career in 1987 working in drug development. “We’re dying.” Beninger, who studied mathematics, biology, and psychology at CMC, spent much of his accomplished career on the front lines of the rush to find a cure for HIV/AIDS—a disease for which there still is no vaccine. During an Athenaeum talk earlier this academic year, he spoke about leading the FDA, which today oversees 25 percent of total U.S. consumer spending ($2 trillion). Beninger also worked at Merck & Co. in safety areas like antiinfective drug and biological products, vaccines, anti-diabetic drug products, and oncology drug products. In 2017, he began full-time as a professor at Tufts, and continues to give presentations on the long, frustrating journey to find a cure for “one of the most perplexing medical problems today.” “Now, things are happening much faster,” Beninger assured. “The AIDS crisis changed how the FDA reacted.”

48

CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

From RILEY ATKINS, “Retirement has its rewards! My wife of almost 40 years, Marci, and I traveled to Machu Picchu in Peru and the Galápagos Islands off Ecuador in September. Great trip, save some street unrest in Quito, Ecuador, shutting down the airport and cancelling the trip home for a day.”

Berlin, Germany, a clear message to the auto world that we are here to stay. We launch Model Y, an SUV built on the Model 3 platform, in early 2020. It will hold five or seven people depending on the options you buy. The new ‘Cybertruck,’ Tesla’s pick-up truck to compete with Ford and Chrysler’s trucks, is being unveiled. Exciting times always here.”

CRAIG EVANS writes, “I’m still working full time as the John Bisagno Distinguished Professor of Christian Origins at Houston Baptist University in Texas. I’m on the Freedom 75 retirement plan!”

DOUG MIRELL provided this update: “On the professional front, judgment was entered in September on behalf of Latino plaintiffs I represented in a pro bono voting rights lawsuit against the Compton Unified School District. Though Hispanics constitute over two-thirds of the district’s total population (and 79 percent of the student population), they represent less than half of the citizen voting age population. As a result of racially polarized voting and the existing at-large method of electing members to the district’s Board of Trustees, Hispanic voters have been unable to elect candidates of their choice or otherwise influence the outcome of trustee elections. Our judgment requires that the district abandon its at-large election system, and instead mandates that each trustee must live and run for election in a separate district. The judgment also orders that trustee elections no longer occur in odd-numbered years (when voter turnout is typically abysmal), and that the first by-district election must occur concurrent with the statewide primary election in March 2020.

’74

BRUCE NORMAN checked in again, “No great news on

my end as I continue to enjoy retirement and life as a ‘snowbird’ between Los Alamos, N.M. and Tucson, Ariz. Celebrated the birth of my oldest son’s second daughter this July. That makes three grandchildren for us. Got together with BARRY GOLDBERG and STEVE SHOLL ’75 in Bandon, Ore., for our annual golf outing in September. Barry and I have been doing this since 1986 and Steve got in on the act around 1990. I used to think of them as really bright guys, but they are still working and I’m retired so I’m reevaluating my previous assessment.”

And TIM DONAHOE adds, “While not a lengthy contribution to Class Notes, I would like to pass along a recommendation to everyone: plan a visit to the Banff/ Lake Louise/Bow Valley region of Canada—where my wife, Karen, and I visited last July. It is an area with some of the most spectacular, jaw-droppingly gorgeous scenery I have ever seen. I can’t wait to revisit the lakes, mountains, rivers, waterfalls, and hiking trails.

A must see.”

We did not hear from GIB JOHNSON. SKIP WEISS ’74

skipweiss@aol.com

’75

ALUMNI WEEKEND

2020

Alumni Weekend 2020 has been rescheduled for October 8 to 11. Keep up with the latest updates at www.cmc.edu/ alumniweekend.

BILL ANDREWS ’75

billfandrews@gmail.com

’77

DAVE KAVRELL writes, “After a 40-year

career in the financial world, I have joined the startup CoachList as senior VP of sales. We are the largest digital marketplace for sports in the world. I wish I was 43, not 63, but I’m excited and it should be fun. I have four grandchildren so far. The CMC community lost a great member with the passing of TOM NEFF ’76. It brings to mind that health is everything, so take care of yourselves.” (Al’s note: Over 43 years ago, Dave kindly arranged for me to rent a room from his mom while I did a business internship in the Bay Area.)

On the auto front, REX CLEMENT reports: “Still changing the world at Tesla. Exciting developments are happening here. We are building our fourth plant in

SPRING 2020

“In another matter, I worked on behalf of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists to provide the legal analysis that helped win passage of California Assembly Bill 602. The bill seeks to curb the unauthorized use of so-called ‘deepfake’ artificial intelligence technology that morphs the faces of A-list performers onto others’ nude bodies and into pornographic film performances.

“On the personal front, my wife, Loyola Law School Professor Laurie Levenson, is still teaching; commenting on various legal issues for radio, TV, and print media; and supervising the work of Loyola’s Project for the Innocent that she founded and which, thus far, has exonerated eight individuals. My son, Solly, continues to work in the entertainment industry as a technical production manager on virtual reality and computer game projects, as well as performing IT consulting work for private clients. My daughter, Havi, has just returned to Los Angeles after six years on the East Coast, where she attended Yale Law School, clerked for Judge Denise Cote of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and for Judge José Cabranes of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and completed a fellowship with Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo. She has just begun working as an assistant United States attorney in the Central District of California. Finally, our daughter Daniela is a junior at the University of Michigan majoring in communication; she plans to spend her spring semester studying at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.”

AL HARUTUNIAN III ’77

619-844-5960 al.harutunian@yahoo.com

PAUL BRUGUERA reports that he was recently appointed a Los Angeles Superior Court commissioner. He is assigned to the landlord/tenant (unlawful detainer) courtroom in Norwalk, where he also conducts settlement conferences and handles other civil cases. He already presided over a trial defended by an attorney who attended CMC. Paul’s unlawful detainer calendar is about to get more interesting when California rolls out statewide rent control in January.

’78

On Oct. 2, 2019, Anne and GARY CARSON and Lisa and MARK SCHWARTZ spent the weekend on campus at ImpactCMC. Mark Schwartz reported that they had “a wonderful experience learning about CMC’s new strategic direction and future plans.”

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

’79

Remember Carnac the Magnificent? In an earlier Class Notes (in 2019) I asked the class to prognosticate on several questions. Here are some of the results:

• Will President Trump be in office to start the new

year (yes or no)? Eight predicted yes (DON LOGAN, ERIC WEBER, CLINT GREENBAUM, FORD FROST, KENT BRAITHWAITE, RUSS GREENBERG, SCOTT ANDERHOLT, and STEVE GARCIA); one predicted no.

• Name the leading Democratic presidential

contender in the polls to start the new year: Joe Biden (Anderholt, Garcia).

• Will the stock market be higher or lower as of the

end of 2019 (at the time of the question, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 23,445)? Closest number guess gets extra points. Seven predicted higher (Logan, Frost, Greenberg, WHIT LATIMER, Weber, Braithwaite, and (me) Greenbaum—who also gets extra points for predicting 28,261).

• What movie will win Best Picture at the 2019 Academy Awards? Green Book (Weber).

• What women’s basketball team will win the 2019

NCAA Women’s Division I Basketball Tournament?

Baylor (Latimer)

• How many members of the CMC Class of ’79 will

attend the 40th reunion? Answer: saw 40 in the class picture, so the winner with 40 is Braithwaite.

Recently, I also asked, “Would you get into CMC today?”

But what about, “Would you be expelled from CMC today?” Why? Perhaps for not being politically correct.

I asked the CMC Class of ’79 to share a non-PC story (preferably from your days on campus).

Here’s mine: “As a CMC literature major, I decided to write a play for my senior thesis and produce it. Part

49

’78 Tribute to a best friend “I lost my best friend on Nov. 22, 2019. I met BRIAN KITAGAWA the first day of freshman orientation after upper classmen trapped the freshmen in our rooms. I climbed out the window of my Berger dorm and went across the ledge to an adjoining room and knocked on the window. Brian let me in, and he knew how to remove the pennies from the door jamb to let us out.

That started a long friendship that lasted 45 years. During our sophomore year, I was at the dance when Brian met Nan Miyauchi of Scripps. From that day on, Brian and Nan were inseparable. I was the best man in their wedding. Several years later, Brian was the best man in my wedding.

“Like many other college friends, Brian and I shared dreams together. Brian went to pursue his in Hawaii and I started in Southern California and ended up in Texas.

Through the years we stayed in touch as we each raised families and built businesses.

As the kids grew up, we had more time and we met in Las Vegas, Texas, Hawaii, and California. Most recently, we met in the spring of 2019 in Northern California.

“I have always enjoyed auto racing. Brian, not so much, as he worked daily in the automotive industry. But as the good friend that Brian was, he consented to a three-day racing program at Simraceway. There, we drove open-wheeled cars. Brian was a little reserved on the first day, but by the third day he was asking me if we could come back again and do another class. We recently made plans to get together in Texas in the spring of 2020. That trip is not to be as Brian succumbed to a massive stroke and passed on Nov. 22, 2019.

Brian was very healthy and exercised every day of his life, but when God calls you home, it is time to go. I will sorely miss my best friend. Brian leaves Nan; a son, Ian, and a daughter, Jillian.”—STEVE FITHIAN

50

III was a spoof of movie sequels, and I parodied The Wizard of Oz. During the production, I was called into President Stark’s office. He told me that he had received a letter from a member of the community who had seen my play and thought I was an anti-Semite.

“Knowing that I was a proud Jew, President Stark was surprised as he read the letter to me, which said that my play was ‘in bad taste to the Jewish people, a la Mel Brooks.’

While I explained my play to Stark, all I could think was: ‘What a compliment!’”

DAVID GETTS writes: “I appreciate the point of not being PC and whether we would get expelled from CMC today. It does seem that some of today’s undergraduates are not as open to views that go against their own.

Since most of us went to CMC because it is a liberal arts college, it’s critical (to me) that CMC remains grounded in tolerance, informed debate, and a diversity of views.”

Eric Weber’s politically incorrect story is about dorm bowling at Wohlford and the dorm T-shirts that were generated as a result of that. “Dorm bowling, for those who can’t remember, was a feature of the second stories of the North Quad dorms. A bowling ball rolled down from one end of the hall to a trash can on the other. Bowling balls magically appeared in the dorm to facilitate this great sport. Had no idea how they got there myself. The dorm T-shirts had a picture of a pretty woman with a bowling ball rolling between her legs and the caption, ‘Wohlford, Right up Your Alley.’

One of my suitemates took his shirt home and his mother was aghast to the point that the T-shirt disappeared to his chagrin.

This was certainly the vestige of being an all-male school for a long time, but it was also a great politically incorrect T-shirt for today’s times.”

“Let’s be clear,” writes JOHN BECKER, “I had a 3.68 GPA and 1240 SAT combined score.

I would have trouble getting into the local community college much less CMC by today’s standards. I would also suggest that most of my time at Fawcett was engaged in outrageous activities that would be judged today as unacceptable behavior. That being said, I would not exchange my time and experiences at CMC with any of my peers who went to other outstanding educational schools. I fondly remember checking people into the walls in Beckett (thank you Mr. PETE CROLIUS ’80 for teaching me the nuances of dorm hall hockey), using funnellators to rain down water balloons on the soccer field, dropping Heineken bottles down the stairwells looking to make the perfect eight-story drop, listening to the gongs from Harvey Mudd during finals week, beer pong, beer without pong,

playing croquet on the lawn while drinking Pimm’s No. 5 Cup (with a celery stalk), hearing my roommate play Dark Side of the Moon while transfixed into a mindnumbing stare at the ‘don’t walk’ sign, and a list of many other experiences too long to mention.”

Here is some real news: David Getts reports: “I continue to work on the same interstate electric transmission project (SunZia) that I have been working on for the last 13 years. Developing infrastructure in the U.S. is tough. We hope to start construction in another two to three years. My wife, Sarah, continues with her two part-time jobs, a deacon at our local Episcopal church and as the Archdeacon for the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona. She’s waiting for me to retire. Our three children are all well: Katherine and her husband, Kevin, and 1-year-old Elise live in Seattle, William is moving from Charleston, S.C., to San Francisco with his employer, Pure Insurance, and Hannah continues in Los Angeles, working for FilmNation Entertainment.”

Eric Weber is “the chief operating officer for an addiction treatment company that focuses on, ready for it, college and university kids. We’re in nine universities across the U.S. It’s called The Haven at College and we’re doing God’s good work helping these kids.

“My oldest daughter has gone back for her Ph.D. at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. We had a close call with her this last year, as she had a mental illness that has been brought under control with focus and the right medicines. And she’s back in school. Not a failure to launch but a not ready to launch either at 32.

Still on my cell phone plan.

“My youngest daughter, KELSEY WEBER ’13, is working as a food stylist in Hollywood on commercials and films. She’s got a boyfriend who is growing on me and two dogs that my dog crouches in fear of behind me when they come to the house. She’s off my cell phone plan.

“We’re off on a two-week cruise to the Greek Isles, Turkey, and the Holy Land the first part of December.

Looking forward to our first trip to the Holy Land.”

Lastly from me, Clint, “my daughter, Augusta, ran her third marathon, timing in at 3:58:11 at the 2019 New York City Marathon. And during the summer, on my ElliptiGO, I paced a neighborhood runner. In the NYC Marathon, this runner, Jordan Daniel, finished 44th in a field of 53,517 runners with a time of 2:26:27!

“Our son, Jake, celebrated his 30th birthday on Nov. 29, 2019. His entire life has been a miracle since he is a brain tumor survivor, having been diagnosed at three months. While Jake has never talked and has learning disabilities, like his dad, he is a biker and a swimmer.

“Recently, my wife, Elisa, and I saw Julie Andrews at a book signing event. I am proud to report, that my wife is even more ‘practically perfect’ than Mary Poppins!”

CLINT GREENBAUM ’79

61 Seafield Lane Westhampton Beach, NY 11978 cgreenbaum@aol.com

CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

Once again, the illustrious Class of 1980 outdid itself by 2020 answering the following question: “If you could go back to CMC and change your major, what would it be and why?”

’80

ALUMNI WEEKEND

We had some excellent responses and now have good news to those of you who did reply. For a nominal fee (to be defined by the development office!), your diploma can now reflect your new major. You see, it pays to respond to my Class Notes emails!

From BILL LEBLANC: “I’m going with environment, economics, and politics because that’s what I’m basically doing now. But I’m not sure I’d trade that for finishing up at Stanford with the 3-2 program.”

From JOHN SPINOSA: “I would have done a dual major in chemistry/math or chemistry/CS. “My wife and I moved from San Diego to Carpinteria, Calif., and love it up here. I took a job at Agilent Technologies in their companion diagnostics division (CDx). Our CDx group develops molecular assays to characterize which cancers will respond to newer cancer therapies.”

From PABLO NATHAN: “I would have added philosophy: it would have helped with my thought process.

“We should all be thankful for Wayne’s leadership in bringing us together in a few months and we all know better that we cannot let Wayne down! I am fortunate to visit campus quite often and it looks beyond amazing! The events surrounding reunion weekend are superb. We all have lots to catch up on, as well as reminiscing about the good times we had at CMC.” From ART DODD: “History: interesting; a small department with an excellent faculty.”

From DOUGLAS EDWARDS: “I honestly wouldn’t change a thing about my studies at CMC.” From PAMELA POLZIN: “If I could go back and change my major, I would have chosen political science instead of psychology.

“I am approaching my 30th year with Pfizer as a pharmaceutical rep in the Orange County area. My husband and I live in the beautiful town of Laguna Beach, Calif., and spend our summers at our home in the South of France, drinking wine, eating oysters, and going to the local fêtes. Life is good.”

From BROOKE TRAUT: “Economics to international economics (Latin America focus).”

From CARSON GRAVES: “Classmate and friend to all he knew, CRAIG STEPHENSON died on July 23, 2019, from complications as result of a stroke. A memorial service was held in October in Craig’s home in Albuquerque, N.M. Besides me, in attendance were BRENT HARRIS ’81 and Richard Garcia, Pomona ’80. Weeks prior to his passing, I was fortunate to have a visit from Craig here in Seattle, where we spent a frolic night over sushi and sake. Craig’s signature tagline for the past several years was PEACELOVETRUTH. Indeed, my friend.”

From JOSEPH MCDONNELL: “My aunt took the entire immediate family on a cruise to Alaska in August. There were 12 of us total. We also discovered stowaways

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in ROGER MCGILLIS, his wife (Saint) Camille, and his two-year-old son Eliel. It was an incredible experience.

Roger was so impressed by the rugged unspoiled beauty, he called the Department of Interior in efforts to add the state to his real estate portfolio. He offered $6,480,000, (10 percent below cost) and is hopeful they will hit his bid.”

Finally, if you are planning to attend Alumni Weekend 2020, it has been rescheduled for October 8 to 11.

Keep up with the latest updates at www.cmc.edu/ alumniweekend.

If you still plan to attend in fall, please email me if you’d be interested in staying at a nearby hotel for the Class of 1980.

It’ll be a great celebration of 40 years since graduation.

Be there or be square!

WAYNE SLAVITT ’80

wayneslavitt@gmail.com

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JANE SEMEL shared: “I have a new grandson! I’ve been hiring CMCers as pre-med scribes in my office and it has been fun to mentor them. I have also been the team ophthalmologist for the Kings for years.”

MARC SALEH shared: “Anton, our son, 24, ran the NYC

marathon in under three hours and raised about $5K for lymphoma research in the effort (he’s had CTCL since eighth grade). Annette and I watched him run.”

JOHNNY ELLIS shared: “After 30 years in the Alaska House and Senate, I was recently named a senior strategic advisor for The North Star Group, a policy and planning firm with offices in Anchorage, Alaska, and D.C. I also edited a University of Alaska Press book entitled Lobbying the Alaska Legislature and Alaska State Government.

“I am the consultant to the Alaska Democratic Party’s coordinated campaign in support of two independent

campaigns for U.S. House and Senate. And finally, I am active in the effort to recall Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy.”

NOHEMI FERGUSON shared: “This year was an emotional roller coaster as FRANK was diagnosed with cancer in January. After a stressful six months, he underwent a successful course of treatment at City of Hope, which ended just in time for our daughter Natalie’s wedding to our charming new son-in-law, Austin Cross. Frank was able to walk Natalie down the aisle and dance the father/daughter dance with her. Thank you to all our CMC friends for your prayers and thoughts. God is good!”

NOHEMI FERGUSON ’82 P’17

nohemi.ferguson@gphlawyers.com Hi, team. I sent out the same questionnaire I sent out in 2008, and some of you were good sports and filled in the blanks. Thanks! It seems that we all turned out good, and it’s fun to know what paths our classmates have travelled. In 2008, CMC editors made me put the question list into prose, so I’ll do that again. Presented to you in the order I copied and pasted:

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HENRY OLSEN, rmn1968train@verizon.net, lives in Alexandria, Va. He’s engaged to be married next fall to Audrey Mullen. He has two kids: “Sarah, 20, who is researching her college options, and Henry IV, 16, junior and drum master.” For work, Henry is a columnist for The Washington Post, and senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. I asked, “Is it fun?” to which he replied, “You betcha!” His favorite pastime is watching Premier League football; last book read was American Carnage by Tim Alberta; last movie seen was Joker. I asked, “What is the most interesting thing you’ve done since graduation?” “Raise two children.” “The most unexpected thing you’ve done?” “Changed careers four times.” The new question this time was “What’s your favorite browser?” “Firefox.”

’82 Honoring the champs “CMC celebrated the 1979 Stags Football Conference Championship on Nov. 16, 2019, as the Stags beat Pomona! The day included a tailgate, recognition of the 1979 Championship team (first outright football championship) at halftime of the game, a reception and tour of Roberts Pavilion after the game. It was all capped by a dinner at the Athenaeum that night. Class of 1982 attendees were me, CHARLIE KLINGE, JON STOTT, DAVE EBY, BILLY REED, and TIM GAVOTTO ’83. There was a great turnout by the entire team and we had a fun time sharing stories from our football days and getting caught up with everyone’s personal lives. Also, our Class of 1982 ASB president, DAVE MGRUBLIAN, was at the tailgate celebration and the game.”—WARD LENNON

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LARRY (CHIP) ANDRÉ, msafiriafrique@gmail.com, sends this: “My big news is the arrival of Isidore (Izzy) Dieudonné André. I’m a new daddy again. Ouroukou gave birth to our son on Oct. 23, 2019.” For my question list, they still live in Djibouti, where Chip serves as the U.S. ambassador. Chip says his wife, Ouroukou Younoussi André, is a first-time mom. Prior to her pregnancy, she danced strenuous Zumba routines three hours a day, so she is very athletic. An update on Chip’s kids: “Ruhiyyih (Ruhi) Rahman André, 27, has lived and worked in Nairobi, Kenya, since graduating from University of Virginia in 2014. She works for Kenyan firms, thriving in a challenging environment. I am very proud of her. Isidore (Izzy) Dieudonné André, 10 days at the time of writing, sleeps, eats, and processes what he eats. I have high expectations that his repertoire will expand over time.” They have pets: Bobbi (African mix) and Miki (African wildcat/domestic mix). Raised together from a very young age, best friends.

I asked, is his work fun? “We have a great embassy team and 5,000 U.S. military folks at our base 10 minutes away. Djiboutians are hospitable and well disposed toward us. Loads of fun.” Favorite pastime is listening to audio books as he works out, mostly treadmill, and also enjoys snorkeling the reefs around Djibouti and swimming with whale sharks when the migration arrives. Last book read: Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance. Last movie seen: Not a movie, but he highly recommended the Ken Burns documentary series, Country Music. Most interesting thing you’ve done since graduation: “Peace Corps in Senegal. Obviously that experience set me on my subsequent path.” Most unexpected thing you’ve done since graduation: “I never thought I’d be an ambo.

Now I am well into my second ambo gig.” Favorite browser: “Chrome.” Other things you wish we’d asked: “As I age, my certain truths become fewer and my ‘yet to be determined’ list becomes longer. In other words, less judgmental and more open to listening to a wide range of perspectives.”

MICHAEL TURPIN, TRexDad1961@gmail.com, lives in New Canaan, Conn., with his wife, who “has stopped aging and it is quite annoying. I remind her of Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, but since we tend to marry our opposites, her painting over the mantle remains unchanged. I bear the hard lines of travel and life in the salt mines of healthcare.” Daughter is living in L.A. as an S.C. grad and tearing up the insurance industry for MetLife. Middle son living in the lower West Village in N.Y. (he has a permanent grin on his face) and is working for IBM consulting and (I think Mike accidentally deleted “youngest son is”) a senior at Duke about to graduate in machine learning and AI. Michael says “I don’t understand anything he tells me but he can scare me faster than a Stephen King novel.

I tell him to beware of Terminators returning to try to kill him.”

Michael continues, “Love, love, love being with my family, including brothers, two of which are also CMC grads (MILES ’79 and PAT ’88). My kids are very funny, compassionate, and hard-working paramecium that will soon morph into complex multi-celled creatures.”

Pet: “Aussie, who is my sage and best friend. Never asks me for money and is the only one happy to see me come home.” Mike works as a healthcare consultant

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and humorist/author. I asked, “Is it fun?” “Yes, I have a much better chance getting into heaven as a consultant helping fight the current stakeholders than when I was a CEO of a large MCO trying to profit off it. I believe public option is inevitable, but 10 years off.” Favorite pastime: “My family, writing/reading, and staggering around my front yard in a wine-soaked bathrobe telling people to get off my lawn.” Last book read: JD Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy. “Reminded me of Berger Hall in 1980.” Last movie seen: “I stream everything.

Hung up on Goliath now. Golden Age of writing.” Most interesting thing done since graduation: “Lived in London for three years with my family and published three books—working on my fourth but nowhere near as awesome as SHELLEY BLANTON-STROUD’s new novel Copy Boy. You must order it!” Most unexpected thing done since graduation: “Given testimony to Institute of Medicine on impact of Obamacare on small business.

Coolest thing was attending the Bohemian Grove with DAVID SPENCER ’86 and cornering George Schultz and Henry Kissinger by a fire one night. An epic four days!

Can’t say anymore or they will shoot me.”

Other things you wish we’d asked: “Love seeing my friends from CMC. Miss a lot of West Coast functions being in New York. CAROL (OLIVER) HARTMANN ’86 is always great about calling! Miss MATT PYKEN, STEVE RICHARDSON, JOHN GALLOWAY ’84, STEVE HARDY ’85, and DAVE ORLANDO ’84, as we were inseparable and now I can’t even commit to seeing any of them six months in advance. Have seen a lot of BLAKE ISAACSON’81 and his sons, Pam and STEVE EGGERT ’82 P’15, Linda and BRIAN BULLOCK ’81, DEAN JENSEN who married into the Turpin family, MATT KAWAMURA ’82, ETHAN BINDLEGLASS ’82, Lisa and JR WETZEL ’80, JEFF BROTHERS ’81, Marge and ED ANDERSON ’82, Dee and BILLY REED ’82 P’10, RAY KIDO ’82, and Marisa and JEFF RECORDS ’81. Big shout out to SANDY YOUNG ’81, STEVE SCHIRO ’80, DAVE FLATTEN ’80, and the myriad upperclassmen who adopted me into their alumni thicket like a feral cat. You fed me, boys, and I keep coming back! Sorry if I missed anyone. Here’s to Torrey and Katie Sun—wishing him a prosperous next chapter and thanking him for burning my college dossier which inventories my dorm damage and questionable choices.”

Next up, SKIP SANZERI. He’s married to Lori—“the love of my life, been married since 1989. How and why she puts up with me, I really cannot fathom.” They live in San Mateo, Calif. Their kids are Nick, 27, and Hunter, 25.

“Nick is a professional baseball coach (was a waaaay better player than I was). He works with many DI colleges and professional players putting together their pitching programs, and Hunter works in quantum computing as director of finance for Quantum Thought.”

Skip works in Venture Capital. Is it fun? “Yes, I enjoy it a lot. Previously I was operational, and now it’s easier to have a larger impact via more companies than a single operational company.” Favorite pastime: “Spending time with family, yoga, boxing (I know, boxing and yoga seem oxymoronic), quantum physics (it’s so weird at the subatomic level).” Last book read: The New Confessions of an Economic Hitman—good read if you want to understand how global politics really

works. Last movie seen: Ad Astra—did not really do the job in my opinion; basically seemed like a movie that just focused on Brad Pitt’s face.” Most interesting thing done since graduation: “Sorry, but I don’t have any noteworthy activities—travel, business, blah blah blah.” Most unexpected thing done since graduation: “Maybe not quite ‘what I have done’ but rather what happened—probably a health scare. I was diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia in 2010.

Somehow survived and clear since.” Favorite browser: “Google Chrome.”

Other things you wish we’d asked: “People we have seen: Been in touch with NOAH MESEL and have seen him quite a bit as we work through deals in the Valley. I really enjoy Noah (he hasn’t changed much), although I do have to state for the record that Noah seems to get on my nerves most of the time (that DEFINITELY has not changed since college). Fun fact, Noah was the first person I met in the summer of 1979 at an alumni event in the Bay Area before heading to CMC for our freshman year. Was in touch with WADE VESEY, and we are looking to schedule a lunch soon. I haven’t seen him since 1983 either. Saw JEFF COLLINS and PAUL SCHULZ ’85 P’21—two of my CMC baseball teammates.

Paul hosted us at his house in La Cañada Flintridge in October, and we had a very enjoyable evening. I had not seen Paul since 1983, and Jeff for 15 years, so wonderful to catch up and sad that we have taken so long to get together. Also, I have been in touch with JONATHAN ROSENBERG, who co-authored an amazing book with Eric Schmidt, Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell.”

Next is RICK SEGIL, rick@segil.net. He “hosted a mini CMC/Berger Boys reunion in August at our home in San Diego—DAVID SLOVES ’81, JAY ALLEN ’81, BLAKE CLARKE ’81, BOB MULLEN ’82 plus Segil and BRIAN DANIELLS. Was visiting my son at Chicago Booth last week and saw old roommate PETER MUIZNIEKS for the first time in a long while—and then saw Little Feat, as well, at the Vic. Great trip back to my old hometown.”

Rick is married to Elizabeth Streett Segil, Scripps/Cal Poly ’84. Their kids are Melissa, married to Alex Jopek— both Middlebury alumni, and Lucas, now engaged to Zoe—his high school charm, both went to Cal, and are now in Chicago working for Booth/Northwestern Law. Other things you wish we’d asked: “Spending summers doing 6- to 8-week road trips across the west, Montana and Idaho mostly. Pickup truck and a couple dogs.”

My turn. TAMMIE (CALEF) KRISCIUNAS: “Vic and I, along with KAREN JACOBSON and her husband, JERRY SCHWARTZ ’82, visited GAIL SILBERMAN MCCARTHY and her husband, Neal McCarthy, at their New Jersey beach house. It was fab to see everyone, but we were all grumpy that ELAINE ROSSI and hubby Ted Leon couldn’t make it from Hawaii—although, admittedly, it is a long way from Hawaii to LBI for the weekend. I asked: “Spouse and fascinating details:” “Still Vic. He’s a full-time family doc, but we’re starting to plan to drop to part-time in a year or so and hoping to travel more.

We’re both still in good health, but no longer take it for granted. For pets, we have a 130-gallon marine aquarium with coral and fish. Tons of work, but so cool. We still live in downtown Portland, where I’m still faculty at Casey Eye Institute, Oregon Health & Science

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spotlight Jonathan Rosenberg ’83 P’14 Co-author of Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell LEADER OF THE HUDDLE: The late Bill Campbell taught Jonathan Rosenberg ’83 P’14 that the best way to reach people is through storytelling. Trillion Dollar Coach, Rosenberg’s ode to Campbell’s leadership principles, is doing just that. The self-described playbook, co-authored with Eric Schmidt and Alan Eagle, has received numerous accolades, including a spot on Bloomberg’s Best Business Books of 2019 (as recommended by tennis great Maria Sharapova).

Rosenberg, an advisor to Alphabet management and former senior vice president of Google, met with Campbell every two weeks over the course of a decade, joining a small group of Silicon Valley legends like Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and Marissa Mayer. “Bill believed it is your people that make you a leader, and that you need your people to elect you captain of the team,” said Rosenberg, who holds a bachelor’s in economics with honors from CMC. “He broke you down like a football player.” In a book filled with valuable leadership lessons, perhaps the biggest takeaway is also the simplest, Rosenberg shared: “Bill brought love and caring into the workplace in a way that almost no one ever does.”

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World-class woodwork

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“We’ve spent the last 14 and a half years in China; 10 of that in the far northwest Xinjiang Province until most foreigners were forced out of there two years ago.

We are now in the east and looking to move our factory to the Shanghai area to serve the upper end market there with woodwork. If you know any alumni in Shanghai, please connect us!

“As I did in the States for 20 years, we do complete woodwork interiors (or small parts thereof): French parquet flooring, doors, kitchens, wainscoting, coffered ceilings, and furniture—all with solid American hardwoods and natural rubbed oil finishes. Most of what we produce is for the domestic China luxury home market, but we still send projects back to the States—we even did some flooring for a home on Fry’s Electronics’ private island in the Bahamas! I’m the chief designer on all this, which is my passion. Now I just need to find an integrator to run daily operations!

“I love creating functional and beautiful things in wood. I put my CMC international management degree to work—it is fun taking workers who’ve never done woodwork before, some of them villagers without much education, and setting up systems and training where the team effort results in consistent world-class woodwork. We employ a mixture of computerized machinery and traditional hand techniques to make natural wood interiors in traditional oldworld European styles. I’m also starting some design thinking on woodwork that can fit into a more modern, contemporary design aesthetic yet be comfortable, natural, and more ergonomic—and easy to live with than the hard lines and white paint of minimalism.

“Our three kids are scattered and thriving. Eldest is doing her master’s in architecture in Scotland, second just graduated in Arizona, and our son is in his third year of engineering at ORU in Oklahoma. I would love to catch up with old friends; drop me a note at scott@carving.com. That’s our website also if you want a little taste of what I’m been doing.”— SCOTT SPIESS

University, teaching ophthalmology residents optics, refraction, and contact lens, and have a full-time clinical optometric practice there, with a specialty in contact lens.” Is it fun? “Yes, although ‘paperwork’ gets annoying.

I love creating new teaching materials for the residents.”

Favorite pastime? “Spending time with Vic and our friends, while traveling, sailing, tasting wine, snow skiing, cooking, attending ballet and concerts, trying to ballroom dance, or just hanging out.” Last book read: “Am in the middle of The Virgin Suicides; can’t figure out how it will end, but super fun, twisty use of language.

I get most of my book recommendations from my patients.” Last movie seen: “Hmm—can’t remember, but we just got tickets to the Sundance Film Festival for January in Park City, Utah.” Most interesting thing done since graduation: “Probably living on a 120-foot yacht for three years, working as a chef, on the East Coast, Mediterranean, Caribbean, and Bahamas, although jumping freight trains with Elaine Rossi during freshman year was pretty interesting. But that was before graduation.” Most unexpected thing done since graduation: “Settled blissfully into ‘the same happiness’ for the past 23 years. It turns out it’s really nice to live in

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the same great place, with the same fab husband, the same nice friends, and the same nice job for so long. It helps that my husband is also very happy staying put.

Where do we want to retire to? Portland!”

What’s my favorite browser: “I got so fed up with Google giving me ads instead of taking me where I wanted to go, so I finally looked into other browsers, and I LOVE Swisscows and DuckDuckGo. They put the ‘official site’ on the top of your list.” Other things I wish I’d asked: “Hmm, ‘Please offer up some words of wisdom.’ But then I’d have to answer it. Maybe I’d say I think my life is happier because we never have done any social media. Maybe I’d offer my life motto since high school: ‘Live life as though you would live forever, and as if you will die tomorrow.’ It has served me well.”

This from RON PERRY, ron.perry@commercialenergy. net: Ron’s wife, Barbara Ranck-Perry, was born and raised in the oil and gas industry in Cut Bank, Mont. (one stoplight, 2,200 people, still). He has a stepson, Patrick, and regarding pets: “50 thoroughbred racehorses, from weanlings and yearlings, to 15 of racing age (right now all between 2 and 3), to 15 broodmares, including Marley’s Freedom (Google her,

she had an amazing race career), to a stallion (He Be Fire N Ice), to three retirees that live with us in Rancho Santa Fe (Atticus Pomponius, Duplo Rapido, and Gonna Fly Now).”

They spend time between their retirement house in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., five minutes from the Del Mar racetrack, and still have the Oakland Hills house for the business. For work? “Trying to be retired, but still own the energy business we started in 1997, Commercial Energy, as well as the production companies Ranck Oil and ROC Gathering. So, split time between that and learning to ride our horses and grow our racehorse business. Have not disciplined myself to really learn the guitar or piano or get in good shape, yet.” Is it fun?

“Horse racing is amazing, from watching the babies develop and blossom in the early mornings to the minute or two they actually race and time stands still. Putting that together with my love of music (and naming horses after songs) completes a circle of life.”

Favorite pastime: “Horse racing and music.”

Last book read: “Last couple are an interesting dichotomy, Citizen Cohn and How Democracies Die (this one is for Dr. Elliott).” Last movie seen: “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Most interesting thing done since graduation: “Connecting my love of music and my passion for public speaking to testify to the California Energy Commission and the California Public Utility Commission on the (r)evolution of energy policy one year after my ‘retirement party.’ Has led me to a new role and responsibility which probably costs more than what we gain, but is fulfilling and would not have happened if I had not left day-to-day responsibilities.”

Most unexpected thing done since graduation: “My wife teaching me about horses and then racehorses.”

Favorite browser? “Always defaulted to Google, but when I could not find my own company on top of a search, even after paying a premium for it, I have quietly cursed Rosenberg, and hope he is still cashing out. May take your advice on new browsers, thanks.”

Other things you wish we’d asked: “I liked your advice line: Since I was diagnosed (incorrectly) with ALS before my senior year at CMC, I have always tried to live each day as it were my last. Happy to be wrong about that.”

And finally, LISA SCHAMEL CUNDALL, lcundall@gmail. com, tells us that she “broke (a small part of ) my back in August, now same kid insists I wear a safety vest when riding. Took fifth in a nine-mile equithon (I ride nine miles, my partner then runs the course). Currently working on western dressage.” To my question, spouse and fascinating details: “Still single, again.” Update on the kids: “Abbi, 22, studying in Santiago, where they are on curfew and can smell tear gas from the riot.

GAH. Devin, 19, sorting himself out.” For pets: “Three horses, two dogs, three cats (five if you count the very feral barn cats), various chickens, ducks, and seasonal turkeys (not really pets)” Lisa still lives on her ranch in Sierra Foothills, Calif. “Looking at moving to Idaho to get out of wildfire season.” For work? “Work at the gulag 24/7—yay – retirement and ranch living!” Is it fun? “Usually, but couldn’t we have two weeks where nothing and nobody needs fixing?” Favorite pastime: “Trail riding.” Last book read: “The Golem and The Gypsy. Great read!” Most interesting thing done since graduation: “Loved being an optometrist, loved being

CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

a full-time mom, had a great trip to Peru with Abbi— loved the hostel and backpack travel style. Planning a horseback trek in Patagonia.” Most unexpected thing done since graduation: “Probably switching to rural life.”

Favorite browser: “I have to agree with DuckDuckGo!” That’s it for this time. Stay healthy and happy. Your devoted Class Liaison.

TAMMIE (CALEF) KRISCIUNAS ’83

tammiekrisciunas@mindspring.com ANDREW GORDON: “Our classmate ROBERTO ANGOTTI made an award-

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winning documentary film called Italian American Baseball Family. Casa Italiana di Las Vegas sponsored a showing and Q&A with Roberto in September. I attended, as did MARC RISMAN ’75, and got to catch up with Roberto before he jetted off to Bonn, Germany, to meet up with the Italian national baseball team. Congratulations to Roberto on creating a wonderful film.”

JAMES HANLEY: “This year I took on the role as CEO

of Crowd Machine, a tech company in Silicon Valley focused on Cross Cloud application integration and building applications and microservices without code, in the cloud. Still living in Newport Beach, enjoying boating and beach activities. Recently took the boat to Mexico for seven months where we toured Baja and the Sea of Cortez. Enjoying my family time with my wife, Cathy Jean, sons Spencer and Tristan, and daughters Nicole and Michelle—all living and working in Orange County.”

SHARI WEINTRAUB: “I am now with Wilson Getty LLP in Del Mar, Calif., practicing litigation in elder care and medical malpractice matters. I am enjoying being out of the large firm/‘downtown’ grind. The firm actually also has a Pomona alumnus and a Scripps alumna. It’s so rare in San Diego to practice with a CMC alumnus, but to have three Claremont Colleges alumni in a single office feels like hitting a trifecta! It was amazing and great to see so many classmates at our 35th reunion in May 2019 and I am looking forward to seeing many more at our 40th (!) in 2024!”

JEROME HAIG ’84

jeromehaig@me.com

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ALUMNI

JUAN CARLOS MATEOS: “It has

been a long time since I sent 2020 an update for Class Notes. I will be brief: After graduating from CMC in 1985, I returned to Mexico City to work at Procter & Gamble in finance.

Great experience, an excellent place to start working after college. A few years later, I went for an M.B.A., and I was very fortunate to be admitted to Harvard Business School. I graduated from HBS in 1990 and since then I have worked in the financial sector in New York and in Mexico City, along with the corporate sector in Mexico City. I had a long and productive career in Latin American equity research at Merrill Lynch, BBVA, and HSBC. In addition, I was very lucky to be able to return to the corporate sector a few years ago, where I was WEEKEND

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CFO of several publicly-traded Mexican companies. I retired from the corporate world a year ago and have been working in some advisory and consulting projects with former colleagues from the investment banking sector. I have certainly enjoyed being the owner of my own time, which I have spent with my wife, Veronica (married in 1995), our son RICARDO ’20, who is a senior at CMC, majoring in politics, philosophy and economics (PPE), and with our daughter Alejandra (Ale), who is a freshman at Scripps College, majoring in psychology. Veronica and I just came back to Mexico City. We spent Thanksgiving in Pasadena with my best friend in life, ANDY WALTER. I hope to see you at the 35th reunion.”

Finally, if you are planning to attend Alumni Weekend 2020, it has been rescheduled for October 8 to 11. Keep up with the latest updates at www.cmc.edu/alumniweekend.

DAVE EASTIS ’85

7davide007@gmail.com KURT KUYPER: I still live in Arizona with my wife, Isabelle, Scripps ’85, who loves teaching high school at a private school in Scottsdale. My daughter, Gabrielle, is also teaching at the same school after graduating from SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) with a degree in sequential art—something I never heard of prior to her identifying the school.

It prepared her to manage animation and film projects including storyboarding from A-Z. Our older son, Hans, is a freshman at SMU, where he ran into CAROL (OLIVER) HARTMAN and her daughter, Kate, who is a senior there this semester—a ‘small world moment,’ as Carol said.

My youngest son, Kieran, is taking a gap year between high-school and college, working for an excavation company and managing a house full of foreign-exchange students not far from our home. He plans to pursue a career in mechanical or aerospace engineering and is also considering entering the Navy—following in the footsteps of my father, Don (a retired Navy captain), who passed away two years ago. After a circuitous journey, I am back in the doughnut business heading up a new joint venture, W.K.S. Krispy Kreme, LLC, operating locations in eight states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wisconsin). If any needs some sweet treats, give me a call.”

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MARK SISSON: “I’m living in Tustin, Calif., with my beautiful wife, Karen, and two daughters, Emily, 14, and Claire, 12. I’ve been with my company called Wolters Kluwer for the past eight years running software development teams in L.A., Minneapolis, and the Ukraine. The products I oversee are primarily in the commercial banking space. I just finished an online master’s degree in data science from the University of Wisconsin, so I’m trying to figure out how to weave that into my career. When I’m not working, I’m playing

Community impact

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“I’m a ‘recovering attorney,’ now practicing restorative justice for a community-based nonprofit, L.A. CADA. We assist marginalized populations with alternative sentencing (treatment in lieu of incarceration), housing, and advocacy. In addition to appearing in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of those we serve, we operate an in-custody treatment program at Los Angeles County’s Men’s Central Jail, two residential treatment programs, and multiple outpatient treatment programs throughout Los Angeles County. I’m celebrating 10 years with the agency in December.

I’m currently the director of program development, and it affords me the privilege of partnering with other great nonprofits (Homeboy Industries, L.A. Mission, AIDS Health Foundation, to name a few) to create prevention and treatment programs, and housing opportunities for systems-impacted adults. I love what I do. And yes, we accept charitable donations (LACADA. com). I’m also an adjunct professor at Azusa Pacific University’s Graduate School of Psychology (since 2011) and the Los Angeles Community Colleges (since 2018). I live in Atwater Village, and only Jen Tsang could get me to report in. Love you, Jen!” —BILL TARKANIAN

poker, golfing, having fun with my girls, and running 5K’s, 10K’s, and half marathons. In April 2020, I’m going to take on Ragnar SoCal, wish me luck! Go Stags!”

DAVE TOOMEY: “My wife of 26 years, Helene, and I are living in the west side of L.A. as we have since college.

Helene came out to L.A. after graduating in 1986 from Colby College in Maine. We met on a blind date in 1991 and the rest is history. Our son, Gray, is a sophomore at USC’s Thornton School of Music as a music industry major and jazz performance minor. Our daughter, Cypress, is a freshman at Dartmouth. She is on the dive team as a walk-on and so far, she’s managed very few belly-flops. Helene gave up her career as a golf

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“Every fall I manage to get back to CMC to catch a Stags football game or two with my kids and my dad (89 years old and still going strong). Always nice to see some familiar faces like JOHN FARANDA ’79, Professor Jerry Eyrich P’83, MIKE HAAS ’79, MIKE SUTTON ’76, et al.

If we hit it on the right weekend, we also see teams from the past attending the game and reliving memories of greatness on and off the field.

“Every summer going back many years we have hosted a gathering of CMC friends and their spouses at our home for an evening of laughs, good food, and stories of the past—including Leslie and TOM WHITTEMORE, Sharon and DAVE NEAULT, Chrissy and LARRY O’BRIEN, Karen and MARK SISSON, Lisa and BILLY THOMPSON ’88, Laura and MIKE LANG ’87, Kathy and DALE JACKSON ’88, Kris and BOB MOORE ’88, and MJ and MIKE SUTTON ’76. Each year, we acknowledge how fortunate we are for our friendship of 30-plus years— and for the fact that we somehow keep getting better with age. CMC was a special place for so many of us. I am grateful for the memories and for the people I met along the way.”

JEFF DODSON: “My wife and I moved to the Kansas City area last summer after almost 20 years in Chicago. My wife, Amy, got a new job teaching high school science in Kansas and I continue in my 20th year as a senior level life sciences executive recruiter.

My work travels regularly take me to the Northeast, Chicago, California, and Europe.

“We are sort of empty nesters, with two sons in college and a daughter working full-time in Chicago. Best wishes to all.”

pro when we had kids, so it will be interesting to see how she fills her time after dedicating countless hours as a mom. I’m excited for her to have the opportunity to focus on the next chapter. As for me, I’ve been in commercial real estate brokerage since graduating from CMC (13 years at CBRE and 20 years at Cresa). My clients are mainly tech and media companies, so it’s been a fun and interesting ride.

56

JOANNA KISHNER: “Life is good. I have been a district court judge for almost 10 years and I enjoy public service.

ANDREW GORDON ’84 is a federal judge, so although only a few of us are from Vegas, we have two judges.

There are some other CMC classmates whom I get to see, such as JONATHAN SCHWARTZ ’83, who was an ME, and MARC RISMAN ’75, who is an attorney and was there a few years before us and is active in our community. PAUL CHAKMAK ’86 P’16 P’19 also used to live in Vegas and was the CMC connection, as his kids were CMCers. As with most of us, I have two college-age kids. I enjoy the balance of family, community service, work, and friends.”

ANNE DOBBINS BULLARD: “I’m still living in La Mesa, Calif.

(San Diego), with my husband, Greg, Pomona ’88. Our

two sons are in college, one a senior at the University of San Diego and the other a junior at CU Boulder.

Greg and I just started consulting on cybersecurity for products and services, and it looks like we will be busy with that.”

JENNIFER TSANG: “It was a quarter of a century ago that I moved to Santiago, Chile. And until just six weeks ago, it’s been a very comfortable ride, both professionally and personally. The recent political-social unrest has been frightening, making me wish a bit to be back home. But since the passing of both my parents in 2016 and 2017, it makes less sense to return stateside.

“I’ve worked in a handful of large Chilean corporations, both public and family-owned. All kinds of industries— consumer goods (food and beverages), copper and aluminum, real estate, university education, pension fund administration, and most recently, automotive.

Almost always in the analytical areas—business development, finance, strategic planning, performance measurement, and business intelligence. I had breakfast with my old flame, DAVE ORLANDO ’84, during a visit to San Francisco earlier this year; it’s always fun to catch up with him.

“My kids are all teenagers (19, 16, and 14), and since we started our family late in life, it looks like I’ll be working until our 50th class reunion! If you’ve never made it down to South America, come for a visit one day! To my knowledge, NICK BAGATELOS and DAVE SPENCER are the only ones that have ever made it here.”

DAVID MOLINARO: “Family—my wife and I continue to happily visit family (and our home) in Denver, striving for once a quarter. My mother-in-law, Jetta, turned a spry 98 this year and still lives at home, albeit with a caregiver. We should all be as healthy as she is at 98.

My daughter is back living at home while she pursues her second bachelor’s degree, with about a year to go in her nursing program. Friends—as the organizers of the Mojave Death Race (www.mojavedeathrace. com), we had another successful and wacky year out in the Mojave. We ushered about 300-plus athletes and volunteers through about 24 hours of team racing in a mountain bike, road bike, and running relay race for teams. On another subject, it seems odd this year to be talking to friends more in earnest about retirement plans. Some already have solid plans with a specific date in mind. Time doesn’t wait. Career—my transition to architecture feels complete. I switched firms last year and passed my one-year anniversary at a 100 percent employee-owned company recently. With both healthcare and science/tech projects to manage, my days include mostly keeping project on schedule, on budget, and in scope. I occasionally get to architect, too! My focus seems to include an increasing amount of business development, so it’s been fun to make new contacts and explore our world of connectedness.

Cheers to all.”

CAROL (OLIVER) HARTMAN ’86

cohartman1gmail.com JANE KAUFMANN SANKER ’86

janeksanker@yahoo.com JEN TSANG ’86

jtsangk@gmail.com

CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

Karl Maasdam/Oregon State University

spotlight Harriet Nembhard ’91 Dean designate, University of Iowa College of Engineering CULTIVATING COMMUNITY: From the moment Harriet Nembhard ’91 started CMC’s management engineering program, she’s been building opportunities to integrate STEM and business. As an academic leader who has helped pave the way for student recruiting, curricular innovation, and faculty collaboration at Auburn, Penn State, and Oregon State, she’s taking the next big step in her career: Dean of Engineering at the University of Iowa.

She begins her new position in June. “My CMC experience affirmed my inclination for spanning boundaries, and that I can do more than one thing at a time,” said Nembhard, who will oversee a multidisciplinary college with 2,400 students and 250 faculty and staff. While at Oregon State, Nembhard was active in university-level strategic planning and efforts to advance inclusivity, student access, and well-being. Those areas will continue to be a major focus of her Iowa work—as well as influence her role as an alumna trustee at CMC. “Those who are made to feel welcome and develop a sense of belonging are more likely to be successful in their professional formation,” Nembhard said. “Cultivating a community where everyone can thrive maximizes our ability to prepare students to step onto a global stage and address the big challenges.”

SPRING 2020

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’90 It started in Claremont “I will soon become the president of a large national organization, with which I first became affiliated as a student at CMC. After learning about AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) while working on my senior thesis in international relations, I started a student-run group on campus in support of AIPAC and the U.S.-Israel relationship, which came to involve students from all five of The Claremont Colleges. After being involved with the organization for over three decades—and most recently serving as a board member, northeast chair, northeast political chair, and national development chair—I have been named as the group’s next national president.

On March 1, in Washington, D.C., I’ll begin my two-year term with a speech in front of 18,000 people at our annual Policy Conference. I owe a debt of gratitude to Claremont, and specifically Professor Alfred Balitzer who introduced me to this important organization, and to Professor John Pitney who taught me the value of civic engagement.”

—BETSY BERNS KORN

One last thought from David which is, “Go Steve Bullock! This country would be a better place with you as president.” (Although we subsequently learned that Steve called off his presidential campaign. Maybe in four years?)

ANNE-MARIE D’AGOSTINO ’91

From SHERI (WARD) MUNTEAN: “It’s been a while! I’m enjoying managing my small CPA firm in Anacortes, Wash., which I founded almost 20 years ago now, and spending a few months a year in Moab with my hubby.

All the kids are grown, and the youngest just got married. Now we are enjoying spending time with our eight grandkids. If you’re ever around, look us up online!”

ewise@gibsondunn.com

After four years in Morocco, BRIAN MENARD and his wife, Audrey, are moving in Summer 2020 from George Washington Academy in Casablanca to join the International School of Panama community in Panama City—but not before having a February mini-CMC reunion in Prague with NIC NELSON and LYLE FRINK. “Anyone interested in exploring from Panama’s rain forests to The Canal is encouraged to reach out after July at brianmenard1967@gmail.com.”

TODD THOMAS ’89

8535 E. Clydesdale Trl. Scottsdale AZ 85258 480-466-5839 toddthomasaz@yahoo.com

’90

ALUMNI

FAYE (KARNAVY) SAHAI

launched venture fund investing in early stage startups, addressing digital wellness and mental health for young people, at Telosity.co and Vinaj. “I am excited about making a positive impact to increase the resiliency and reduce the anxiety and depression in our young generation with innovative and engaging approaches.”

WEEKEND

2020

Finally, if you are planning to attend Alumni Weekend 2020, it has been rescheduled for October 8 to 11.

Keep up with the latest updates at www.cmc.edu/ alumniweekend.

FAYE (KARNAVY) SAHAI ’90

fkarnavy@gmail.com

’89

From GHADA (GHANTOUS) FAHD: “JULIE (YOSHITAKE) NINOMIYA, ELLEN (SHIN) BLAU, GHADA (GHANTOUS) FAHD, SOMRUTHAI ‘TOOK’ PRASARTTONOSOTH, and KAREN (BROWNLEY)

DAWSON P’18 all met in Boston at the end of October for a quick reunion. Five of us were from the Class of ’89 and we had the pleasure of hanging out with CLARE DAWSON ’18 and GRAHAM FULLERTON ’18.”

DAVID BENEZRA and his wife, Sigrid, are staying dry in Seattle. Siggy has left David to run the insurance agency by himself and has gone off to work for Amazon. David is reportedly proud of her but mildly annoyed—and definitely jealous. David recently had a chance to connect with MARY (ROBINSON) HENDRA ’91 in L.A. and it was a great reunion.

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DANIEL MARKERT: “My big news is that I’ve been selected to be the J3 director of operations for the California Military Department. This is a full-time assignment at our HQ in Sacramento and I will direct all preparations and execution of military support to civil authorities in California by our Army and Air National Guard units. My wife, Krista, Pomona ’91, is in between Silicon Valley jobs, our oldest boy is transferring to UC Davis (we think!), the next two are in the senior and junior years of high school, and the youngest boy is in seventh grade and doing as many sports as he can.”

’91

Amd_originals@yahoo.com INGRID (MORRIS) ENSING ’91

ingridensing@live.com ERIC WISE ’91

Sightings: Earlier this fall, I (DEBORAH SUCH APODACA) was tickled to run into DAVE JACOBS at a Starbucks in Fremont, Calif., one morning while chatting with my daughter. I looked up as two men entered only to see the welcome sight of an old friend!

Glad to hear all is well with Dave, who now lives in Colorado, and to learn that he was visiting on a business trip. Fun fact: Dave and I have known each other since our high school days in Southern California!

’92

While at a Sharks pre-season game with my oldest son, I noticed a fellow CMCer in the stands. MICHAEL ROSSI was attending with his lovely wife, Shannon, and darling daughter Francesca (who just started her freshman year of high school). Next thing you know, the three of them were spotted on the big screen as they danced and laughed to some crowdpleasing music!

Finally, I was fortunate to spend some time on our campus this October for ImpactCMC 2019.

While learning about the ambitious and forwardthinking initiatives President Hiram Chodosh plans to implement, I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon in some timely conversations with LAURA LULEJIAN KLEIN and other CMCAA board members, college trustees, professors, and recent graduates.

Besides discussing the direction of the College, we were able to catch up and chat about family life and the paths our lives have taken.

As for me, DEBORAH SUCH APODACA, my oldest son recently graduated from Gonzaga, my daughter is a senior at Boston College, and my youngest son is a junior at Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose (fun fact: MICHAEL ROSSI’s alma mater). My husband, Paul Apodaca (Pomona) and I have returned to the Bay Area after stints in Carlsbad, Calif., and Mercer Island, Wash. As part of my transition to an empty nest, I thought I would take a more active role at our alma mater. I have trained to become an admissions interviewer for my region, and I hope to assist in recruiting the finest students for our College. With the future of work morphing at alarming rates, it was heartening to listen to the administration as they chart new pathways to educating our future leaders by integrating computer and data science throughout the disciplines. Our future graduates will be well prepared to lead us into uncharted waters. If you haven’t visited campus in some time, please consider spending some time in Claremont.

DEBORAH SUCH APODACA ’92

dpapodaca@yahoo.com

CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

’92 Inspired by Coach Guthrie SARA GIVENS-CONTE reached out with an email to let us all know that life is good in the PNW. She and Ben Conte have two daughters, one of whom is in the throes of college applications, and another just starting high school. Sara has a thriving consulting company and among other activities, has spent the last eight years coaching girls’ lacrosse.

She reached out with a heavy heart as she had learned that her mentor, Coach Dan Guthrie, had passed away.

She would like to commemorate the impact he made on her life.

Sara writes, “Dan was the Claremont Colleges’ women’s lacrosse coach for many years. He inspired us because of his knowledge of the game, his commitment to the team, and his sometimes goofy and always encouraging attitude. His leadership resulted in significant knock-on effects for me (playing, coaching, and growing the sport in my home state), and I know that was the case for other players Dan coached, as well. The sport continues to thrive at CMC and Dan was instrumental in transitioning the sport from a 5C club to a CMS varsity sport. He will be missed— and remembered!”

’95

ALUMNI WEEKEND

2020

If you are planning to attend Alumni Weekend 2020, it has been rescheduled for October 8 to 11. Follow the latest updates at www.cmc.edu/ alumniweekend.

JORI HAYNER ’95

Richmond, CA cmcnotes@jorihayner.com CHRIS GOOCH ’95

gooch_chris@yahoo.com

SPRING 2020

Congrats to MONTE LUTZ for a big 2019! He and his wife, Catherine Martin Lutz, welcomed Julien Edward Martin Lutz, a baby boy born in September. His adoring sister Ryan, 12, is already counting her babysitting dollars. After six years as SVP of marketing at Activision, Monte recently started as the global head of marketing for Adobe’s Creative and Document Cloud businesses, including Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, and Acrobat.

an Emmy nomination as supervising producer, was released on Hulu as well. Go Dodgers!” In an additional note, Lance writes that he met up with CMC alumnus DWAYNE CAREY ’97 and his son Jayden while playing ball with Lance’s son Benjamin, as both kids were playing 6U travel all-star baseball (Jayden at West Hills/ Benjamin at Toluca.)

Also, MARTIN MUNOZ was named associate general counsel at Viasat.

CAMILLE GRIEP ’99

’98

As for me, I married Bernard Andre, Jr. on a gorgeous August day in Washington, D.C. (No humidity in August is nothing short of a miracle.)

My gorgeous bridesmaids, STEPHANIE CARLOS and DIANA (RAMIREZ) JONES ’00, kept me calm and laughing the entire weekend. Other Claremont friends at the wedding included MICHAEL ARMOUR ’97, EMILY PHELPS ’08, and Monique Ott-Beacham, Pitzer ’97, and her husband, Alan, with my two godchildren, Maia and Eric Ott. It’s no surprise that it was the Claremont crew that kept the late-night party going and made for a very special wedding weekend.

KRISTAL DEKLEER ’98

kdekleer@yahoo.com This fall, Class of ’99 welcomed a new, beautiful baby by way of CARL SEE and K.D. Chapman-See. Graham Loyal See joined us this fall, and per photographic reports, is one gorgeous kiddo.

’99

We also lit one splendid birthday candle as MONTE ALBERS DE LEON and his husband, Michael Meltzer, celebrate the first birthday of their son, JT, a year of being devastatingly debonair, handsome, and intelligent (not to mention a #CHDWarrior!).

In vocational updates, JEFF STEIN dropped us a line about some exciting changes: “After three years building an artificial intelligence company in Silicon Valley, I recently moved from S.F. to Boulder, Colo. Living up in the mountains on a magical 140-acre property of forestland. My latest venture is developing Mysticland, a consciousness theme park full of immersive art experiences, a playground for personal and spiritual development inspired by the culture of Burning Man.” LANCE LANFEAR writes: “Still proud daddy of two growing boys. Carter, 4, has an amazing gift for building and engineering anything from Legos to puzzles far beyond his age range. Benjamin, 6, made the 6U travel all-star baseball team and is looking forward to kindergarten soon. Daddy is finishing up producing and directing on Awesomeness TV’s show Light as a Feather.

Watch the second season on Hulu soon! Earlier this year, two seasons of Zac and Mia, for which I received

LOUIS LEVINE ’99

571-331-7844 llevine@ngpsoftware.com 1999cmc@gmail.com camillegriep@gmail.com

’00

ALUMNI

JESSICA (O’HARE) WITT and

Kyle Witt welcomed Riley Elizabeth Witt in July 2018.

The newest addition to the Witt team will be two this year and keeps her parents on their toes!

WEEKEND

2020

Alumni Weekend 2020 has been rescheduled for October 8 to 11. Follow the latest updates at www.cmc.edu/alumniweekend.

STEVE GROVE ’00

sdgrove11@gmail.com ALLISON (DAVIS) O’KEEFE ’00

allisonokeefe@gmail.com MIKE AVENT: Hello, all. We got a great batch of notes this time around, so thanks for doing your part to keep things interesting! I get to go first, because I write the thing! Effective Jan. 1, I have been promoted to partner at Perkins Coie. I will be helping to grow and lead the emerging companies/venture capital practice in Seattle. So, if you or anyone you know needs a startup lawyer, I’m now pretty legit qualifications-wise.

’04

Let’s keep the shameless self-promotional portion of this update going with MATTHEW GOLDMAN—after leaving his role as SVP and chief product officer for Bankrate Credit Cards in mid-2018 and taking a couple of months off, he started another company! Vertical Finance incorporated in January 2019 to develop new rewards programs that help people enjoy their hobbies and passions to the fullest. They recently launched their first program: Grand Reserve Rewards for wine lovers.

In 2020, they will be adding new financial products to help wine enthusiasts get the rewards they deserve. He continues to live in Pasadena with his wife, JENNIFER ALLAN GOLDMAN ’03, and his two daughters, who are now 11 and 7.

Been a bit since we have heard from BEAU MILLER, but he checked back in. His girls Ella and Emma turn 6 and 3 soon. Workwise, he just marked a decade in the Foreign Service. He and the family finished up his latest assignment at Embassy Seoul this past summer and are back in Washington, D.C., through August 2020. He’s now covering China in the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor—and next

59

they will pack everything up again and return to old stomping grounds in Japan. He’ll be in Yokohama for language training for a year, before moving to Sapporo for a three-year public diplomacy assignment at the U.S. Consulate there. Looking forward to exploring Hokkaido’s brewing and whiskey scene, snow festival, hot springs, and powder runs. Visitors welcome.

Sounds awesome.

Starkgals) took Palm Desert by storm last October for a weekend of food, hot tubs, hiking, movies, board games, nail salons, and more food. “In attendance were TIFFANY FONG, ADELE (BERGSTROM) VUONG, VALERIE (POMEROY) SHEPPARD, TANYA SOLUK, EVA NAZAREWICZ, COURTNEY TREWEEK, EMILY (GJELTEMA) PENNER, and me. We’re looking forward to the reunion and hope lots more friends come out to reconnect!”

JON ATABEK keeps things brief in a way that is entirely self-explanatory for his update—“Dadding hard. Kids are 1 and 3-and-a-half-years old.” Godspeed, Jon.

Bonnie and DA VON WEICK generously hosted the 14th annual 14m1c draft at their palatial Iowan homestead.

LONNIE DIETZ, MITCH BROWNE, DAN HERRING, CAM FIELD-EATON, MARK TRAVIS PEERY, and CORY HIBBARD were in attendance and they sorely missed PATRICK MCHONETT, who was unable to attend due to lactoserelated factors.

ASHLEY (BAKER) DOLIESLAGER writes in to report how much she and the fam are enjoying life living just outside of Austin, Texas. Her four (!!!) boys are keeping them busy, direct quote: “I’ve never had to drink so much caffeine in my life!” The latest news is that they also got their first puppy—a Goldendoodle that they named Rocket. So, while life is definitely nuts, sounds like it’s also a lot of fun. Please let her know if any of y’all are ever in Texas—she would love to see you!

MEGAN BROTHERTON got married September 1 to Kevin Schlanser. Congrats, Megan!

On Jan. 8, 2019, RACHEL KUTTERUF and her husband, Jon, welcomed their daughter, Lucy. She joins big brother, Asher, who turned 3 in November. Rachel is now the chief of Neuroanesthesia at USAP-Washington, which covers the Swedish Hospital System in Seattle.

ADAM and BRANDI LANE celebrated their 10-year

wedding anniversary this year, taking a family road trip with their boys to the Grand Canyon, Antelope Canyon, and Zion National Park. Then they celebrated some more with a trip to Europe without the kids!

Sightseeing and eating, and finishing off at SARAH CONWAY’s wedding in St. Malo, France.

JACQUELYN DADAKIS shares, “LEE RIDLEY, BEN ROGERS, and NICK DEMAREST ’06 visited me in New Orleans this past February for Mardi Gras. We walked in two different parades and culminated the five-day bacchanalia dressed as rodents from outer space and dancing to Abba outside my neighborhood bar. JILL CARLSON was able to join us for the first two nights, where she caught an entire extra suitcase of throws at the parades. Nick has already confirmed he’ll be back in 2020, but there are still two more spots to claim on my kitchen floor for anyone looking to experience Mardi Gras like a local.”

Alumni Weekend 2020 has been rescheduled for October 8 to 11. Follow the latest updates at www.cmc.edu/alumniweekend.

TIFFANY WILLIAMS ’05

tiffany.williams@gmail.com MITCH BROWNE ’05

mitchell.browne@gmail.com

MIKE AVENT ’04

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

’05

ALUMNI

’06 MARC BATHGATE shares, “We

moved into our new home in 2020 Park City, Utah, in June. It has a guest room—please come visit! Our first CMC visitor was PETER LI ’06, whom we hosted for dinner in October.

We can’t promise James, now 5, and Gabriel, 2, won’t wake you in the morning, but their cuteness is a major compensating factor and we have an espresso machine. KATHERINE’s ’08 business (SchoolForward) continues to be in high demand and I continue to toil away in the salt mine of raising private markets capital, which gives me the privilege of seeing LINDSAY TRAGLER ’06 and DAN CAHIR with some regularity. I look forward to seeing everyone at the reunion!”

WEEKEND

Kaelin and PAUL IRELAND welcomed their eighth child and third daughter, Eveli Bless Ireland, on Oct. 20, 2019.

Paul says their food budget each month is more than he made as an RTA in a semester.

GWEN GORDON, in an attempt to recreate the awesomeness of college minus the homework, and a group of mostly former Starkies (we prefer the term

60

MARIBETH “ELLE” LEHOUX got married in September. LESLIE (ALVILLAR) LOPEZ and JORDAN LOPEZ ’03 were in attendance.

CANDACE VALENZUELA writes in with

a lot of exciting news: “I had a baby 11 months ago who just started walking this week. His name is Jacinto and he initiates dance parties to nearly anything with a beat, but he seems to prefer Parliament over Funkadelic. His older brother, Cleto, adores him, as does my husband, Andy—though he’s more obligated than the former to profess that.

“I’ve also just filed to run for U.S. Congress in Texas’ 24th District. I never saw myself running for office, and I might have said I was the CMCer least likely to do so, but I’m now an elected school board trustee looking to take on one of the top pick-up opportunities for Democrats in the country. So much has compelled me to do this, but I’m really proud to have a fighting shot at representing Texans. I’ve gotten endorsed by a great list of folks, including Emily’s List, Congresswoman Deb Haaland, Chair Hakeem Jeffries, and Congresswoman Veronica Escobar. I’m polling ahead, and I’m working really hard.

“My CMC education has grounded my governance on the board and has prepared me for this moment, but I still have a list of courses I wish I could go back and

pursue. The learning never stops.” Good luck, Candace, and I’m sure CMCers will happily contribute to an amazing alumna running for office. (Also, be sure to read about Candace in the features section of this very magazine!)

KYLE ELLISON still owns a paddleboard business in Asheville, N.C. (Wai Mauna Asheville SUP Tours). He’s also spent the past year as the athletic director at Maui Country Club where he manages a facility with six tennis courts, a pool, fitness center, and children’s program. Having authored three guidebooks to Maui, he also has a Maui concierge and consulting business called The Maui Expert (side note: I recently used a guidebook while on vacation in Maui and realized on my last day that Kyle was a contributing author). Hit him up on your next trip to the island for helping to plan your stay! He also recently welcomed his third son, Caden Kekoa Ellison.

JASON EVANS and his wife, Alexa, had their first baby, a girl named Madeline, on Oct. 28, 2019, in San Diego. She’s not allowed to hang out with any of Kyle Ellison’s three boys. Forbidden. (And I don’t think this is overprotective parenting.)

WESTY ROSE and his wife, Ashley, are doing well in Menlo Park, Calif., where they have their hands full with their daughter, Emerson “Emmy” Rose, who will soon be experiencing her second holiday season. Westy is working for CBRE doing commercial real estate advisory in Palo Alto, so look him up anytime you are in the neighborhood.

AUSTIN HENKEL writes in, as always, with a cryptic message: “I recently found new inspiration. Having stumbled upon the story of a Florida man who, in 1948,* tricked local residents into believing that a 15-foot penguin lived in their midst by periodically walking on the (sandy) beach in the middle of the night while wearing 30lb, three-toed shoes strapped to his feet, I have come to realize that the world really is my oyster and that opportunity abounds.”

*evidently Florida men have been going strong for some time now.

KEVIN BLAIR ’06

kevinmblair@gmail.com RAHEEM KAJANI writes, “I am thankful for being surrounded by wonderful people. As a nocturnist, I work in the ICU and on the medical floors. I am thankful for the opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives. I also am thankful for the opportunity to be faculty and teach and train residents to be the best physicians they can be.”

’09

COURTNEY (CRONIN) DEBEAUCOURT writes, “I am thankful for my nephew who was born this summer, Sean Edward Belmont! He is just the cutest. I’m also thankful to have been a part of CARMEN-ROSA WISHART’s ’10 beautiful wedding in August—a big congrats to CR and her new husband, JJ!” DEVIN GRABER writes, “Still over in Korea, got married earlier this year, and definitely thankful for my new family.”

CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

Isayas Theodros ’10 Actor, Castle Rock

Erik Voake/Getty Images for Hulu

spotlight NO FEAR: Spoiler alert. Isayas Theodros ’10 goes out in a pretty vicious way on Season 2 of Hulu show, Castle Rock. “Yeah, there’s no bouncing back from that death,” Theodros says, laughing. Nevermind the ending—this is just the beginning for the CMC economics and accounting major, whose breakthrough role placed him alongside actors Tim Robbins and Lizzy Caplan in the Stephen King-produced psychological horror thriller. Theodros, who had a six-episode arc as Jamal, made the leap into acting a few years ago after deciding “not to live a life led by fear.” Upon moving from Orange County, Calif. (where he’s from) to Washington, D.C., Theodros joined a conservatory program called The Theatre Lab. He had never formally acted before, but something in those classes “consumed” him. A CMC friend later told him about a Fulbright scholarship to study at London’s famed Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and on a whim, he applied. “It took some audacity being so new to it all, and as I kept advancing through each audition stage, I remember thinking, ‘How is this happening?’”

Theodros said. “Once I got in, that was the point of no return. I knew there was something to this.” Now in L.A., Theodros is working in real estate while fielding calls (with help from Ideal Talent Agency and fellow alum Ryan Hayden ’01) for the next, big audition. His goal this pilot season: To be a series regular on a TV show. “Being on Castle Rock and working alongside veteran actors showed me that I can play in this game. I belong.”

SPRING 2020

61

KYLE RAGINS writes, “I recently finished residency.

Work for Los Angeles County practicing in the emergency department as a doctor and working as an administrator over nine different county sites. I am thankful for my awesome wife, Isabel, and the new dog we just adopted, Luna.”

TEJAS GALA writes, “I’m thankful for my family, friends, and health—pretty simple! Feel very lucky to have gone to CMC and met so many incredible lifelong friends, including my wife, and the place continues to have such a strong impact on my life daily.

“In terms of other updates, I’ve been going to a few CMC weddings (BEAU HEIDRICH ’11, CHRIS BLEES ’11), DIVYA VISHWANATH ’11 and I went on our honeymoon to France, Greece, and Italy, and now we’re back living in S.F.!”

FREYA (LEE) HURTADO says, “I’m thankful for great healthcare and modern medicine: my baby girl Mia Hurtado was born two months premature in October due to fetal anemia and she got to come home to us yesterday after a month in the NICU receiving phenomenal care.” The CMC community is wishing her baby girl all the best!

CAMILO CUELLAR is thankful for family, friends, health, and the CMC community at large. I made lifelong friendships through this unique institution and those friendships hold a special place in my heart.

CAMILO CUELLAR ’09

ccuellar09@cmc.edu

’10

ALUMNI WEEKEND

2020

Alumni Weekend 2020 has been rescheduled for October 8 to 11. Follow the latest updates at www.cmc.edu/ alumniweekend.

EMILY MEINHARDT ’10

emeinhardt@gmail.com ABHI NEMANI ’10

abhi.nemani@gmail.com 2019 was a big year for Danger Don! CARLEN DON graduated from Loyola Law School, turned 30, took (and passed!) the bar exam, and got married.

She’s excited for a more low-key year handling divorces, child custody disputes, and restraining orders in family court in L.A.

’11

Ever since graduation, TINA NGUYEN has assembled approximately 12 pieces of IKEA furniture and only messed up one (the MALM dresser).

DANIEL BLACK and his wife celebrated their first

anniversary on Nov. 10, 2019. He took up intermittent fasting several months ago and now weighs 22 pounds less than he did when he graduated from CMC. His startup, Glass-Media, was recently named an “Intel IoT Market Ready Solution.”

ERIN (ELFRINK) BLUMENTHAL ’13 and JESSE BLUMENTHAL happily welcomed Lauren Grace Blumenthal (Class of ’42?) into the world in October

62

2019. The whole family is healthy and thriving in Washington, D.C. The building next door to HENRY LYFORD and JAKE BAUCH in San Francisco caught fire and smoke damage forced them to leave their units for a week. They took it in stride though, as longtime rent control beneficiaries (shhh! Don’t tell the CMC neolib econ department!).

MARSHALL FISHER hosted Jake for three days, but kicked him out after Jake kept beating him in ping pong and consulting.

SAM CORCOS is bouncing between New York and San Francisco. He’s happy to connect with any folks in the area.

TAKAKO MINO is working as a lecturer at Ashesi University in Ghana. She is teaching leadership and communications to students from over 20 different African countries. She’s also building her spice tolerance and learning how to cook Ghanaian food.

ERIKA MARTIN DEL CAMPO is living in her hometown of

Santa Barbara and working as a workers’ compensation attorney, as well as directing her dance studio, ME Sabor Dance Studio, with her fiancé. She recently got engaged and she’s looking forward to celebrating her upcoming nuptials in both Santa Barbara and Mexico.

SHANE DAVIS is a physical medicine and rehabilitation resident at UC Irvine.

RDS’11 FELIX MENG is married and is expecting their first born any day! He’s looking at moving to Shanghai given the unrest in Hong Kong and looks forward to seeing CHRISTOPHER STRIETER in Napa Valley in late 2020.

Chris finished his work with Rebuild Wine Country with ten families moving into homes post losing everything in the 2017 fires. He also expanded his charity efforts by participating in wine auctions around the USA and is enjoying life in S.F. NATHANIEL KIECHEL is now working at Ropes & Gray in N.Y. in their finance practice and is enjoying the new role. MICHAEL LEVITIN is now chief analytics officer at a venture capital group and continues his second year on the board of his local Jewish Federation in Orange County.

MAXWELL VAUGHAN and Strieter caught up over wine and Max was happy to share that he’s happily married and now living in Venice Beach. He’s enjoyed his time at TELEO Capital.

The following classmates are MIA, but in our thoughts: HOLLY POOLE, ABHISHEK GOEL, ARA DEMIRJIAN, CHRISTOPHER MURRAY ’10, SRI HARSHA TATA, JAKE MARWIL, LAURA JILETA, REENEE GARCIA, TRAVIS HULL ’10, VYKUNTH ASHOK.

GIZELLE PERA and STEVE FARENBAUGH ’08 traveled around Japan for two weeks to escape the L.A. life and absorb all the nature, history, food, and culture they could. They loved the natural hot springs, the very high-tech toilets and trains, and trying trout sushi that may or may not have still been alive. She started a new job in a beautifully remodeled private office in Eagle Rock, and she’s so happy to be there! KATERINA YALE and Steve, notorious sweet teeth, are also incredibly relieved that 21 Choices finally reopened in Pasadena, so they don’t have to go all the way to CMC to get their fix.

CHRISTOPHER LLOYD STRIETER M’11

MYLES R. MACDONALD moved to NYC and joined the restructuring group at Lowenstein Sandler LLP.

CAT BLAKELOCK: “I moved to Jacksonville, Fla., with my fiancé and started teaching at The Discovery School.”

After eight years of alleged adulting, MALINI SEN and CHRISTOPHE BINDERT spent the last year repping Camp Claremont while completing their M.B.A.’s at INSEAD. After frolicking across Southeast Asia and Europe, calculating free cash flows, attending countless parties, applying various strategy frameworks, making friends from 68 nations, and returning back to Green Beach party life for just a year, these two graduated in sunny Singapore at the end of 2019. Though they overlapped for only two months, they were in constant contact—as each other’s career coaches and to stay informed of all the delicious drama that unfolded on the respective France and Singapore campuses. As always, #thanksclaremont!

JOHN MEDIN: “Working as legislative associate at The American Legion.”

DIVYA VISHWANATH ’11

dvishwanath@gmail.com KATHRYN MGRUBLIAN ’11

kmgrublian@gmail.com

cstrieter@gmail.com ALEXANDRA (COOKE) MANDELL: “I married Steven Mandell on Sept. 28, 2019. There were many friends from the CMC Classes of ’16, ’14, ’13, and ’12 present to help celebrate at our Nashville wedding. Since the last update, I have been so excited that HILARY LUNDBERG has moved to Chicago. We will brave the winter together.”

’14

GABBY SALERNO: “I am currently attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Veterinary Medicine. After a couple years of working in D.C., I realized I needed to make a better impact on the world with my career. And what’s better than saving animals?

I chose Madison for its high-ranking veterinary medical program, and for the great city of Madison!”

KATHERINE RODRIGUEZ: “Engagement—

November 2019!”

NAOYA SUN: “Recently shared my story as an early adopter of Roman on KNBC.” ZACH PANZER: “Pediatric resident physician at Blank Children’s Hospital.”

LAILA HEID: “If you’re ever in Seattle, I direct a monthly improv show called MISCAST! at the Pocket in Greenwood. I would love to see CMC alumni there!”

DAPHNI LAPPAS-GRIGORAKI: “Moved to PwC

in Stockholm.”

CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

NEEL KOTRAPPA: “Started at Eisenhower Health Family Medicine residency program in July 2019! Engaged on Nov. 2, 2019, to Nikita Gettu, Scripps ’14.”

MCKENZIE JAVORKA: “I am working on my dissertation

for my Ph.D. in community psychology and recently got engaged!”

MARCELO DE RADA OCAMPO: “Leading digital innovation for insurance in South America, applying to business school in Europe, moving to Europe in July 2020!”

KATIE RODIHAN: Katie and HEATH HYATT ’12 got

married on Sept. 14, 2019, in Seattle with a CMCfilled wedding party, including ALEXANDRA (COOKE) MANDELL, ANA KAKKAR, ANTHEA WEIXEL, BRYANNA MOORE, GRANT HEFFERNAN ’11, JEFF POSTETTER ’12, LEAH (JOHNSON) SHANKLAND, and NORA STUDHOLME, and surrounded by dozens of amazing CMC grads.

CHAD NEWBRY: “Quit my tech job to make music full time. Follow my journey @plowmanraps as I drop a song a week in 2020.”

SIRAH FUERTE recently joined Starbucks as a senior

financial analyst for the product finance team.

REMY PINSON: “Back to living in Paris again! Working as

a sommelier in a restaurant. Very much enjoying myself.

All the best everyone.”

TYLER MCBRIEN recently witnessed the holy matrimony of JACK FLANNERY and Jane Condon, Scripps ’15. Let it

SPRING 2020

be known they wisely chose a song by the voice of our generation, Shawn Mendes, for their first dance.

CLAIRE PETERSON: Claire recently moved to Vancouver with her boyfriend for the year. She is still working remotely in sales enablement for Square, but neither of them knows anyone so please reach out to her with any/all connections!

LYNSEY CHEDIAK: “After a few years in London, I’m happy to say I’m back stateside working at the World Economic Forum’s new policy lab in San Francisco focused on emerging technologies. I’m attempting to advance genomic medicine policies globally, specifically to help diagnose and treat rare diseases.

Given I was born with a rare orthopedic disease, this new role has been incredible rewarding so far! I can now say with certainty that it will be no small feat to bring genomics to clinical practice. I had a great time at the CMC 5-Year Reunion in May! Thank you again to everyone who helped organize it. I hope everyone is doing well from the Class of 2014 and beyond.”

MATTHEW LEE: “I got engaged to CAMERON RUBY! I’m in my third year of medical school.”

CAMERON RUBY: “Got engaged to MATTHEW LEE! Living in San Francisco.”

GRACE KIM: “Met SHANG XUAN YEO ’16, FRED CRAWFORD TAYLOR ’15, JUSTIN SYKES, IAN GULLIVER, HESTER LAM ’15, and GLENYS KIRANA ’16 in Singapore!”

MADELEINE BANNON: “Moved to Philadelphia for grad school, effectively becoming roommates with ELIZABETH ‘DUCKY’ DUCKWORTH and KARUN KIANI. Play in intramural ice hockey and boat race league every Sunday and Monday night on Team Ugly Pucklingz under leadership of Coach Ducky Duckworth.

Sometimes MAYA REDDY leaves the Penn Law Library to hang out with us.”

ALEXANDRA COOKE MANDELL ’14

acmandell713@gmail.com MERRIEL FOSTER ’14

merriel.foster@gmail.com

’15

ALUMNI

ELHAM ALI: “I founded

Jumana Design, a design consultancy that aims to impact the delivery of digital products for global enterprises. I problem solve in product design and project management for Fortune 100 and 500 companies such as Tyson Foods and Nestle.”

WEEKEND

2020

The following was all submitted by JENNA HUSSEIN: “(1) Jenna Hussein began a dual M.B.A. and M.P.A. program at Stanford University Graduate School of Business and Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government. (2) JUETZINIA KAZMER-MURILLO

63

Change agent SESA BEKENRA-TIKANDE is pursuing her dream of making the world a better place for the children of tomorrow through education. After years of teaching traditional West African dance, she joined Teach for America in 2015 and has not looked back since. She taught high school biology for several years, middle school science (it’s as intense as it sounds), and general K-12 studies while earning a master’s in education from Loyola Marymount.

She served as a policy and advocacy fellow at the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Board District 5 and is currently working for the Secretary of Education for the State of Pennsylvania. Her dream is to create a crosscultural exchange program for low-income, urban youth so that they, too, can see and interact with the world and become change agents in their own way.

“Currently seeking angel investors so if you’re interested, let’s connect!”

graduated from Stanford University Graduate School of Education with an M.A. in international comparative education. (3) EMMA LUDLUM received a promotion to team lead of sales recruiting at Samsara in London.

(4) ALICE CHANG joined Uzima Chicken in Kampala, Uganda, as the managing director. (5) BRIANNA MASCIEL moved to San Francisco as the partnership manager at Wonderschool after spending two years working abroad in Medellin, Colombia. (6) CARIN RAGLAND began her second year of a biosciences Ph.D. program at Stanford University.”

MICHAEL ELHARDT: “I left my job at USAID in September, and I am now teaching English at a high school in Tours, France, until April. I am employed through the Assistants de Langue program run by the French Ministry of Education. This has been a great opportunity for me to improve my French skills!”

TRICIA WANG: “Graduated Le Cordon Bleu with diplomas in French cuisine and Japanese cuisine. Was on the biggest dating show in China and am currently running a restaurant in Beijing.”

KELSEY KAEDING got married to Lokesh Prabhu on Sept. 28, 2019. Fellow CMCers KEERTHANA NUNNA, MARISSA SUEHIRO, SIAN CHAI, ELENA LOPEZ, and NIKITA MEHANDRU all made it out to Stevenson, Wash.,

for the ceremony! Kelsey lives in Philadelphia with her husband and cat, Sugar. She is in her fifth year of a Ph.D. program in molecular biology at the University of Pennsylvania.

KYRA MCANDREWS is now in South Bend, Ind., where she runs her business Inspectus (www.inspectus. co), building tools to help restaurants and food entrepreneurs navigate compliance. She recently won the Indiana Regional Round of the SoGal Global Pitch Competition and will be competing in the finals of the global competition in Silicon Valley in February 2020.

Someone unnamed submitted the following for their entire friend group: “After a month of eating,

64

an historic finish in 2015. Now, five years onward, he’s fresher than ever and totally crushing his game(s). Still a dual-sport athlete, he competes professionally in both disciplines.

’15

praying, and loving his way across the Trans-Siberian railroad, NICK WEISS has started business school at the University of Chicago. Every month on the full moon, Nick and fellow ex-coworkers withdraw a vial of their blood to express mail to Deloitte senior partners in what is known as ‘the ceremony.’”

ZANE RAVENHOLT recently started an exciting new job at LinkedIn. In his free time, Zane has started a women in finance group, volunteered as a teacher every weekend, and has become cat mommy to a tuxedowearing stud, Marty.

KATIE ECHAVIA has recently been promoted to product manager at Qordoba in San Francisco after two years in the kitchen. In her spare time, Katie has also been writing extensively on e-sports forums about the gameplay issues that are keeping Starcraft 2 from becoming the next LoL or DotA 2. Finally, Katie has finally won her building’s 3v3 tournament.

Five years later and some things have changed, while others have not. The similar: the inflatable bouncy house at CMC still checks its closet for SOOCH NAREDDY before bed every night. The new: Sooch is actually a doctor now.

According to multiple disreputable sources, ED LEATHERS has been gunning Keystones and doing only bicep curls in order to “really make a good impression” at the five-year reunion.

SAMANTHA LAPIERRE has developed proficiency in an astonishing five languages. First came dog—this one was easy. With the esteemed Remington “Remy” Lapierre as her mentor, she is now a savant of all canine linguistics. Bear naturally came next, which was only slightly harder. You know what they say: you can’t live in Alaska without picking up a bit of bear on the side. Next came moose—obviously this was easy; moose hardly know any words. Now Sam is sharpening her whale with help from fellow CMCer TIM STORER—an ambitious but rewarding endeavor which I am sure she will master with minimal difficulty.

Giraffes typically have an excellent sense of smell, and TYLER SONNEMAKER is no exception. Able to detect corporate greed, systemic bias, and other assorted institutional shortcomings with a simple whiff of the nose, Tyler is a logical choice for Business Insider’s newest tech reporter. Give this man some contacts and a platform and he will change the world!

Finally, our 5-Year Reunion has been rescheduled for June 4 to 6, 2021. Stay informed with the latest updates at online.cmc.edu/reunion-weekend.

ABBY MICHAELSEN ’15

abbymichaelsen@gmail.com

’16

TIM STORER: “EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHR

oooooooooooooorgh. Whiieeeeeaooooooo!

ARRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOO ARRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOO ARRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOO ARRROOOOOOIE UUHHHHIIIIIIIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.” (Tim is currently enrolled in a full immersion language course on humpback whales of the South Pacific.)

ANDREW DODDS is completing an M.B.A. at Stanford University, where he is known as the best beer pong player to have never tasted beer. More importantly, he proposed to Helen Ragen, Scripps ’15, who said yes on the condition that he “try harder in fantasy football next season.” Dodds will be taking Helen’s last name and will now be addressed as Dodds Ragen. But for real, congrats guys! Much love to you both!

WARREN WOOD essentially redshirted from tennis for four years at CMS to focus on beer pong, and it really paid off. Even with this clear handicap of dual commitments, he still won NCAAs and led the Stags to

JARED GOLDBERG advanced to Ph.D. candidacy and received a master’s in physics at UC Santa Barbara. He also started as an adjunct instructor teaching an astronomy lab for Santa Barbara City College.

ANA FAROOQ is working on a project for revitalizing the ecosystem of the Ravi River Basin as a biodiversity specialist with Hagler Bailly Pakistan. She also launched her own business for setting up organic rooftop vegetable and herb gardens for people, called Living Roofs, and they have carried out plantings on more than 25 roofs over the span of four months. Plus, she is getting married on Dec. 5!

ALEC KOH recently got engaged to longtime girlfriend Erika Sawka. They currently live in the Pacific Northwest, where Erika is finishing medical school. On a recent trip back to Santa Barbara, Alec popped the question! They also have a beautiful Bernedoodle pup named Moose.

He is a very good and handsome boy.

CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

MADISON GEBHARD ’16

developing country governments. I absolutely love it.

I also moved in with one of my best friends from CMC, REMI EDWARDS, who has been killing it in her new job!”

madison.gebhard@gmail.com

JUSTIN RODRIGUEZ was able to join her parents’ two-

EVAN MOLINEUX ’16

day vacation to Las Vegas.

ANNA BRITO’16

annacbrito12@gmail.com

evanjmolineux@gmail.com

’19

KATIE AHMANSON is an Architectural

PAYSON RUHL is now in Europe! She taught English in Budapest, Hungary this past fall and is now teaching English in Madrid, Spain.

Research Assistant for a studio in Los Angeles and will be applying for graduate school in the fall for Historic Preservation in architecture.

TIMOTHY SONG moved to Washington state and is living in the Tri-Cities. He was a Head Start lead teacher and is now a site administrator at Benton Franklin Head Start.

NAMRATA DEV moved to the Bay Area after graduation and is now living in a beautiful house with a fluffy cat, two snakes, and three awesome roommates. She is working at the most wonderful fin-tech company called Earnin as a BizOps project coordinator. She lives close to her CMC friends who also graduated and moved there. They try to catch up and soak up the sun at Dolores Park every weekend.

CELESTE TERNI writes, “I moved to London! I have eaten many a fish and chips, started using the word ‘fancy’ as a verb, and experienced the existential dread that comes from a 9-5 office job in a rainy city. The pints are good, though. I also began an adventure with my first big girl job as an analyst for the Data Solutions team at Salesforce helping clients with their data management platforms.”

ADELE ENGLISH was promoted to senior analyst

EDGAR WARNHOLTZ moved to New York and is exploring the city with his fun roommate AMAN RAGHUVANSHI ’18. Workwise, he joined S&P Global and is enjoying his role as a credit rating analyst. He’s still involved with CMC through the Alumni Association Board and the New York Chapter Leadership Group, planning fun events. Recently, he visited San Miguel de Allende, Mexico to attend his first CMC wedding.

Congratulations to TANIA SALOMON ’17!

at Mercer.

As a recipient of a Fulbright Research Fellowship, TIM GALLAGHER is currently in Germany. He looks forward to going to graduate school after his fellowship is over.

EAMON GALLAHER started a job at Analysis Group

Los Angeles.

Now in Bethesda, Maryland, AUSTIN HUANG is working for the National Institutes of Health.

SHIVALI JOSHI moved to San Francisco to pursue a

’19 New possibilities BETZY PERÉZ: “I am currently doing a year of service through AmeriCorps with a college-access organization called College Possible. I am working with high school students from underserved communities who are the first in their families to graduate high school and attend college. My role as a senior coach is to assist them with their college application process, financial aid, and also equip them with the necessary skills to thrive and graduate college. It’s been great giving back to my community in the southwest side of Chicago!”

EDGAR WARNHOLTZ ’19

ewarnholz19@cmc.edu

masters in science in global health at UCSF. SARAH MATLOTT reports, “I’ve been working at TCW (shout out to Robert Day!) since June on the Emerging Markets Sovereign Research team. We invest in

Submissions Had a new baby?

Drop a line to alumni@cmc.edu.

Your family just might receive a gift!

Howie Norman Weismann, son of Class of ’08 alumni, Zach Weismann and Kevyn Klein

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

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, pre-birth, 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.

SPRING 2020

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CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

In Memoriam 1950s ALFRED C. ROESSLER ’50 of Livermore, Calif., died August 18, 2019. He is survived by two sons.

WILLIAM H. PATTERSON ’51 P’74 of Mendocino, Calif., died May 1, 2019. Patterson received his B.A. from CMC in business administration, and an M.A. in business from Claremont Graduate University. In addition to being an ROTC cadet, Patterson was involved in many roles at CMC, including committee member for Reunion Weekend and a Phonenite caller. His most active roles were for his service on the Alumni Association Board as member (19761983), chapters vice president (1977-1978), board president (1979-1980), and past presidents council chair (1983-1984). He served on the CMC Board of Trustees in 1979-1980. Outside of CMC, Patterson became president of Garfield Bank. He is survived by his wife, Susie, and three children, including son, William B. Patterson ’74.

LEO TSENG ’51 of Encino, Calif., died December 7, 2019. Tseng served as a financial advisor and vice president of Merrill Lynch, where he retired. He is survived by two children and three grandchildren.

KENNETH W. RAPHAEL ’53 of Woodland Hills, Calif., died September 12, 2018. While at CMC, Raphael studied economics. He also volunteered as a class liaison and participated in Phonenite. He is survived by his wife, Nancy.

PETER G. TEMPLE ‘53 P’83 of Ogden, Utah, died December 11, 2019. A native of Los Angeles, Temple served in the Navy during the Korean War. While attending CMC, he met his wife, Mary (Hilbert), a Scripps student; they graduated the same year.

Temple’s career was spent as a comptroller in the sailboat manufacturing industry. He moved to Corona del Mar in the mid-1960s and enjoyed 23 years there before retiring in Laguna Niguel in 1988.

He is survived by two children, Eric and John Temple ‘83, and five grandchildren.

ROBERT P. BACON ’54 of Huntington Beach, Calif., died August 15, 2016. Bacon studied business administration at CMC, and received his M.A. from Claremont Graduate University. He is survived by his wife, Lyn. JAMES B. JAMIESON ’55 of San Luis Obispo, Calif., died September 18, 2019. Jamieson earned a B.A. in political science at CMC, an M.A. in government and public affairs from Claremont Graduate University in 1958, and a Ph.D. in political science from Brown University. During his time as a student in Claremont, he met his wife, Perry McNaughton, who attended Scripps College. In addition to his academics, Jamieson participated in golf and tennis, and was a member of the CMC Tortugateers. He later served as vice president for research at CMC from 1984-1987

SPRING 2020

and was instrumental in incubating new institutes and nurturing the rest. Jamieson also was a faculty member at Pitzer College, was vice president for advancement from 1973-1983, and was the acting president during the 1978-79 academic year. After “retiring” from Claremont, he and Perry moved to San Luis Obispo, where he became the executive director for the Performing Arts Center, raising funds to build an impressive cultural center on the Cal Poly University campus. He is survived by his wife; two sons; two grandsons; and four step-granddaughters.

COL. (RET) CHARLES C. CLARKE ’56 of San Luis Obispo,

Calif., died August 2, 2019. Clarke received a B.A.. in business administration at CMC and was a member of the CMC Tortugateers. He was also an ROTC cadet and entered the U.S. Army after graduation as a distinguished military graduate. Clarke, a Vietnam veteran, served in the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon. He was awarded 16 military decorations during his career. He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth; six children; 20 grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.

JEROME B. LA DOW ’57 of San Diego, died October 30, 2019. At CMC, La Dow studied political science and was an ROTC cadet, serving two years in the U.S. Army as a 1st Lieutenant. He later served on the CMC Alumni Association Board from 1966-1969. La Dow is survived by his wife, Sally; two sons; and two grandsons.

LAURENCE K. WORMSER ’58 of Redlands, Calif., died November 19, 2019. As a CMC student, Wormser studied business administration and was an ROTC cadet, achieving the rank of captain in the U.S. Army Reserves. Wormser met his wife Barbara Cook, a Scripps alumna, while attending CMC. He served as a member of the CMC Alumni Association Board of Directors from 1992-1995, and hosted New Student Parties. He also served his community in Redlands, where he owned various photographic businesses, and contributed to several civic organizations.

He was known for his 57-year perfect attendance record—the longest to date in the Redlands Rotary Club’s history. Wormser is survived by his wife, Barbara; three children; and three grandchildren.

1960s ROBERT B. WHISLER ’60 of Scottsdale, Ariz., died November 20, 2019. Whisler studied business administration at CMC, then owned and operated Whisler Chevrolet for 40 years until his retirement. He is survived by his wife, Eleanor; two daughters; and two grandchildren.

JOHN A. BAINES ’61 P’89 of West Linn, Ore., died December 18, 2019. Baines studied business administration and economics, and was a member of the CMC Tortugateers. He served in the U.S. Army

Intelligence Corps. Baines’ career later moved to commercial real estate as a broker with Windermere.

He is survived by his wife, Kathy, and three children, including daughter Jennifer Baines ’89.

RAYMOND T. TAYLOR ’62 of Hayden, Idaho, died November 7, 2015. At CMC, Taylor studied economics and was active in basketball and intramural sports.

He worked for Edison International. Taylor is survived by his wife, Wendy.

DENNIS A. DUNN ’64 of Los Angeles, died June 17, 2019. He is survived by two daughters and five grandchildren.

PRESTON DRY ’65 of Chicago, died February 1, 2018. Dry received his B.A. in economics at CMC. He is survived by three children and five grandchildren.

BILL HARRIS III ’65 of Los Angeles, died August 30, 2019. A graduate of Claremont High School, Harris received his B.A. in political science at CMC. Harris started his showbiz career as a writer on The Ralph Story Morning Show on KABC-TV in Los Angeles.

He was one of the first reporters on Entertainment Tonight and achieved acclaim as the successor to Siskel & Ebert as a co-host for the syndicated program At the Movies. Harris also became president of Buzzards Bay Entertainment. He is survived by his partner, Gregg Barnette.

CHRISTOPHER DARROW ’66 of Claremont, died January 15, 2020. Darrow attended Webb School, Claremont High School, and his father, Paul Darrow, was a professor at Scripps College. An art major at CMC, he went on to earn an M.F.A. at Claremont Graduate University. Darrow played many instruments, performing in different bands, and as a solo artist. He remained a fixture in Claremont’s music community, acting as a mentor to young artists and musicians.

A lover of photography, he also contributed to art publications and his works have been exhibited at Claremont Heritage.

LAMBERT C. THOM ’67 of Belvedere Tiburon, Calif., died October 23, 2019. Thom studied management engineering at CMC and worked at a private investment firm. See the Class of ’67 Class Notes section for a series of remembrances from his classmates.

DUNCAN FERGUSON ’69 of Coronado, Calif., died October 18, 2019. After CMC, Ferguson entered the U.S. Navy and served off the coast of Vietnam. He then pursued a career in education, teaching and becoming athletic director for the high school from which he graduated. He is survived by two children and five grandchildren.

STEVEN A. MAARANEN ’69 of Santa Fe, N.M., died June 16, 2019. Maaranen received his B.A. in political science from CMC, and both an M.A. and Ph.D. in government from Claremont Graduate University. He served in the U.S. Army, then spent time in England to complete research for his Ph.D. In addition to

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teaching at CMC, he worked at the Los Alamos National Lab. A cyclist from a young age, Maaranen was a two-time track cycling national champion in the 10-mile event and competed in Mexico City as a member of the 1968 Olympic cycling team for the 4-man pursuit. He is survived by his wife, Denise, and two daughters.

1970s LYLE L. BELL ’71 of Coral Springs, Fla., died August 18, 2019. Bell received his B.A. in management engineering from CMC. His career led him to information technology, where he held a variety of executive positions in the Las Vegas and Florida gaming industry. He is survived by his wife, Jane; three children; and four grandchildren.

MICHAEL M. LEHRER ’71 of Encino, Calif., died October 20, 2019. Lehrer studied political science at CMC, and was active in intramural sports. He also volunteered at the Mentor Café and was a Phonenite caller. He focused his career on commercial real estate finance, becoming the president of Morgan Financial, Ltd. He is survived by his wife, Cec, and two children.

PETER L. GARTHWAITE ’72 of Lafayette, Calif., died February 22, 2018. He is survived by his wife, Catherine, and a son.

WALTER J. ZABRISKIE ’72 of Seattle, died December 15, 2017. Zabriskie was active in intramural sports while at CMC. He served as CEO for a number of companies, and finished his career as a partner at Next Level Consulting. Zabriskie also developed a mentorship program at the University of Washington.

He is survived by his wife, Christine; two children; and two grandchildren.

BOYD D. HUDSON ’73 P’05 P’12 of Pasadena, Calif.,

died Nov. 21, 2019. Hudson was a lifelong Pasadena resident, where he attended South Pasadena schools as an Eagle Scout, football and tennis standout (he was awarded the C. Merrill Green Athlete of the Year in 1969), and a member of National Honor Society.

At CMC, he graduated Cum Laude with a degree in history. He met his wife, Alice, while studying in Vienna, Austria, and they married in 1975. Hudson graduated from UCLA with a J.D. and M.B.A. in 1978, and worked for various accounting firms before starting his own Pasadena-based law practice, Adams, Hawekotte, & Hudson, where he focused on estate and tax law. Hudson was an active member of the CMC community, and served a term as president of the Alumni Association from 1987-1988. The joy of his life was spending time with his two daughters, Clare ’05 and Alice ’12, who followed him to CMC. Together, they shared a passion for UCLA football and wine from the Paso Robles region. Hudson is remembered fondly by friends and family as a kind man who loved making personal and professional connections—and turning those connections into lasting relationships. He always led with a smile.

Hudson is survived by his wife; two daughters; and a grandson.

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STEVEN D. MARQUARDT ’76 of Seattle, died July 5, 2019. Marquardt studied literature and history while at CMC, and also served as ASCMC president in 1975.

He became a distinguished labor researcher and activist, doing research in Costa Rica on its banana industry for many years. Marquardt was a founding member of the labor union representing graduate academic employees. He is survived by his wife, Julie, and a daughter.

2010s

BRIAN I. KITAGAWA ’78 of Waimea, Hawaii, died November 22, 2019. Kitagawa was president and chief executive officer of I. Kitagawa and Company, Limited, parent company of Kamaaina Motors, Kamaaina Nissan, Kona Auto Center and Parts Center Hawaii. He was a member of the CMCAA Hawaii Honolulu chapter region and a past president of the Hawaii Automobile Dealers Association. Kitagawa is survived by his wife, Nan; a son and daughter; and two grandchildren.

ZHAOWEI “ARIES” CUI ’16 of Beijing, died July 10, 2019.

An active participant in activities at International Place and a welcoming mentor to other students from China, Cui is survived by her parents, Zongxiao and Sihua.

JOHN J. KNOTT ’79 of Las Vegas, died August 16, 2019. At CMC, Knott studied economics and accounting, and was also active in tennis and football. He came to know the intricacies of casino economics, becoming a Las Vegas real estate broker who sold properties on and near the city’s famous Strip. Knott was also executive vice president of CB Richard Ellis. He is survived by three children and his sisters, Meggan Knott ’82 and Tricia Knott ’84.

1980s WILLIAM C. STEPHENSON ’80 of Albuquerque, N.M., died July 23, 2019. Stephenson received his B.A. in economics and psychology at CMC. He is survived by family and friends.

ALAN LOBOCK ’82 of Scottsdale, Ariz., died October 24, 2019. Lobock majored in economics while at CMC. He co-founded the in-flight magazine SkyMall, and served as CFO and executive vice president of marketing. Lobock also became active in the Phoenix startup community, mentoring incubators and students at Arizona State University. He is survived by his wife, Theresa, and one son.

REGAN RAHARDJA ’10 of Singapore, died October 27, 2019 from acute leukemia with no previous symptoms. Rahardja received a B.A. in psychology at CMC. He was the recipient of the United World College Scholarship while on campus.

Faculty MICHAEL UHLMANN of Claremont, died October 8, 2019. Uhlmann taught government courses at CMC, was a long-time friend and faculty member of the Rose Institute of State and Local Government, and was a board member of the Salvatori Center for Individual Freedom. He received his Ph.D. at Claremont Graduate University, where he became a professor of government. From 1981 to 1984, he served as special assistant to President Ronald Reagan and associate director of the White House Office of Policy Development. He directed legal and administrative policy for the Reagan presidential transition and chaired the Department of Justice transition team for President-Elect George H. W. Bush. He contributed frequently to the Claremont Review of Books, and published many articles in leading newspapers. Uhlmann is survived by five children and 10 grandchildren.

1990s REED M. PANGBORN ’91 of Phoenix, died October 14, 2019. Pangborn majored in government and psychology at CMC. He was involved in athletics as a member of the Claremont rugby team, and played football all four years. Reed’s career in the cellular communications industry began by doing graveyard-shift, part-time work at McCaw Cellular.

He transitioned to AT&T and worked his way up to executive vice president of North America for Airgain. He is survived by his wife, Sarah Speer ’94, and three children.

CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

Raymond Remy ’59 Life trustee Raymond Remy ’59, an influential leader in Los Angeles public affairs and life trustee of Claremont McKenna College, died on December 21. He was 82.

A longtime resident of South Pasadena, Remy was president of RR Consulting, the political consulting firm he founded. He was a key figure in the rise of Los Angeles as a global metropolis. Remy was chief of staff and deputy mayor to Mayor Tom Bradley during a period of great economic and cultural advancement for Los Angeles.

In both his position with Mayor Bradley and as a director of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Remy was a leader in the development of Los Angeles’ first subway line. Following his City Hall service, Remy became president of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. Remy reinvigorated the organization by restoring its influence in public policy advocacy; he also helped the organization transform its leadership by recruiting women and minority board members.

Remy shared his expertise with CMC as a trustee since 1987 and as a director of the CMC Alumni Association. He was also a member of the board of governors for the Rose Institute for State and Local Government, from which he received the Rose Award for Public Service in 2012. The CMC Alumni Association awarded Remy the George C.S. Benson Distinguished Achievement Award.

President Hiram E. Chodosh said Remy “gave so much of himself directly to CMC. As a student, alumnus, chair of the Rose Institute, trustee, life trustee, and exemplary leader of greater Los Angeles, he advised and mentored with the strongest principles and most generous spirit.”

Throughout his career, Remy headed some of the most powerful associations and commissions in California. He was executive director of the Southern California Association of Governments, commissioner of the state Fair Political Practices Commission, and headed the California Employment Development Dept. Remy was also president of the American Society of Public Administration.

A San Francisco native, Remy was student body president at San Rafael High School. He majored in political science at CMC and completed a master’s degree in public administration at UC Berkeley.

Remy served for six years in the California National Guard.

In college, Remy embodied the scholar-leader ideal cultivated by CMC’s founders. President Emeritus Jack Stark ’57 recalled Remy’s campus job was checking in students at the dining hall. “He got to know every student,” Stark said, noting that recognition helped Remy win election to the presidency of both his class and the student body. Jil Stark ’58, who as Scripps student body president worked with Remy on student government matters, said Remy’s popularity also grew out of his skill as a top tennis player for the Pomona-Claremont varsity. “We all went to the matches then. He was a great player and so exciting to watch.”

Jack Stark said his friendship with Remy grew even stronger when they served CMC together as president and trustee, respectively. Stark said Remy was a leader in creating and governing the College’s research institutes, and he was passionate about supporting students. Remy created the Remy Mahoney Fellowship, through which he mentored a student on financial aid throughout their four years at CMC. Classmate Glenn Hickerson ’59, a CMC honorary trustee, said Remy derived great happiness from his connection to CMC students. Hickerson said Remy often told him mentoring the Remy Mahoney fellows gave him “extraordinary satisfaction.”

One of those students, Gavin Landgraf ’14, now a Yale law student, said Remy met with him several times a year when he was on campus for meetings, and once a semester Remy came to Claremont specifically to take Landgraf to lunch. Landgraf soaked up Remy’s stories of Los Angeles politics, which solidified his interest in pursuing a career in public service. He also sought Remy’s advice on some major personal decisions.

Landgraf asked Remy how he might know he was ready for marriage. “He told me commitment is a beautiful thing,” said Landgraf, who married in 2018.

David Mgrublian ’82 P ’11, chair of the Board of Trustees, said Remy was “a mentor to me and many others on the CMC Board on how to be an effective trustee. In over 30 years of service, he rarely, if ever, missed a Board meeting and always came to them well prepared to discuss and debate the issues facing the College. His wisdom will be sorely missed.”

Remy is survived by his wife Sandra, daughters Erin Petrossi and Kimber Edwards, nine grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

—Peter Hong

SPRING 2020

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CMC Board of Trustees Regular Trustees David G. Mgrublian ’82 P’11 Chair of the Board of Trustees, Claremont McKenna College CEO, IDS Real Estate Group Peter K. Barker ’70 P’01 Board Chair Emeritus, Claremont McKenna College Retired Chairman of California JPMorgan Chase & Co. Retired Partner, Goldman Sachs & Company James B. Bemowski ’76 P’07 P’09 M’10 Retired, Vice Chairman of the Doosan Group & CEO of the Doosan Corporation Hiram E. Chodosh President, Claremont McKenna College A. Steven Crown ’74 General Partner and Co-President, Henry Crown & Company Tina Daniels ’93 Director, Google Cary Davidson ’75 Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Reed & Davidson, LLP Robert A. Day ’65 P’12 Board Chair Emeritus, Claremont McKenna College Chairman and CEO, The W.M. Keck Foundation Chairman, Oakmont Corporation David Dreier ’75 Chairman, Tribune Publishing Company Steven L. Eggert ’82 P’15 Founder, Anton DevCo, Inc. Elyssa M. Elbaz ’94 Manager, Elbaz Family Foundation Laura M. Grisolano ’86 President and CEO, Bridge Mediation & Leadership Solutions LLC E. David Hetz ’80 P’10 Vice Chair, Prager & Co., LLC Gregory K. Hinckley ’68 Retired, President, Mentor Graphics Corporation John M. Isaacson Chairman, Isaacson, Miller Jeffrey S. Klein ’75 P’08 P’11 P’14 Retired Executive Chairman, 1105 Media, Inc. Henry R. Kravis ’67 Co-Founder, Co-Chairman, and Co-CEO, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. Duane K. Kurisu P’08 Chairman and CEO, aio Michael Larson ’80 Chief Investment Officer, BMGI

CMC

Editorial Thomas Rozwadowski Gilien Silsby Valerie Ramos Visual Anibal Ortiz Design Jay Toffoli

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Tao Li ’02 Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Teng Yue Partners Susan Matteson King ’85 P’18 Senior Vice President, Product and Marketing Strategy, Foresters Financial James B. McElwee ’74 P’12 Venture Capitalist Yvette McGee Brown P’19 Partner, Jones Day Harry T. McMahon ’75 P’08 P’09 Board Chair Emeritus, Claremont McKenna College Senior Advisor, G100 Companies Marci Lerner Miller '89 P'19 P'20 Disability and Special Education Attorney, Miller Advocacy Group Akshata N. Murty ’02 Director, Catamaran Ventures UK Robert C. Nakasone ’69 P’98 GP’23 Retired CEO, Toys “R” Us, Inc. Kenneth M. Novack ’67 Founding Partner, Schnitzer West Douglas L. Peterson ’80 P’14 P’15 President and CEO, S&P Global William F. Podlich ’66 Retired CEO, Pacific Investment Management Co. Fredric J. Prager P’99 P’01 Managing Director, Prager & Co., LLC Rey Ramsey Managing Partner, Centri Capital G. Jeffrey Records, Jr. ’81 Chairman and CEO, MidFirst Bank George R. Roberts ’66 P’93 Co-Founder, Co-Chairman, and Co-CEO, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. Richard J. Romero ’89 President & CEO, Oremor Management and Investment Co. Rossi A. Russell ’71 Attorney at Law Bruce A. Soll ’79 P’12 P’15 P’17 Counselor, LBrands, Inc. Kenneth J. Valach ’82 CEO, Trammell Crow Residential Shaw B. Wagener ’81 Chairman, Capital International Christopher V. Walker ’69 Founding Partner, Leonard Green & Partners

Life Trustees Gary E. Biszantz ’56 P’08 Former Chairman, Cobra Golf, Inc.

Vice President for Advancement Michelle Chamberlain Alumni Association Communications Committee Dan Freeman ’96 - co-chair Ken Gilbert ’73 - co-chair Laura Lulejian Klein ’92 Kimberly Munoz ’10 Rob Poy ’90 P’21 Faye Sahai ’90 P’22 Edgar Warnholtz ’19

Spring 2020 CMC Volume 43, Number 1 Published by Claremont McKenna College Claremont, CA 91711-6400

Barbara W. Boswell Educator, Boswell Family Foundation Abbott L. Brown P’00 Chairman and CEO, Ridgestone Corporation Richard E. Butler Retired President, Kilkenny Consulting Corp.

Joseph T. Casey P’81 P’85 P’88 P’95 GP’20 Retired Executive Vice President and Director, Litton Industries, Inc. Marvin W. Drew ’51 P’75 GP’05 Private Investor Robert L. Emett ’50 Private Investor Perry A. Lerner ’65 P’89 GP’19 GP’20 Chairman & CEO, Crown Global Insurance Group, LLC Robert J. Lowe ’62 Board Chair Emeritus, Claremont McKenna College Founder and Chairman, Lowe Enterprises Inc. Thomas M. Mitchell ’66 Retired Chairman and CEO, Provident Investment Counsel Jack L. Stark ’57 GP’11 President Emeritus, Claremont McKenna College Buzz Woolley ’59 P’90 P’92 Retired President, Girard Capital, Inc.

Ex-Officio Trustees Paul Nathan ’80 President of the CMC Alumni Association, Claremont McKenna College President, Ledex Consulting Corporation Kathryn (KK) Streator P’18 P’21 President of the CMC Parent Network, Claremont McKenna College Founding Partner, Noosphere Marketing

Alumni Trustees Emily Meinhardt ’10 Interior Designer, Josefa Buckingham Design Harriet B. Nembhard ’91 Dean Designate, University of Iowa College of Engineering Timothy W. Wright III ’77 Partner of Operations, Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer, P.A.

Honorary Trustees John V. Croul ’49 Retired, Co-Chairman, Behr Process Corporation Glenn L. Hickerson ’59 President, Hickerson Associates

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 © 2020, Claremont McKenna College

CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

SPRING 2020

CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

parting shot Shanil Verjee '21 chats with Katherine Baird, minister of Congressional, public, and intergovernmental affairs, on the terrace of the Embassy of Canada. Verjee was an intern at the Embassy as part of CMC's fall Washington D.C. Program.

SPRING 2020

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

A shared experience More than 800 guests attended CMC’s Family Weekend in February, making this year’s celebration the largest ever. The three-day event was packed with activities highlighting student life experiences through the lens of the College’s mission and strategy. Nearly 120 family members were also able to visit due to the generosity of CMC’s Kravis Opportunity Fund.

Bauman Photographers