that trying to get work done was futile, and invited her to join him on a “mostly silent afternoon walk” in the after-finals quiet on campus. For the young men and the young women who cared about them, another wrenching trauma was the draft and the potential to be sent to Vietnam. The 2-S student deferment was still available in 1968 (the lottery was instituted in 1969), so for many men, graduation was a double-edged sword, a milestone of academic achievement and the beginning of full exposure to the draft. Don Fallick was drafted in November 1968, “despite three presidential appeals,” he notes. “i was teaching English in a Central l.A. junior high school, and had one class composed entirely of juvenile felons on early release from prison. On the same day that he turned down my last appeal, President johnson made a televised speech urging the college students of America to become teachers and teach in the ghettos of American cities.” Phil jones was drafted into the Army in 1969, while attending grad school at Cal State l.A. “My music training at Oxy provided the opportunity to serve as a chaplain’s assistant at the u.S. Army Chaplain School at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn and tour manager for the 7th Army Soldiers Chorus in Heidelberg, Germany,” he writes. Martin Maner left Oxy “with a four-year free ride to the Ph.D., thanks to the university of Virginia and the Danforth Association,” he writes. After he was drafted—and despite his opposition to the war—Maner took training and ended up at a Green Beret camp on the demilitarized zone. “i survived, returned, and got reinstated in my fellowship.” joseph Duff ’s Air Force ROTC experience at Oxy permitted him to serve in the military “on my own terms, as an Air Force judge advocate,” he writes. “i completed
my service obligation and moved on to a fruitful and meaningful career.” Some grads avoided the draft through alternative service—or a lucky break. john Goodwin joined the Peace Corps. jim Ellis, a conscientious objector, served two years on the staff of the Yale Psychiatric institute. Alan Takeda was inducted into the Army, had his draft rescinded for a conscientious objector hearing, and lost his case. During appeal, “My dilemma was whether to go to Canada or prison,” he recalls. “A medical technicality got me reclassified 4F.” Frederick “Fritz” Maerkle planned his post-Oxy activities with the expectation that he would be drafted. “As it turns out, the u.S. Department of State offered me a position as a Foreign Service officer and the draft board considered that i was ‘serving my country’ by working in an American embassy overseas.” We asked respondents how their Oxy education prepared them for their career path. Maerkle replies: “The diplomacy and world affairs program gave me the breadth of knowledge to pass the Foreign Service exam and an in-depth understanding of American foreign policy.” He retired in 2011 after a 42-year career as a Foreign Service officer. Mary lou Kurtz worked for TWA for 14 years “and frequently used my French with foreign passengers.” A number of teachers reported a direct connection from Oxy to the classroom. “i felt very prepared by the time i obtained my first teaching position,” writes Sarah Schildmeyer, reflecting a widely held respect for the education department and professor jo Stanchfield. “Since i was a music major, my Oxy experience prepared me for my initial career as a college music teacher,” Phil jones notes. “The strong liberal arts curriculum at
Stephens, Kurtz, Culley, and Cats
John Markarian: “Ben Culley twice asking me for favors, getting two students out of some serious trouble—one financial and one criminal. We always asked him for favors.”
When we asked members of the Class of ’68 to share their favorite Oxy memory, many alumni cited general experiences: spending time with friends, walking through the beautiful campus, or sitting in the Quad. Others detailed more specific moments. slowly down the shoulder of the highway after dark, waiting for the snakes to crawl out on the tarmac to feel the residual warmth.”
Ralph Larson: “Learning to scuba dive and getting involved in marine biology research with Dr. John Stephens (above). This shaped my future career.” Meredith Mason Garcia: “A field trip to the high desert with John Stephens and the Biology of the Vertebrates class, to collect specimen animals—driving
Rob Russell: “Arguing/ discussing about free will late into the night.” Martha Carriger Giffen: “Receiving a six-month grant to do independent research in Argentina on the use of folklore in regional literature. That was an excuse to do a lot of growing up and thinking away from my very controlling parents.”
Don Fallick: “Dr. Kenneth Kurtz spoke in a monotone—he couldn’t help it— and put everyone to sleep, so he inserted anachronisms into his Shakespeare lessons to see if anyone was listening. He [once] mentioned Romeo hopping in his Alfa Romeo and going for a ride along Angeles Crest Highway.” Judy Greene: “Studying in the Greek Bowl after a smog-clearing rain.” John Randall Faith: “Getting married at Herrick Chapel.”
Ted Mumm: “Concerts with the Glee Club, especially the one where we performed Carmina Burana with staging designed by Alan Freeman ’66 M’67.” Bethe Hagens: “Playing Bach in the chapel for a week of celebrating his birthday.”
Sarah Jean Walker Shaw: “Playing coed flag football after dinner on the Herrick Chapel lawn.” William Courington: “Winning a contest for paddling a tiny boat around the fountain by the chapel.” Linda C. Martin Briggs: “Quad-sitting and brilliant orange Oxy sunsets.”
Robert Gross: “Listening to Jimi Hendrix’s first album.”
Barbara Knowles Hartl: “Fiji toga parties.”
Laurie Bryant: “Keeping a cat in my dorm room.”
Nick Tingle: “Having sex for the first time. That was a weight off my mind.”
January 30: Occidental Republican Club votes unanimously to terminate its association with the California Young Republican Clubs. February: Head football coach Jim Mora ’57 resigns to accept a position as an assistant coach at Stanford. February 25: Almost 400 students gather at 2 a.m. to protest the lockout policy for women’s dorms. The policy is lifted for all but freshmen in fall 1967. March 3: Take five: Dave Brubeck brings cool jazz to Thorne Hall. April: The experimental Occidental Free University begins offering weekly seminars on topics ranging from nonconformity to Mexican and Indian art. April 12: Martin Luther King Jr. speaks in Thorne Hall. May: Occidental’s baseball team wins the NAIA Area I tournament in Medford, Ore. Coach Grant Dunlap ’46’s Tigers go 32-6 and still hold the school record for the longest winning streak (18 games). October 16–20: Faculty members lead a silent anti-draft vigil in the Quad each day at noon to mark Stop the Draft week. November 6–7: The Oxy chapter of Students for a Democratic Society organizes its first sit-in in the Quad to protest military recruiters on campus. A second sitin occurs on April 10, 1968. November 14: The Black Student Caucus is established with a charter from the ASOC Senate.
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