Corwin H. Hansch
Professor of Chemistry Emeritus
1918–2011

Corwin H. Hansch, professor of chemistry at Pomona College from 1946 to 1988, died May 8, 2011, after a long bout with pneumonia. He had served on the Pomona College faculty from 1946 until 1988, and even after retiring from teaching he had continued with his research in the Chemistry Department until 2010. He was 92.

Hansch, the founder of Quantitative Structure Activity Relationships (QSAR), received his B.S. in chemistry from the University of Illinois and his Ph.D. from New York University. After a brief postdoctoral stint at the University of Illinois, Chicago, he worked on the Manhattan Project at University of Chicago and at DuPont Nemours in Richland, Wash. After World War II ended, he took a position as research chemist at Du Pont Nemours, but left soon thereafter, coming to Pomona College in 1946. During his tenure, he completed two sabbaticals, one at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and the other in Rolf Huisgren’s laboratory at the University of Munich.

Shortly after arriving at Pomona, he met a Pomona botany professor, Robert Muir, and their mutual interest in understanding the workings of plant hormones led to his pioneering work in QSAR. Hansch soon changed the direction of his research from the study of high temperature dehydrogenations to the correlation of biological activity with chemical structure; this led to the publication of his early, seminal works in QSAR, ably aided by Toshio Fujita. The founder of QSAR, Hansch came to be recognized as the “father of computer-assisted molecular design,” and the methodology he spawned is now utilized in most pharmaceuticals and biotechnology companies.

The author of numerous books running the gamut from organic chemistry texts to medicinal chemistry to QSAR treatises, he also wrote or co-authored more than 400 publications in all. During the period of 1965 to 1978, he was one of the 300 most cited scientists in the world. He also received many awards, including two Pomona College Wig Awards for excellence in teaching, two Guggenheim Fellowships and numerous accolades from the American, Italian and Japanese Chemical Societies. He was the first recipient of the American Chemical Society (ACS) Award for Research at an Undergraduate Institution (1986), as well as the first recipient of the Smissman-Bristol-Myers-Squibb Award from the ACS’s Division of Medicinal Chemistry (1975). In 1990, he was elected to the Royal Society of Chemistry and in 2007, he was inducted into the ACS’s Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame.

Mentor to a large number of undergraduate students and more than 40 visiting scientists and postdoctoral scholars from the U.S. and around the world, Hansch helped raise the profile of research at primarily undergraduate institutions and was instrumental in establishing the Fred J. Robbins Lectureship in Chemistry which helps to bring scientists of Nobel Laureate stature to the Pomona College campus.

In recent years, he devoted his time and effort to developing and organizing QSAR equations based on data generated internally and from global literature. His electronic database CQSAR, now contains more than 22,000 mathematical models. He was especially interested in comparing chemical QSAR with biological QSAR to gain insight into how chemicals interact with biological receptors.

Hansch was a voracious reader, his reading tastes ranging from scientific literature and politics to economics and film. He and his wife, Gloria, who was instrumental to his success, loved to travel, and their adventures spanned the globe. He was an avid skier and loved to ski Mt. Baldy, Aspen, the Alps and the Andes. —Cynthia Selassie

As a sports fan raised in Southern California, Dodie Bump ’76 has faced a few adjustments since she moved to Massachusetts more than two decades ago. With time, she was able to put aside the Dodger blue and become a full-fledged Red Sox fan. But she never could get on board with the Celtics; they’ve had too long of a rivalry with the Lakers. She compromised by becoming a fan of the San Antonio Spurs, since they’re led by former Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens basketball coach Greg Popovich.

If there’s one team Bump has stuck with all these years, it’s the Sagehens, and Pomona College in the wider sense. Her new role as president of the Alumni Association is the natural next step in her decades of service to the College.

An art history major and Mortar Board Society member, Bump pursued her hobby of photography at Pomona, but athletics was her biggest extracurricular activity. She played on the women’s basketball and volleyball teams, managed the men’s track team coached by Pat Mulcahy ’66, and even threw the javelin on the not-quite-official women’s track team. She also was a physical trainer for football, track and other sports in what was a rarity for a female student at the time. And for her first year after graduating, she worked on campus as an administrative assistant to Athletic Director Ed Malan ’48.

From there it was on to the Xerox Corp. in El Segundo, where she worked in a variety of administrative and marketing roles. During this time, Bump kept her ties to Pomona, serving on the Alumni Council during the 1980s, including a stint on what was then known as the Executive Committee. This was just a “natural progression,” Bump says, and “a wonderful way to stay connected to the College.”

Then Bump made a big move. Xerox was offering a voluntary buyout program, and after more than a decade with the company, Bump decided to take the buyout and move all the way across the country. Eventually settling in Wellesley, outside Boston, she quickly became a leader in the New England Sagehen community, thanks to a little nudging from former Alumni Relations Director Lee Harlan ’55. “He knew I was a sucker for Pomona,” says Bump.

After holding marketing positions at several software companies in the Boston area, Bump has found her “best job ever” as director of communications for the Newton-Wellesley Hospital Charitable Foundation. She is a longtime member of the Rotary Club of Wellesley and has served on the boards of several civic organizations, including the Wellesley Historical Society and the Wellesley Club. She also plays tennis several times a week and has been a member of a book club since 1989. 

But Pomona College still tugs at her. She joined the Alumni Board in 2007 and particularly enjoys coming back to visit the campus. Bump considers it fortunate timing that she is becoming Alumni Association president at a time when the arts are a particular focus on campus. Arts initiatives are a major component of Campaign Pomona: Daring Minds, and this year the much-anticipated “It Happened at Pomona: Art at the Edge of Los Angeles 1969-1973” exhibitions are unfolding at the College’s museum.

“I’m definitely interested in making sure alumni are aware of the incredible plans the College has for the arts,” Bump says. “They are such an essential component of a top quality liberal arts education, and I’m thrilled that Pomona is committed to ensuring that its arts program is second to none.”

Special Reunions / Botany Majors

For botany majors of yore, field trips were always a particularly important part of their Pomona education. Today, those same students from the 1940s through the 1970s are still heading out into the field, accompanied by the same beloved professor who helped inspire their interests in botany all those years ago.

Since 2000, when Lucile Housley ’55 organized the first trip, alumni with ties to Pomona’s one-time Botany Department have gathered for annual get-togethers in breathtaking locales ranging from windswept Point Reyes to sandswept Death Valley. Most of the alumni share a connection to Professor Emeritus of Botany Ed Phillips, who today is 96 and still attends the gathering each year. He taught at the College from 1948 until his retirement in 1980, a few years after the Botany Department was merged into the Biology Department.

Upwards of 75 Sagehens have attended at least one of the gatherings over the years, including some who travel from as far as the East Coast and Hawaii. “They come again and again,” says Phillips. “They want to keep going and I do, too.”

As reported by Thomas Mulroy ’68 and Ralph Philbrick ’55, this year’s gathering was held in May at Cachuma Lake, drawing about 35 people to camp at the scenic spot in Santa Barbara County. The trip included hiking, viewing wildflowers in bloom and singing around the campfire at night. Day outings included a visit to S&S Seeds’ Rancho Las Flores in Los Alamos, where owner and founder of this pioneering native plant seed business Victor Schaff gave a tour of his growing fields of California natives. Then the group drove over the pine-covered Harris Grade to La Purisima Mission near Lompoc to hear from Steve Junak, expert field botanist for the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden.

Mulroy, who taught at Pomona decades ago and is now an environmental consultant, notes that the group “includes academic and professional botanists and biologists, people in various agricultural pursuits, medicine, business, secondary school and primary school teachers, as well as a wide variety of endeavors unrelated to botany or biology.”

“The mingling of ages is unbelievable,” he adds. “It’s a joy.”               

Noting how quickly people who’ve never met before connect on these trips, Professor Phillips has a theory about the special botany-major bond that develops in college. “I think it really comes right down to the field trips,’’ he says. “You learn not only about botany but about life. You learn how to get along with people.”

I rarely worry about what I am going to wear. I usually have comfortable slacks and a jacket to wear out to dinner and, with a modification or two, they can go to a memorial service. The same pair of REI Merrell slip-on shoes is adequate for both occasions. Everything else I own is for gardening: stained t-shirts, comfortable sweat pants or jeans, worn sweatshirts, piles of dirty sneakers and boots. And, most important, the smartest wool socks to keep my toes dry. Plenty.

But a few years ago I accompanied my husband John to his 50th Pomona College reunion and, preferring not to embarrass him in front of his best and longest friendships, I surveyed my gardening wardrobe and saw that it was, indeed, unfit. Reluctantly, I went shopping.

The wardrobe survey had revealed a pair of good black slacks and a blue-green linen suit worn once, 10 or 12 years ago, when my own college’s president visited Seattle. A color palette, of sorts. But no shoes, short of the worn Merrells or mud-stained sneakers.  

To prepare myself for the coming ordeal, I tried to imagine I was shopping for plants. Before I shop for plants, I survey the garden, looking for areas where plants are much too big for their britches or have settled in so comfortably their knees are baggy. I study the borders, monitoring color balance, leaf texture and shape, ultimate height and rhythm—too many orange grasses, not enough lime green. If it’s particular sorts of plant I want, I search Web references, visit others’ gardens and favorite nurseries, review catalogs. Before long, I have a list of appropriate possibilities and, with luck, several places to find them. I feel confident; I know how to shop for plants.

But when it comes to shopping for my own clothes and shoes, my dismal lack of confidence is only surpassed by my ignorance.

Other shoppers are better prepared. It seems to me that every customer at the cosmetics counter—intimidatingly placed at the entrance of the department store—already owns enough lipstick and mascara. They’re wearing it. Their clothes match, and they show just the right amount of flesh between jeans and tank top. And women looking for clothes already seem to know what size they wear. They don’t seem shocked at the prices. (I could buy a tree peony for the cost of that shirt.) And the sales personnel know them by name.

I trudge in and out of the dressing room, trying out colors and shapes, asking myself if the colors of this pale pink and sea-green blouse will complement my old linen suit, wishing I had worn it. And remembering an earlier time when my color memory failed me, and I planted a brilliant vermillion climbing nasturtium too close to a dusky violet-purple Clematis Purpurea Plena Elegans. Tacky. I still cannot choose which of these treasures to remove. 

Ultimately, I buy a white silk shirt to wear with the linen suit, and a dressy cream blouse and black silk jacket with Chinese knotted buttons to wear with my good black slacks. I even survive the icy disbelief of the shoe salesman, who clearly views my comfortable Merrells as if they were dandelions among his most treasured roses. I escape with suitable shoes, but only tattered dignity.

The reunion was a success. Folks wore what they wanted to wear; they were comfortable. With a bit of clever weeding, I could have worn the clothes I already owned. And there were plenty of folks standing around in the equivalent of my worn Merrells. For all I know, they, too, were gardeners. John would not have been embarrassed, and instead of spending time shopping, I could have spent a whole afternoon deciding how to garb the garden so neither it, nor I, will be embarrassed the next time one of John’s college classmates comes to visit.

Lee C. Neff is married to Dr. John Neff ’55.

Adam Boardman ’01
Lives in: Hollywood, Calif. Education: Boardman majored in linguistics and, in a sense, distance running. He ran track and cross-country all four years, including the last three as team captain in both sports. He was two-time SCIAC 5000-meter champion and 1999 NCAA All-American in cross country. He served as a transfer/exchange sponsor and an R.A. his junior year as well as senior gift co-chair. Career: Spent first year after graduation skiing in Mammoth before moving to Seattle and working as an admissions officer for a culinary school. He then spent six months traveling and blogging in South America. Since then he has done everything from commercial acting to writing for a cooking show to developing lifestyle and travel TV shows. Currently works at Pizzeria Mozza in Hollywood and is training for his second marathon. Alumni Involvement: Served as alumni interviewer for three years in Seattle, and upon arriving in Los Angeles was a founding member of the Claremont Entertainment Mafia, a networking group for Claremont Colleges alumni in entertainment, and served on the group’s board for the last 4 years.  

Jon Moore ’86
Home: Raised in Menlo Park, Calif., and now lives about 30 miles north on the island of Alameda.  Family: Moore has spent the last 4 years as a stay-at-home dad and husband. His wife, Beth, is an occupational therapist and they have two daughters, Emma, 10, and Abby, 4. Education: After earning his undergraduate degree in economics, Moore received a master’s degree in physical education from Cal State Fullerton in 1991. At Pomona, Moore was a co-sponsor in Norton-Clark and played varsity soccer all four years. He was president of the Phi Delta fraternity during his junior year. Career: Moore coached the Pomona-Pitzer women’s soccer team from 1986-1991 and continues to stay involved with soccer in the Bay Area. For 15 years, he was the program director at Skylake Yosemite Camp (a resident summer camp on Bass Lake) and now he is the director of Skylake’s family camps. Alumni involvement: Moore was the co-chair of his 5th year reunion and on the committee for the 10th and 20th year reunions.    

Jack Peck ’56
Lives in: Long Beach, Calif. Education: majored in economics at Pomona. Career: He was employed by Unocal 76, before and after service in the U.S. Army, in marketing or marketing support functions. For his last eight years before retiring, Peck was general manager for product distribution for the western U.S., overseeing delivery of gasoline, diesel fuel and lubricants to service stations and wholesale customers. Alumni involvement: Many years ago he was an “alumni representative” for the East Bay area of Contra Costa County. One grandson, Garret Bell ’14, is a sophomore at Pomona. Another, Calvin Kagan ’10, is now in medical school.

Anne Bachman Thacher ’75
Lives in: Laguna Niguel, Calif. Family: Married to Bruce Thacher ’78, and of their 3 children, they have one Sagehen, Tim ’07 (She is looking forward to Alumni Weekend 2012, when Bruce will celebrate his 35th and Tim his 5th alumni reunion.) Education: Thacher was a government major, graduating cum laude. She was a member of Mortar Board and a student representative on the Trustee Academic Affairs Committee. While there was no official women’s team at the time, she ran the mile in an ad-hoc women’s track team put together by Coach Pat Mulcahy ’66 against Redlands in 1975. She also gave admissions tours of campus. Career: Thacher attended UCLA School of Law and worked for nine years in the legal profession. After retiring from law, she became very involved in her local school district. This ultimately led to a new career as an academic advisor at San Clemente High School. Thacher is training for the Boston Marathon, having qualified in last year’s Santa Barbara Marathon. Alumni Involvement: Thacher has been involved in fundraising for her reunion years and has attended many alumni weekends, both formally and informally.

Tyson Thomas ’92
Lives in: San Mateo, Calif. Education: A double major in physics and economics at Pomona, Tyson went on to get M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from USC and was granted a scientific Chateaubriand Fellowship from the Office for Science and Technology of the Embassy of France to conduct research with Atmel Grenoble. Career: Tyson is the chief scientist at Neural ID where he develops algorithms for pattern recognition. Previously, he was principal scientist at NovaSol in Honolulu doing hyperspectral image analysis and prior to that worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory doing research in artificial neural networks and fuzzy logic. He has one patent. Alumni involvement: Tyson was an Alumni Association volunteer helping at several Alumni Weekends and served one term on the Alumni Council during the transition to the Alumni Board from 1997-99. He also co-organized his class’ 10th reunion.