Letters

Stray Thoughts: The Art of Seeing Possibilities

April 4, 2025 by Adam Conner-Simons ’08 Comments Off

Creativity is sometimes seen as the domain of the young—an innate, unfettered spark that dims as we get older. But the truth is, creativity is not bound by age, nor is it confined to the arts. This issue of PCM aims to explore different forms of creativity and uncover how we can cultivate it at every stage of life. Whether through professional innovation, interpersonal problem-solving, or even just the way we navigate daily routines, creativity remains an integral part of human experience.

One of the most common misconceptions about creativity is that it belongs exclusively to artists, musicians, and writers. This issue challenges that notion by highlighting creativity in disciplines like science, programming, and even political protest. We speak with Sagehens who have harnessed creative thinking to revolutionize industries, researchers whose inventive approaches have led to groundbreaking discoveries, and individuals who have reimagined their lives in inspiring ways. Creativity, at its core, is about seeing possibilities where others see limitations.

Nurturing creativity later in life requires intention and curiosity. Small changes in our routines—such as picking up a new hobby, engaging in stimulating conversations, or simply allowing ourselves to actually make space for non-doing—can reawaken our imagination. We also examine the role of lifelong learning, the power of collaboration, and the importance of staying open to new perspectives. Creativity flourishes when we give ourselves permission to experiment, to fail, and to view things with a greater sense of both purpose and wonder.

Adam Conner-Simons ’08, PCM Spring 2025 Guest Editor In this fast-paced, technology-driven era, we often feel pressured to be productive rather than imaginative. But creativity is not a luxury; it is a necessity. It fuels innovation, enriches our lives, and helps us adapt to an ever-changing world. I hope some of the topics posed in these pages invite you to explore, question, and reimagine the role of creativity in your own life. Let this issue be both a mirror and a catalyst, reflecting the creativity you already possess and inspiring new ways to express it. After all, creativity is not something we lose—it is something we continue to discover.

—Adam Conner-Simons ’08
Guest Editor

Letter Box

April 4, 2025 by Staff Comments Off

A Hello from Acting President Bob Gaines

Robert Gaines

Having been a faculty member here for more than 20 years, I’m deeply humbled by the opportunity to lead the College during President Starr’s sabbatical. I know the value of Pomona and the kinds of breakthroughs that are possible here, particularly as it applies to creativity—the theme of this issue of Pomona College Magazine.

The way I see it, Pomona has a unique combination of magical elements that make its educational experience pop—a delicate fusion of factors that include motivated students, intimate classes, broad resources and an emphasis on curiosity, interdisciplinarity and, yes, creativity.

I feel this dynamic deeply in my connections with peers. Our environment encourages engagement with others in how they see the world, sharing perspectives across disciplines with colleagues in art, music, history and beyond. I’ve had many thoughtful conversations with my colleagues about the vastness of time, understanding stories etched across giant landscapes, how we as humans sense and understand the world around us, and what it means to be alive on Earth. These kinds of dialogues have helped me shape, refine and better understand my own perspectives, as well as encouraging more out-of-the-box thinking about many of my own projects in geology.

This kind of cultivation of creativity allows faculty and students alike to adapt and approach challenges from new angles—where some of the most exciting and unexpected outcomes lie. Whether in science, engineering, humanities or the arts, thinking creatively is crucial for new innovation and making a meaningful impact on larger societal forces.

Indeed, creativity and its capacity for “transformative knowledge” is one of the three central pillars of our strategic vision, and a major point of emphasis for several of our future projects, like the new Center for Global Engagement that we hope to break ground on in the coming years.

My experience at Pomona is that creativity is not a finite resource, but something that begets more of itself when cultivated. In my mind it is the most important and essential of human traits—without it, we would be forever repeating the same patterns, rather than finding new paths of inquiry and exploration.

—Robert Gaines

Acting President
Edwin F. and Martha Hahn Professor of Geology

Write to Us at PCM

Pomona College Magazine welcomes brief letters to the editor about the magazine and issues related to the College from the extended Pomona community—alumni, parents, students, faculty, staff, donors and others with a strong connection to the College. Write to us at pcm@pomona.edu or mail a letter to Pomona College Magazine, 550 N. College Ave., Claremont, CA 91711. Letters should include the writer’s name, city and state of residence, class year for alumni and contact information. With rare exceptions, letters should be no more than 400 words in length. Letters are selected for publication based on relevance and available space and are subject to being edited for brevity and clarity.

Stray Thoughts

November 19, 2024 by Adam Conner-Simons ’08 Comments Off

Adam Conner-Simons ’08

Making the Practice of Deceleration Normal, and Natural

Am I the only one who’s noticed a shift in the pace of life these days? Stepping into this new role as guest editor, I’ve reflected on it more than usual. I wake up to an onslaught of urgent emails and push notifications that demand immediate responses, leaving little room for quiet reflection. While there are many tech-driven advances that have brought us convenience, speed and savings, these developments also pose a particular challenge to our well-being: the erosion of our ability to slow down and simply be present.

One powerful antidote to this is the theme of the issue sitting in your hands today: getting “back to nature.” For me, at least, the most reliable action for counterbalancing the frenetic rhythms of modern life is the simple act of stepping outside and mindfully observing the natural world in all of its gentle profundity.

When we take moments to appreciate nature—the rustle of leaves in the wind, the rhythm of ocean waves, a simple sunset—we break free from the constant demand for swift action. Nature operates at a pace that can’t be rushed, and in its presence, we are reminded that life is not about racing from one task to the next, but about engaging fully with each experience.

I’d like to think that the intentional slowing down we feel in nature is not entirely dissimilar to the liberal arts atmosphere that surrounds us at Pomona.

Instead of rushing through a checklist of prerequisites or focusing on a narrow band of vocational skills, Pomona asks students to engage with a wide variety of perspective-broadening disciplines, teaching them to appreciate the interconnectedness of ideas and the complexity of the human experience. With a curriculum that forces us to think deeply, critically and holistically, we can soften our pace, reflect on the larger picture, and wrestle with a robust range of ideas here before going off to the great, big “real world” (whatever that means).

Sagehens graduate not only informed and skilled, but also thoughtful, curious and empathetic. Somewhat paradoxically, they’re better equipped to navigate a world that demands instant answers because they have learned to take the time to think differently, and more creatively. In both the act of appreciating nature and the ethos of a liberal arts education, there is a shared recognition that the process of deceleration—whether it’s to absorb the beauty of the natural world or to deeply explore a complex idea—enriches our lives. It helps us cultivate a more profound understanding of ourselves, the world, and our place within it.

—Adam Conner-Simons ’08

Guest Editor

Letter Box

November 19, 2024 by Staff Comments Off

2024 Protests

It is with dismay that I read about the disruption of several aspects of campus life (e.g., 2024 Commencement and the fall opening convocation) by pro-Palestinian protesters.

Full disclosure: I have relatives in Israel, who knew people who were killed on 10/7/23, the worst massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Lest you view me as a cheerleader for Netanyahu, I believe that his refusal to entertain the idea of a two-state solution has contributed to Israel’s diplomatic isolation and security crises. While I initially supported Israel’s military response, I have come to believe that it reached a point of diminishing returns long ago. Like any decent human, I am saddened by the loss of innocent Palestinian lives, and wish that Israel put greater effort into a two-state solution.

That said, these nuances are absolutely lost on the West’s “pro-Palestinian” movement—a term I put in quotes because it seems to put a higher priority on destroying Israel than on improving the lot of the Palestinian people.

Anyone who has studied the history of that region would realize just how complicated it is, with both Jews and Palestinians having legitimate claims to the land and legitimate grievances toward each other. My complaint against student protesters is threefold. First, a college is supposed to be a place for critical thinking. Students who shout eliminationist anti-Israel slogans obviously gave up on that a long time ago.

Second, the protesters’ methods often push the boundaries of legality. At Pomona and elsewhere, they have shown callous disrespect for other people’s property and personal space.

Third, while I do not believe that “pro-Palestinian” protesters are consciously antisemitic, their actions have the effect of making many Jewish students feel targeted and intimidated.

All of this breaks my heart.

—Tony Gansen, ’84

Foster City, California

Another ’60s Activist Offers View on Campus Climate

I look back with pride at my political activity when I was at Pomona. I did not have the privilege of knowing Harry Stein ’70 (“A ’60s Activist’s Take on Politicized Campuses,” Summer 2024), but may have participated in some of the same demonstrations he did. Even though I played football, considered the sign of a caveman, I marched with Jane Fonda. The Vietnam War was actually a simpler issue than the Israel-Palestine conflict. The rest of the Middle East, the United States, and the rest of the world bear responsibility for the failure to complete the 1947 United Nations Resolution 181 that created the state of Israel and called for a separate state of Palestine. As for the criticism of the news coverage regarding Pomona by Pomona College Magazine, I have not found it biased. While I live in Arlington, Texas, I still have family in Upland and Riverside with whom I share discussions about Pomona. I was surprised that Harry Stein did not mention the Claremont Institute and its far-right views, yet stated that there is “near-uniformity of thought in Claremont on issues of race, gender and now the Middle East.” I applaud President Starr’s efforts to promote significant discussion regarding difficult and contentious issues.

—Gerald Casenave ’72

Arlington, Texas

Pomona Students, Yesterday and Today

Regarding the letter from Harry Stein ’70, when I returned to Pomona after my Melvin Laird Fellowship in Southeast Asian Studies, I found the campus to be as vibrant and intellectually alive as it was when I dropped out in February 1968.

I have been on campus a number of times in the last 10 years. I have talked to undergrads. The only way one could conclude there was “near-uniformity of thought” among Pomona undergrads is if he had no contact whatsoever with the undergraduate population.

—Bart Scott ’75

Santa Rosa, California

President Starr on 10/7 Campus Events

The takeover of Carnegie Hall by protesters and the events that ensued “should be unfathomable” in a close-knit, ethical and caring learning community such as Pomona’s. That was the message that President G. Gabrielle Starr shared with the campus in the aftermath of the events.

“Our academic mission was directly targeted. Faculty, students, staff and high school student visitors were subjected to intimidation and fear. This is unacceptable,” she wrote. She expressed gratitude to the members of the College community who, she said, “in the midst of crisis showed who we are at our best and provided help.”

“The destruction in Carnegie Hall was extensive, and investigation has revealed that the vast majority of those who occupied Carnegie are not Pomona students,” Starr said. “Disciplinary letters are going out to students from Pomona and other Claremont Colleges identified as involved in the takeover. Student groups affiliated with this incident are also under investigation. Individuals who are not students will be banned from our campus, she noted.”

Pomona is committed to the integrity of its disciplinary processes, and President Starr affirmed that the College will not comment on individual cases. Within the scope of the student code, and commensurate with individual circumstances, sanctions may include campus bans, suspension and expulsion—a step not taken lightly, she said. Students have due process, with opportunities for appeal.

“As we head into the final months of the semester, let us not lose sight of what unites us and makes us strong,” President Starr concluded. “We are given great gifts that we must bear in trust for this generation and generations to come. I am proud to be part of this community. I look forward to engaging alongside you, and setting our feet together on a path that, even at our most profound moments of disagreement, leads to higher ground.”

Memories of KSPC in the Late 1950s

When I transferred from Columbia University to Pomona, attending for 2½ years before graduating with distinction in 1958, trad jazz (short for traditional) continued to figuratively save my life. So, I was delighted to host an evening program featuring the likes of Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke on KSPC (“KSPC Radio Rocks On,” Summer 2024). Terry Drinkwater ’58 ran a tight ship at the station and went on to greater things in broadcasting as a correspondent and anchor at CBS News before tragically passing prematurely in 1989.

But it was my weird fellow classical jazz enthusiast, Jim Bogen ’57, who played a mean clarinet, who encouraged me to host such a program that probably attracted no more than a dozen campus listeners—I never knew as no one ever commented besides Jim and a fellow Phi Delta, Bill Baer ’58.

I was only attracted to buddies then who were a little crazy and off the wall during the deadly conformism of the ’50s, and Jim was one of the few. I’d occasionally visit him four flights up the stairs in Smiley Hall and stare respectfully at the pennies he deliberately cast about his room floor, like a true philosophy major, to show his disdain for Californian materialism. If he’s still alive and reads this, I want him to know I still have the LP he and a pickup student band recorded—some amateurish riffs on trad jazz that must now be very collectible, and that his clarinet solos still stand out.

I also wonder if any archives exist witnessing most of KSPC’s 68 years at its various locations. Nothing like old-time radio going back to the 1930s, but that’s another story.

—Paul Christopher ’58

Pebble Beach, California

Correction

Joanne Tobiessen ’64 worked in career development at Union College in Schenectady, NY, and developed its peer facilitators program during 18 years of service, and also served on Union College’s Women’s Commission. Her obituary in the Summer 2024 issue incorrectly identified the college as Pacific Union. Pomona College Magazine regrets the error.

Write to Us at PCM

We welcome brief letters about College issues from alumni, parents, students, faculty, staff, donors and other community members. Email us or mail a letter to Pomona College Magazine, 550 N. College Ave., Claremont, CA 91711. Letters should include the writer’s name, city and state of residence, contact information, and class year (for alumni). Letters should be no more than 400 words, are selected based on relevance and available space, and are subject to being edited for brevity and clarity.

Letter Box

June 18, 2024 by Staff Comments Off

The Liberal Arts for Life

I was pleased to see your Pomona College Magazine article devoted to the value of liberal arts (Spring 2024). As one whose four years at Pomona included courses in over 20 departments, a semester in India, a history major, completion of pre-med requirements and evenings spent hanging around the music department, I loved the breadth of opportunities that Pomona provided. And, yes, some of those “non-career-prep” courses did help me in my work—for example, giving me tools to author successful textbooks and edit a scientific journal.

But the real value of my liberal arts education was that it made the non-work aspects of my life much fuller and more enjoyable. So I wish that your article had said more about this side of liberal arts.

I understand that our society these days tends to define return on investment in terms of dollars and cents, but the older I get the more I realize that it’s what makes you happy that matters, and Pomona’s contribution to that aspect of my life was squarely in the liberal arts opportunities it provided.

—Philip D. Sloane ’72
Professor of Family Medicine and Geriatrics
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

**Praise for PCM, Aid for Middle-Income Students**

Congrats on the “Value” issue (Spring 2024).

I think the cover is exceptional—eye catching, artistic, clever with math, musical and DNA symbols. The diamond representing “value” was quite creative.

The article about supporting the financially mid-level students is timely in my opinion.

Keep up the good work.

—Ron Smith ’63
Newport Beach, California

A ’60s Activist’s Take on Politicized Campuses

The subject of your piece is obviously of great interest, and I appreciate your effort to cover the waterfront in the limited space at hand. That said, I was disappointed that what strikes me as by far the most compelling issue driving the turn against liberal arts colleges—the politicization of the campus—is mentioned only briefly in your editor’s letter.

FYI, I was a political activist at Pomona in the 1960s, and having in the course of my career as a journalist moved to the right, I look back on the changes wrought by radicals like me at places like Pomona with regret and shame. It was a truly diverse intellectual campus when I arrived in 1966, far less so when I left in 1970; and on the basis of everything I see, a frighteningly narrow place today. And it’s a good guess a fair number of my fellow elderly grads feel the same. This is hardly unique to Pomona, of course, or even to colleges. My kids went to Fieldston in New York, and while it’s always defined itself as a progressive place, I’d be horrified if my grandkids were there today. And, alas, reading of the evident near-uniformity of thought in Claremont on issues of race, gender and now the Middle East, I feel very nearly the same way about Pomona.

Yours is an alumni magazine, and I understand you are not in the business of stirring the pot. Still, it’s unfortunate that as an interested alum I have to go to The Claremont Independent to find [other news coverage of campus].

—Harry Stein ’70
New York

Closer Look at Classroom Photo

Associate Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies Aimee Bahng, right of the podium, leads a discussion in her Race, Gender and the Environment class.

It was with great anticipation that I turned to your cover story on “The Value of the Liberal Arts.” Over a lifetime, Pomona’s liberal arts education has served me well both personally and professionally.

I was briefly thrown off by reference early in the story to “the gender and women’s studies class” since it is one of the newest and least established parts of the liberal arts curriculum. This mention felt a bit like the tyranny of political correctness (pc). But I continued to read until I took a close look at the photo of a class on gender studies, which covers the top of the right-hand page in this feature article’s two-page spread. Of the 19 people seated around the table, 17 or 18 are women and only one or two are men.

Those who seek to demonize gender studies charge them with being militant feminism, a.k.a. reverse sexism in disguise. Yet they have the potential to be of great value at a time when surveys show a larger divergence in life attitudes among young women and men than in the past. The big question is whether gender studies bridge this gap or widen it. The class photo is not encouraging in this regard. It suggests Pomona is not marketing gender studies to students in a way that is equally inviting to men and women, and thus is not inclusive.

That Pomona’s magazine could overlook the glaring implication of this photo suggests it is in the grip of an ideology regarding the need to promote gender studies as the new flagship of liberal arts. In this case, PC has fallen into the trap of being pc. Please take a closer look at such messaging.

—Glenn Pascall ’64
Dana Point, California

Arrest of Protesters on Campus

First, my bona fides. My great-grandfather, Edwin C. Norton, was Pomona’s first dean. My grandfather, Ralph Lyman, put Pomona on the map by introducing European classical music to Southern California and mentoring Robert Shaw, later mentored by Arturo Toscanini. Shaw was the greatest choral conductor of his time in America.

Now the war has come to us. No surprise that. The question faced all over our country is how do those in power deal with student unrest.

I am beyond appalled by how President G. Gabrielle Starr chose to militarize her response.

—David Lyman, ’66
South Pasadena, California

Editor’s note: Read more on the April 5 arrests of 20 people, including seven Pomona students, during a masked protest in Alexander Hall.

Correction

The article “A New Community Space in the City of Pomona” on page 8 of the Spring 2024 issue incorrectly referred to David Armstrong ’62 as deceased. Armstrong, founder of the American Museum of Ceramic Art on Garey Avenue in Pomona, still visits the museum almost daily as it undergoes a major remodel. At 51,000 square feet, it is the largest such ceramics museum in the United States. Pomona College Magazine regrets the error.

Write to Us at PCM

Pomona College Magazine welcomes brief letters to the editor about the magazine and issues related to the College from the extended Pomona community—alumni, parents, students, faculty, staff, donors and others with a strong connection to the College. Write to us at PCM or mail a letter to Pomona College Magazine, 550 N. College Ave., Claremont, CA 91711. Letters should include the writer’s name, city and state of residence, class year for alumni and contact information. With rare exceptions, letters should be no more than 400 words in length. Letters are selected for publication based on relevance and available space and are subject to being edited for brevity and clarity.

Stray Thoughts: Leaving Campus

June 18, 2024 by Robyn Norwood Comments Off

Working on a college campus lends itself to looking back on your own college years.

With this issue of the magazine, I think again about how I never considered studying in another country while I was in school.

For one thing, I assumed it was too expensive because the only students I knew who did seemed to be alumni of New England boarding schools and I was from a public high school, one of four children in my family headed to college and already paying out-of-state tuition.

For another, this was the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Michael Jordan and Kenny Smith were my contemporaries. I didn’t want to miss any basketball games.

Only when I went to Europe the winter break before my final semester with a friend who was already working and generous with his frequent flyer miles did I see how much more actually using the language I had studied, seeing the art and architecture I had written about and standing in the places where history happened made me want to learn more.

After that—and once I was earning my own frequent flyer miles—I spent a lot of my 20s and 30s traveling to Latin America, various countries in Europe and later to Australia, each time coming back more interested in the literature, languages, history and current-day politics of those places than when I’d left.

Studying internationally already is much more part of the culture at Pomona than it was at UNC then, with about half of Pomona students studying away from campus, either internationally or in a domestic program.

One of the goals of the Global Pomona Project that inspired this issue is that every Pomona student will meaningfully engage with global learning, whether from abroad or here in the U.S.

What’s more, global education on campus is going to get a huge boost in coming years with the announcement of planning for the Pomona College Center for Global Engagement.

As for study away from campus: To ensure equal access for all students, financial aid transfers 100% for students participating in study away through Pomona College during the academic year. In addition, national and program-specific scholarships are available for fall, spring, academic year and summer study away from campus.

Think of that: A student reliant almost entirely on financial aid has as much chance to study internationally as one whose family goes to Europe on vacations.

Simply the awareness that it’s possible for any student to study in another country or another part of the U.S. means so much. I hope scanning the list of countries and cities on the list at the Office of International and Domestic Programs and its website will become as common as looking at the catalog to pick classes for upcoming semesters.

Thinking about all the opportunities Pomona students have starts to make me want to travel again after years of being worn out from traveling for work. Which brings me to personal news: My six-plus years at Pomona are coming to an end as I take early retirement to spend some vital years with people I love—and maybe do a little freelance study abroad, too.

I’m thankful for my time at the College and the privilege of working on these pages and getting to know so many alumni, students, professors and colleagues who have given me enjoyment, taught me things I didn’t know and kept me feeling younger than I am.

With gratitude,

—Robyn Norwood

Stray Thoughts: Questions About the Value and the Cost of College

March 11, 2024 by Robyn Norwood Comments Off

You learn a lot at high school sports events, and not just about which parents will yell at the refs or snipe about their son’s or daughter’s playing time.

Sitting in the stands at our son’s water polo games and swim meets a few years back, I’d listen as people talked about their children and college. The University of California schools dominated the conversation along with occasional Ivy League or military academy aspirations, and sometimes the firm conviction that community college was the smart way to go.

What I wasn’t prepared for was the anti-college sentiment. There was a dad who had earned a nice living and built a good family life while working as a manager somewhere in the vast port complex along the Southern California coast. For the life of him, he couldn’t understand why his son wanted to go to college to study finance when he could set him up on the waterfront. But it was another father’s comments that stopped me cold. What he wanted for his son was “anything but college,” an attitude I’ve shortened in my mind to ABC.

I didn’t know him well enough to know if his attitude was tied up in the political divide over higher education, with some on the right viewing colleges and universities as places only for those on the left. Perhaps it reflected his own experience: He must have done well without college, building a business in construction, I think, so why did his son need to spend four years and tens if not hundreds of thousands looking for another way?

Education as the route to a better life is deeply entrenched among many lower-income and immigrant families, often convinced that having a doctor in the family is the way to success. High-income families with a tradition of college-going value education, too—perhaps for itself, perhaps as a way for their children to be able to match the standard of living they have attained, or perhaps as a matter of pride or prestige.

But among middle-income families, it has become more hit and miss. While the national conversation about what colleges can do to enroll low-income students has grown louder over the past decade, it’s safe to say that the conversation about what’s being done for middle-income families largely has been sidelined. Although Pomona meets the full demonstrated need of all students who are eligible for need-based aid—and without loans—many middle-income families don’t look past the published tuition number.

When I ran into a woman I know and learned her daughter had just been awarded a Fulbright after graduating from a small liberal arts-focused university in the Pacific Northwest that offers merit aid, I congratulated her and mentioned that I work at Pomona. “We looked at Pomona but didn’t even apply after we saw the price tag,” she told me. I felt a sting, but it was too late to urge her to run the MyinTuition calculator (myintuition.org), which also can be found on Pomona’s Admissions web pages.

As Pomona College President G. Gabrielle Starr writes on page 40 in introducing our Middle Income Initiative, Pomona is taking a new approach on financial aid. We will continue our longstanding financial support for lower-income students and expand support for students from middle-income families to make Pomona more accessible to students from a full range of incomes.

That’s because while we proudly reflect the array of races and ethnicities in this country, we do not reflect the full economic spectrum.

Let’s see what we can do about that.

Letter Box

March 11, 2024 by Staff Comments Off

What To Do with Old Mailboxes?

Old Mailboxes

As USC’s first full-time university archivist, I had no hesitation in positing a solution as to how to preserve and repurpose all of the “lovely old mailboxes” removed from Smith Campus Center by turning to a form of a time capsule.

Assign six of the mailboxes across to each class year since, let’s say, 1950 and invite members of each graduation class to reach some consensus as to what small-sized document or memorabilia might best testify to the history or notable contribution of that class and add such archival gems going forward to each present and future class’s six “document” boxes.

I don’t know where the college archives are housed on campus, but if space is available, that hopefully subterranean space for such an organic special collection would be an excellent home to preserve Pomona history from the student body’s perspective. Examples of this might include music, photos, publications, diaries and original scholarship in the handy form of flash drives, DVDs, etc., together with small mementos. I’m sure you can add to this list.

What say you all?

—Paul Christopher ’58

Pebble Beach, CA

1923 Football Captain, AKA ‘Dad’

That was such a nice surprise, to open my Pomona magazine and see my dad, Herb Mooney 1924, looking back at me (“100 Years Ago: The Sagehens vs. the Trojans in the L.A. Coliseum,” Fall 2023). What a great guy.

Delightful story. Just to keep the record straight, it isn’t that “five of his children” went to Pomona, but that “his five children” went to Pomona.

My father loved Pomona, and he loved football, and we used to see Mr. [Ranney C.] Draper 1925 when we went to games. Thank you for calling attention to a team of very good sports on a very special occasion in a very different era.

Way to go. Take a bow.

—Jane E. Mooney Carter ’65

Marshalltown, Iowa

A Toast to Pomona’s Winemakers

Thank you to Adam Rogers ’92 for a wonderfully informative interview chockful of winemaking insights with Cathy Corison ’75 (Fall 2023).

As a transplant now living in Europe (or the Old World, as the wine milieu would have it), while I possess the luxury of enjoying artisanal, well-made wines from independent-spirited vintners for a relative pittance—down with the three-tier U.S. wine distribution system!—I still hanker now and then for a taste of home in the form of the blessed Californian sunshine that ripens grapes like clockwork.

A person touching various colored grapes

It’s actually quite rare that American wines are imported into Europe, given the general high labor and land costs as well as a bombastically stereotypical style, full of oak and tannin. And yet, almost without fail the likes of Chappellet [founded by the late Donn Chappellet ’54] and Corison are nearly universally admired by discerning palates and cited as New World exemplars that could have easily found roots in the Old World, even mistaken for an example originating from metropole Bordeaux.

Napa has become Disneyfied, where the economics of land acquisition and homogenous vinification also mean costs that are passed on to the taster and consumer, both monetarily and in the loss of terroir. Chapeau for our Sagehen trailblazers with their steadfast conviction to make wine that expresses the gifts of the fecund earth. I raise a glass of Kronos Vineyard or Pritchard Hill to those who concur.

—Cliff Wu ’08
‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands

Remembering Professor Richard MacMillen ’54

Dick MacMillen’s profound influence on my life began my freshman year at Pomona College in the spring semester of 1964, when I enrolled in General Zoology, a course he instructed for some 100 students, many of whom had aspirations of medical school. By the end of the semester, I was sure that I would not be among those headed for the glories of medical practice.

Instead, I became charmed by ecology, evolutionary biology and the special interests in “physiological ecology” that Dick portrayed: How do animals survive and reproduce in deserts, where heat and aridity prevail along with scarcity and unpredictability of vital resources? Dick demonstrated his love of desert physiological ecology by offering us first-year students a field trip out to the creosote bush scrub near Palm Springs, where he showed us how to catch desert iguanas and take their body temperatures with a miniature mercury thermometer. The lizards started off the morning relatively cool but climbed to body temperatures remarkably greater than standard human body temperature, showing us they were anything but “cold-blooded.” Then as the desert became too hot for even the lizards to tolerate, they retired to their underground burrows, while we Homo sapiens hung around sweating it out to complete our documentation that the lizards were in fact disappearing below ground for the duration of the excessive midday heat.

My sophomore year, I enrolled in Dick’s Comparative Anatomy course in the fall and his Animal Ecology field course in spring. An added highlight was the Zoology Department spring break trip Dick led to San Carlos Bay in Sonora, Mexico. Desert rodents (kangaroo rats!) and lizards abounded in the desert scrub and cactus, but snorkel-diving for spiny lobsters in the reefs just off the beach served as an introduction to marine biology—not to mention feasting on fresh lobster boiled in a big pot on a wood campfire.

My senior year was Dick’s first sabbatical to Australia, but during his absence from Claremont he put me in touch with Professor George Bartholomew at UCLA, with whom he had recently completed his Ph.D. I followed Dick’s path to Westwood. Later, my own first sabbatical was to Australia, and by happy coincidence that year (1983-84) was Dick’s third major stay in Australia, which allowed us to meet up again Down Under.

Dick’s guidance continued over a lifetime, as he moved from Pomona to UC Irvine, where he influenced my experiences as I figured out my dissertation and made postdoc plans. I’m happy to say I reached Dick by phone on his 91st birthday last April, a few months before his passing. His kind and gentle manner, sincerity, sense of humor and love of the academic life and natural history will remain a memory deeply imprinted in my mind.

—Jim Kenagy ’67

Emeritus Professor of Biology

University of Washington

Editor’s note: An obituary for Richard “Dick” MacMillen ’54 P’05, who taught at Pomona from 1960 to 1968, appears on page.

Stray Thoughts: Doing By Learning

October 18, 2023 by Robyn Norwood Comments Off

A class taught by Professor Shahriar Shahriari.

I’m not much for college slogans that aren’t old and in Latin, but there’s one that stands out to me: Learn by Doing.

While California’s polytechnic universities have taken up that mantra, many Pomona College alumni, it seems to me, take the opposite approach: They do by learning.

Again and again, I encounter people who have taken an intense academic interest and turned it into a related but less-than-obvious entrepreneurial path. In this issue, we explore a few of those in the realms of food and drink.

Consider Kim Selkoe ’97, who has a Ph.D. in marine ecology, and Doug Bush ’94, who earned a master’s degree in animal science. They each sell seafood for a living, applying their knowledge to expand the sustainable seafood industry along the coast of Southern California.

Like Selkoe and Bush, Cathy Corison ’75 was a biology major at Pomona. After an extracurricular wine-tasting class, she headed to UC Davis and earned a master’s degree in viticulture and enology. She has been a lauded Napa Valley winemaker for decades, but Corison still can be found out among her vines, pruning by hand and nurturing the grapes that produce the noted cabernet sauvignons of Corison Winery.

Sana Javeri Kadri ’16 made an even greater entrepreneurial leap. An art major at Pomona, she landed on a Forbes 30 Under 30 list five years after graduating as the founder and CEO of Diaspora Co., a spice importer. With a focus on reinventing the ancient spice trade, providing fair prices for farmers—and an absolutely stunning Instagram—Javeri Kadri has melded several of the academic interests she pursued during her days on campus.

There is no business major at Pomona, of course. But the training in critical thinking, research, organizational skills and a certain get-right-to-it quality often lay the groundwork for starting a business—which after all is a fundamentally creative endeavor.

Many other Pomona alumni work in the world of food, including some focused on providing for more basic needs than the rather epicurean businesses we feature in this issue. One who leaps to mind is Yi Li ’16, a former McKinsey & Co. engagement manager who is co-founder and CEO of FarmWorks Agriculture in Kenya. FarmWorks is a startup that aims to address food security and climate change in Sub-Saharan Africa. It provides training in regenerative agriculture, technology and market access to more than 5,000 small-scale Kenyan farmers. FarmWorks’ ambitions, however, are not small. The company recently raised more than $4 million in impact and venture capital to strengthen its data analytics capabilities and to learn to use AI to enhance production and influence planting and lending decisions.

Back to this issue, though. It’s meant to be on the lighter side, and we hope it will leave you ready to raise a glass and enjoy a good meal.

Letter Box

October 18, 2023 by Staff Comments Off

The Women Behind Mufti

Thank you to the four women who shed their anonymity to reveal the secret of Mufti’s founding. I grew up in Claremont, surrounded by the traditions and lore of the campuses, including a healthy respect for Mufti—possibly instilled in me by a relative who may have been a member at some point along the way (though since they’ve yet to admit membership, I’ll continue to shield their identity). As a student in the early ’80s, I appreciated the wit, targeted wisdom and biting commentary Mufti provided us in an era marked by so many cultural and political transitions. And with all of that, what a delightful revelation to discover it was women of South Campus in the late 1950s who challenged cultural norms and rigidity in an effort to seek parity with their male North Campus counterparts. While I consider myself a feminist and an academically trained historian of women and gender studies, it never once occurred to me that Mufti could have been founded by women—shame on me, and 47 chirps to them! Of course this begs the question: “In what other ways have the voices and actions of women on the Pomona campus been silenced or lost over time?” Perhaps a rising senior history and/or gender studies major could take this on as their thesis for next year?

—Julie Siebel ’84

Balboa Island, California

‘PCM’ Honored

Our Bird’s Beginnings. All Right! Time to find out where I come from… Story by Robyn Norwood, Illustrated by Eric Melgosa

Pomona College Magazine received a 2023 Circle of Excellence Award from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) for “Our Bird’s Beginnings,” a graphic story about the origins of Cecil Sagehen that appeared in PCM’s Spring 2022 issue. Judges praised the comic, illustrated by Eric Melgosa and written by Robyn Norwood and collaborators in the Office of Communications, for creativity, ingenuity and clever wordplay, selecting the story for a gold award in the category of writing/profile (less than 1,000 words). The judges also applauded the comic for “highlighting the unsung heroes on college campuses.” You can read the full comic.

Hey Ref! We’ve Come a Long Way

What a great joy for me to read of Melissa Barlow ’87 officiating women’s NCAA tournament games!

Melissa Barlow ’87

She brings back 1958 memories of entering Pomona as an avid basketball player, only to find women’s basketball a missing sport on campus. Having gone to an all-girls high school where basketball was the sport sans males to steal the athletic limelight, I was greatly disappointed with this omission, to say the least.

Once settled into my freshman year, this sport continued to haunt me and finally stirred within the motivation to try to muster up a team. I began by spotting women of above-average height and inviting them to play. A sufficient number of women were eager to do so, with some never having played the sport before. We began with rag-a-tag demonstration games in Renwick Gym, charging the guys an entry fee for the “special” privilege of watching. Gradually, other colleges were engaged in unofficial and unrecorded contests but the seed was thereby sown nonetheless. One cannot help but be grateful for those who then carried the banner in one fashion or another to eventually make this an official women’s sport on campus.

—Susan Tippett Bruch ’62

Santa Barbara, California

P.S. As a 5-foot-11 guard, I never had to learn how to make a basket because in those days, both guards and forwards were forbidden from crossing the center line! Furthermore, once I retrieved a rebound, I was only allowed three dribbles to get it to a forward teammate on the other side lest one might incur a foul. Obviously it was thought that this sport, played as men did, was too taxing for us ladies. … Heaven forbid! Yes, we as women in the world of sports have truly come a long, long way. Thank you, Melissa, for your current Pomona claim to fame in the world of basketball.

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