Occidental Magazine - Summer 2018

Office of Communications F-36 1600 Campus Road Los Angeles CA 90041-3314

SUMMER 2018

Nonprofit U.S. Postage Paid Occidental College

Talking Economics: Inside Oxy’s Biggest Major

Marketing Apple: VP Tor Myhren ’94

Address Service Requested

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Photo by Marc Campos

Susan Howell Mallory ’76 M’78 is head of wealth management banking for Northern Trust and chair of the Occidental Board of Trustees. She has included Oxy in her estate plans through a beneficiary designation.

The first time I walked on the Occidental campus, the Myron Hunt buildings took my breath away. The jacaranda trees were in full bloom, and every student I met was interesting, thoughtful, and positive about their Oxy experience. I was also impressed with how close the campus was to downtown Los Angeles and all that the L.A. Basin has to offer. After spending the first two years of college at a rural woman’s college in the Northeast, I had intended on transferring to Scripps. That ended the minute I set foot on Oxy soil!

A day does not go by which has not been influenced by what I learned or did at Occidental. I was exposed to all kinds of experiences which helped to form my independence from traditional norms and thinking. I learned how to contextualize, and not take what I read as fact but rather interpretation. I also learned to be more courageous and to listen to others to help form my positions and beliefs. I find that listening to and actually hearing others’ perspectives provides a richness to one’s decision-making and actions.

I have many memories both in and out of the classroom, but it was in my Model United Nations class that I became passionate about global affairs. I also learned public speaking, debating, and the importance of negotiation. I played the role of the head of the People’s Republic of China delegation, which was fascinating and was the impetus for me staying at Oxy and getting my master’s in diplomacy and world affairs.

At Oxy, I also learned to dialogue and to question data by seeking out the rationale underlying them. As a banker, I often find myself in discussions with analysts concerning numbers, trends, models. The story behind those numbers is where I often end up, not the sum of the parts or patterns. My connections with clients are not through performance metrics or industry trends, but rather through common interests such as reading, history, politics, global events, and other liberal arts-related topics.

“If my gift enables any student to experience what I did and impact their life the way Oxy has mine, that’s all I wish for,” Mallory says.

PATRICIA KRUSE GILLETTE ’73: FINDING UNCOMMON SOLUTIONS /// SENIORS AND THEIR FACULTY MENTORS

“I owe much to the Oxy experience.”

I owe much to the Oxy experience that helped to shape who I am. With the challenges that every small liberal arts institution has in competing with larger, well-endowed private universities and less expensive public universities, it is critical that all alumni support our institution in as meaningful a way as they are able.

Making sure that Oxy flourishes and provides the highest quality education and experience to all students is a responsibility we all share. I hope you will support and get involved in the College.

So You Think You Know

OXY?

Test your College IQ with the ultimate trivia quiz

oxy.edu/magazine

Occidental College Office of Gift Planning M-36 | 1600 Campus Road Los Angeles CA 90041-3314 | Phone: 323-259-2644 Email: giftplanning@oxy.edu | oxy.edu/giftplanning | facebook.com/BenCulleySociety

Which of the following Hollywood elite is not an Oxy parent?

A) Gregory Peck B) Don Johnson C) Donald O’Connor D) Cybill Shepherd (Turn to page 24 to start the quiz.)

Gregory Peck with Clancy Morrison, Oxy's director of food services, in 1964

OXYFARE 

Snapshots from Volume 40, Number 3 oxy.edu/magazine OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE

Jonathan Veitch President Wendy F. Sternberg Vice President for Academic Aairs and Dean of the College Rhonda L. Brown Vice President for Equity and Inclusion & Chief Diversity OďŹƒcer Charlie Cardillo Vice President for Institutional Advancement Vince Cuseo Vice President of Enrollment and Dean of Admission Rob Flot Vice President for Student Aairs and Dean of Students Amos Himmelstein Vice President & Chief Operating OďŹƒcer Marty Sharkey Vice President for Marketing and Communications Jim Tranquada Director of Communications editorial staff

Dick Anderson Editor Samantha B. Bonar ’90, Laura Paisley Contributing Writers Marc Campos Contributing Photographer Gail (Schulman) Ginell ’79 Class Notes Editor SanSoucie Design Design DLS Group Printing

Alumni Reunion Weekend June 22-24 Photos by Marc Campos, Nick Jacob, and Don Milici

1. Clockwise from upper left, Alumni Seal honorees Shawn (Lovell) Hanson ’83 (service to the College), Brenda Shockley ’68 (alumna of the year), Kevin Adler ’07 (Erica J. Murray ’01 Young Alumni Award), Raymond Ewing ’57 and Elona Street-Stewart ’73 (professional achievement), and Martha Hernandez ’03 (service to the community). 2. Brian Tanksley ’13 beats the heat in Taylor Pool. 3.

Amanda Alissa Perez ’13 is all smiles.

4. 1988 classmates Shannon Davidson, Lakshmi Dastur Johnson, and Michelle Weetman. 5. 1983 alums Keitha Russell, Ken Romero, and Margaret Hirsch. 6. Reunion dinner emcees Robin Hamilton ’08, Jordan Brown ’13, and Courtney Stricklin Burgan ’03—all Admission oďŹƒcers at Oxy—on Saturday night. 7. Linda Hoag ’68 presents the class history at Sunday’s Fifty Year Club meeting.

8. 1988 grads Lilly Omid, Van Anh Nguyen Dastur, Kathy (Bower) Frazier, Heather Dunn Carlton, and Mina Lopez gear up for a titanic weekend. 9. Enid (Srozena) Busser ’58 hits the dance oor with Bill Spellman ’58. 10. John Whitebeck ’98 rolls the bones at the craps table while classmates John Jackson, left, and Akon (Ate) Anyiam, right, look on. 11. Oswald strikes a pose with Christy Nakada ’08 and Sean Bowen ’07. 12. Members of the Class of ’83 gather outside the Coons Administrative Center—near the site of an antiapartheid rally that presaged a career in politics for a certain classmate more than 37 years ago. 13. Millennial ’tude from the Class of 2008.

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Jamie Angell Adjunct associate professor of theater The cast of Doctor Scooby-Doolittle Bottom row: Billy Schmidt ’17, Jonathan Padron ’14, and London Murray ’18 Middle row: Sergio Perez ’20, Dyoni Isom ’19 Top: Amanda Wagner ’16

Black tie-dye-style T-shirt with colorful Tiger screenprint and OXY on sleeve. 100% cotton Also available: Orange tie-dye T-shirt with classic Oswald Sizes S-XXL, $19.95

Occidental College Bookstore oxybookstore.com To order by phone: 323-259-2951 All major credit cards accepted

Published quarterly by Occidental College Main number: 323-259-2500 To contact Occidental magazine By phone: 323-259-2679 By email: oxymag@oxy.edu By mail: Occidental College OďŹƒce of Communications F-36 1600 Campus Road Los Angeles CA 90041-3314 Letters may be edited for length, content, and style.

Occidental College online Homepage: oxy.edu Facebook: facebook.com/occidental Twitter: @occidental Instagram: instagram.com/occidentalcollege Cover photo by Joe Friezer, from the Friezer Photography Negative Archive, Occidental College Special Collections Oxy Wear photo by Marc Campos

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Save the dates! Homecoming & Family Weekend is October 19-20.

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alumni.oxy.edu

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Features 10 My Oxy Mentor Whether the topic is research or career options or life itself, meaningful interaction between students and professors is a vital component of the Oxy journey. Four graduating seniors and their faculty advisers reflect on the bonds they share—and the lessons they’ve taught each other.

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Laurence De Rycke anchored the Oxy economics department from 1943 to 1970. “He scared the hell out of us,” Stephen Hinchliffe ’55 said years later, calling De Rycke “my idea of the perfect professor.”

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Departments 36

Apple Watch Apple vice president of marketing communications Tor Myhren ’94 has “the best job in the world.” (He just can’t talk much about it.)

18 Economies of Scale These are boom times for economics —Oxy’s biggest major for the last 19 years. As two popular professors prepare to retire, how will the department evolve?

OxyTalk

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Retiring faculty John Bouchard and Alan Knoerr brought passion to their every pursuit.

Trivial Pursuits So you think you know Oxy? Take our little quiz—we’re not keeping score— and you might be surprised about some things you never learned.

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First Word A stirring Commencement ceremony reminds President Veitch that we are in good hands with the Class of 2018. Also: Vietnam memories, and an education in coed housing in the 1960s.

From the Quad Graduation speaker Sara El-Amine ’07 gets to the heart, hands, and brains of the Oxy experience.

Also: Kemp Lecturer Tal Becker, a new lease on life for Oxy football, and spring sports standouts.

Page 64 Catherine Haight ’98 balances a thriving Hollywood career as a TV and film editor with a commitment to empowering women and children in Congo.

38 Tigerwire Class notes for odd years.

32 Outside the Box Employment lawyer turned mediator and keynote speaker Pat Gillette ’73 helps women and businesses find common ground through uncommon solutions.

PHOTO CREDITS: Marc Campos First Word, From the Quad, OxyTalk | Occidental College Special Collections De Rycke | Todd Webb Trivial Pursuits | Rebecca Snavely Page 64

FIRST WORD » FROM PRESIDENT VEITCH

We’re in Good Hands With the Class of 2018 This year’s Commencement ceremony had all the essential elements of reaffirming ritual: proud families, exuberant graduates, jacaranda trees in bloom, and superb music from the Glee Club. Less traditional was our decision to have four speakers—three of them Oxy alumnae—in a tribute to women’s leadership. The four came from different eras and different fields; each had a different style at the podium. But each gave the Class of 2018 inspiring insight into their often-unconventional paths to success and how their Oxy experience played a fundamental role in shaping their careers.

The lessons they offered also reminded me of why the College remains so strong today.

The only woman in her class to major in economics, longtime trustee Cathie Young Selleck ’55 had no idea what she wanted to do with her life, but needed a job. So she lined up several interviews with recruiters visiting Oxy and went in with an open mind. Most employers made clear what she could expect, but “because tech was so new at the time, IBM had great difficulty in explaining exactly what their work was all about,” she recounted. “So, determined not to sign up for boring, I took a leap into the unknown.” The result was a pioneering, four-decade career as one of the first female executives in the tech industry—and a good reminder of why our investments in today’s Hameetman Career Center are so important.

Ann Zwicker Kerr-Adams ’56, who graduated one year after Cathie, spent a transformational junior year studying abroad in Beirut. Not only did she meet her husband Malcolm there, she was able to take advantage of what she called “the spirit of openness at Oxy that encouraged us to open our eyes to the world.” Upon her return, she realized that the experience had given her a deeper understanding of her own culture. These were lessons she never forgot, even in the wake of the tragic assassination of her husband, then the president of American University in Beirut, 2

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Photo by Allen Li ’20

during the Lebanese civil war. Ann’s career as an advocate for international education is an outstanding example of why overseas study is so important—and why almost three-quarters of Oxy students now pursue multiple routes to global citizenship, which include research, internships, and fellowships as well as conventional study abroad.

Maya Soetoro-Ng, director of the University of Hawaii’s Matsunaga Institute for Peace & Conflict Resolution, reminded graduates that just as there are multiple paths to career success, there are many paths to peace. “There are always going to be a lot of different definitions of peace building. Sometimes, they contradict one another. … But the truth is we need everyone,” said Maya, who serves on the Obama Scholars Advisory Council. “You can lead from in front, pushing people forward, inspiring them, providing an example, or from beside, behind, or beneath. Whatever your place, you are peace-building leaders.”

Sara El-Amine ’07, the final speaker, told of the professors she met at Oxy, faculty “who were smart and challenging and supportive all at the same time, mentors who helped me see my best self, even when I couldn’t … my friends and the faculty here showed me that cynicism was the refuge of cowards, and that optimism was the path of the brave.” Those are the lessons she applied when she suddenly quit

her job and drove 1,300 miles to join Sen. Barack Obama ’83’s fledgling presidential campaign in Iowa. “I had no idea what I would be when I got there, but I knew what I wanted to help do,” she explained. That, she said, was in keeping with the advice that the president subsequently gave her as she rose to become national director of his 2012 reelection campaign and then executive director of Organizing for America: “Worry less about what you want to be, and more about what you want to do.”

In other words, “Pick your challenge and then pick up a wrench when your hammer doesn’t work. Your resume will write itself,” she said. There is no lack of challenges, but they are within your reach, she told the graduates with Oxy optimism.

“Remember that cynicism is a mask for fear. Make and remake the world and you will make and remake yourself without even trying. You’ve got this. And we’re counting on you.”

That’s good advice. It’s also further evidence, when added to Ann and Cathie’s examples, that Oxy produces some really remarkable people. It’s also grounds for optimism that we’re in good hands with the Class of 2018.

FIRST WORD

Photos courtesy Terry Burnes ’68 (left) and Burt Ballentine ’67

» FROM THE READERS The Choice of a Lifetime Regarding “Why We Served” (Spring), I awoke my first morning at Oxy in fall 1964 to find my new Bell-Young roommate and lifelong friend, Brad Santos ’68, heading out the door. “Where to?” I asked. He said, “I’m going down to sign up for ROTC, want to come?” I tagged along and listened to the Air Force’s pitch. What registered was the $75-a-month stipend starting junior year.

Count me in.

In many ways that was the most important decision of my life because it led to so much. First, this mediocre English major had a job after graduation. Second, I got to head off to pilot training and do things I’d never imagined. Third, I met my wife two years after graduation at “Go-Go Night” at the Norton Air Force Base officers club.

Fourth, when I departed the Air Force in 1973, I got my master’s in urban and regional planning thanks to the GI Bill. And my Air Force experience actually helped me land a job, related to airport environs planning, in a county planning department that I eventually managed.

The Vietnam War was controversial for sure. And traumatic for some, but not for most. Many of us found wonderful opportunities serving in the military. I’m glad Oxy offered ROTC and that I took advantage of it. And I can never repay Brad [above right, next to Burnes] for asking me along.

Terry Burnes ’68 Gardnerville, Nev.

Coming Home I flew the first of my 226 combat missions in the F-4 Phantom out of Cam Ranh Bay, South Vietnam, the rest out of Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand. I visited with Dave Hickson ’66 while passing through his base. As a Nite Owl at Ubon, I flew escort missions above Steve Ryf ’67 in his AC-130 Spectre Gunships. Nite Owl escorts attacked the anti-aircraft batteries that fired at Spectre. That was sporty. I went on to fly Nite Owl Forward Air Controller missions, keeping the Ho Chi Minh Trail under flare light, then on to a Special Air Ops-type

group called Wolf. Wolf flew solo patrol missions behind enemy lines. We had only 12 crews and suffered a 42 percent shootdown rate. Wolf FACs controlled air strikes in support of the Son Tây Prison raid in 1970. I was the last aircraft out of North Vietnam that day.

I returned to Southern California in 1971 and was treated like a criminal. My military haircut drew scornful glares. Oxy was little better. A classmate asked me how I could stand to live with myself. When I was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross for taking out a heavy AAA battery, the Occidental publications did not print it. My base public relations office called Oxy to verify that the press release had been received and was told that the school “preferred not to be associated with people like that.”

This did not anger me as I held the then-liberal tolerance for others’ views.

What did anger me was the school ignoring the combat death of Jody Sampsell ’66. I was flying over the trail near the tri-border area when a “Mayday” call came in and later learned that Jody went down that night in that area, near Quang Tri. I linked the two, not verified. That memory haunts me.

I continued to contribute to the College but made it clear that my money went to Tiger track, as I still believed in the purity of athletic endeavor.

Nice cover and article. About time, some would say.

Burt Ballentine ’67 Keller, Texas

Band of Brothers It was interesting to read Doug Beacham ’64’s account of Occidental alumni who served on active duty in the military during Vietnam. Major Donald A. Brown ’61 (“Casualties of War”) was an ATO fraternity brother. I was able to locate his name on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C., several years ago. For

those who have never visited the memorial, I strongly recommend you make the effort.

Don is missed by his many ATO brothers.

Several other ATOs from my era also served their country on active duty during the Vietnam era. Among them are Col. Thomas W. Young ’61 (Air Force); Capt.

Henry W. Field and Capt. David H. Jones (Air Force Reserve); Capt. Edward Schweizer ’61 (Navy); and Lt. Thomas E. Clark ’61, Lt. E. William Wedmore ’63, and myself, Comm. Coleman A. Swart (Naval Reserve). Each of us has special memories of our service time and are proud to have served during a difficult period of history.

Coleman A. Swart ’61 South Pasadena

The Wright Decision Thank you for your profile of retiring professor Dale Wright (“The Meaning of Wright,” Spring). I served as an alumni member of the search committee that recommended him for his first appointment at Oxy. I recall what most attracted us to him was the clarity of his teaching and his ability to connect with students.

These are quintessential qualities defining both Wright as a teacher and Oxy as an institution. I add my voice to many others in thanking Professor Wright for his exemplary service to Occidental and its students.

Dan Saperstein ’78 Saginaw, Mich.

What Happens in Norris …

Excellent article (“68 Is the New 50”)!

However, Norris Hall opened in the fall of 1966, not 1967. It wasn’t exactly coed: Mostly sophomore men lived in one wing, and mostly senior women lived in the other. We did have more liberal hours than other dorms. Yet, as resident assistant, I had the unenviable job of telling our male classmates when it was time to depart the rooms of their female friends.

Lois A. Aroian ’67 East Jordan, Mich.

Corrections and Additions A photo caption in “Twenty Something” (Spring) misidentified Richard Via ’19 as Greg Feiner ’18, and vice versa. Our apologies to both New Play Festival playwrights.

For additional letters related to the Spring issue, visit oxy.edu/magazine.

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FROM THE QUAD Photos by Marc Campos and Allen Li ’20 | Selfie (below) courtesy Sara El-Amine ’07

left: Honorary doctorate recipents Cathie Young Selleck ’55, Maya Soetoro-Ng, Ann Zwicker Kerr-Adams ’56, and Sara El-Amine ’07 take a pre-Commencement selfie outside Collins House. above: El-Amine and Anthony Chase, professor of diplomacy and world affairs, on the dais inside Remsen Bird Hillside Theater. El-Amine thanked Chase “for teaching me many of the foundational, theoretical, and practical frameworks that stay with me to this day, in my work and in my life.”

‘Our Place of Becoming’ Capping a celebration of women in leadership at Commencement, Sara El-Amine ’07 gets to the heart, hands, and brains of the Oxy experience

In a celebration of women in leadership, pioneering tech executive Cathie Young Selleck ’55, international education advocate Ann Zwicker Kerr-Adams ’56, conflict resolution educator Maya Soetoro-Ng, and political consultant Sara El-Amine ’07 addressed the Class of 2018 at Occidental’s 136th Commencement ceremony May 20.

Their experiences may have been singular (page 2), but all four women “clearly possess passion, are selfless, take risks, and have incredible courage,” Board of Trustees chair Susan Howell Mallory ’76 M’78 noted at the start of the two-hour ceremony.

In a stirring call to action to the 509 graduates from 37 states and 16 countries, ElAmine—a field organizer in Barack Obama ’83’s first presidential campaign who later served as executive director of Organizing for America—recalled sitting “in uncomfortable shoes in this very amphitheater a little over 10 years ago, proud, a little hungover, and deeply hopeful about my future and the fu4

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ture of humanity. … I built the same protest signs as many of you built and I cried the same hot, angry tears that many of you cried when the outside world punctured our idyllic campus through unnecessary school shootings, refugee crises, and heartbreaking elections, or when our campus showed that it was actually no more idyllic than the outside world, perpetuating injustices inside our very halls.”

At Oxy, “I met a scrappy bunch of unlikely best friends who had their own hurts and dreams and political realities and limitations that were deeply different from my own,” El-Amine said. “I met professors who were smart and challenging and supportive all at the same time, mentors who helped me see my best self, even when I couldn’t. In my time of greatest disenchantment, my friends and the faculty here showed me that cynicism was the refuge of cowards, and that optimism was the path of the brave.”

“We had the foresight to choose Oxy as our place of becoming, because even at the

tender age of 17, each of us understood, at some level, that the world is remaking itself and breaking itself anew every day, and that we were personally meant to play powerful roles within those thrashes,” she continued.

“We stayed the course here because we wanted to strip away the grime and the hurt and the anger and fear and get to the heart of the problem, and then the hands of the solution, not just the brain of it.”

She added: “Each of us came to be at Oxy through a unique combination of pain and privilege, in different measure. That tension inside of us, and our self awareness of it, is what makes us powerful forces on campus and in the world.”

In closing, El-Amine told the class, “This country and this world won’t right itself without you—whether you stand for that bold making and remaking from inside a boardroom or a hospital room or a classroom or a church or a science lab. We’re passing you the power. Make it bend.”

FROM THE QUAD

Snapshots from Oxy’s 136th Commencement ceremony— left: Chance Ward (a critical theory and social justice major from Baltimore), Jarrett Walker (politics, Manalapan, N.J.), and Danyaal Waheed (diplomacy and world affairs, Dubai). above: Khloe Swanson (urban and environmental policy, Brooklyn), second from left, with professors Peter Dreier, Regina Freer, and Martha Matsuoka ’83.

above left: Sienna Salce (English, Pasadena) and Kristen Saito (biochemistry, Kailua, Hawai‘i). above center: Raúl Soto (sociology, New York City), Jarron Williams (urban and environmental policy, New Orleans), and Sara Semal, director of student wellness. above right: Media arts and culture majors Matt Parker (San Clemente) and Josie Pesce (New York City). right: Eli Remy (psychology, El Dorado Hills), Bryant McLafferty (kinesiology, Springfield, Ill.), Brooks Yeager (geology, Portland, Ore.), Thomas Stephens (economics, Newton, Mass.), Mizuki Shumsky (Japanese studies, Tokyo), Abel Tiong (DWA and economics, Singapore), and John Yonamine (economics, Honolulu). far left: Alpha Lambda Phi Alpha sisters Mackenzie Bretz (politics, Edmonds, Wash.), Giovanna Dieffenbach (psychology, Seattle), and Sasha Munch (DWA, Prague). left: Chris Freeman ’91 (theater, Los Angeles) gets a hug from his dad, emeritus professor of theater Alan Freeman ’66 M’67.

After a 27-year hiatus from homework, Chris returned to Oxy and completed his studies this spring. right: Sam Soule (biology, Brooklyn).

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FROM THE QUAD

On March 10, more than 80 supporters of Oxy football gathered on Branca Patio in support of Oxy’s most ambitious fundraising initiative in the program’s 124-year history.

1. From left, Jeff Goldstein ’86, David Meltzer ’90, Bill Redell ’64, Mike Tromello ’05 M’06, John Castner ’81, Vance Mueller ’86, Ron Botchan ’57, Jim Mora ’57, Phillip Anton ’67, Larry Layne ’71, and Coach Rob Cushman huddle around Oswald.

2. Stanley Shure ’77 and Eric Moore ’83. 3. Bryan Scott ’17, Mueller and son Shay Mueller ’16, Kwame Do ’15, and Ben Kamerin ’17. 4. Football Action Team swag.

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Team Effort Generations of Oxy alumni rallied to save Tigers football from extinction. Now the hard work continues 4

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By his own admission, the last 11 months or so have been “draining and exhausting” for head football coach Rob Cushman. “For all these years, I’ve been telling the athletes to persevere, to deal with adversity, to get up when you get knocked down,” he says. “And if I can’t model that, then I have no business sending that message to anyone.”

“Amazing” is another word that comes to mind after an offseason like no other—one that began with the cancellation of the last four games of the 2017 schedule over safety concerns raised by an injury-diminished roster. Following a remarkable recruiting effort led by Cushman and an unprecedented fundraising effort that generated nearly $990,000 in gifts and pledges from football alumni in 11 weeks, President Jonathan

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Veitch announced Occidental’s decision to play the 2018 football season at a meeting of the Board of Trustees on April 23.

The decision followed the recommendation last January of a 16-member football task force (composed of faculty, students, alumni, staff, coaches, and trustees) that Oxy continue to support a “safe and competitive” football program. The recommendation came with two conditions: that recruitment numbers reach their target and a new fundraising effort is successful.

Ten months after ending the season with fewer than 40 healthy players, Cushman is expecting a 53-man roster—28 first-year recruits and 25 returnees—to report for training camp August 11. “This group understands that they committed to a program to be part

FROM THE QUAD

Photos by Marc Campos (football) and Sam Leigh (lacrosse)

» HIGHLIGHT REEL

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5. Jim Dennis ’66, Phillip Anton ’67, and Robert White ’66. 6. Mora, Botchan, and Redell.

7. Wide receivers coach Devin Bullock, running backs coach Nick Ostlund, newly hired offensive coordinator Eric Coleman, Kwame Do ’15, Jared Charity ’06, and Adam Jackson ’05.

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of the change,” he says. “It’s going to be difficult with so many young players, but I really like this class of first-years. This will be the foundation moving forward.”

On the fundraising front, a volunteer team of football alumni led by Vance Mueller ’86, who played five years of pro ball with the Los Angeles Raiders, worked closely with College gift officers to help support the program. On April 22—one day prior to the board meeting—they exceeded their firstyear goal and had raised nearly 87 percent of their four-year goal of $1.14 million.

“This is a true team achievement that deserves to be celebrated, as well as a potential inflection point for football and Oxy athletics more broadly,” Veitch said in an announcement following the April board meeting. “It’s my hope that we can take this model of alumni support and apply it to other Oxy sports.”

Reflecting the fundraising drive’s holistic approach to Oxy sports, 25 percent of the donated total has been designated for athletics’ “greatest needs.” That money has already helped facilitate the creation of two new positions: an assistant athletic director for strategic enrollment and engagement, who will aid in identifying student-athletes in all sports who meet Oxy’s academic criteria; and an additional athletic trainer to work alongside head athletic trainer Joe Gonzalez.

“It helps all sports,” Cushman says.

As far as football’s greatest needs go, the campaign’s success has resulted in the pur-

chase of about $40,000 in new equipment— from blocking sleds and tackling dummies to helmets, shoulder pads, and even practice jerseys with numbers on them. In terms of personnel, Eric Coleman has been hired as the Tigers’ new offensive coordinator and “We were able to move some salaries around and improve the quality of our overall staff with one more part-time position we didn’t have,” Cushman notes.

While recruitment and fundraising results are justifiably cause for celebration, “We can’t lose sight of the significant challenges that still exist,” Veitch cautioned in his remarks. “The national conversation about the future of football shows no sign of abating.”

There’s also the challenge of reengaging with the Oxy community at large. “It’s one more thing that we’ve got to work on to improve,” Cushman says. “We do a blood marrow donor match every year, and we’re working with Project SAFE and a variety of things that connect us with campus. I want to win football games, but I want our kids to be good students first and good citizens and be part of the community.”

What’s it going to mean to win a game this fall? “The first victory is getting back on the field,” Cushman says. “I’ve had some nice victories over the years, but that first win will rank up as one of the highest. The scoreboard only measures one piece of an entire program, but that’s a pretty important piece.”

—dick anderson

Senior attacker Sierra Slack, an economics major from Voorhees, N.J., senior midfielder Ciara Byrne, a diplomacy and world affairs and economics double major from Ojai, and sophomore defender Emma Barrow, a politics major from Simi Valley, were all named to the IWLCA All-West Region teams in women’s lacrosse. All three players were also named All-SCIAC. Slack, above, led the conference in total points, with 58 to Byrne’s 49. In goals, Byrne scored a SCIAC-best 47 to Slack’s second-place 42. Barrow emerged as one of the league’s leading defenders, ranking eighth in ground balls (23) and seventh in caused turnovers (15). Oxy finished second in the conference at 8-2.

Pitcher Josh Cohen ’18 and outfielder Eamon McNeil ’19 were both named First Team All-SCIAC after outstanding seasons with the Oxy baseball team, which missed the postseason by one game with an 11-13 conference mark, 19-20 overall.

McNeil, a geology major from Portland, Ore., tore the cover off the ball late in the season, finishing first in the conference in home runs (7) and slugging percentage (.696), fifth in batting average (.392), and fourth in RBIs (24). Cohen, an economics and DWA double major from Berkeley, finished first in the conference in innings pitched (59.2), third in strikeouts (58) and wins (5), and fifth in ERA (2.87).

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FROM THE QUAD

Photos by Eddie Ruvacaba

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Win, Place, and Showtime Oxy’s men’s and women’s track teams cap another spring campaign with four All-American honorees and their 31st consecutive trip to the nationals 4

When it’s May in Eagle Rock, you can count on two things: Commencement will be held in Hillside Theater, and members of the men’s and women’s track and field teams will be off to the NCAA Division III Nationals.

This year was no exception, as the Tigers brought back four All-American awards from the national meet in La Crosse, Wis. Oxy sent athletes to the nationals for the 31st consecutive year. In Rob Bartlett’s 12 years as head coach, the program has produced 42 AllAmerican honorees.

Austin DeWitz ’19, a biology major from Oregon City, Ore., raised the bar one final time to cap an outstanding year. The twosport standout finished his season as an AllAmerican in the high jump, clearing 6'09" for a sixth-place finish. DeWitz, a two-time SCIAC high-jump champion, also earned First Team All-SCIAC and All-West Region honors with the 2018 men’s basketball team.

Zach Greenleaf ’19, a biology major from Lake Oswego, Ore., finished eighth in the 8

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pole vault, clearing 15'9". Jada Newkirk ’20, a psychology major from San Mateo, finished eighth in the 100m with a time of 12.28.

LaShauna Porter ’19, a psychology major from Minneapolis, finished eighth in the 200m with a time of 25.34. The top eight athletes in each event are named All-Americans.

Sabrina Degnan ’19, Melissa Braun ’19, and Isabelle Dunne ’18 also competed for Oxy, each placing higher than their national ranking in their respective events. Degnan, a psychology major from Atascadero, finished 13th in the javelin with a best of 127'¾" after being ranked 17th. Braun, a kinesiology major from Scotts Valley, jumped up from 22nd to 14th in the pole vault by clearing 11'5¾".

Dunne, a sociology major from Boston, placed 16th in the 400m hurdles with a time of 63.58, also moving up from 22nd. Dunne finished her Oxy career as SCIAC champion in the 400m hurdles and received the College’s Pat Yeomans Award for outstanding achievement in an individual sport.

5 Scenes from the SCIAC Championships, held April 27-28 at Redlands: 1. Women’s 4x400m relay winners (l-r) LaShauna Porter ’19, Allison Kilday ’19, Isabelle Dunne ’18, and Charlotte Cullip ’19. 2. Jada Newkirk ’21 (long jump) and Emma Yudelevitch ’19 (women’s 4x100m relay) celebrate their third-place finishes. 3. Austin DeWitz ’19 won his second consecutive SCIAC high-jump title. 4. Eva Townsend ’18 finished third in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase. 5. Brody Barkan ’19 after winning the men’s 1,500m.

FROM THE QUAD

‘Identity Conflict’ To build a future ‘founded on fairness,’ Israeli and Palestinian self-determination need to move hand in hand, according to Kemp Lecturer Tal Becker

No progress can be made in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict until both sides can move past a “victim-villain” mindset, according to Tal Becker, one of Israel’s top peace negotiators and senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, who spoke in Choi Auditorium on April 24 as Oxy’s 2018 Jack Kemp ’57 Distinguished Lecturer.

and come up with a creative solution, that will fix things,” he said.

“This is an identity conflict. The Jewish people and the Palestinian people feel that their identity is at stake,” he added. The Jewish state feels that its very legitimacy is constantly in question, while Palestinians feel that they have been dispossessed by Israel.

“These are negotiations between Photo By Marc Campos two traumatized people, each people convinced that they are the victim in this conflict, and what their negotiators should achieve for them is justice—not peace,” Becker said. “The metric for whether the negotiator has succeeded is whether the negotiator has achieved validation for the sense of injustice that has been done”—a fruitless approach.

The focus needs to be “building a Becker, right, future founded on fairness, not buildwalks alongside Lisa Greer P’16, ing a registry of every wrong done on who introduced both sides,” he said. “Israeli and PalesPresident Veitch tinian self-determination need to to him in 2016. move hand in hand.”

Prior to Becker’s visit, 36 tenured Speaking on “The Israeli-Palestinian Con- faculty signed a letter to President Jonathan flict in Jewish Discourse: Identity, Justice, and Veitch calling it “unfortunate and even a bit Religion,” Becker admitted that he’s been in- troubling that Occidental College has invited volved “in every failed round of negotiations another non-scholar to give a public lecture with the Palestinians. … There are too many on a topic where think-tank driven advocacy variables that we don’t control. But I do feel and propaganda too often takes the place of that being serious about the stories each peo- considered exchange and debate.” About 20 ple tells themselves about who they are in minutes into his talk, a handful of students order to create the space to legitimize dia- stood and briefly held up signs with such slologue is sort of the forgotten element. There gans as “Oxy Jews Against the Occupation.”

Becker’s appearance was made possible are rights, dignity, and needs on both sides.”

The reason so many discussions have by the Jack Kemp ’57 Distinguished Lecture failed, Becker said, is that they seek prag- Series, created to engage with Oxy students matic solutions rather than addressing the and faculty in dialogue on important issues cultural identity issues underlying the con- of public policy such as the political econflict, with both sides feeling victimized and omy, economic growth in the context of a misunderstood. “The real challenge is not market system, communitarian values, and cerebral, where if we move the pieces around bipartisan relations.

» WORTH NOTING A new major and minor in Black studies— a transnational and interdisciplinary study of the history, scholarship, arts, and culture of people of the African diaspora—will be offered at Occidental beginning this fall. “I am teaching Introduction to Black Studies right now, and one of the things that we keep coming back to is that this is a field about survival, justice, and joy,” says Courtney Baker, associate professor of American studies and chair of the new program, which she co-crafted with American studies professor Erica Ball. While initially cross-disciplinary, the program eventually hopes to develop into its own department.

The Huntington Library acquired professor of art and art history Mary Beth Heffernan’s 2017 photograph Bound Volume, above, for its permanent collection. The hand-coated platinum-palladium photograph is a contact print of the Huntington’s volume of Anatomy, Epitomized and Illustrated (1737). As the inaugural recipient of the Photographic Arts Council Los Angeles’ Contemporary Artist Grant, Heffernan spent several months engaging with the Huntington’s collections and producing new work inspired by the objects she encountered.

Jennifer Tróchez MacLean ’91, a fifth-grade teacher at Gates Street Elementary School in Lincoln Heights, has been named one of Los Angeles Unified School District’s 2017-18 Teachers of the Year, recognized for her strong commitment to her students, school, and community. MacLean is now one of five LAUSD teachers who are qualified for the Los Angeles County Teachers of the Year competition, which is part of the California and National Teachers of the Year programs.

MacLean was a double major in biology and psychology at Occidental and earned a master’s in science education at USC. SUMMER 2018

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Whether the topic is research or career options or life itself, meaningful interaction between students and professors is a vital component of the Oxy journey. Four graduating seniors and their faculty advisers reflect on the bonds they share—and the lessons they’ve taught each other

By SAMANTHA B. BONAR ’90 Photos by KEVIN BURKE

After Mark Gad ’18 defended his honors biochemistry thesis on “Synthetic Neuroexcitatory Peptides From Fish-Hunting Cone Snails” in April to faculty and students, a number of faculty came up to his adviser, associate professor of biology Joseph Schulz, raving about his work. “They had nothing but glowing things to say about your thesis and presentation,” Schulz tells Gad. “Younger students have been inspired by your work already.”

Schulz feels lucky when students like Gad walk into his “path of existence,” and many other professors feel the same way about their students, many of whom become involved in their research initiatives or creative projects. These same faculty spend time in the classroom, office hours, and after hours having conversations with students to foster their understanding and growth. Whether it’s sharing data, discussing comps topics, mulling over career paths, or just offering them advice, these close interactions are rewarding to faculty as well as students, and a big reason they choose to teach at a small liberal arts college.

A recent Gallup-Purdue Index survey of 70,000 college graduates gained insights into several key undergraduate experiences that set up graduates to succeed not only in their work but in their lives after college. Chief among them were having a professor who cared about them as a person or a mentor who encouraged them to pursue goals or dreams, and working on a long-term project or research initiative. Graduates indicated that these experiences lead to a greater sense of well-being and satisfaction after college.

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“I see so much potential for her beyond Oxy,” Hopmeyer, left, says of Morse.

Prior to Commencement, Occidental magazine spoke to four graduating seniors and their faculty mentors—including Gad and Schulz—to gain our own insights into what makes these relationships so rewarding. (To view excerpts from their conversations, visit oxy.edu/magazine.)

Thanks, Mom Psychology professor Andrea Hopmeyer’s research focuses on children and adolescents’ social and emotional development. Alexis Morse ’18 of Phoenix came to Oxy intending to double-major in politics and economics,

but found classes in those subjects “missing the humanity.” After taking Psychology 101, she decided to change her major.

On the advice of associate professor of writing and rhetoric Julie Prebel, Morse sat down with Hopmeyer to see if she would be interested in taking her on as her adviser.

“Julie had called me in advance to say this wonderful student was going to be stopping by,” Hopmeyer recalls. “I liked Alex right from the beginning.”

“We talked about what kinds of things I was interested in and how I really wanted to take developmental psych, which she teaches,” Morse recalls. “From there we just decided it was going to be a good advisee/advisor partnership.”

Soon after, Morse began assisting Hopmeyer with her research—and Hopmeyer, who studies loneliness in childhood and adolescence, says she couldn’t have completed her work without Morse’s help. “In college, especially in the LGBTQIA+ community, it requires students who are in the community. You can put a survey up, but this type of work really requires collaboration with students. Alex has other students working with her on the project, but she's really taken the lead.”

“I always feel like when we’re talking, especially about our research, that she’s preparing me for whichever angle I decide to go with and being very real with me,” Morse says.

“I think you’ve really just come into your own in this incredible way,” Hopmeyer tells Morse. “Alex is the growth you hope to see as a professor. Just this tremendous growth, and I just see so much potential for her beyond Oxy.” “You’re definitely my personal local expert on what I am doing with my life next,” Morse replies. “We talk about school and about life and about what’s coming next for me. If I went to a really big school I don’t know if I ever would have had the pleasure of that kind of interaction.”

“Oftentimes when students are graduating, I feel like a mom whose chickies are leaving the nest. That’s certainly how I feel about Alex,” Hopmeyer continues. “I’m proud of my academic daughter … and I can’t wait to see all that you accomplish.

Hopefully you’ll come home occasionally.”

“Yeah,” Morse concurs with a smile. “I intend to.”

“There’s no phoniness, fakeness, or anything like that with Naomi,” Ear says. “She’s just who she is.”

Fulfilling the Promise After Naomi Navarro ’18 was awarded a Young Initiative Grant from Occidental for research abroad study, she spent the summer in India exploring international development and empowerment. A diplomacy and world affairs major from Glendale, she wrote her senior comp on skateboard culture in the rural village of Janwaar, and Vogue India published her photos of female skateboarders in its May issue.

DWA associate professor Sophal Ear—an expert on Southeast Asia whose research and teaching focus on international political economy, security, and development—first met Navarro when she took his International Development course and asked him if he would be her adviser. “She’s got some great ideas and incredible potential,” Ear says, adding that helping students to fulfill the promise of an Oxy education “is what faculty really hope to do.”

“I felt very much that Naomi brought experience that your average Oxy student doesn’t have,” adds Ear, who, like Navarro, was the first in his family to attend college.

She was different from most students in that she had traveled internationally after high school, spending time in Uganda and Ireland—and when she enrolled at Occidental as a sophomore, she was also attending Glendale Community College and National University (where she completed a B.A. in digital media design in 2016).

“You kind of went around the world and discovered things and saw things that no-

body your age really has the chance to see,” Ear says to Navarro. “And then you come back to Los Angeles and add that value to your fellow Oxy students’ experience and, frankly, to my own classroom.”

Outside of the classroom, the two had many conversations during office hours— “really elaborate conversations about what’s happening next or what’s happening now, and how to connect everything,” Navarro says. “He’s helped me navigate a lot of the fluff. He’s taught me to just tell it like it is.”

Navarro was encouraged to attend Oxy

by President Jonathan Veitch through the College’s tuition remission program for the children of long-term employees (her father, Rojelio, has worked here in facilities management since 2008). Even though she grew up nearby and visited campus often as a student at Renaissance Arts Academy in Northeast Los Angeles, in many ways it felt like a world apart.

“Making friends with a professor like Professor Ear has changed my narrative of what my experience at Oxy has been,” she says. “It allowed me to develop in a way that I hadn’t realized was possible.”

“Naomi has lived through more [and] has an authentic modesty that’s enviable,” Ear says. “She’s just who she is.”

“In 10 years, I would love to be either running my own organization or foundation, or somewhere out there in the field,” Navarro says. “I like being out there.”

“I really think she can,” Ear says. “We’ll make that happen together.”

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“She's an extremely talented student and a delight to teach,” Snowden-Ifft says of Ma. “She just picks up stuff immediately.”

Finding Her Place Ever since his arrival at Occidental in 1997, physics professor Daniel Snowden-Ifft has been searching for dark matter—the stuff that universes are made of. (His current research project seeks to produce dark matter in the beam dump of an electron accelerator and detect it utilizing a negative ion time projection chamber he developed.)

As a sophomore at Oxy, Nan Ma ’18, a physics major from Nanjing, China, began working with Snowden-Ifft in his dark-matter lab located in the basement of the Hameetman Science Center. The experience, she says, has taught her persistence. “When we’re doing a lab, there’s one problem after another. You have to keep the spirit: Don’t lose hope—it’s gonna happen.”

“I’ve told her repeatedly that she’s one of the best students I’ve ever had in the lab,” Snowden-Ifft says. “We had a very difficult year, we ran into a lot of problems, and Nan just never let anything get her down. It was 12

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never stop, never give up. I think she taught me a few things about persistence in the lab.

And in the end, we had a good result.”

Ma enrolled at Occidental with the intention of majoring in psychology, but an introductory mechanics class with Snowden-Ifft —recipient of the Graham L. Sterling Memorial Award for teaching in 2013—changed all that. She loved the challenge of physics (“You can just blink your eyes, and you’re done for”) and found that Snowden-Ifft makes physics “fun”: “The way he talks to us is easy to understand. He catches you up so you don’t fall behind.”

Ma has a reputation for challenging her professors as well. “Nan is well known in the entire department, because she doesn’t say much during class,” Snowden-Ifft says. “But she’s religious about coming to office hours.

Pretty much every week, she’d come at least half an hour, and we would talk over problems. She always asks really hard questions.

We’re always nervous when Nan shows up at the door. We’re like, ‘Uh-oh, I’ve gotta get my game on here.’”

A recipient of the College’s Norris scholarship, which allotted her $15,000 for research and travel, Ma has presented her findings at two conferences, one in Columbus, Ohio, and one in Los Angeles. Working with Snowden-Ifft, she says, transformed her Oxy experience. “It was the first time I feel like I finally fit into this whole environment.

I’m an international student, so before that, it was kind of rough for a year and a half. I really appreciate that.”

One thing Ma—who plans to attend graduate school in physics—won’t miss about Snowden-Ifft’s lab are the uninvited guests.

“One thing I discovered about Nan is that she really doesn’t like spiders,” Snowden-Ifft says.

“And there are a lot of spiders in my lab.”

“Spiders, snakes, all of that stuff, I’m not good at,” Ma admits.

Me and My Shadow Mark Gad ’18 came to Oxy knowing that science was his wheelhouse, but wanting a well-rounded liberal arts education. As a sophomore, he took Vertebrate Physiology with associate professor of biology Joseph Schulz, who studies venomous cone snails.

Gad “really enjoyed” the class, he recalls, and was eager to learn more about Schulz’s work: “That’s why I wanted to join his lab.”

Schulz remembers Gad from that class as well: “It really stands out when you have a student who’s engaged in the course and feeling confident and comfortable with the material, being a younger student.”

“At the end of that year, I started shadowing in his lab and, from then, was working

comes naturally that he is my adviser in so many things. I’ve made sure to talk to him about every single plan that I had and every single opportunity that comes up, weighing options between grad school or pursuing a job,” Gad says. “I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity he gave me to work in his lab, to grow in his lab—to allow me to really push my own boundaries of what I thought I could do.”

As for Schulz, who has taught at the College since 2004, having a student like Gad is “incredibly gratifying.” He adds: “This is why I’m at Oxy—to be involved in directly men-

toring student research. It’s what we are all about as liberal arts professors and doing sciences in a small college setting.”

Gad now plans to go to graduate school to become a research scientist, like his mentor.

“Seeing Dr. Schulz so engaged in his work, so in love with the work that he does, and how knowledgeable he is on every single part of it … this made me say, ‘I want to be that.’”

Schulz has no doubt Gad will be successful. “The sky’s the limit for Mark. He can do anything he wants to, really. You see the spark in these students and you know that they have great things ahead of them.”

“As professors, our goal is to inspire and encourage, no matter what the field,” Schulz says. “But it’s exciting to see students gain that interest in doing research as a career.” in his lab every single semester,” says Gad, a biochemistry major from Huntington Beach who emigrated from Egypt as a teenager.

“We work with cone snails, which is a marine predatory gastropod. I took on the biochemistry aspect of it, where we were trying to synthesize venom just like the one found in the snail.”

“Mark is a quieter student, but he has this excellent momentum,” Schulz says. “He will work toward the solution to the problem. It’s been a lot of not just energy in the lab, but mental energy toward understanding the problem. That’s an important aspect of independent research, the ability to kind of see beyond what’s right in front of you and to sort of develop the project. It’s a real key to success.”

Over time, their relationship has moved beyond their shared work in the lab. “Because of how much time we spend together talking about the research work, it kind of

Gad’s work as a lab assistant to Schulz, right, led to a position as a structural biology lab technician at Caltech after graduation.

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Largely using photos by actual consumers, “Shot on iPhone,” left, has become a globally recognizable campaign.

“I really believe that the best marketing in the world has the power to not only engage people but to inspire them,” Myhren says.

Images courtesy Apple

Apple vice president of marketing communications Tor Myhren ’94 has “the best job in the world.”

(He just can’t talk much about it.)

BY DICK ANDERSON

THE LAST TIME WE TALKED, I was in New York,” Tor Myhren ’94 begins. At the time he was president and worldwide chief creative officer of Grey, one of the largest advertising networks in the world. “I was there for eight years and I loved it,” he continues. “I never thought about leaving.” He loved New York City. He and his wife, Tomoko, had their first daughter there. “I was certainly not looking for a job.

“But then Apple called.”

After meeting with Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook in 2015, Myhren had a conversation with Tomoko about moving to California.

“We both immediately said if I get offered the job, I’m going to take the job. Because it seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, which it has certainly been.”

As much as he loved his job at Grey— overseeing a string of successes that included 14

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campaigns for E*Trade, DirecTV, the NFL, and Volvo—he never thought twice about coming to Apple because it “has influenced my creativity more than any company in the world,” he explains. “To be able to come to work for that company in a very creative job is a dream come true.” More than two years later, he says, “I think I have the best job in the world.”

With his department’s future headquarters at Apple Park in Cupertino still under construction, Myhren sits down in a conference room in Sunnyvale for only his third interview since joining Apple as vice president of marketing communications in March 2016. (Globally, he oversees a creative team of about 1,100.) In contrast to his freewheeling days running Grey—making a TED Talk about losing his virginity or a self-deprecating video set 35 years in the future—“There

are certain things we don’t talk about” at Apple, he admits with a smile.

Do you remember what your first day was like here?

I had lunch with Tim. I remember that very well. And as we went through various topics at lunch, immediately I realized it was a whole different world. It was very different than the conversations I had my last day in advertising. It was very exciting—and in some ways, a little bit intimidating—to understand

Not shot on iPhone: Myrhen in his student days at Oxy.

the size of the organization and some of the ambition behind it.

Everything that comes out of Apple is scrutinized by the public. How does it feel to have that kind of focus on your work?

There’s no way I could have prepared for the scale of what I was stepping into. It’s so much bigger than I even thought. I learned really fast that when we put something out into the world, people are watching, and people are going to have an opinion. It’s actually

super helpful for us as a brand to know that people care enough to reach out to us when they don’t like what we’re doing. And when they love what we’re doing we also hear from them. So it’s kind of this constant feedback, which is pretty great.

You’ve always existed with constraints on your creativity. Have you had to pivot in your approach to work at Apple?

This is the most creative job I’ve ever had, but that doesn’t mean it’s the exact same kind

of creativity. I love the work we’re putting out, but there’s a very big difference between marketing and advertising. Advertising is a piece of marketing, and the full ecosystem of marketing is fascinating and challenging to me. Whether it’s the media or the creative side, advertising, retail, or dotcom [Myhren’s group builds the entire Apple website—in 98 languages], every single facet of the job is creative, and at the core Apple is a creative company. What drives and motivates Apple Summer 2018 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE

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“Dear Apple,” a 2½-minute spot unveiled last September, featured Apple Watch owners from around the world (among them a “Russian cyborg,” a ballet dancer, a blind marathon runner, and a 99-year-old world traveler) reading their own letters to CEO Tim Cook about how the product changed or even saved their lives.

“Some of the best ideas in the history of marketing are based on a simple truth,” Myhren says. “And that is the truth: Tim gets these letters every day from people who own the Apple Watch. They were coming in at such a rapid pace and they were such amazing stories that we said, ‘Let’s tell that story.’ It’s the real people. They are real letters. And they’re shot in a very beautiful way.”

is creativity, and believing in the passion of creative people to change the world to make it better.

What were your goals coming in here?

To live up to the high bar that they set before I got here. I do believe that when you make work that becomes a part of the cultural conversation, that’s good for the company. And that, to me, has always been the Holy Grail of advertising, because it doesn’t happen all the time. So that continues to be a goal of mine, that our work inspires people and gets talked about and does all the things great marketing can do.

Historically, Apple has done the best advertising of any brand in the world. And as the media landscape has changed so much, how you as a person in the world consume these messages is different. I think I’m able to bring an understanding of the way that people are consuming these messages and

above: An award-winning TV spot showcasing the dual-lens camera on the iPhone 7 Plus titled “Barbers” features the actual product for just six of its 60 seconds. right: The 2017 ad that introduced AirPods for Apple also propelled the single “Down” by duo Marian Hill to No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100.

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apply it to this amazing brand. So that hopefully the message that you’re getting surprises you—but where you’re seeing it might surprise you as well.

What’s a typical day like?

My job is less about originating ideas and more about looking at and helping shape ideas. I would say that half of my day is sitting down with smart, creative people to make their ideas a little more simple, a little more clear, a little more Apple. What’s really fascinating, and a little bit daunting at times, is that I’m the one deciding ultimately what we’re going to put out there into the world.

When I was on the agency side, you never had that pressure—it was never your decision.

Other than the scale of this job, what’s been the biggest surprise about working at Apple for you?

The moral compass that the company has.

I think that we do innovate for the right reasons, and we truly are creating things with a goal of making lives better. And that’s unique.

We don’t follow trends—occasionally we create trends—but we look at the customer and innovate toward what is best for the customer.

And that’s what always drives decisions.

What was it that attracted you to Oxy to begin with?

My family is from Denver, and my older brother and sister both went to schools in

California [USC and UC Santa Barbara, respectively]. So I think there was something like, “I’ve gotta go West.” And the size of it was interesting to me—more individual attention, smaller classes, a smaller school. But one of the big things was the multicultural approach that the college took that a lot of colleges were not taking at the time. That was very different then. That attracted me a lot— having a multicultural student body and staff.

You played basketball for Oxy, right?

Basketball was my true No. 1 passion— that and writing. I wanted to play basketball in college, and I wasn’t good enough to play Division I and probably not good enough to play Division II. Then I visited Oxy, and I really liked the campus.

If you meet somebody on a plane or somewhere and you are inclined to strike up a conversation, and they ask you what you do, what do you tell them?

I was in a Lyft recently, and the driver said to me, “Where do you work?” And I said, “Apple.” And there was this long silence and he goes, “Man, you Apple people—every time you say you work at Apple, then you don’t say another word.” Everyone here will tell you the same thing (laughs).

Is there anything you miss about being in the advertising trenches or agency life?

I don’t miss much about agency life. I was in it for 20 years and I loved every single year. It was constantly an invigorating place to be. So I don’t regret that time at all—but being at Apple, I don’t miss it.

Apple is my favorite company in the world. And it was before I ever worked here.

When you work in advertising, you dream of working for a brand that you truly love— that everything you put into that brand is coming from the heart. As you can imagine, when you work at an agency, it isn’t always that way.

Apple’s Marketing Communications office in Sunnyvale is headquarters to about half of Myhren’s global creative team of 1,100.

I have so much passion for this brand. And if you think about the different categories that are covered with our products and our services, such as Apple Music and now a new content division [with original series from Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, Damien Chazelle, M. Night Shyamalan, the creators of “Sesame Street,” and other luminaries], we are really in any category you’d want to be in. With Apple Watch, you’re into sports and health now. With the iPhone, forget it— you’re in almost everything.

A 2017 survey said that 64 percent of Americans own at least one Apple product and the average American household has 2.6 Apple products. What was the first Apple product you bought?

Probably the first one I owned was the Apple IIe [first introduced in 1983]. It was not mine—it was in our family. I’ve been such a giant fan of the company for as long as I can remember.

Do you talk to Siri? What kind of questions do you ask her?

Of course! I talk to Siri all the time. And Siri talks to me. Especially in the car because it’s just so easy. No hands.

I ask Siri a lot of questions about music with the HomePod. I’ll ask to play things and be constantly surprised by the playlists Siri comes up with and specifics around the music: Who’s this? Who’s the drummer? I love that Siri is a musicologist.

Do you have the time or the inclination to express yourself creatively outside of work? Is there a novel inside you—something that you are itching to do?

Not right now. Throughout my life there has been, like when I made my documentary (2010’s City LAX: An Urban Lacrosse Story, with Blackfish director Gabriela Cowperthwaite ’93), and I’m sure it will percolate up

“Collectively, we feel like we can continue to make the world a better place,” Myhren says. “I don’t know too many companies that can say that with a straight face.”

again, but I really love what I’m doing. But there will come a time. I started in journalism and have always been into creative writing, usually fiction. My wife is Japanese, so maybe I’ll move to Japan and write a book.

Can you imagine a product that Apple might be able to do in your lifetime that is unimaginable right now? Will we be teleporting one day with the touch of a button?

I’ve got to stay off that one. Because whatever I say will be interpreted as potentially coming soon, no matter how crazy it is.

English musician and dancer FKA Twigs gives her all for director Spike Jonze in a 4-minute film for Apple’s HomePod speaker titled “Welcome Home.” Declared a “masterpiece” by Adweek and winner of the Grand Prix at the Cannes International Festival, the ad was trimmed to 60 seconds for TV and marked the fulfillment of a longtime wish for Myhren.

“Without exaggeration, I had probably sent at least 50 boards to Spike Jonze. I’d never even gotten a ‘No’—I’d never gotten a response. He’s someone whom I have always admired as an artist, as a filmmaker.

When we had the concept for ‘Welcome Home’—the way that sound can expand the feeling of home, even your small apartment in New York—I felt like Spike was a person who would take that to a whole other level. He immediately loved it and went for it and got right back to us.

“When you’re working with talent at that level, you have to give them a lot of space and some autonomy to go do what they do. And make sure that it fits with what Apple is all about.”

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1.

Diana Ngo Assistant professor Years at Oxy: 4 Most popular course: Intermediate Microeconomic Theory

2.

Bevin Ashenmiller Associate professor Years at Oxy: 13 Most popular course: California Environment Semester, a team-taught class with professors Gretchen North (biology) and Margi Rusmore (geology) for 32 first-semester, first-year students

3.

Robby Moore Elbridge Amos Stuart Professor of Economics Years at Oxy: 40 Most popular course: Personnel Economics, “aka Economics of Human Resources Management.”

4.

Daryl Ono Non-tenure track instructor of accounting Years at Oxy: 10 Most popular course: Accounting and Financial Analysis

5.

Brandon Lehr Associate professor Years at Oxy: 8 Most popular course: Behavioral Economics

6.

Lesley Chiou Professor Years at Oxy: 13 Most popular course: Industrial Organization

7.

Victoria Umanskaya Non-tenure track assistant professor Years at Oxy: 5 Most popular course: Environmental Economics and Policy (Econ 301): “It usually fills up on the first day of registration week.”

8.

Jesse Mora Assistant professor Years at Oxy: 3 Most popular course: Firm-Level International Trade and Investment

9.

Kirsten Wandschneider Professor Years at Oxy: 11 Favorite course: Econ 101, “because I love teaching students about economics who are learning it for the first time.”

10.

Andrew Jalil Associate professor Years at Oxy: 6 Most popular course: Macroeconomic Policy Since the Great Depression

These are boom times for economics— Oxy’s biggest major for the last 19 years.

As two popular professors prepare to retire, how will the department evolve?

By PeteR GiLstRAP Photo by MAx s. GeRBeR

hILE VISItIng Oxy as a high school senior, Peter Adamson ’84 sat in on a lecture by secondyear faculty member Robby Moore. It was Adamson’s first time in a college classroom, and Moore “made a big impression on me,” he says. “I wanted to go to a liberal arts college and be able to work closely with professors rather than a UC school with massive class sizes, so that was an important reason why I went to Occidental.”

“I had a great experience with the econ department,” adds Adamson, the former chief investment manager for Oprah Winfrey’s management company and current chief investment officer for the SFE group, whose mission is to lead positive systemic change that strengthens Los Angeles communities. his primary influences were Moore and A.h. “Woody” Studenmund, who joined the College in 1970 and recently became Oxy’s longestserving faculty member. “Woody was very instrumental in my early career, but the whole group was strong.”

“Woody and I had the same goals,” says Moore, who met his colleague of the last 40 years when Studenmund was on leave in Cambridge, Mass., in 1978 and Moore, a Pomona graduate, was an assistant professor of economics at harvard, having completed his Ph.D. there a couple of years earlier.

“We wanted the best teaching department we could get. We wanted people who were still doing high-quality research, but we wanted the best teaching economists we could find.”

“Economics helps students prepare for business careers, but economics at a liberal arts college helps students prepare for careers in law, management, premed, nonprofits, and more,” adds Studenmund. “that’s the big difference between a business major and an economics major at a liberal arts college.”

Over the last four decades, the economics department has produced CEOs (Art Peck ’77 at gap Inc.; Dan Springer ’85 at DocuSign; Chris Brickman ’86 at Sally Beauty Supply), business leaders (Daniel Ivascyn ’91, group 20 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE

Summer 2018

degrees awarded to the Class of 2018, 85 were in economics—an all-time high. the ongoing appeal of economics at Oxy begins with the faculty. “Every professor I had in the department I really liked,” says Kate Johnstone ’15, who will enroll at UCLA Law School this fall after working as an environmental research manager. “Woody always came to class with this energy that was great and really challenged all of his students. he obviously loved what he did, and I think that helped people love what they were studying.”

While the names “Woody” and “Robby” crop up regularly in almost any conversation about economics at Oxy, Studenmund Photo by Max S. Gerber is the first to spread the credit around.

“It really is everybody,” he says. “It’s the faculty who helped in the late ’70s and ’80s. It’s the dynamite new faculty we have now who are leading the department forward. Robby and I are retiring soon, and it’ll just be the younger faculty who have been here 10 or 15 years leading the department, and the students love them as well.”

chief investment officer for PIMCO; Chris Varelas ’85, founding partner at Riverwood Capital; Mal Durkee ’85, a financial institutions adviser and former managing director at Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch), and government and education professionals (Stanford professor Kathryn Shaw ’76, one of the first female members of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers; Laura Kawano ’02, a research affiliate at the University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business). And that’s just scratching the surface.

“Some of our most accomplished graduates have come out of the economics depart-

When Studenmund arrived at Oxy in the fall of 1970, “I didn’t have any place to live, and my car and furniture hadn’t arrived,” he recalls. “I had a fever of 102 and a broken leg, and the bus from the airport dropped me off at Arroyo Seco in Pasadena and they said that was the closest they could get to Occidental.”

As good fortune would have it, he met recent Oxy grad Dave McMenamin ’69 at the bus stop, who offered him a ride to campus. his parents— professor of biology John McMenamin ’40 and alumni relations director “I arrived at Oxy thinking I was a pretty good teacher, as I think many recently hired faculty Addie (grant) McMenamin ’40—“put do,” says Moore, shown in 1979, left. “But I beme up for two weeks and invited me came so much better during my years here as a for thanksgiving,” he adds. “they welresult of interacting with my colleagues.” comed me to Oxy in a way that made ment,” says President Jonathan Veitch, “and me feel like a part of a family. Ever since then to a person they attribute their education in I’ve tried to make others feel the same way.” this was the humble landing—the buteconomics—and especially their mentorship

by Woody and Robby—as the foundation for terfly-flapping-its-wings moment—of the professor who would spark the modern ecotheir success.”

“Economics can be a springboard for nomics major at Oxy, rebuilding the departmany different types of careers after Oxy,” ment into the force that it is today. the study of economics dates back to the says professor and department chair Lesley Chiou, who has taught at the College since founding of Occidental, when “political econ2005. For the last 19 years, economics has omy” was part of the College’s original course been Oxy’s most popular major. Out of 590 of study. In 1914, a group of underclassmen

below: Studenmund in 1975. right: “I’ve particularly enjoyed watching my students grow during and after their time at Oxy,” he says.

“Their success has been impressive and amazingly gratifying.”

formed the Burke Economic Society, named after professor W. Maxwell Burke, “to specialize in Woody studenmund the study of economic questions Laurence De Rycke more thoroughly than is possible Professor of Economics Years at Oxy: 48 in the classroom.”

Most popular course: In the decades to follow, the “With the students? Econ department was guided by such 350, Managerial Economics.

With me? Econ 272, Applied notable figures as 1917 graduate Econometrics.”

John Parke young, who taught at Oxy from 1924 to 1942 and retired as chief of the International Finance with people from diverse backgrounds,” he Section of the U.S. Department of State in says. “If we develop someone with those 1965, and the legendary Laurence De Rycke, skills, then they’ve got the ability to apply an authority on international economics and those skills to a wide variety of fields.” business organization who worked for the But a few years later, the economics deDepartment of State prior to coming to Oxy partment was hit with, well, economics. Due in 1943. De Rycke was “simply a god as far to the high inflation happening in the midas his students were concerned,” says Stu- to late-’70s, salaries for economists outside denmund, who has held the De Rycke Pro- of academia were rising dramatically; within fessorship since its creation in 2000. the walls of higher education, not so much.

In the decade prior to Studenmund’s ar- Between 1974 and 1978, all four of Studenrival, economics and business administra- mund’s colleagues left for greener pastures. tion majors combined for less than 7 percent In a 1977 memorandum to President of all graduating seniors. the passing of the Richard C. gilman and the Faculty Planning departmental baton from De Rycke to the Committee, Studenmund wrote: “What wornext generation (including instructors ries me is that a lack of financial commitJoseph Licari and Philip Perry) was accom- ment to the economics department will panied by the College’s elimination of the inevitably result in a decrease in the quality business administration major in 1971, and of teaching in our department and therefore an institutional shift that defined economics a decrease in the attractiveness of that deas “the study of people and how they solve partment to students.” their basic problems of material welfare.”

“I had a chance to try to build the departInstead of a narrow, dedicated focus on ment the way I thought it made sense,” Stuinformation and facts, Studenmund’s ap- denmund recalls. “What I realized was that proach to economics emphasizes a range of recruiting is the key. If you go out of your capabilities, including “critical thinking skills, way to hire the best people you can, you have the ability to write well, the ability to work a chance to put together a superstar departwell on a team, and the ability to work well ment. So that’s what I set out to do.”

Photos by John Kruissink (left), Marc Campos (above)

San Fernando Valley native Robby Moore became a cornerstone of the Oxy econ rebuild, a group that included Jim halstead (who taught at Oxy from 1977 until his retirement in 2004) and Jim Whitney (who retired in 2014 after 32 years at Oxy). “We added some really excellent people who stayed a very long time,” says Moore, who left harvard for Oxy in part because “it was a high-quality liberal arts college in a place that’s somewhat warm,” he says with a laugh.

In 1981, economics became Oxy’s most popular major—a milestone it would repeat for five out of the next six years. By the mid-1980s, when female students began to outnumber men, efforts to diversify the department faculty began in earnest. “the economics profession is dominated by white males,” Studenmund says. “We were trying to diversify the department, because we believed that a diverse faculty would serve our students better.” today, out of 10 tenure-track economists, “We’re 50 percent female, and we’re 50 percent nonwhite,” says professor Kirsten Wandschneider, who arrived at Occidental in 2007 and just completed a three-year term as department chair. “It’s the culture of the Summer 2018 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE

21

department that makes people want to spend their careers here. Robby and Woody have strengthened and fostered that environment, and it’s been really transformative.” that diversity extends to the curriculum as well. “Many of us work in areas that were unknown or did not exist 30 years ago,” says Chiou, who specializes in industrial organization and applied econometrics, including Internet economics. “One of the goals of the department is to partner with other departments on campus to bring interdisciplinary programs and opportunities to our students,” she adds—a notion that Studenmund fully endorses: “We wouldn’t be as strong as we are if it weren’t for the rest of the College helping our students become well rounded and intellectually diverse.”

Wandschneider’s research areas include European monetary and financial history, international macroeconomics, and the development of financial institutions and markets.

She encourages Oxy students to think about economics as a social science: “how does the individual interact with society? how do we make choices? how do we allocate resources? these are very basic economic questions and we want students to see that there are really broad applications.”

The expanding terrain of economics is a hot topic for associate professor Bevin Ashenmiller, an environmental economist whose research spotlights recycling, evalua-

“I love when things come together for my students in a course and they start seeing the connections and the bigger picture,” Wandschneider says.

22 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE

Summer 2018

tion of environmental programs, and energy and climate policy. “One of the things that I really focus on with my students is that the tools of economics can be very valuable across lots of different fields and lots of different topics of interest,” says Ashenmiller, who wants to show students that economics isn’t necessarily what they took in AP econ during high school.

Ashenmiller—who served as a senior economist with the White house Council of Economic Advisers in 2012-13—teaches

“Economists are not any particular demographic,” she continues. “they’re really amazing people who come from all kinds of different backgrounds. Because we are part of a liberal arts college, we are able to create these interdisciplinary opportunities for students that can become life-changing experiences.”

As an undergraduate at Oxy, “I remember traveling to guatemala on an Anderson grant and doing research on microfinance programs and business education programs

“In terms of the faculty, I think that the department is the strongest overall it’s been since I’ve been here,” says Moore, who will retire after 41 years at Oxy next spring. “These eight new people are very, very impressive.”

Econ 101 as part of Oxy’s California Environment Semester, a program for first-years in partnership with geology professor Margi Rusmore and biology professor gretchen north. “We spend four days in yosemite and three days on the California coast and three days in Death Valley, and students get to do all these really cool things,” she says. her goal is to strengthen “their knowledge and understanding of what it is that economists can do and what an economist looks like.

for women,” says Ken Smutny ’08, head of U.S. marketplace display ads sales and programmatic sales for the United States, Europe, and Japan at Amazon. “On a Schwartz grant I was sent to Montana to learn about property rights, and those lessons still stay with me today.”

Of all of his professors at Oxy, former economics professor giorgio Secondi was the biggest influence on Smutny. “he, more than anybody, helped me learn to write, and that was in my freshman Core class. the lessons that he gave me, I still share with my team today.”

A recipient of both the Donald R. Loftsgordon Memorial Award for Outstanding teaching and the Linda and tod White teaching Prize, Secondi left Occidental for Phillips Exeter Academy in 2008 in large part because he was “a bit frustrated by the size of the classes [up to 35 students] that I taught … small for a college, but still big,” he said in a 2013 interview.

“I think over time we asked too much of our econ faculty,” Moore says. “Different people leave for different reasons, but we had to work awfully hard with much higher enrollments.”

“We don’t want to become so attractive to the students that we can’t meet their needs educationally,” Studenmund says. “We have had to make some compromises in terms of our program because we couldn’t do it for all

far left: For Lopez, the most enjoyable part of her job is “the freedom and privilege I have to be creative and innovative with both my teaching and research.” left: “I really enjoy seeing students apply the abstract economic models from my classes to think critically about social problems in the real world,” Lehr says. below: For Mora, the most enjoyable part of his job is “talking with my students about their interests and teaching them things I enjoy”—namely, international economics.

Mary Lopez Associate professor Years at Oxy: 14 Most popular courses: Economics of Race and Gender and Economics of Immigration

our students.” to that end, the department dropped a senior thesis from its requirements for graduation, although “in some perfect world we would like to require it again,” he adds.

Another area the faculty hopes to address is the ratio of male to female students— roughly 2-to-1, which mirrors the national average. Students of color and first-generation students are similarly underrepresented, and Wandschneider and associate professor Mary Lopez have been involved with a group of undergraduate liberal arts colleagues across the nation that is thinking about diversity and economics and how to change the student experience.

“We would like to get the message across that econ is for everybody,” Wandschneider says. “When I was a student of economics, I had to just push through. And I would like a more diverse group of students to know that they can find a home in economics the way I have found a home as a faculty member in this department.

“Economics as a profession has changed,” she adds. “So I think we need continuous curricular innovation, building on the foundations of active learning that especially Robby has spearheaded in the department.

We need more opportunities for high-impact research practices where we get one-on-one time with students, or one faculty member with a small group of students. this is where the field is moving—including more quantitative and more computing skills—and the more we can do with students in this area, the better we prepare them to move on.”

Photos (pages 22-23) by Marc Campos

Early in his career at Oxy, Studenmund was mistaken for a student at the installation banquet of the Eagle Rock Chamber of Commerce, until he was introduced as the speaker. he also appeared as an extra in the 1973 Disney movie The World’s Greatest Athlete, running alongside several Oxy students as a trackman in some scenes shot at Cal State L.A. A youthful-looking 73, Studenmund plans to teach through the 2020-21 academic year at Oxy, which will bring his tenure to a record 51 years. After that, “Who knows?” he says.

“What I don’t want to do is to be sitting in a tenured slot preventing some young professor from having the opportunity that I had.”

Reflecting upon his own upcoming retirement in May 2019, “I think it’s time,” Moore says. “I feel like I’ve done a lot of what I wanted to do at Oxy. Retirement gives you

a chance to mull over and invent a new life, which is a challenge and something I’m looking forward to. But I feel like we’re leaving the department in great shape and they’re going to do great things.”

“Robby and Woody have literally given us a lifetime of service and dedication,” says Chiou, who notes that she was born in 1978— the year Moore began teaching at Oxy. “We will build upon their contributions and our trajectory to lead the department forward.”

“We all have different strengths and interests and specializations, but we all work for the same goal—to create opportunities for the students, to teach and engage them, and to turn them into critically thinking economic citizens,” Wandschneider adds. “I think that’s the beauty of it.”

Peter Gilstrap wrote “Twenty Something” in the Spring issue.

Summer 2018 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE 23

TRIVIAL PURSUITS

4

So you think you know Oxy? Take our little quiz— we’re not keeping score— and you might be surprised about some things you never learned

Occidental has had a float in the Rose Parade nine times. When was the last time Oxy had a float in the parade?

A) 1987 B) 1993 C) 1999 D) 2012 Photos courtesy Occidental College Special Collections (2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 14, 24, 27, 31, 32, 39)

(Turn to page 3 5 for the answers.)

2

ROUND 1

Occidental Glorious

3

1 “Io Triumphe!” was introduced into the Oxy lexicon in 1905, but it’s not native to the College. What school originated the nonsensical cheer?

A) Princeton B) Albion College C) University of Mississippi D) Towson University 24 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE

Summer 2018

Which of the following playwrights was the favorite of professor of drama emeritus Omar Paxson ’48?

A) Gilbert & Sullivan B) William Shakespeare C) George Bernard Shaw D) Samuel Beckett

When Eagle Rock High School teacher Howard Swan was hired in 1934 to conduct the Men’s and Women’s Glee Clubs at Occidental, he was offered a salary of $40 a month. Where did the money come from?

A) The sale of Glee Club 78s B) President Remsen Bird’s discretionary fund C) Proceeds from the College bookstore D) The College’s athletics budget

5

Match the Commencement quote to the speaker.

A) “As a kid I was always telling my buddies I was a philosopher. And now, finally, somebody believes me.”

B) “Courage is the most important of all the virtues—because without courage, you cannot practice any other virtue with consistency.”

C) “I believe the world is incomprehensibly beautiful—an endless prospect of magic and wonder. Whatever mess we observe is our own responsibility!”

D) “Many or most of you—if the worst doesn’t happen—will live to the year 2000. … Will we be flying to the Moon— or Venus—and who will the Venetians [sic] turn out to be?”

1) Time editor-in-chief Henry Luce 2) Photographer Ansel Adams 3) Poet Maya Angelou, below 4) Motown founder Berry Gordy

7 6

An October 1911 visit to Oxy’s Highland Park campus by plus-size president Howard Taft necessitated a special chair to accommodate him. What renowned furniture manufacturer made and later gave the mahogany and leather chair to the College?

In what year were students and alumni involved in a major protest over genderinclusive policies at Occidental?

A) 1911 B) 1968 C) 1997 D) 2012

A) Barker Bros.

B) Dunbar C) Gustav Stickley D) Ikea

8

9

Rank these Oxy traditions in order of their beginnings.

A) Dance Production (aka Dance Concert) B) Chilcott Barbecue C) Sagehen burials D) Da Getaway

Judy Lam ’87, standing, and Ronalie Alonzo ’86

Where did Oswald get his name?

A) From his mother B) Mathematician Oswald Veblen C) President Remsen Bird D) Oxy students

10

11

12

When was the last time it rained on move-in day at the beginning of Orientation?

A) 1948 B) 1965 C) 1993 D) It never rains in Southern California!

In its original incarnation, campus radio station KOXY had a different set of call letters.

What were they?

A) KAGC B) KIOT C) KTGR D) KYO

Vol. 3, No. 1 of the Occidental Alumnus (dated June 10, 1922) was the first issue of the magazine to feature a photo on the cover. Who (or what group) was it?

A) President Remsen Bird B) Oxy’s “Beloved Dean,” Thomas G. Burt C) The Men’s and Women’s Glee Clubs D) Track captain Art Martin of the Class of 1922

Summer 2018 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE 25

ROUND 2

Alumni Meritorious

Illustrations by Todd Webb (13, 43)

13 Don Carpenter ’39 enjoyed a brief burst of notoriety by achieving what national championship on the lawn of the ATO house?

A) Tree sitting B) Goldfish gulping C) Pogo sticking D) Jitterbugging

15

M.F.K. Fisher ’31 is among the most beloved food writers of all time, and her books remain in circulation today. Which of the following was not written by Fisher?

A) Serve It Forth B) Consider the Oyster C) With or Without D) How to Cook a Wolf

14

Photo courtesy Widener Library, Harvard University 26 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE

Summer 2018

On a weekend getaway to Catalina in October 1937, Martha Stanley ’38 (an Alpha Kappa) and Barbara Garrison ’38 (a Delta Gamma) reeled in a pair of big fish—catching the eye of an Acme News Pictures photographer.

(Oh, the things we find on eBay.) What kind of fish are they holding?

A) Halibut B) Mackerel C) Yellowfin tuna D) White sea bass

16

17

Who is the only Oxy alumnus or alumna to ever appear on a U.S. postage stamp?

A) Robinson Jeffers 1905 B) Robert Finch ’47 C) Homer Lea 1900 D) Ernesto Galarza ’27

In what year were two Oxy graduates selected as Rhodes Scholars?

A) 1907 B) 1959 C) 1988 D) 1997

19 20

18 As producers, directors, and even subjects, Oxy has produced multiple Academy Award winners in the Best Documentary Film category. Match the alumnus or alumna to their film.

A) Richard Farsons ’47 1. Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie B) Caitrin Rogers ’04 2. March of the Penguins C) Dennis Patrick ’73 3. Journey Into Self D) Marcel Ophuls ’50 4. 20 Feet From Stardom

24

21

Barack Obama ’83 lived in Haines when he was an Oxy student. Which residence hall did Ben Affleck ’95 live in?

A) Newcomb B) Stearns C) Wylie D) Bell-Young

What California landmark was recognized by the U.S. Forest Service after a group of Oxy students led by 1905 graduate Percy “Pete” Goodell built a trail connecting it to Mount Wilson in 1915?

A) Occidental Peak B) Goodell Heights C) Mount Oxy D) Ego Rock

Who was the recipient of the first Alumni Seal in 1965?

(Hint: President Emeritus Remsen Bird drew the portrait of him below.)

Which of the following scions of industry leaders never attended Oxy? (Hint: None of them finished their degree here.)

A) Bill Henry 1914 B) John Parke Young 1917 C) Arthur G. Coons 1920 D) Lawrence Clark Powell ’28

A) Clarence J. Gamble, grandson of Procter & Gamble cofounder James Gamble B) Albert G. Ralphs Sr., son of Ralphs Grocery Store founder George Albert Ralphs C) Geordie Hormel, right, grandson of Hormel Packing Co. founder George Albert Hormel D) Armie Hammer, great-grandson of longtime Occidental Petroleum CEO Armand Hammer

22

23

Which of the following Oxy musicians jammed with the Grateful Dead?

A) Lyle Ritz ’52 B) Clarence Treat ’61 C) Professor Richard Grayson D) John “Marmaduke” Dawson ’67

Which of the following started out as a project in Derek Shearer’s Urban Business class in the early 1980s?

A) The Women of Oxy calendar B) The Men of Oxy calendar C) The Sidetrack Cafe D) The Occidental Bookstore catalog Summer 2018 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE 27

ROUND 3

O’er Our Foes Victorious

Photo by Kirby Lee

25

Whose shoes were bronzed and turned into a trophy that Occidental and Whittier have been playing for since 1946?

A) Whittier running back Myron Claxton B) Oxy halfback Glenn Groves ’39 C) Tigers coach Roy Dennis ’33 D) College registrar Florence Brady 1919

26 On what popular 1950s TV game show did Sammy Lee ’43 appear as a contestant?

A) “What’s My Line?”

B) “I’ve Got a Secret” C) “Twenty One” D) “You Bet Your Life”

27 Oxy has produced seven Olympic medalists over the years, the most prominent being Sammy Lee ’43 (golds in platform diving in 1948 and 1952) and Bob Gutowski ’58, above (silver in pole vault in 1956). Match these other alumni medal-winners to their sports.

A) Alphonso Bell 1895 B) Craig Dixon ’48 C) Robert McMillen ’53 D) George Roubanis ’59 E) Robert Deaver ’52 28 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE

Summer 2018

A 2006 commercial for what brand of beer made then-Indianapolis Colts coach Jim Mora ’57’s infamous 2001 “Playoffs?” press conference the centerpiece of a classic campaign?

A) Bud Light B) Coors Light C) Miller Lite D) Natural Light

29

Which of the following teams did Jack Kemp ’57 not play for?

A) Detroit Lions B) Pittsburgh Steelers C) Calgary Stampeders D) Los Angeles Chargers

28

1. Bronze, pole vault 2. Silver, tennis doubles 3. Bronze, high hurdles 4. Bronze, Dragon class yachting 5. Silver, 1500 meters

30 Who is the only Oxy athlete or coach to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated?

A) Payton Jordan B) Jim Mora ’57 C) Jack Kemp ’57 D) Bob Gutowski ’59

32 Who became, at age 2 2, the youngest head football coach in Oxy history?

A) John Lawrence Goheen B) Jim Mora ’57 C) Bruce Allen, left D) Dale Widolff

31 Match these All-American student-athletes—all Division III national champions—to their sport or event.

A) Jerri Baker ’85 1. Tennis B) Shawn Lawson-Cummings ’86, above 2. Distance running, hurdles C) Jean Marie (Sanders) Szakovitz ’84 3. Heptathlon D) Cresey (Stewart) Mayer ’87 4. 1500 meters

33

34 In 1976, to promote the newly opened Aspen Club in Colorado, who did Sally Moore Huss ’62 (the club’s head pro) play in a $1,000 winner-take-all tennis match?

A) Chris Evert B) Martina Navratilova C) Billie Jean King D) Bobby Riggs

35

36

Five Occidental baseball players made it to the majors, if only briefly.

Whose big league “cup of coffee” lasted the longest?

A) William “Dutch” Hinrichs 1910 B) Dudley “Lee” Thompson ’24 C) Arthur “Bud” Teachout ’27 D) Hershel Lyons ’37 E) Grant Dunlap ’46

In 2011, Olin Browne ’81 became only the fifth professional golfer to notch career wins on the PGA’s developmental tour, the PGA Tour, and the PGA Champions circuit. Which of the five senior majors did he win that year?

A) The Tradition B) Senior PGA Championship C) U.S. Senior Open D) Senior Players Championship E) Senior British Open Championship

1910 graduate Fred Thomson, who parlayed amateur athletics success into a career as one of the most popular movie cowboys of the silent era, died of a tetanus infection at age 38 on Christmas Day 1928. His horse, Silver King, continued to make movies. What was his final screen appearance?

A) Pals of the West (1934) B) Carrying the Mail (1934) C) The Lone Ranger (1938) D) The Terror of Tiny Town (1938)

Photo ©2004 GolfRankIndex.com—David Fulp Summer 2018 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE 29

ROUND 4

Occidental Flair

Photos by Marc Campos (10, 37, 44, 46, 48)

38

For every Clueless (81% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes) or The Kids Are All Right (93%), there are a handful of movies filmed at Oxy that didn’t wow the critics.

Of these four cinematic clunkers, which one is the lowest-rated?

A) D2: The Mighty Ducks (1994) B) Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996) C) Jurassic Park III (2001) D) Made of Honor (2008)

37 Who gave the first Remsen Bird Lecture at Oxy? A) Poet Robert Frost, below B) Argentine novelist Enrique Anderson-Imbert C) Pediatrician Benjamin Spock D) U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas

Oxy has hosted countless musicians in many venues.

Match the performer to the venue.

A) Linda Ronstadt B) Snoop Dogg C) Macklemore & Ryan Lewis D) Roto Rooter Good Time Christmas Band E) Ravi Shankar

1. The Quad 2. Rush Gymnasium 3. Herrick Chapel/Interfaith Center 4. Thorne Hall 5. Remsen Bird Hillside Theater

40

41

On what 2018 TV series was Barack Obama ’83 attacked by an oversized gorilla as an Oxy freshman?

Oxy’s popularity as a film location is well documented, but it’s also a go-to destination for national advertisers. Which recent national campaign featured this image?

A) “The Flash” B) “Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD” C) “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow” D) “Timeless”

A) Best Buy B) Samsung Galaxy C) NCAA D) Pepsi

39

30 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE

Summer 2018

42 In 1967, the wife of a beloved American singer donated a collection of sheet music and operatic scores annotated by her husband to the College. Who was the singer?

A) Nelson Eddy B) Eddie Cantor C) Lawrence Tibbett D) Vaughn Monroe

Which of the following is not grown in Oxy’s FEAST garden?

46

A) Carrots B) Cauliflower C) Celery D) Corn

43

The “Oxy Statistic” is a persistent myth that claims that the majority of Occidental alumni marry other Oxy grads.

When was the first Oxy Statistic marriage?

A) 1897 B) 1907 C) 1917 D) 1914

44

47 Prior to his academic career, Jonathan Veitch was an extra in a number of Hollywood productions.

Which of the following did not contain the college-age thespian?

A) “Charlie’s Angels” B) “Fantasy Island” C) Harold Robbins’ The Pirate D) Thank God It’s Friday

Which of the following namesake beverages is not served at the Green Bean?

A) Green Dynamite, after the Leonard Green Family B) The Studenmaker, after Oxy professor Woody Studenmund C) To Veitch Their Own, after President Jonathan Veitch D) Skotcheim, after President Emeritus Robert A. Skotheim

After new dumpsters were placed around the Occidental campus recently, Oxy’s Dumpster Art Committee sponsored a pair of campuswide competitions to turn these mobile garbage bins into works of art. Match each dumpster to its location on campus.

48

A 1. Bioscience Building 2. Pauley Hall 3. Thorne and Booth halls 4. Tiger Cooler

B

C

45 Match the individual or group to the gift they made to Oxy. A) The Classes of 1938-41 1. Oxy’s Vantuna research vessel B) Alzada Carlisle ’45 2. An IBM 1620 Model II computer C) Gilbert C. Van Kamp 3. The “Westminster Chimes” D) Stanley Johnson 4. A new tiger mascot

D

Summer 2018 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE

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By KE L LE Y FR E UN D Photos by J I M BLO C K

Employment lawyer turned mediator, author, and keynote speaker Pat Gillette ’73 helps women and businesses find common ground through uncommon solutions

O

ver a 40-year career as a civil trial lawyer in Big Law and advocate for gender equity in her profession, Patricia Kruse Gillette ’73 wouldn’t have been successful without her ability to connect to people. Whether it’s speaking in front of a jury, presenting to a group of female law students, or working with a client, “She has the uncanny and pragmatic ability to find common ground so that effective solutions to difficult problems can be fashioned,” says roberta Liebenberg, a senior partner at Fine Kaplan and Black in Philadelphia, whom Gillette first met in 2009.

Sometimes it’s her passion and dedication that resonates with others. Sometimes it’s her presentations—a mix of storytelling and humor. and sometimes—as was the case at a 2016 conference in arizona—it’s her singing. Gillette’s presentation was called Feminism 2.0, and she serenaded the audience with a jingle that Phillip Morris used to introduce its new virginia Slims cigarette brand in 1968. (The lyrics were later used in print advertising following the ban of cigarette ads on radio and television.) “You’ve come a long way, baby, to get where you got to today. You’ve got your own cigarette, baby. You’ve come a long way.”

“This was feminism in the 1980s,” Gillette told her audience following the song. “Women finally had the right to kill themselves just like men, only with a ‘feminine’ cigarette.”

Debbie epstein Henry—a best-selling author, consultant, and public speaker who also presents on women and workplaces—was in the audience that day. “That moment crystalized for me what is so powerful about Pat’s messaging,” she says. “It’s original and fresh, and you can never predict what she will do. all you know is she will make an impact, delivering a new idea with confidence and grace, as well as a dose of humility.”

In 2016, Gillette joined the San Francisco office of JaMS, the largest private alternative dispute resolution provider in the world, as a mediator in employment disputes. and more

than a decade ago, she founded a nationwide initiative focused on changing the structure of law firms to increase the retention and advancement of women in the workplace.

“I really believe the legal industry has to change radically if it’s going to survive,” says Gillette, who will be honored in august at the american Bar association’s national meeting with the Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of achievement award for her work promoting women in the legal profession.

“The values that have been part of our industry are not consistent with the values that people have today. and that’s problematic.

My goal is to think outside the box, come up

Gillette determined that work-life balance issues for women were just a symptom of a larger issue: systemic problems with the structure of law firms.

So she focused instead on getting women into the rooms where decisions were being made. with creative solutions, and give people and organizations ways to implement them.”

Growing up in South Central Los Angeles in a predominantly Japanese neighborhood, Gillette was raised by parents who pushed their own boundaries. It seems inevitable that she would go on to do the same. Her father, albert, set out for california from Indiana at age 16, eventually serving as a supervisor for a truck-spring manufacturer in Los angeles. He could fix anything, Gillette recalls, and taught his four children there was no barrier they couldn’t break. Her mother,

evaline, lost both her parents at a young age and lost her first husband in a chemical-plant explosion; even so, she imbued Gillette and her siblings with a sense of optimism and an obligation to give back to those less fortunate. evaline devoted her life to the children of South central Los angeles as a middle school english teacher, and was recognized as california Teacher of the year in 1985.

Gillette’s path to law school became clear as a political science major at Occidental, which she applied to after visiting her cousin, professional football player robert Khayat, who was training with the Washington redskins on the Oxy campus (and who later served as chancellor at the University of Mississippi). a constitutional law course taught by professor richard reath showed her that law was a good route to right some wrongs. He and her other professors were supportive of the type of innovative thinking that would set Gillette apart in her legal career. after graduating from University of San Francisco Law School in 1976, Gillette wanted to be a plaintiff-side employment lawyer. “I thought that civil rights acts were important and needed to be enforced,” she says. “I wanted to be on the plaintiff side so I could sue corporations that weren’t following the law with respect to women and minorities.”

But there were few open jobs on the plaintiff side at that time. So Gillette went to the management side, going on to spend the bulk of her career representing Fortune 200 corporations. and as a trusted adviser to these organizations, Gillette discovered she could have far more impact. “If an employment lawyer sues, many companies automatically enter into defensive mode to find arguments to justify their position,” she explains. “I found by being on the defense side, I had credibility in the corporate suite and could fight for changes that directly influenced and changed problematic policies and practices.”

Over the years, Gillette became a toprated trial lawyer, focusing on all aspects of employment law, including litigation of wrongful discharge and discrimination classSummer 2018 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE 33

action cases in both state and federal court, representation of employers before administrative agencies, and counseling and training employers on preventive personnel practices. Gillette even represented a few celebrities during her career, including Julia child, who was accused of discriminating against gay employees—charges that were later dismissed. (child’s response to the allegations? “Pure nonsense.”)

One day, Gillette took child to lunch at a high-end restaurant in an effort to impress her client. “Julia was immediately recognized by everyone in the place,” Gillette recalls.

“She was gracious and accommodating to all the people who came to give homage. and when the waiter asked Julia what she wanted for lunch, she said, ‘I’ll have a hamburger and a bottle of wine.’”

ment or rewards that make women, or the next generation of lawyers, stay in the field.”

So she went on the road to spread the message. epstein Henry first met Gillette at an Opt-In event in New york and was immediately impressed with her ingenuity. “We talked at the reception, and I was immediately drawn to her boldness and willing to take a stand,” she says. “She is driven to inspire, and that is what makes her so effective at what she does.”

Since Gillette’s first presentation for OptIn in 2007, she has become a national voice for women, advocating for women’s rights,

at Oxy and the think-outside-the-box mentality that she learned from her professors. and Gillette can thank Oxy for another important part of her life: her husband of 44 years, Dane Gillette ’72, who worked closely with then-attorney general Jerry Brown and later Kamala Harris as chief assistant attorney general for the criminal Division before his retirement in 2014. Dane and Pat met through mutual friends and began dating after studying together in Haines Hall for Professor reath’s constitutional law class. The couple, who have lived in the east Bay community of Kensington for the last 40 years, raised two sons: andrew, a professor of math at the University of arizona; and ryan, who works for the Harvard Government Performance Lab helping to find effective ways to address issues such as homelessness, recidivism, Gillette’s work as a jury trial and affordable housing. lawyer earned her much recogniFrom Dane’s perspective, Pat’s tion, including being named intelligence, strategic ability, and among the Best Lawyers in amerthoughtfulness make her a natuica by chambers USa for most of ral leader. “It is clear from the her career. and while she held women she has mentored to the leadership positions and had a leading role she has taken in adlarge book of business, as they say vancing the role of women in the in legal circles, this was atypical legal profession that Pat has more for most women in her firms. than earned the respect and adPat and Dane Gillette celebrated their 44th wedding anniversary in July.

“So I wondered why,” Gillette They’ve raised two sons and now enjoy time with their granddaughter. miration of her peers,” he says. says. “and that led me to realize Back in 2012, Gillette was that women were spending too much time and not just in the legal industry. Her pre- elected to the equivalent of city council in talking about work-life balance, and not talk- sentations, aimed at both individuals and Kensington, winning in a landslide vote and ing about getting into positions of power and businesses, focus on leadership and business serving a four-year term. “The real reason I leadership in their firms. I also concluded that development for women, and solutions to ran is to say that Barack Obama and I were issues relating to work-life balance were sim- confront institutional barriers facing women on the same ballot,” she says with a laugh. ply a symptom of the larger issue that was and minorities.

Her service “convinced me that all politics holding women back: systemic problems arisare local and that I never wanted to run again ing from the structure of law firms. So I de- In addition to her speaking engagements for anything!” cided to focus on getting women into the and her mediation work, last fall Gillette rooms where decisions were being made, so published Rainmakers: Born or Bred, based on Some years back, Gillette bought several that we could then use that power to bring a study she initiated focusing on the personal cases of chocolate-covered wine bottles, more balance and flexibility in the workplace characteristics that make rainmakers suc- sight unseen, to give as holiday presents to for all attorneys.” cessful. She also mentors young women in her clients. When the cases arrived at her ofHer first attempt at that change began the legal industry, and she recently helped fice, she discovered that the message enwith the Opt-In Project, a nationwide initia- put together a group of experts to assist at- graved on the boxes holding the wine bottles tive she founded in 2006 that focused on mod- torneys, who are not experts in employment turned out to be extremely romantic—borifying the structure of law firms to increase law, bring claims on behalf of clients in con- dering on pornographic. Undeterred, she the retention and advancement of women. nection with the Time’s Up movement. sent out the wine with a note. She advised her “The structure of law firms is archaic.

What makes Gillette and her work stand clients, as their employment lawyer: Never and the issues that were driving women out out is that she’s providing people with inno- send a present like this to an employee. of firms are the same issues that are driving vative solutions based on her own experiFreelance writer Kelley Fruend lives in Newout millennials.” Gillette says. “The system ences as a lawyer. Gillette credits her success port News, Va. This is her first article for Occiis not set up to provide the work environ- to the environment she found as a student dental.

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TRIVIAL PUR SUITS How did you do?

Occidental Glorious 1) B. Albion College in Albion, Mich., another school renowned for its squirrel population. Written by the Class of 1900, “Some of its phrases were taken from other college yells, some from a Greek play that had been presented on campus during that period, and others were borrowed from the poems of the Roman writer Horace,” according to the Albion website.

16 33) C. Silver King was the original Silver in The Lone Ranger movie serial.

2) C. Shaw, although Gilbert & Sullivan and Shakespeare were also staples of Oxy Summer Theater productions. (Omar was known to have a distaste for Beckett.)

35

3) D. Graduate manager Ted Brodhead ’27 paid Howard Swan $40 a month out of the College’s athletics budget.

4) B. The 1993 Alumni Association entry was titled “Everything is coming up roses.”

5) A:4 (2007). B:3 (1994). C:2 (1967).

D:1 (1954).

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8) C-B-A-D. The ceremonial burial of a rubber chicken prior to the Oxy-Pomona football game began in the early 1930s.

(On the flip side, Pomona students burned a papier-mâché tiger.)

9) D. Oxy students gave Oswald his name.

10) B. It rained so hard in 1965 that the sidewalks were flooded on York Boulevard.

Occidental Flair 37) A:4. B:5. C:2. D:1. E:3.

17) B. John Paden ’59 and Aaron Segal ’59.

18) A:3. Psychologist Farsons co-leads the 16-hour group therapy session that is the subject of the 1968 documentary Journey Into Self. B:4. Rogers is producer of 20 Feet From Stardom, about backup singers Darlene Love, Merry Clayton, and their kin. C:2. As president of National Geographic Ventures, Patrick oversaw the release of Penguins. D:1.

Director Ophuls (The Sorrow and the Pity) won the Oscar on his second try with Hôtel Terminus.

11) D. KYO (short for Know Your Oxy).

Alumni Meritorius 13) B. Carpenter swallowed 39 live goldfish “without benefit of salt or chaser,” Thomas Heber wrote in the Los Angeles Times. Oxy psychology professor Gilbert Brighouse weighed in on the craze, calling it “a quick [and] easy way to emerge from the morass of anonymity.”

14) C. With or Without—a phrase associated by more than four decades of alumni with Oxy’s legendary director of food services, Clancy Morrison.

15) C. A yellowfin tuna.

16) A. An 8-cent stamp honoring Jeffers was part of the American Arts Series issued in 1973.

O’er Our Foes Victorious 25) A. The cleats belonged to Myron Claxton, an All-American running back for Whittier, and were stolen from the Poets’ locker room just before a contest with Occidental in 1939. Undaunted, Claxton took to the field in his work boots, leading Whittier to a 36-0 victory.

26) A. After being selected by the Detroit Lions in the 17th round of the 1957 NFL draft, Kemp was cut from the squad before the 1957 football season began.

19) B. Stearns Hall.

20) A. Occidental Peak.

12) D. Martin, who set a school record in the 880 with a time of 1:59.1.

35) C. Pitcher Bud Teachout played 67 games with the Chicago Cubs (1930-31) and a single game as a St. Louis Cardinal (1932) before hanging up his jersey. (As a Tiger, the southpaw had a record of 30-6.)

36) C. In 2011, Browne won the U.S. Senior Open by three strokes over Mark O’Meara at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio.

6) A. In 1911, students and alumni of both sexes rallied and persuaded the Board of Trustees to reverse its decision to turn Oxy into an all-male school. It was Oxy’s first major protest.

7) A. Barker Bros., founded in 1880 by O.T. Barker, which closed its doors after filing for bankruptcy in 1992. After spending many years in the office of professor emeritus Wellington Chan, the chair currently resides in President Veitch’s office.

34) D. Bobby Riggs, who brought his “Battle of the Sexes” shtick to the Rocky Mountains resort community. Who won?

For that you’ll have to read Aspen Hustle (2008), by Sally and husband Marv Huss.

21) D. Gamble, Ralphs, and Hormel enrolled at Oxy as members of the Class of 1914, 1920, and 1950, respectively.

Hammer, who dropped out of high school in 11th grade to pursue an acting career, studied briefly at Pasadena City College and UCLA to appease his parents.

22) D. John Dawson—who co-founded the New Riders of the Purple Sage—not only jammed with the Dead, he also cowrote “Friend of the Devil.”

23) A, B, and C. Inspired by the popularity of similar calendars at Arizona State University and USC, Lynne Watson ’83 and Vyla Rollins ’84 partnered with photographer Glenn Mar ’84 to produce the 1984 Men and Women of Oxy calendars. A second group in Shearer’s class conceived the Sidetrack Cafe, which Oxy built as a refreshment stand on the side of the newly resurfaced track.

24) C. President Coons.

27) A:2 (1904). B:3 (1948). C:5 (1952).

D:1 (1956). E:4 (1964).

28) B. The Coors Light spot ran in 2006.

29) D. The two-time Olympic diving champion traded quips with emcee Groucho Marx on the April 19, 1956, episode of “You Bet Your Life.”

30) D. Gutowski was on the cover of SI’s June 24, 1957, issue with the headline “The Assault on 16 Feet.” Jordan made the cover of Life as a USC undergrad in 1939, while Kemp appeared on the cover of Time in 1996 alongside presidential running mate Bob Dole.

31) A:2. B:3. C:1. D:4.

32) C. University of Richmond alumnus Bruce Allen, who was hired by the Tigers in July 1979. He led Occidental to a 2-6-1 record in his single season as coach before leaving to coach the shortlived California Football League’s Los Angeles Thunderbolts. Since 2009 he’s been president of the Washington Redskins, dad George’s former team.

38) D. Patrick Dempsey’s Made of Honor, at 14% on Rotten Tomatoes.

39) D. Justice William Douglas, whose 1948 lecture, titled “The College and Society,” was published by the College the following year.

40) C. “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.”

41) B. The Samsung Galaxy ad is titled “Growing Up.” 42) A. Nelson Eddy, who is probably best remembered for the eight films he made with Jeanette MacDonald.

43) A. 1907, when 1906 graduate Edna Cumberland married Oxy junior Will Roberts of the Class of 1909.

44) B. But a Studenmaker sounds pretty good, right?

45) A:3. B:4. C:1. D:2.

46) D. No corn so far—but if students plant it, it will come.

47) B. “Fantasy Island”—although Veitch did appear on “The Love Boat” as an extra. “People think it’s glamorous, but movie sets are very dull, actually,” he told Occidental in 2009. “The thing I liked about it was I could read all day long.”

48) A:4. B:1. C:2. D:3.

COVER) C. Donald O’Connor—although the actor and hoofer played a postWWII dad and college football player in the musical comedy Yes Sir, That’s My Baby, which includes footage of the Jan. 1, 1949, Raisin Bowl in Fresno between Occidental and Colorado A&M.

Summer 2018 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE 35

OXYTALK “Theater arts is a tradition at Occidental as old as the College,” Bouchard told the Los Angeles Times in 1987.

While Knoerr did his graduate work in pattern theory, his recent research has focused on dynamics and optimization.

Photos by Marc Campos

Playing Many Parts From Shakespeare to statistics to literature to dance, John Bouchard and Alan Knoerr shared their passions with the Oxy community “The undergraduate years are full of challenges and choices of both an academic and non-academic nature,” Alan Knoerr wrote prior to joining the Oxy faculty in 1991 (when he was a visiting assistant professor of applied mathematics at Brown University). “Getting to know students well by working closely with them and helping guide their development is one of the most satisfying aspects of academic life.”

It was not uncommon to find Knoerr helping out his students long after office hours. One student said “they routinely worked together until 3 in the morning.”

Knoerr, who retired this spring as associate professor of mathematics and cognitive science emeritus, was known for generously mentoring faculty across multiple departments and programs such as the Multicultural Summer Institute, the Center for Community Based Learning, and the Core 36 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2018

Studies Program. “He has modeled for all of us the importance of recognizing good work wherever you find it,” said Carmel Levitan, associate professor of cognitive science.

Outside of the classroom, Knoerr shared professor of archeology and linguistics emeritus Betchen Barber’s enthusiasm for the Occidental Folk and Historical Dance Troupe, which has performed a wide repertoire of American and European folk and historical dances since the 1970s. At his retirement reception, Barber called Knoerr “one of the Renaissance men, deep into art, music, history, linguistics, mathematics, and on and on ... and he has a real flair for choreography.”

“My best work has been collaborative,” said Knoerr, who encouraged his faculty peers to “get out of your offices. Invite a colleague to lunch. Go to the dance studio. Get to know your colleagues—your students, too. We have a lot to offer them.”

In his 32 years at Oxy, including a long run as artistic director of the Occidental Theater Festival, professor of theater John Bouchard directed 42 productions, including six original plays, four musicals, and 13 works of Shakespeare. He was notorious for being “as fanatical about music and sound” as he was about acting, remarked professor of theater Susan Gratch, while emeritus professor Alan Freeman ’66 M’67 called him “thoughtful, generous, and kind.”

Bouchard employed classical psychological theory to his advanced acting class for both film and theater, while his yearlong Shakespeare sequence combined a semester of analysis from various perspectives with a semester of technical and psychological performance training with the same material.

Many Oxy graduates he has mentored have gone on to work as directors and actors in Shakespeare theaters around the country.

Bouchard’s arrival at the College coincided with the construction of Keck Theater, which has housed the theater department since its completion in 1989. But more than the venue was undergoing change. Encouraged to reimagine Oxy’s theater curriculum by then-department chair Freeman, “I got to write a lot of it to reflect what I would have liked if I were a student,” Bouchard recalled at his retirement reception. He loved literature, so “it became a part of what we do.”

OXYTALK

» MIXED MEDIA Firebrand Feminism: The Radical Lives of Ti-Grace Atkinson, Kathie Sarachild, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, and Dana Densmore, by Breanne Fahs ’01 (University of Washington Press). Radical feminism bravely transformed the history of politics, love, sexuality, and science. In Firebrand Feminism, Fahs brings together 10 years of dialogue with four founders of the radical feminist movement.

Taking aim at the selfishness of the right and the incremental politics of the liberal left, they defiantly and fiercely created a new kind of feminism in the late 1960s. Firebrand Feminism provides a historically rich account of these audacious women and their lasting impact of their words and work. Fahs is professor of women and gender studies at Arizona State University.

Toni Wolff & C.G. Jung: A Collaboration,

by Nan Savage Healy ’72 (Tiberius Press).

Toni Wolff was Jung’s primary collaborator during the formative years of his psychological investigations. From the start, their interests meshed, and they brought out the best in each other’s thinking. Not afraid to challenge Jung’s ideas, Wolff fueled his creativity. Her brilliant mind gave him focus, while her sensitive nature kindled his imagination. Together, they explored the uncharted regions of the psyche.

Using personal letters, insights from Wolff's diaries, archival documents, impressions from her family, and more, Healy addresses many of the questions that the Jungian community has had over the years regarding the nature of their relationship, and overlays Wolff’s life alongside what we already know of Jung’s. Healy has published in the Jungian journal Psychological Perspectives and taught at the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles. She lives in Studio City.

Don’t Stop the Presses: Truth, Justice, and the American Newspaper, by Patt Morrison ’73 (Angel City Press). From the broadsheets of the American Revolution to the age

of street-corner newsboys to the advent of online news sites, newspapers are the voices of a nation. Veteran Los Angeles Times writer and columnist Morrison documents the impact of the medium with her trademark wit and wisdom, amplified by the histories of the papers, people, places, and events that captivated America and its front pages. In his foreword, New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet hails the moral and democratic imperative of newspapers: “It has never been more evident than in this year, when the glories of journalism have been on display, when the newsrooms Patt Morrison’s timely book summons to mind woke up to find themselves once again vital to Democracy.”

Boys Keep Swinging, by Jake Shears ’00 (Atria Books). Jason Sellards came to Los Angeles with “fleeting dreams of being a filmmaker,” he writes in his candid and frequently funny memoir, “but after trying to write a short story about frat boys taking a drug called ‘fairy dust’ that made them have sex and then kill each other, it seemed futile.”

After one year at Oxy, he moved to New York City, studied fiction writing at the New School in New York City, and cofounded (as Shears) the multiplatinum-selling glam rock band Scissor Sisters. Shears recently finished his debut solo album, which will be released later this year. He divides his time between Los Angeles and New Orleans.

Embrace the Sun, by Marc B. Sorenson and William B. Grant ’63 (available on Amazon). Touting the health benefits of sensible sun exposure, Sorenson and Grant make the case that sunlight in moderation can promote weight loss, reduce depression, and profoundly decrease the risk of many common diseases. Grant is an epidemiologist and founder of the Sunlight, Nutrition, and Health Research Center in San Francisco. Sorenson is founder of the Sunlight Institute.

Wedgie & Gizmo vs. the Toof, by Suzanne Selfors ’86 (Katherine Tegen Books). Wedgie is a dog who thinks he’s a superhero. Gizmo is a guinea pig who thinks he’s an evil genius.

Their adventures continue in the second book of Selfors’ new illustrated series about the growing pains of blended families and the secret rivalry of pets (a third book, Wedgie &

Gizmo vs. the Great Outdoors, will be published in September). A film studies major at Oxy, Selfors has written more than 30 books for young readers. She lives on Bainbridge Island, Wash.

Field Methods in Marine Science: From Measurements to Models, by Scott Milroy ’91 (CRC Press). From experimental design to data analysis, Milroy details the methods most appropriate for field research within the marine sciences and provides an accessible introduction to the concepts and practice of modeling marine system dynamics.

His textbook trains the next generation of field scientists to move beyond the classic methods of data collection and statistical analysis to contemporary methods of numerical modeling in order to pursue the assimilation and synthesis of information, not the mere recording of data.

Milroy majored in biology (with a marine emphasis) and minored in chemistry at Oxy. He is associate professor of marine science at the University of Southern Mississippi.

By Oxy faculty: An article by professor of American studies Erica Ball in the Spring/ Summer issue of WSQ: Women Studies Quarterly explores Southern black women’s engagement with beauty culture, fashion, and style politics at the turn of the 20th century through the life and work of educator and community activist Mamie Garvin Fields.

Ross Lerner, assistant professor of English, offers a new theory of the origins of religious fanaticism and a new way to interpret the fundamental role that religious fanaticism played in shaping the most important and complex English long poem of the 16th century in an essay published in Literature, Belief and Knowledge in Early Modern England: Knowing Faith (Palgrave Macmillan).

A special issue of the Journal of Contemporary History co-edited by professor of history Marla Stone looks at anti-communism transnationally and compares and contrasts the movements against communism globally.

Associate professors Mary Christianakis (critical theory and social justice) and Richard Mora (sociology) co-authored “College Men, Hypermasculinity, and Sexual Violence” in the new anthology Unmasking Masculinities: Men and Society (SAGE Publications).

SUMMER 2018

OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE 37

PAGE 64 Photos by Rebecca Snavely (below) and Alissa Carlton (right)

Haight, shown visiting a village in Congo in 2012, cofounded and serves on the board of Action Kivu.

To learn more, visit actionkivu.org.

Taking Action in Africa Catherine Haight ’98 balances a thriving Hollywood career as a TV and film editor with a commitment to empowering women and children in Congo

Catherine Haight ’98 loves her day job. As a freelance film and TV editor in Los Angeles, she spent three seasons on the groundbreaking Amazon series “Transparent,” and her work as the sole editor of the show’s pilot earned her nominations for both an Emmy and an ACE Eddie. “The response to the show was beyond anything we had ever dreamed,” she says. “It was incredibly rewarding to feel like you’re working on something that you enjoy, that you think is good, and that was actually part of a bigger conversation starting to happen in this country.”

Eight years ago, Haight sought to make a bigger impact on society in a more direct way—a quest that would eventually lead her to Africa. She has long bonded over books with friend Rebecca Snavely, a writer and casting director, and in 2010 both were immersed in Half the Sky, a nonfiction collection about the human rights struggles faced by many women in developing nations.

Haight was particularly struck by the stories of women in the Democratic Republic of 64 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2018

Congo. In the wake of the 1994 genocide in neighboring Rwanda, the Congolese experienced years of violence, corruption, and unrest, resulting in the loss of millions of lives in the country. “Rebecca and I really responded to that,” she says, “and we were both looking to contribute in some bigger way.”

Through a journalist friend, Kevin Sites, Haight was connected to activist and community-builder Amani Matabaro, who with his wife had established a nonprofit in Congo with the goal of empowering women through vocational training and education. Inspired by the couple’s grassroots efforts, later in 2010 Haight and Snavely co-founded Action Kivu, a U.S.-based charitable organization that partners with Matabaro to help raise money for its programs in Africa.

Action Kivu helps to enable communitybased initiatives in Congo that promote equality for women and create a path toward peace and prosperity. Sewing and breadmaking workshops, agricultural training, and adult literacy workshops give women the

skills to provide for themselves and their families. The literacy program has served over 300 women and girls previously denied a formal education, and more than 200 have graduated from the sewing workshop with the tools to launch their own businesses.

Action Kivu is committed to keeping the reins in African hands. “It’s really important to us that [the programs are] all Congoleseowned and operated,” says Haight, who raised more than $5,000 for the organization via Facebook for her birthday in April. “The Congolese people know what needs to happen to fix the problems there.”

While personifying Occidental’s ethos of global engagement, Haight has also forged a career she’s passionate about. Her latest film, Puzzle, premiered in January at the Sundance Film Festival and was released in July by Sony Classics. Other film and TV credits include The Polka King (2017), Afternoon Delight (2013), “Mozart in the Jungle,” “New Girl,” and “Girls” (garnering her first ACE Eddie nomination for editing the show’s pilot).

A New Hampshire native, Haight enrolled at Occidental as an art major with an emphasis in film alongside her identical twin sister, Alissa ’98. “I definitely wanted to do something with film, but still wanted to get a liberal arts education,” Catherine says. Oxy “made me ready to be out in the real world and start working in a creative field.”

Snavely, who serves as Action Kivu’s executive director, considers Haight’s day job as complementary to advancing the charity’s mission. “Her trained eye for mining the depths of story continues to help us look at different takes on each challenge and situation that arises, seeing how they’ll fit into the larger story we’re telling,” she says.

“With editing, you pull from all your life experiences because you put your own emotions into everything,” Haight says. “You’re going to be a better editor if you know more about the world because you bring more to the table.”—laura paisley

OXYFARE 

Snapshots from Volume 40, Number 3 oxy.edu/magazine OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE

Jonathan Veitch President Wendy F. Sternberg Vice President for Academic Aairs and Dean of the College Rhonda L. Brown Vice President for Equity and Inclusion & Chief Diversity OďŹƒcer Charlie Cardillo Vice President for Institutional Advancement Vince Cuseo Vice President of Enrollment and Dean of Admission Rob Flot Vice President for Student Aairs and Dean of Students Amos Himmelstein Vice President & Chief Operating OďŹƒcer Marty Sharkey Vice President for Marketing and Communications Jim Tranquada Director of Communications editorial staff

Dick Anderson Editor Samantha B. Bonar ’90, Laura Paisley Contributing Writers Marc Campos Contributing Photographer Gail (Schulman) Ginell ’79 Class Notes Editor SanSoucie Design Design DLS Group Printing

Alumni Reunion Weekend June 22-24 Photos by Marc Campos, Nick Jacob, and Don Milici

1. Clockwise from upper left, Alumni Seal honorees Shawn (Lovell) Hanson ’83 (service to the College), Brenda Shockley ’68 (alumna of the year), Kevin Adler ’07 (Erica J. Murray ’01 Young Alumni Award), Raymond Ewing ’57 and Elona Street-Stewart ’73 (professional achievement), and Martha Hernandez ’03 (service to the community). 2. Brian Tanksley ’13 beats the heat in Taylor Pool. 3.

Amanda Alissa Perez ’13 is all smiles.

4. 1988 classmates Shannon Davidson, Lakshmi Dastur Johnson, and Michelle Weetman. 5. 1983 alums Keitha Russell, Ken Romero, and Margaret Hirsch. 6. Reunion dinner emcees Robin Hamilton ’08, Jordan Brown ’13, and Courtney Stricklin Burgan ’03—all Admission oďŹƒcers at Oxy—on Saturday night. 7. Linda Hoag ’68 presents the class history at Sunday’s Fifty Year Club meeting.

8. 1988 grads Lilly Omid, Van Anh Nguyen Dastur, Kathy (Bower) Frazier, Heather Dunn Carlton, and Mina Lopez gear up for a titanic weekend. 9. Enid (Srozena) Busser ’58 hits the dance oor with Bill Spellman ’58. 10. John Whitebeck ’98 rolls the bones at the craps table while classmates John Jackson, left, and Akon (Ate) Anyiam, right, look on. 11. Oswald strikes a pose with Christy Nakada ’08 and Sean Bowen ’07. 12. Members of the Class of ’83 gather outside the Coons Administrative Center—near the site of an antiapartheid rally that presaged a career in politics for a certain classmate more than 37 years ago. 13. Millennial ’tude from the Class of 2008.

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OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE

Jamie Angell Adjunct associate professor of theater The cast of Doctor Scooby-Doolittle Bottom row: Billy Schmidt ’17, Jonathan Padron ’14, and London Murray ’18 Middle row: Sergio Perez ’20, Dyoni Isom ’19 Top: Amanda Wagner ’16

Black tie-dye-style T-shirt with colorful Tiger screenprint and OXY on sleeve. 100% cotton Also available: Orange tie-dye T-shirt with classic Oswald Sizes S-XXL, $19.95

Occidental College Bookstore oxybookstore.com To order by phone: 323-259-2951 All major credit cards accepted

Published quarterly by Occidental College Main number: 323-259-2500 To contact Occidental magazine By phone: 323-259-2679 By email: oxymag@oxy.edu By mail: Occidental College OďŹƒce of Communications F-36 1600 Campus Road Los Angeles CA 90041-3314 Letters may be edited for length, content, and style.

Occidental College online Homepage: oxy.edu Facebook: facebook.com/occidental Twitter: @occidental Instagram: instagram.com/occidentalcollege Cover photo by Joe Friezer, from the Friezer Photography Negative Archive, Occidental College Special Collections Oxy Wear photo by Marc Campos

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Save the dates! Homecoming & Family Weekend is October 19-20.

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alumni.oxy.edu

Office of Communications F-36 1600 Campus Road Los Angeles CA 90041-3314

SUMMER 2018

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Talking Economics: Inside Oxy’s Biggest Major

Marketing Apple: VP Tor Myhren ’94

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SUMMER 2018

Photo by Marc Campos

Susan Howell Mallory ’76 M’78 is head of wealth management banking for Northern Trust and chair of the Occidental Board of Trustees. She has included Oxy in her estate plans through a beneficiary designation.

The first time I walked on the Occidental campus, the Myron Hunt buildings took my breath away. The jacaranda trees were in full bloom, and every student I met was interesting, thoughtful, and positive about their Oxy experience. I was also impressed with how close the campus was to downtown Los Angeles and all that the L.A. Basin has to offer. After spending the first two years of college at a rural woman’s college in the Northeast, I had intended on transferring to Scripps. That ended the minute I set foot on Oxy soil!

A day does not go by which has not been influenced by what I learned or did at Occidental. I was exposed to all kinds of experiences which helped to form my independence from traditional norms and thinking. I learned how to contextualize, and not take what I read as fact but rather interpretation. I also learned to be more courageous and to listen to others to help form my positions and beliefs. I find that listening to and actually hearing others’ perspectives provides a richness to one’s decision-making and actions.

I have many memories both in and out of the classroom, but it was in my Model United Nations class that I became passionate about global affairs. I also learned public speaking, debating, and the importance of negotiation. I played the role of the head of the People’s Republic of China delegation, which was fascinating and was the impetus for me staying at Oxy and getting my master’s in diplomacy and world affairs.

At Oxy, I also learned to dialogue and to question data by seeking out the rationale underlying them. As a banker, I often find myself in discussions with analysts concerning numbers, trends, models. The story behind those numbers is where I often end up, not the sum of the parts or patterns. My connections with clients are not through performance metrics or industry trends, but rather through common interests such as reading, history, politics, global events, and other liberal arts-related topics.

“If my gift enables any student to experience what I did and impact their life the way Oxy has mine, that’s all I wish for,” Mallory says.

PATRICIA KRUSE GILLETTE ’73: FINDING UNCOMMON SOLUTIONS /// SENIORS AND THEIR FACULTY MENTORS

“I owe much to the Oxy experience.”

I owe much to the Oxy experience that helped to shape who I am. With the challenges that every small liberal arts institution has in competing with larger, well-endowed private universities and less expensive public universities, it is critical that all alumni support our institution in as meaningful a way as they are able.

Making sure that Oxy flourishes and provides the highest quality education and experience to all students is a responsibility we all share. I hope you will support and get involved in the College.

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Occidental College Office of Gift Planning M-36 | 1600 Campus Road Los Angeles CA 90041-3314 | Phone: 323-259-2644 Email: giftplanning@oxy.edu | oxy.edu/giftplanning | facebook.com/BenCulleySociety

Which of the following Hollywood elite is not an Oxy parent?

A) Gregory Peck B) Don Johnson C) Donald O’Connor D) Cybill Shepherd (Turn to page 24 to start the quiz.)

Gregory Peck with Clancy Morrison, Oxy's director of food services, in 1964