Blog Articles

Bike for Sale

John Boutelle ’81

John Boutelle, a 1981 alumnus of Pomona College, is pictured with his grey Trek bicycle, nicknamed the “Alaskan Tank,” outside of his home in Madison, Wis., during late autumn on Dec. 2, 2021. Boutelle, often accompanied by fellow Pomona College alumnus Peter Pitsker ’81, recently completed a 17-year quest to pedal a bike through each of the 50 Unites States. (Photo by Jeff Miller – www.jeffmillerphotography.com)

John Boutelle ’81 has completed his 17-year quest to pedal through each of the 50 United States. Often accompanied by fellow Sagehen Peter Pitsker ’81 and/or multiple family members, Boutelle finished the journey in Rhode Island (now Rode Island) on September 16, 2021. Here is an update to the piece he wrote for the Spring/Summer 2009 issue of Pomona College Magazine, with answers to your burning questions.

Q: Why? Just … why?

A: To quote a favorite line from Richard Powers’ The Overstory: “Makes you feel different about things, don’t it?”

When you experience the sights, smells, weather and terrain of a place on a bike, over back roads, it’s amazing what you learn.

There are small surprises: Who would have guessed that Arizona has more cotton fields than Georgia? That there are big herds of buffalo in Kentucky? Or that the world’s stupidest birds are in Florida?

There are eye-opening revelations: I had no idea how many people live in mobile homes. How friendly and helpful people can be to random bike-riding strangers. Or how cold a 40-degree rainy day actually is.

You also discover new idiosyncrasies and eccentricities in people you’ve known for decades, and they all become fodder for good-natured teasing. Peter Pitsker’s dad can talk for hours about corn tassels and thinks you have to squeeze chickens to get eggs (inside joke). My sister Liz is scared to death of irrigation equipment (inside joke). My dad rode 133 miles in a day at 74 years old, on an ancient Schwinn, and he refused to wear “fancy schmancy” bike shorts because they’re too expensive (no joke—ask me for a copy of “Weapons of Ass Destruction,” the story of our ride across Minnesota).

A study found that the average adult male laughs 15 times per day. On bike trips, we laugh at least 15 times per hour—and much more at meal stops. That alone should explain why we do this.

In the end, your memories of the adventures are also transformed. Each trip involves adversity, suffering, cruel weather and exhaustion, but somehow a few weeks later all the memories are good. And the worse the adversity, the better the stories about it later on.

Q: Which state was the hardest?

A: Oregon. Peter Pitsker and I had carefully planned our route along the coast from north to south—because in August there are always strong winds from the north. But nature doesn’t always cooperate. As it turned out, the wind was 20-30 mph from the south, and it rained constantly for four days. In fact, Oregon’s weather that week made national news. A headline in USA Today was “Freak Storms Pound Oregon’s Coast.” Riding into this tempest, with stinging needles in my eyes, was the closest I’ve come to crying in my adult life.

Q: Which state was the most fun?

A: Alaska. My wife Jane and I drove from Madison, Wisconsin, to Fairbanks, crossing British Columbia and the Yukon Territory along the way. In Fairbanks we picked up my brother Dan and Peter Pitsker at the airport. Jane flew home, and the three riders then drove 400 miles north on a mostly gravel road to Dead Horse, a town at the very top of the state, on the Arctic Ocean.

From there we pedaled back to Fairbanks in small chunks. Along the way we saw herds of caribou, wild musk ox, moose, bears, foxes, eagles and the most spectacular scenery you can imagine. This was a case where the weather did cooperate. No snow. Mild winds. Even the mosquitoes were not that bad.

Q: Now what?

A: If I don’t get any reasonable offers on my bike, it may be time to consider riding the Canadian provinces. My daughter is also bugging me about biking the U.S. Territories. When I told her I had completed the 50 states and Washington, D.C., she said “What about Guam? What about Puerto Rico? What about the Virgin Islands?” Oy.

I’ll tell you the truth: As I was finishing up my final ride in Rhode Island, I wasn’t thinking about new possibilities or reminiscing about all the great times with friends and family. I just wanted a nice bowl of chowder.

Want more stories or details? Just send me an email at johnboutelle@gmail.com. Many thanks to Sagehens Peter D. Pitsker ’81, his wife Marilou Quini Pitsker ’85, his mother Polly Dubose Pitsker ’56 and his dad Peter B. Pitsker for all their help and companionship during this quest

In Memoriam Darlene Hard ’61

Darlene Hard ’61
International Tennis Champion
1936—2021

Darlene Hard ’61

(L-R) Althea Gibson and Darlene Hard walk onto centre court for the Ladies’ Singles final (Photo by Barratts/PA Images via Getty Images)

Darlene Hard ’61, winner of three major singles championships and a two-time Wimbledon finalist hailed by Billie Jean King as “a major influence on my life as an athlete, teammate and friend,” died December 2, 2021. She was 85.

Ranked as high as No. 2 in the world, Hard won the precursors to both the French Open and the U.S. Open, taking the French title in 1960 and the U.S. championship in 1960 and ’61.

Though her heyday came before the dawn of the Open Era in 1968 when professionals were first allowed to compete in the four major tennis championships known as the Grand Slam, Hard reached the pinnacle of the sport on its grandest stages.

In 1957, she fell to Althea Gibson in a historic Wimbledon final as Gibson became the first Black player to win a major tennis championship. Side by side with Gibson as Queen Elizabeth presented the trophy at Centre Court, Hard pecked Gibson on the cheek and then teamed with her to win the women’s doubles championship.

For all Hard’s success as a singles player, it was as a doubles player that she etched her name on Grand Slam trophies most often: She won 18 major doubles championships, 13 in women’s doubles and five in mixed doubles. Seven of her doubles titles came at Wimbledon, four in women’s doubles and three in mixed doubles, including two with Rod Laver, winner of 11 Grand Slam singles titles.

Inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1973, Hard nevertheless was “the most under-publicized, underappreciated, possibly underrated tennis player of the last half-century,” a Los Angeles Times columnist lamented on her death. Hard’s accomplishments were so under-the-radar in her retirement that she worked for 45 years at USC with little fanfare as an employee in the student publications department, where her duties included designing parts of the USC yearbook El Rodeo.

Raised in Montebello, a suburb of Los Angeles, Hard played tennis with her mother on public courts as a girl but soon became so good she would take the long bus ride to the Los Angeles Tennis Club almost daily to hone her skills.

In 1957, she enrolled at Pomona College to study chemistry and biology in hopes of becoming a pediatrician. Already a touring international player, she won the inaugural U.S. collegiate singles championship in 1958 before leaving Pomona short of her degree to continue her athletic career. In 1974, Hard was inducted into the Pomona-Pitzer Athletic Hall of Fame, the first woman to be honored.

The young Pomona student made a big impression on another girl growing up on the public courts of Southern California: Billie Jean Moffitt.

Moffitt, now Billie Jean King, was a teenager in Long Beach when Hard, seven years her senior, agreed to hit with her at the request of Clyde Walker, who coached Moffitt and knew Hard from the Southern California youth circuit. By then, Hard had already played at Wimbledon. Moffitt was starstruck.

“Playing one -on-one with Darlene, who wound up in the International Tennis Hall of Fame, changed my outlook because I got my first extended taste of what it meant to play at a high level,” King wrote in her recent autobiography, All In. “The pace and depth of her shots were a revelation.”

Hard continued to practice with the young prodigy, often driving 40 miles from Pomona to pick up Moffitt at her house.

“I would be jumping out of my skin as I waited to hear her coming down 36th Street in her red Chevy convertible. It had a twin-pipe hot rod muffler that announced she was near,” wrote King, adding that she sometimes imagined she would follow Hard to Pomona.

On occasion, Hard would join the Moffitt family for a meal after the two practiced.

“It was my chance to barrage her with questions about all the things I longed to know,” King wrote. “What’s it like to play a major? Is Wimbledon as great as they say? Tell me about some of the places you’ve been!”

Years later, the two players teamed up in 1963 to help win the first Federation Cup, an event created to give women an equivalent of the Davis Cup international competition for men. The Fed Cup—renamed the Billie Jean King Cup in 2020—pits qualifying teams from 16 nations against each other. Hard and Moffitt clinched the championship with a doubles victory over Australia’s Lesley Turner and Margaret Smith, later Margaret Court, the dominating champion who won a record 24 Grand Slam singles tournaments, one more than Serena Williams has claimed.

On Twitter after Hard’s death, King recalled Hard’s influence on her life, their friendship and that Fed Cup victory.

“She was the best doubles player of her generation,” King wrote. “This was something we would both remember always.”

In Memoriam Laura Mays Hoopes

Laura Mays Hoopes
Emerita Professor of Biology
1942—2021

Laura Mays Hoopes, a former dean of the College and the Halstead-Bent Emerita Professor of Biology, died on October 24, 2021. She was 78.

Laura Mays HoopesAn avid advocate for women in science, Hoopes served as Pomona College’s vice president for academic affairs and dean of the College from 1993 to 1998. The first scientist and the first woman appointed to that role, Hoopes was known for her high standards, candor and generosity. Her deanship received high praise.

“If I were going to design a dean from the ground up, the qualities I’d aim for are intelligence, integrity, wit, warmth, courage and a real love of teaching and scholarship,” Peter Stanley, then the Pomona College president, wrote in Pomona College Magazine in 1998. “These are exactly the qualities that Laura Hoopes brought to Pomona’s deanship. A scientist, a musician, a dancer, an outdoorsperson and one of the best-read people I know, she has really understood the College and honored its commitment to the liberal arts.”

Prior to joining the faculty at Pomona College, Hoopes served in several roles at Occidental College, as faculty in the biology and biochemistry departments as well as associate dean of faculty. She also was president of the Council on Undergraduate Research, a professional organization that promotes quality mentored undergraduate research.

Hoopes wrote and co-authored several books and articles in the fields of genetics and molecular biology and on DNA-related issues. Many of her research papers were co-authored with her undergraduate students.

She also was known for her impact in the classroom.

Ann Zhao ’09 says she wanted to join the Hoopes lab after learning about the professor’s passion and commitment to women in science.

“As a young woman who felt insecure about science research, I needed a mentor like Dr. Hoopes,” Zhao says. “She helped me be brave and resilient—qualities that have and will continue to help me reach my goals.” Zhao says Hoopes was “a tremendous role model for women (and men!)” who dreamed of being pioneers and leaders.

Gloria Yiu ’08, a rheumatology fellow at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, worked with Hoopes in her lab for four years at Pomona. More than a decade after graduating, Yiu firmly believes that the experiences she had in the lab and the encouragement of her mentor provided her with the confidence to pursue science and medicine.

Hoopes earned a bachelor’s degree in biological science from Goucher College and completed her Ph.D. in biology at Yale University. Years later, as her career in molecular gerontology career wound down, Hoopes prepared for writing in her retirement. She completed a creative writing certificate at UCLA in 2009 and an MFA in English at San Diego State in 2013. She retired from Pomona in 2015.

Hoopes published her memoir on becoming a woman scientist, Breaking through the Spiral Ceiling, in 2010 and Opening Doors: Joan Steitz and Jennifer Doudna, Two Women of the RNA World in 2019. She also published more than 20 stories and articles in magazines and newspapers.

For her contributions to her field, Hoopes received an honorary doctorate from Goucher College in 1995 and was elected a fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science Council. In addition, she won several writing awards, including the Jack London Award from the California Writers Club in 2013.

She is survived by her husband, Deacon Michael Hooper, son Lyle Mays, daughter Heather Hoopes Seid, son-in-law Sammy Seid and two grandchildren, Winnie and Max.

In Memoriam Lee C. McDonald ’48

Lee C. McDonald ’48
Emeritus Professor of Politics
1925-2021

Lee C. McDonald ’48, a former dean of the College and emeritus professor of politics, died on December 29, 2021. He was 96.

Lee C. McDonald ’48A professor at Pomona for nearly 40 years, McDonald taught government and political theory from 1952 to 1990, serving as dean of the College from 1970 to 1975. His daughter Alison McDonald ’74 recalls that during his years as dean, McDonald enjoyed working closely with President David Alexander and other administrators. But he always said that being an administrator meant “saying no” and he found it hard to say no. After five years, he returned to teaching, which he loved.

McDonald won Wig Awards for excellence in teaching—voted on by students—in very different student political eras, one amid the turmoil of 1968 and another in 1989, the year George H.W. Bush succeeded Ronald Reagan as president, even though students knew McDonald was a staunch Democrat. He is remembered each year at commencement with the Lee Cameron McDonald Prize in Political Theory, which is awarded by the Department of Politics to the best senior or junior in the major.

His talents as a dean and colleague were also greatly appreciated, remembers Emerita Professor of Politics Betsy Crighton.

“Lee was one of the first people I met when I interviewed at Pomona College in 1975. He was the dean of the College, and I was a young candidate for a faculty position. Memorably, he said almost nothing during the interview: just sat quietly and listened. That quality of attentiveness—accompanied by wisdom, good humor, and restraint—built deep trust in his leadership. He was a gentle yet powerful force in the politics department, in the College and in Claremont.”

Born in Salem, Oregon, McDonald started college at the University of Oregon but joined the Army as soon as he turned 18. The year was 1943. He spent the rest of World War II training as a fighter pilot and while stationed at Santa Ana Army Air Base in Orange County, he visited a high school friend at Pomona College. There he struck up a friendship with a student named Claire. The two wrote to each other for the duration of the war before marrying in August of 1946. McDonald joined Claire Kingman McDonald ’47 at the College and finished his degree at Pomona, where he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and graduated magna cum laude.

Afterward, McDonald used GI Bill benefits to earn a master’s degree in political science from UCLA and a Ph.D. from Harvard. In 1952, McDonald was offered a position teaching government at Pomona. He and Claire happily returned to Claremont, where they would spend their lives, raise their children, and remain active in the life of the College even after retirement. He was awarded an honorary doctor of laws from Pomona in 1998, and he and Claire received the Alumni Distinguished Service Award in 2009.

McDonald’s students have continued to write to him for years. As recently as August, Jon Fuller ’60 wrote to congratulate McDonald and Claire after reading about their 75th wedding anniversary in the Claremont Courier. In his letter, Fuller recalled how McDonald phoned him after his graduation to tell him and a friend about opportunities to serve as volunteer drivers at the 1960 Democratic Convention even though “you knew very well that we both then identified as Young Republicans.” Fuller called the convention “one of the most memorable experiences of my life,” recalling how he briefly sat next to Eleanor Roosevelt, who handed him a campaign souvenir as she left.

As a professor, McDonald loved wrestling with complex ideas. Among his many publications was a textbook, Western Political Theory, which was used in colleges for many years.

As members of the community, McDonald and Claire were founding members of the Claremont Presbyterian Church in the mid-1950s. In 2003, the couple moved to the Mt. San Antonio Gardens retirement community in Pomona.

McDonald is survived by his wife Claire, daughter Mary ’71 and son-in-law Jack; daughter Alison ’74 and daughter-in-law Sandy; son Paul and daughter-in-law Susan; five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. His daughter Devon died in 1957, daughter Julie ’74 died in 1996 and son Tom in 2010.

Notice Board

Spring Greetings from Nathan Dean ’10,
National Chair of Annual Giving

Nathan Dean ’10

Nathan Dean ’10

Dear Fellow Sagehens,

I hope your start to the new year found you and yours safe and healthy. I am thrilled that spring semester is well underway and that the campus is buzzing with students once again. I’m also glad to see alumni events and programs happening, both in person and online. The restart of Regional Alumni Chapters is fantastic, and I was happy to host a gathering for the Los Angeles Alumni Chapter myself this past fall. If you haven’t looked to see which chapters are up and running already, I encourage you to check them out and get involved.

As the National Chair of Annual Giving, I’m so pleased to see the support for the Pomona Annual Fund that has been coming in from our alumni community around the world. Giving Tuesday 2021 was such a fun and meaningful opportunity to make an impact for Sagehens, and it was exciting to see the $10,000 bonus gift unlocked when we hit our goal of 447 donors! 47 CHIRPS to the Alumni Board who rallied their classmates and contributed to help us surpass our goal!

With spring here, the clock is ticking. As we already know, Pomona offers an educational experience that drives students to explore their intellectual passions and immerse themselves in problem-solving for the world today. Our gifts help to create that experience. So if you haven’t already, please join me in giving before June 30. Let’s finish 2021-22 strong!

Wishing you an enjoyable and healthy spring,
Nathan

Learn more about Regional Alumni Chapters.

Give to Pomona’s Annual Fund.

Alumni Weekend is Just Around the Corner

Alumni Weekend 2022, April 28–May 1

Join us for Alumni Weekend 2022, April 28–May 1. All alumni are invited, and we look forward to spending time with our alumni community, celebrating class reunions and enjoying the many special programs and activities in the works for a fun filled weekend! We’ll also recognize our 2022 Blaisdell and Distinguished Service Alumni Award recipients for their remarkable achievements and contributions to Pomona. Hope you’ll be joining in the Alumni Weekend fun!

Are you registered for Alumni Weekend? Be sure to check the Alumni Weekend website for registration details and all things Alumni Weekend, including up-to-date Pomona COVID-19 safety protocols.

For questions, please contact Alisa Fishbach, director of alumni and family engagement, at alisa.fishbach@pomona.edu. Visit the Alumni Weekend and Reunion Celebrations page to register.

Pomona Reunion Classes Are Revving Up to Celebrate

Alumni Weekend

Classes ending in 2 or 7 are celebrating reunions this year. Chirp! As Alumni Weekend draws closer, class committees are busy planning for the fun festivities for classmates to reconnect and reaching out to build strong Reunion Class Gifts. If you are celebrating your reunion this year, we hope that you can join others from your class in giving back to current Pomona students. Watch your email and mailbox for reunion messages from your class committee!

To keep up with what is happening with your class’s reunion and to contribute to your Reunion Class Gift.

For questions or information, please contact Laura Wensley, director of leadership annual and reunion giving, at laura.wensley@pomona.edu or call 909-706-5626.

Thank You for Making Giving Tuesday a Success

Sagehen Giving Tuesday

Shout-out CHIRPS to everyone who made A Sagehen Giving Tuesday a success this past fall! Thanks to the generosity of Sagehen alumni and families, Pomona’s 24-hour Giving Tuesday campaign surpassed its goal of 447 donors to finish with 451 donors. In addition to raising $57,001, donors also unlocked a $10,000 bonus gift by hitting the campaign goal, bringing the total raised to $67,001. A big thank you to Nathan Dean ’10 for his generosity in providing the $10,000 unlocking bonus gift challenge! Sagehens do wonderful things when we come together as one Pomona.

Visit the Sagehen Giving Tuesday campaign.

Upcoming Events

2022 calendar page on blue background business planning appointment meeting conceptWatch your email and mailbox for more information on these upcoming events. To update your contact information, please email engagement@pomona.edu or visit the Update Your Information page.

April 7 | 4/7 Celebration of Sagehen Impact

April 28-May 1 | Alumni Weekend and Reunion Celebrations

May 15 | Commencement

May 20-22 | Take Two: A Celebration of the Classes of ’20 and ’21

A Namesake Fossil for Geology Prof. Robert Gaines

Titanokorys Reconstruction

After years of uncovering fossils and discovering species from millions of years ago, Pomona College Dean and Geology Professor Robert Gaines now has one named after him.

It’s a doozy.

Geology Prof. Robert GainesAn ancestor of arthropods such as crustaceans and insects, the long-extinct animal’s name is Titanokorys gainesi, meaning “Gaines’s titanic helmet.” It lived during the Cambrian Period about 500 million years ago, when animal life was brand new and had not yet crawled out of Earth’s oceans and onto land.

Described as one of the largest animals of its time, Titanokorys gainesi was about two feet long with large, multifaceted compound eyes, a pineapple-slice shaped mouth, a pair of spiny claws at the front of the head to capture prey, and a body with a series of flaps for swimming.

“It feels tremendous to be honored in this way with a fossil that is so special in terms of its size and its ecology,” Gaines says. “As a child, I noticed that many fossils are named after people and I often marveled at the contributions that those individuals made to science. I think this is really moving and I feel so fortunate to be a part of this project.”

Geology Prof. Robert GainesThe newly discovered species comes from the Burgess Shale, a rock formation found high in the Canadian Rockies that preserves fossils of soft-bodied creatures, such as jellyfish and worms that decompose rapidly and don’t normally fossilize. It was discovered more than a century ago and became a watershed for understanding the origins of complex life on Earth. Gaines and a small team of researchers began working there in 2008, with the support of Parks Canada.

In pursuit of new discoveries, Gaines and the team began exploring outside the original discovery site and eventually settled about 30 miles southeast in Marble Canyon in 2012.

“We were not expecting to find what we had found in 2012. We were actually expecting to see strata that were very different, but the maps that had been made a generation ago were incomplete, and so the geology was confusing. Then, all of a sudden, like ‘boom,’ things snapped into place and we started to find new fossil forms hand over fist,” Gaines adds.

Gaines says the team began to find fossils of organisms that were completely new to science. With subsequent years of work and exploration in the region, that list of dozens of new species would grow to include what would become known as Titanokorys gainesi, discovered in 2018 during an excavation that included three geology students from The Claremont Colleges. These fossils can help scientists answer many questions about the origins of animals and the fundamental structure of the animal family tree.

“The questions are about the origin of complex life on the planet,” Gaines says. “The interesting thing about the era that we work on is that the origin of animals didn’t happen slowly or gradually as Darwin would have predicted, but instead our fossil record is really clear that there’s sparks of diversification that happened incredibly rapidly, almost instantaneously from a geologic point of view.”

Titanokorys gainesi

Gaines also works on similar fossil deposits around the world, including in China, where he was part of a team that announced a major discovery of new fossils in 2019.

Gaines hopes to continue his research in Canada in the summer of 2022.

Letterbox

‘Artifact’ Stirs Athletics Memories

The DrumAs someone who practiced the gridiron arts on Merritt Field for several years—toiling beneath the torrid San Gabriel Valley sun, stately oak tree, and watchful eye of legendary coach Roger “RC” Caron—I greatly enjoyed the “A Drum Falls Silent” piece in the Fall/Winter 2021 edition. My mother and uncle, who were taken to the bonfire rallies during the 1950s by my grandfather, former Dean of Men Shelton Beatty, confirm that they were, indeed, a “huge tradition,” if a bit haphazardly staged—one year, the inferno almost toppled onto the fieldhouse that preceded the Rains Center.

Speaking of the Rains Center, its walls and display cases are [of course] adorned with a veritable cornucopia of similarly absorbing artifacts. I recall in particular the 1984 Summer Olympics posters strategically placed around the complex, along with the panoramic photograph, across from the laundry room at the west entrance, depicting the scene at the Los Angeles Coliseum during one of those 1920s Pomona-USC football games.

I, for one, would not complain, if this “Artifact” item became a running feature, exploring a different Rains Center piece of memorabilia each issue!

—Doug Meyer ’01
Watertown, Massachusetts


Renaissance People

Reading the Fall/Winter 2021 issue of PCM, I noticed diverse, contrasting interests and pursuits of individual Sagehens.

Among the Fulbright award recipients, I was struck by physics major Adam Dvorak ’21, who planned to conduct research in Denmark studying the effects of extreme weather events. Then comes the 21st century Pomona Renaissance quality: “While in Denmark, Dvorak aims to teach violin.”

Jarrett Walker ’84 is an international expert on the vital issue of public transportation, and a “Renaissance man.” He was a math major at Pomona and has a drama, literature and humanities Ph.D. from Stanford.

I also discovered some real human gems in the obituaries. Chalmers Smith ’51 practiced law in San Jose while playing viola in the San Jose Symphony and in string quartets. Elizabeth “Betty” Kohl Hendrickson ’60, a chemist, cared full-time for her three children until they were in high school, published 20 chemistry research papers with her husband, and learned to play the hammered dulcimer at age 61. Julia “Judith” Moore ’66, Pomona magna cum laude graduate, Peace Corps volunteer, graphic designer, Stanford MBA and a vice president in marketing at Marriott, left the corporate world to focus on painting, exhibiting at galleries and a museum.

We tend to occupy ourselves with big things, big dreams, big bank accounts, great estates, statistics, information systems, huge data banks, numerous vehicles, mass production, globalization. If we can locate what is small and of genuine interest and high quality and not just what is great or popular and famous, we can give the small the attention it is due such that it flourishes, and everyone benefits.

—Alan Lindgren ’86
North Hollywood, California


Farewell to a PCM Storyteller

Agustin Gurza

Photo by RICK LOOMIS/Los Angeles Times

Agustin Gurza, whose writing appeared in PCM for more than a dozen years, died unexpectedly in January at 73. A former Los Angeles Times columnist and critic, Gurza wrote in the Times that “I can’t go anywhere without gathering stories, like lint on a coat. Stories about people helping out, moving up, fighting back.” His first piece for PCM, “El Espectador” in 2009, was about Ignacio Lutero Lopez ’31, groundbreaking founder of a Spanish-language newspaper covering Pomona Valley barrio communities. Gurza’s final PCM story, “American Crossroads,” about UCLA Professor Genevieve Carpio ’05, appeared in our last issue. PCM’s editors appreciated Gurza’s writing talents, his deep commitment to telling the stories of his subjects and his friendship from afar. We send condolences to his loved ones, including two siblings who are alumni, Piti Gurza Witherow ’73 and Roberto Gurza ’80.


1943 Alumnus Cherishes Calendars

Today I received my new calendar,
The Pomona College Engagement Calendar.
I graduated in the Class of ’43.
Pomona has sent me seventy or more.

I am guessing there were no calendars
In the war years, ’44 and ’45.
I think the development function
Was resumed in ’46.

As a fund-raising technique
It has really worked with me.
I never forget my alma mater
When I write my dates on the calendar.

I do a month-at-a-time
On one perfect page.
I can see where I am going
And know where I have been.

I have never lived in Southern
California since my college days,
But I love the recollections
Of life around the Quad.

I worked nights and weekends
In Harwood for the girls.
I ate my meals in Frary
Along with all the other boys.

Chemistry was learned with Tyson
And calculus with Jaeger.
Basic botany with Munz
Was an outstanding privilege.

It’s hard to remember all
The names, but I’ll never forget,
“Let only the eager, thoughtful
And reverent enter here.”

It’s the calendars that have
Provided the yearly stimulation
To give back and to feel
And express gratitude.

—Lewis Perry ’43
Oakland, California

Editor’s note: The Pomona College Engagement Calendar is sent out in late summer to members of our Sagehen community. Alumni, families and friends of Pomona who have given to the Annual Fund in the previous year automatically receive the calendar. The first year the calendar was published is unknown.

The Night the Trees Fell

The Night the Trees Fell

The winds roared, the lights went out and the great trees came down, one after another.

Ronald Nemo, Pomona’s longtime grounds and landscaping manager, was on the scene by 6:30 a.m. after an unnerving Friday night in January brought the worst windstorm to rip through Claremont and the region in many years.

Nemo quickly shut off water flowing near Marston Quad after the lifted roots of fallen trees burst pipes. A once-towering eucalyptus lay across College Avenue. Stover Walk was covered in a tangle of branches; Clark I had taken minor damage from a pine.

In all, Pomona lost 17 trees, with hundreds more down across the city. The native coast live oaks, Pomona’s most prevalent tree, took the most losses on campus. Notable among the fallen were five oaks dating back to the early 1900s and now gone from along Stover Walk, where for decades they helped shade graduating seniors lined up for Commencement ceremonies. (The Wash, home to Pomona’s oldest oaks, was largely unscathed.)

Nemo, his crew and outside contractors called in to help set right to work on cleanup. He was grateful that nobody was injured, as he remembers the tragedy of 1998, when a eucalyptus fell on a car on College Avenue, killing two Pomona students. Nemo notes Pomona today has an extensive tree management program, with a regular cycle of inspections.

The trees lost in the January storm amounted to a tiny fraction of the 4,000 or so on campus. But they were concentrated in familiar spots such as Marston, and the sudden change in the landscape stunned many Sagehens.

Directing the cleanup along Stover, Nemo was philosophical regarding the plants: “The trees have a lifespan,” he says, “just like everything else.”

They will find a new purpose. Some of the timber is going to sculptor and Professor of Art Michael O’Malley, who recently taught a Critical Inquiry class, Trees and Wood. He too was on campus the morning after the windstorm.

O’Malley notes that because of their age, the trees downed in the wind are a size that makes them rare. Most will be used in his Wood Sculpture course and, if possible, for a few benches for the campus. The hope, he says, is to find a way for the wood to be shared and celebrated by the community.

What can’t be used for other purposes will become mulch to feed the landscape, according to Nemo.

Replacement trees will be chosen with care, Nemo promises, with some campus plantings set for April 29, which is both Arbor Day and the first full day of Alumni Weekend 2022. Time will bring new trees and new memories.

The Night the Trees Fell

For more on the history of Pomona’s trees, see the 2014 PCM story “The Tale of the Trees”.

Image Gallery

Artifact: Stilled Beauty

The object below is a small bust of Viola Minor Westergaard, the wife of a professor and the only person from the Pomona College community known to have died in the 1918-1919 flu pandemic. Her parents made numerous gifts to the College in her memory, including this bust by artist Burt Johnson, kept on display in the Special Collections Reading Room of The Claremont Colleges Library.

Viola Minor WestergaardBorn in San Francisco, Viola Minor was the daughter of Danish immigrant Capt. Robert Minor, a pioneer of the Pacific shipping industry, and his wife Hansine. Viola married Waldemar Westergaard, a professor of history at Pomona, on August 21, 1917.

The couple lived in an apartment in Smiley Hall during their first year of marriage, on at least one occasion chaperoning a group of young men on an outing to nearby Live Oak Canyon. They later moved to a cottage on Ninth Street.

Much admired among what was once called the faculty circle, the young Mrs. Westergaard was described in contemporary accounts as someone of “choice spirit … with a genuine thoughtfulness of others.”

Although World War I ended in November 1918, a worldwide flu epidemic first identified in the U.S. among military personnel took hold, tempering the celebration. Unlike the early stages of the COVID pandemic, the virus often struck down the young and the fit.

On a Christmas visit to Northern California to visit her parents, Viola fell ill and died at her parents’ home in Alameda on January 7, 1919, at the age of 30 years, 11 months and 24 days. Hers was one of an estimated 675,000 U.S. deaths, a figure now surpassed by COVID.

Viola’s widower, Prof. Westergaard, moved on to UCLA in 1925 and taught there until 1949, specializing in Scandinavian and European history. He did not remarry until 1941 and died in 1963.

Viola’s parents made the first of many gifts to Pomona in her memory the year she died, a collection of valuable art books and pictures first kept in Rembrandt Hall.

They continued to contribute valuable items throughout their lives and Capt. Minor left $25,000—about $500,000 in today’s dollars—on his death in 1934, as did his wife in her will.

Milestones

A Final Farewell for Pomona’s Ambassador of Kabuki

Leonard Pronko

A memorial conference in honor of Leonard Pronko, a beloved member of the Pomona College faculty for 57 years and one of America’s leading experts on kabuki, is planned for April 1-3.

kabuki wigThe weekend will feature an academic conference on Japanese theatre and performance as well as three performances of kabuki in English on the Seaver Theatre mainstage. Both the conference and the production are open to the public free of charge. The fully staged, English-language production of Gohiki Kanjinchō (Great Favorite Subscription List), one of kabuki’s most beloved plays, will be at 8 p.m. on April 1-2 and at 2 p.m. on April 3.

The weekend will conclude with a memorial service and reception in honor of Pronko at 10 a.m. on April 3 before the final kabuki performance that afternoon.

The scholarly gathering—Tradition and Innovation in Japanese Theatre: A Conference in Honor of Leonard C. Pronko—is planned as a hybrid event on Zoom and in person. It will feature presentations of papers by international scholars, with special support for younger scholars and graduate students in honor of the lifelong commitment to mentoring students demonstrated by Pronko, who died in 2019. In addition, the conference includes a special, live lecture demonstration by members of the Fujima Kansuma Kai Japanese Dance Troupe.

The conference is led by Carol Fisher Sorgenfrei ’69, a professor emerita of theatre at UCLA who studied under Pronko as an undergraduate, Pomona Professor of Theatre Thomas Leabhart and Mark Diaz ’22, who was Pronko’s last kabuki student and will direct and perform in the Seaver Theatre production.

“Meeting Leonard and taking his classes literally changed my life,” Sorgenfrei says. “Leonard was without doubt the most brilliant and charismatic teacher I ever studied with. Before taking his class in Modern French Theatre, I knew nothing about Japanese performance, but he showed us how Japanese and other Asian theatres had transformed modern French theatre. After that, I wanted to learn everything I could about Japan.

“This conference is a very small way that many of us who admired, loved and learned from Leonard can pass on his passions. I sincerely hope that future generations of Pomona students will continue to have opportunities to be inspired by Japanese theatre. There will never be another Leonard Pronko, but hopefully, his legacy will live on.”

For more information, call (909) 621-8186.


A Winner of Prince William’s Earthshot Prizes

Gator Halpern ’12

Gator Halpern ’12, who works to save the world’s coral forests, became one of the inaugural recipients of the Earthshot Prize, a global award for groundbreaking solutions to environmental challenges. The honor, presented by Britain’s Prince William and the Royal Foundation, includes £1 million prize money as well as a professional and technical network to scale up environmental solutions to repair our planet.

As president of the company Coral Vita, Halpern works with co-founder Sam Teicher from their base in the Bahamas to expand coral farming and reef restoration efforts in the face of global warming. By growing coral on land to replant in oceans, they work to give new life to dying ecosystems. The methods pioneered by Halpern and Teicher grow coral up to 50 times faster than traditional methods and improve resilience to climate change.

Five Earthshot Prize winners were selected for the first year of the awards. Halpern’s Coral Vita received the prize in the Revive Our Oceans category.

Halpern previously was recognized as one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneurs for 2018, sharing the distinction with Teicher. The two met while earning master’s degrees in environmental management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, where they received Yale University’s first Green Innovation Fellowship.


Marshall Scholar

Nina Potischman ’21

The desire to bridge disciplinary divides and write about disease are what led Nina Potischman ’21 to apply for the prestigious Marshall Scholarship, becoming Pomona’s latest recipient. She will spend two years in the United Kingdom pursuing graduate studies.

An English major, Potischman knew she wanted to eventually become a professor. But looking at American programs left her torn. Should she pursue her interest in creative writing through an MFA program or take the route of a Ph.D. in literary criticism? Looking at scholarships in the UK, she says she learned that the disciplinary divide between creative and critical writing was more distinctively American.

“Because creative writing programs in the UK predominantly emerged in the ’90s alongside the rise of theory, theory is more directly integrated into institutional practice. As a result, UK creative writing programs are more interdisciplinary than their American counterparts, less bound by institutional orthodoxy, and more open to integrating critical and literary writing,” Potischman says.

Potischman will spend her first year at University of Exeter and her second at University of Sussex and will build on her undergraduate research surrounding autoimmune illness.

“When I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis my sophomore year of college, I lost control of my body. Yet through writing—about my body, pain, taboo and food—I held onto my sense of self,” Potischman says.

After being hospitalized multiple times for a severe flare of her illness, she decided to combine writing about her experiences with literature focusing on autoimmunity. That work became her thesis, in which she explored how “chronic pain caused by an autoimmune disorder reconfigures prevailing models of self and body.” With the scholarship, Potischman plans to convert her thesis into a book-length piece of autotheory, a form of writing that combines autobiography and prose with theory.