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California Wildfires: An Oxy Couple’s Loss Susan Prager Steps Down: What’s Ahead

OCCIDENTALOCCIDENTALWINTER 2008

BREAKINGIOWA OPENSen. Barack Obama ’83 makes stridesamong the Hawkeyes with the tirelesssupport of Sara El-Amine ’07, NoahGlusenkamp ’07, and Brian McGrane ’06

BREAKINGIOWA OPENSen. Barack Obama ’83 makes stridesamong the Hawkeyes with the tirelesssupport of Sara El-Amine ’07, NoahGlusenkamp ’07, and Brian McGrane ’06

WINTER 2008

D E P A R T M E N T S

2 C O R R E S P O N D E N C EMore Occidental tales from days gone by,including the new “Fang Queen” who wasnot to be (Siri Ingwersen-Holmes ’86).Also: New additions to the Oxy bookshelf.

4 F R O M T H E Q U A DWhat does Susan Prager’s stepping downmean for Occidental? An interim president,a national search for her successor—andassurances that the College remains“vibrant and healthy.” Also: Jazz Ensemblecoaches Henry Spurgeon ’79 and PatrickOlguin ’83; cross country champion KevinChaves ’08 (pictured, above) and other fallsports standouts; new trustees; and more.

2 8 T I G E R W I R EClass notes for odd years.

5 6 S E R E N D I P I T YBefore he went off to college, Eric Franknever strayed far from home. Then Oxy’sdean of the College discovered his life’s passion during a semester abroad in Italy.

OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE MAGAZINEVOLUME 30, NUMBER 1 WINTER 2008

F E A T U R E S

1 0 F I R E D U P, R E A D Y T O G O For Barack Obama ’83, the road to the White House begins in Iowa—and Brian McGrane ’06, Sara El-Amine ’07, and Noah Glusenkamp ’07are among the true believers working in the heartland to make it happen.

1 4 T H E WA L K I N G W O U N D E D In her photographs of freshly inked tattoos on Marines stationed in theMojave Desert, art professor Mary Beth Heffernan documents the “grimcurrency” on a soldier’s skin.

1 8 T H E S H A D O W S K N O WBy trailing alumni and other professionals over a day’s work, the studentparticipants in Oxy’s Walk In My Shoes program often find vocationalnirvana—or eliminate potential careers.

2 2 I N T H E C O M PA N Y O F B E N Ben Coombs ’59 was a pioneer in the financial planning communitynearly 35 years ago. Now he’s a mentor to a new generation of “rats.”

2 4 A F T E R T H E F I R EAs thousands of acres burned across Southern California in late October,many alumni homes were threatened, but most were spared. RanchoBernardo residents John Goodwin ’68 and Linda (Larsen) Goodwin ’71weren’t so lucky.

2

Siri Ingwersen-Holmes photo (page 2) by Greg Zide ’86.Kevin Chaves photo (page 8) by Kirby Lee.Barack Obama photo (page 10) and cover photo by Dave Weaver.Inset photo (cover) courtesy Brian McGrane ’06.Oxy Wear photo by Kevin Burke.

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the Remsen Bird Hillside Theater. Up untilthis point in my life I had attended only afew musicals. With nothing else better to do,I agreed to go to see Oklahoma! with Pete.

It was a warm, clear, balmy night, andon arriving at the theater and selecting ouressentially front-row-center seats under thebeautiful night sky, I began to think that thishad the potential for being the beginning of aunique, magical theater experience. I wasnot wrong. From the members of the liveorchestra to the performers acting, singing,and dancing on stage—most of whom werepresumably Oxy students, supplemented byprofessional performers—I was mesmerized.It was a unique, magical theater experience.

From that seminal evening on, I’ve beenan avid aficionado of musical theater andhave derived much pleasure from the genre.

MASSAD GREGORY JOSEPH ’73

South Pasadena

CorrectionBecause of an editing error, Bill Bennett ’53was misidentified as deceased in the Fall2007 magazine (“All in the Oxy Family”).Bennett good-naturedly called us with thenews himself; we very much regret the error.

2 Occidental Magazine

C O R R E S P O N D E N C EBookshelfREINVENTING LOS ANGELES: NATURE AND

COMMUNITY IN THE GLOBAL CITY, by RobertGottlieb (MIT Press; $24.95). Gottlieb tracesthe emergence of Los Angeles as a global cityin the 20th century and describes its continu-ing evolution today. He examines the powerfulinfluences of immigration and economicglobalization as theyintersect with changesin the politics of water,transportation, andland use, and illus-trates each of thesecore concerns with anaccount of grass-rootsand activist responses. Among them: efforts toreenvision the concrete-bound, fenced-off LosAngeles River as a natural resource; Arroyo -fest, the closing of the Pasadena Freeway for aSunday of walking and bike riding; and immi-grants’ initiatives to create urban gardens andconnect with their countries of origin. Gott -lieb is the Henry R. Luce Professor of Urbanand Environmental Studies at Occidental.

TOCQUEVILLE’S ROAD MAP: METHODOLOGY,

LIBERALISM, REVOLUTION, AND DESPOTISM,

by Roger Boesche (Lexington Books; $70).One of the country’s foremost Tocquevillescholars, Boesche has gathered together hiswritings on the French political thinker andhistorian (1805-1859) from the last quartercentury. These nine essays focus on variousspecific aspects of Tocqueville’s politicalthought, including the methodology thatTocqueville brought to his historical andpolitical writings, his conviction that democ-racy and commerce at times work againsteach other, his assumptions about what con-stitutes a revolution, and his fear of a qualita-tively new kind of despotism. Boesche joinedthe Occidental faculty in 1977 and is ArthurG. Coons Professor in the History of Ideas.

HOPE, by Dennis Phillips (Green Integer;$14.95). A noted Los Angeles poet andauthor of Sand (2002), Phillips turns his tal-ents to fiction in his first novel. Hope is awork of two intertwining stories: one of amonk lured to an isolated island, the other ofa contemporary man who first imagines him-self imprisoned on an unknown island andlater finds himself in a real island paradise,

Oxy Memories: The More, the MerrierIf it’s not too late for your coffee-table book(“Collective Enterprise,” Fall 2007) …

Oxy Memory No. 1: In our sophomoreyear four of us—Pat McClatchey, DottyHosea, Sylvia Vanderzyl, and myself—hadtwo dorm rooms in Erdman, luxuriouslyconnected by a bathroom just for us. “Cere-monies” were conducted periodically in ourprivate bathroom. Generally, the ceremoniesinvolved flushing something down—often aletter from a guy, once beloved, but nolonger. Sometimes we held the emotion-fraught paper above the toilet, lit it with amatch, then dropped it, flaming, into thewater. Sometimes, a few dramatic wordswere said (three of us were English majors).Then the handle was pressed, and whoosh!

Oxy Memory No. 2: In my freshmanyear, Dotty Hosea, Nancy Foster, and Ioccupied one of the rare triples in Orr Hall.Two beds (and three desks) were inside, butthe third bed was outside on a “sleepingporch” with pull-down canvas curtain tofend off the elements. It was a super locationfor enjoying “serenades” by guys from Swanor Wylie suddenly appearing in the rose gar-den below. In an effort to be fair, we threeoccupants decided to rotate among the beds,switching from one to the other on the daythe sheets came back from the laundry. Eventhe two inside beds had distinctions, onebeing quite hard, another sloping. We namedthe three beds the Matterhorn, the Monch,and the Eiger.

JOYCE (CONGER) ROBERTSON ’55

Boulder, Colo.

It was 1973, at the end of our senior year,after finals but before graduation. My friendand fellow chemistry major/pre-med stu-dent Peter Van Houten ’73 and I had beenaccepted to med school and had finishedfinals (in that order) and were feeling prettygood about things and life in general, butdidn’t know what to do that night in the wayof celebration and entertainment.

We decided to have dinner at a nearbyrestaurant, after which Pete suggested thatwe attend the performance of Oklahoma! in

In spring 1986, a sundry group was working torevive the old Fang humor magazine. Greg Zide ’86took pictures of me to be the new “Fang Queen”—undoubtedly because I was the only woman oncampus who owned opera gloves. Unfortunately,the renewed Fang never happened, but I’ve keptthese outtakes from Greg all these years. I can’tremember the name of the motorcycle guy—Ibelieve he was class of ’87 or ’88.

SIRI INGWERSEN HOLMES ’86, San Rafael

Winter 2008 3

where “hope” is restored. What Phillips ulti-mately reveals through the intertwiningthemes of these at first seemingly unrelatedadventures is that beyond the horrors andeveryday despair of living there is always thepossibility of redemption, hope, and thesalve of love in human life. Phillips isadjunct assistant professor of English andcomparative literary studies at Occidental.

TWO JULIETS, by Suzanne Selfors ’86 (Walk-er/Bloomsbury; $16.95). Seventeen-year-oldMimi Wallingford has the life that most girlsdream about—playingJuliet opposite teenheartthrob Troy Sum-mer on Broadway inShakespeare’s famousplay. Unfortunately,she has no desire to bean actress, a fact hermother can’t seem tograsp. But when sheand Troy are magically thrust into Shake-speare’s Verona, they experience the feudbetween the Capulets and Montagues first-hand. Mimi realizes that she and Juliet havemore in common than Shakespeare’s script—they are both fighting for futures of theirown choosing. Mimi feels compelled to helpher and with Troy’s unexpected help, hopesto give Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy ahappily-ever-after ending. Saving Juliet is thefirst teen novel by Selfors (To Catch a Mer-maid). She lives on Bainbridge Island, Wash.

PARIS 1945—AN OSS FIELD PHOTO MISSION:

THE CLARENCE INMAN PHOTO COLLECTION,

written and edited by Robert Inman ’72(Blurb; $35). Clarence Inman was a staffphotographer for a unit of the OSS in Franceduring the final year of World War II. Hiscollection of images—most of which laidburied in boxes for half a century—presentsa universally familiar setting under veryunusual circumstances, furnishing historicalfascination as well as aesthetic allure. Thesubjects on the other side of his lens includedcelebrants in the streets, sailors and soldiersboth victorious and vanquished, fabulousmonuments, and classic streetscapes. “I amthankful that my father’s pride for his partici-pation in World War II welled up just beforehe died in 1994 when he began to documentsome of his experiences,” Robert Inman

writes in his introduction. “It is that pridemanifested through a wonderful collectionof photographs that [is] the inspiration forthis book.”

COMING OUT, COMING IN: NURTURING THE

WELL-BEING AND INCLUSION OF GAY YOUTH

IN MAINSTREAM SOCIETY, by Linda Gold-man, with photos by Kyna Shilling ’07(Routledge; $29.95). Coming Out, Coming Indescribes the process of “coming in” to awelcoming and nurturing family, from boththe teen’s and the parents’ perspective. Gold-man draws on her personal and professionalexperience as a school guidance counselor,child and adolescent therapist, and parent tobuild a common language and a new para-digm for understanding sexual orientationand gender identity as a part of mainstreamculture. Shilling took almost 100 photos thatare included in the book, the large majorityof which are portraits of Oxy students. Gold-man is the mother of Jon Goldman ’08.

FRIGATE MEN: LIFE ON COAST GUARD

FRIGATE USS BISBEE, PF-46 DURING WORLD

WAR II, by John Badgley ’43 (New VintagePress; $19.95). As a lieutenant (j.g.) in theU.S. Coast Guard during World War II,

Badgley kept asketchbook of lifeaboard the Bisbee,a fighting CoastGuard man-o-war.In telling the storyof a war time jour-

ney halfway around the globe, Badgley’s nautical narrative comes to life through artifacts, photographs, hand-painted water-colors, and sketches. Badgley is a licensedCalifornia architect, lifelong sailor, marineenthusiast, historian, and ecologist.

ZEN RITUAL: STUDIES OF ZEN BUDDHIST THE-

ORY IN PRACTICE, edited by Steven Heine &Dale S. Wright (Oxford University Press; $26).Zen meditation is a ritualized practice sup-ported by centuries-old ritual practices of EastAsia, and this collection of articles by promi-nent Zen scholars covers a variety of ritualsfrom the early Chan period to modern Japan,placing these practices in a larger historicaland analytical perspective. Wright is DavidB. & Mary H. Gamble Professor of ReligiousStudies and Asian Studies at Occidental.

OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE

Susan Westerberg PragerPresident

Barbara AveryVice President for Student Affairs

and Dean of Students

Lakshmi Dastur-Johnson ’88Vice President for Institutional Advancement

(Interim)

Eric FrankVice President for Academic Affairs

and Dean of the College

James JacobsDirector of Alumni Relations

Pamela McQuestenVice President for Communications

and Information Technology

William D. TingleyVice President of Admission and Financial Aid

EDITORIAL STAFF

Dick AndersonEditor

Jim TranquadaDirector of Communications

Samantha Bonar ’90, Colleen SharkeyContributing Writers

Marsha InouyeWeb Editor

Gail (Schulman) Ginell ’79Class Notes Editor

Claudia SanSoucieDesign

Diversified Litho ServicesPrinting

OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINEPublished quarterly by Occidental College

Los Angeles CA 90041-3314www.oxy.edu

To contact Occidental MagazineBy phone: 323-259-2679By fax: 323-341-4967

By e-mail: [email protected] mail: Occidental College

Office of Communications F-361600 Campus Road

Los Angeles CA 90041-3314

All letters should include the author’s name, address,

and daytime telephone number. Letters selected for

publication may be edited for length, content, and style.

Volume 30, Number 1, Winter 2008

level administrators with the goal ofinstalling a “highly talented, skilled, experi-enced person,” in Collins’s words, as interimpresident for an 18-month appointmentbeginning Jan. 1. Associated Students ofOccidental College president Ryan Bowen’08 and a small group of faculty and senioradministrators also will be asked to weigh inbefore the interim president is named. (Anannouncement was expected after this maga-zine went to press; for the latest news, visitwww.oxy.edu.)

More immediately, longtime facultymember Eric Frank has been appointed vicepresident for academic affairs and dean ofthe College, effective Jan. 1 (page 56). “Weare delighted that Eric has agreed to take onthis critical role,” Collins says of the notedRenaissance art historian, who has served asinterim dean since July 2005. “This ensuresthat we will have someone with a deepunderstanding of the College and the kind ofexperience we need to help guide us throughthis period of transition.”

Early in 2008, the board plans to appointa broadly representative committee to con-duct “a full, comprehensive, national search”to identify the College’s 14th president,according to Collins. “Our job is to bring anoutstanding new president to campus, and tolet him or her lead for many years to come,”he says, noting that the job of college presi-dent “is among the most complex anddemanding of any in the academy.”

In a Dec. 5 interview, Prager spoke of heradmiration for Oxy’s faculty and students, andof her intent to return to campus as a tenured

professor of history after a yearlong leave(Prager was previously Arjay and FrancesFearing Miller Professor of Law at UCLA andbecame a tenured member of the Occidentalfaculty at the time of her appointment as pres-ident). “I am impressed by the way studentssupport each other at Occidental,” she says.“The quality of a student’s growth here is trulyextraordinary and that is, in large part, due tothe graduate-like experiences they enjoy.”

Having worked to ensure that outstand-ing undergrads were recognized for theirachievements on the national awards circuit,Prager adds that she will miss the day-to-dayinteraction with the student body. “Oxy stu-dents are open and friendly people whowant to improve their campus and they haveimportant contributions to make,” she says.Prager singles out former ASOC presidentMatt Kuzio ’07 “for helping me understandsome of the things that needed to be attend-ed to from a student perspective. He was agreat collaborator, and we accomplishedgood things together.”

Among those collaborations were therealization of a new student honor code thataddressed the need for open, fair discoursewithin Oxy’s diverse community; 24-houraccess to the library five days a week; andnew opportunities for gatherings to enhancethe feel of the residential campus. “I alwaysfelt that I learned so much just from being inthe presence of her leadership,” says Kuzio,who is now a teacher in New York’s publicschools. “No matter what group she was infront of, she always struck me as honest andsincere and someone that I wanted to follow.”


ON NOV. 19, Susan Pragerannounced her resignationas president of OccidentalCollege, effective Dec. 31,after 18 months in office.

“In a college or university that has a sharedgovernance structure like Occidental, it isimportant that the president, the chair ofthe board, senior administrators, and thefaculty leadership have complementaryleadership styles and a strong working rela-tionship,” Prager wrote in a campus e-mailthat also was sent to alumni and parents. “Itwould not be in the long-term interests ofOccidental for me to continue in my role aspresident without that strong compatibility.”

In a pair of meetings with the campuscommunity on Nov. 20, Dennis A. Collins,chair of the Occidental Board of Trustees,called the news “a regrettable turn ofevents.” Both Collins and Prager empha-sized that the College is and remains“vibrant and healthy,” as Prager puts it. “As Iknow from my own long history with theCollege, the unexpected has always broughtout the best at Occidental,” says Collins,who served as Oxy’s director of admissionand dean of students in the 1960s. “We areconfident that Occidental will emergestronger than ever.”

A nine-member task force that includesseven trustees; Movindri Reddy, FacultyCouncil president and associate professor ofdiplomacy and world affairs; and DaleWright, David B. and Mary H. Gamble Pro-fessor in Religion, is interviewing a group offormer college presidents and other high-

What does Susan Prager’s stepping down mean for Occidental? An interim president, a national search for her successor—and assurances that the College remains “vibrant and healthy”

November Surprise

F R O M T H E Q U A D

During her first year in office, Pragerinvited every faculty member to meet withher individually—informal discussions thatoften lasted more than an hour. “I’ve tried tomake the College a more faculty-centeredplace,” she says, “and I am optimistic thatthis emphasis will live on.”

“Susan refocused attention on the qual-ity of the educational program we provideour students as a top College priority,” sayseconomics professor Jim Whitney, whoserved as Faculty Council president during

Photo by Max S. Gerber

Winter 2008 5

In her Nov. 19 e-mail to the Oxy community, Prager expressed hope “that some of the ideas generated in our work together, as well as some of the relationships that I have developed with you and others who provide us with important support, will continue to contribute to an even stronger Occidental over the next decade.”

Prager’s first year in office. “She extendedherself to the faculty so that she could hearthe voice of every educator here and to learnabout the kind of research we were conduct-ing,” adds Norman Bridge DistinguishedProfessor of Spanish Robert Ellis. “Susanwanted to hear about our research as schol-ars because she, herself, is a scholar and thatis important to her. I thought that wasremarkable.”

A dedicated historic preservationist,Prager says she will miss the often-spectacu-

lar view of Los Angeles sunsets in the presi-dent’s west-facing office on the top floor ofCoons Administrative Center—a far-reach-ing vista that reminds her of the Occidentalexperience. “The combination of a phenom-enal faculty, a great international city, parentand alumni support, and a compellingatmosphere allows Occidental students toreach farther than most of them could haveever imagined,” she says.

Colleen Sharkey and Jim Tranquada con-tributed to this story.

O

improve improvisational skills, while height-ening campus-wide jazz awareness andappreciation through periodic performances.

When Emmons started in 2000, heinherited a group with just three trombones,one alto sax, and one drummer. Later thatyear the band received a grant from the John-ston-Fix Foundation via Harry Fix ’86 thatallowed the group to purchase essentialequipment. The grant also provided funds tobring in clinicians to help improve the quali-


ty of the band’s performance and guest artiststo inspire band members. This fall, Emmonsrecruited longtime friend Spurgeon to coachpiano. Spurgeon, in turn, solicited Olguin’shelp with trumpet. The pair sits in on thegroup’s Monday night rehearsals.

While coaching, Spurgeon stands behindone of the two piano players in the band.“Sometimes the charts are complicated,” hesays. “I’ll whisper in their ear while the bandis playing, and every now and then I’ll take aturn. Tim brings in people not only to coachbut to give students a sound to listen to.”

Olguin agrees: “It’s kind of a confidence-builder when you have a strong player in thesection who can lead.” During rehearsals hesits next to his “little protégée,” Sienna Beck-man ’11, a trumpet player and singer fromMenlo Park, making suggestions, helpingher read charts, and playing along.

A music major, Olguin reluctantly leftOccidental after only one year (“my best yearof college”) because Biola University offeredhim an athletic scholarship, and eventuallygraduated from Cal Poly Pomona with adegree in computer science. Today he is chiefsoftware engineer for L-3 Communications inPasadena, dealing with spacecraft flight soft-

ware for various NASA missions, includingthose implemented by JPL, such as the MarsExplorer project. His job is to look for prob-lems in the software for “mission assurance.”

The fact that a musician ended up as acomputer scientist is not as incongruous as itsounds, Olguin says: “There is a very heavyrelationship between math and music. A lotof scientists and engineers are musicians.Music is just mathematics expressed by theright side of the brain.”

PATRICK OLGUIN ’83 and HenrySpurgeon ’79 both worked asfreelance musicians in Los Ange-les for almost three decadesbefore they met—in a hot tub.

“That’s where I make most of my businesscontacts,” Olguin jokes. “The Rose BowlAquatic Center is just lousy with musicians,because they’re free during the day.”

Five years after that fortuitous meetingin Pasadena, the pair, who play together inthe six-person combo Lounge-o-Rama,returned to campus this fall as coaches forthe Oxy Jazz Ensemble. Under the directionof Tim Emmons—an acoustic and electricbass player whose jazz and classical resumeincludes more than 100 film and TV scores,from “The Simpsons” to The Incredibles—thegroup consists of about a dozen students,most of them non-music majors. The ensem-ble’s goal is to learn basic jazz theory and

Return EngagementPatrick Olguin ’83 traded music for computer science when he leftOxy after a year. Now, with kindred bandmate Henry Spurgeon ’79,he’s lending a hand to Tim Emmons and his student jazz ensemble


Photos by Kirby Lee

ABOVE LEFT: Oxy Jazz Ensemble director Tim Emmonsplays along on electric bass during a rehearsal.ABOVE: Spurgeon assists Brian Noori ’10 at the piano.LEFT: Olguin, left, takes a turn on the trombonealongside Cal State L.A. alumnus Ethan Minton.

After years of working on the side as afreelance trumpet player and vocalist, Olguinfounded his own group of JPL employees in1999. The aptly named Big Band Theory hasrecorded a CD and plays local festivals aswell as charity and private events. Four yearsago he started Lounge-o-Rama, includingSpurgeon on piano.

Like Olguin, Spurgeon only lasted oneyear at Oxy before transferring for financialreasons. He graduated from Boston’s BerkeleeSchool of Music with a degree in film scoringin 1980. He moved back to Los Angeles andfound work as a freelance jazz and classicalpianist and accordionist, often playing along-side Emmons. “Tim and I have known eachother for many years,” Spurgeon says. “Howcould I say no when a friend asked me?”

In the midst of a rehearsal, he continues,“There’s only so much information aninstructor can give. In jazz, when someonesays improvise, there are 500 million choices.So I try to give them something simple to doso that they lock in with the drums and thebass and get into a groove. So much of jazz isjust experience. So many people think thatjazz is some kind of gift, but it’s as hard workas learning classical music.”

Though Olguin has only been coachingat Oxy for a couple of months, “Theresponse has been amazing,” he says. “It’simmediate payback. I’m quite pleased thatthe College has decided to make an invest-ment in something for non-music majors—because my main thing isn’t music, but I stillthink it’s real important.”

“Patrick’s such a nice guy and only wantsto communicate the joy of music and the funof it,” says Spurgeon. “His suggestions arealways positive—‘Let’s try this,’ or ‘Let’s do itthis way.’ I don’t think I’ve ever heard himphrase something in a negative way.”

Olguin returns the compliment: “Henry’squiet wit and genuine humility put the kidsat ease so they’re not intimidated by hisknowing just about everything there is aboutplaying piano in a jazz setting. The students’marked progress in just a few weeks is a testa-ment to his abilities as a mentor.”

Before this mutual admiration societygets out of hand, one question remains:Who’s the faster swimmer? “Oh, I’m wayfaster,” Olguin declares. “Henry will be thefirst to tell you that, too.”

—SAMANTHA BONAR ’90

Winter 2008 7

SINCE OUR LAST UPDATE (Spring 2006),the following individuals have been namedto the Occidental Board of Trustees.

Chris Calkins ’67 is president of CarltasManagement, the corporate general partnerof Carltas Co., a real estate development andfloriculture management company. Aftermajoring in English literature at Oxy, heserved in the Navy before receiving his lawdegree from Boalt Hall. A former partner inwhat is now the law firm of Gray, Cary, Ware& Freidenrich, he is a director of ArmstrongGarden Centers and the H.G. Fenton Co. Healso was a founding director and former vicechairman of Scripps Bank until its acquisi-tion by U.S. Bank in 2000. He and wife Dianelive in Encinitas and have two children, Jen-nifer and Matthew.

Anne Cannon ’74 is an independentfinancial adviser and certified public accoun-tant. An anthropology major at Occidental,she transferred to the University of Pennsyl-vania’s Wharton School, where she receivedher degree in economics and accounting. Shereturned to Oxy to finish her degree andgraduated with the Class of 2006. She hasbeen an accountant for PriceWaterhouse -Coopers, a financial analyst for MercantileBank & Trust and CoreStates Bank in Balti-more, chief financial officer of ParkbiddleCo., a merchant bank/real estate develop-ment firm, and a litigation consultant for theHong Kong office of the New York law firmof Cleary, Gottlieb. She also was a partner ina Hong Kong-based art gallery sellingcontemporary Vietnamese art. A resident ofIrvine, she married John Enders ’74 on Oct.28, 2007. She has a son, Joshua.

Gloria Duffy ’75 is president and CEOof the San Francisco-based CommonwealthClub, the nation’s oldest and largest publicaffairs forum. An independent studies majorat Occidental, she earned a doctorate in

political science at Columbia University. Aformer U.S. deputy assistant secretary ofdefense and disarmament negotiator, she isthe recipient of the Secretary of DefenseMedal for Outstanding Public Service. A pastmember of Occidental’s Alumni Board ofGovernors, she is chair of the U.S. CivilianResearch and Development Foundation, andis a member of the board of trustees ofDominican University of California. She alsois a partner of the McCloud Book Gallery, anindependent bookstore and art gallery. Sheand husband Rod Diridon Sr. live in SantaClara and have two children, Rod Jr. andMary Diridon.

Richard Leza ’90 is a founding partner,director, and portfolio manager at GWA Cap-ital Partners, an activist hedge fund based inPasadena. An economics major at Occidental,he received his MBA from Stanford in 1995.Leza is president of the Alumni Board ofGovernors, having served as vice presidentof regions and vice president of alumniorganizations. He chaired the Alumni Asso-ciation for the Los Angeles region for fouryears, and has been a board member of theOccidental Latino Alumni Association(OCLAA). He lives in Sierra Madre with wifeJennifer and daughters Liliana and Marcela.

Kenneth Sulzer ’82 is an attorney andpartner in the Los Angeles law firm of Sey farth, Shaw, Fairweather & Geraldson. Apolitical science major and economics minorat Occidental, he went on to receive his lawdegree at Harvard. A specialist in labor andemployment law and litigation, he is a fre-quent lecturer and author on legal topics thatinclude wage/hour class action litigation,and recent developments in employment lawand employee privacy. A former BOG mem-ber, he has co-chaired reunion committeesfour times. He lives in Los Angeles with hiswife, Lisa.

FROM LEFT: Chris Calkins ’67, Anne Cannon ’74, Gloria Duffy ’75, Richard Leza ’90, and Kenneth Sulzer ’82.

Photos by Kirby Lee

Five Alumni Named to Board of Trustees

Fall Sports Wrap-up

Sasaki Strikes First; Cross Country Teams Double UpIn the final game of the regular season, hard-playing striker Jesi Sasaki ’11 ended up with ribs so badlybruised that at first it was feared they might be broken. “We weren’t sure she would make it, but shejust got on with it,” women’s soccer coach Colm McFeely says of Sasaki’s gutsy performance in theSCIAC postseason tournament. Although the Tigers lost to Cal Lutheran on penalty kicks after doubleovertime, it was a breakthrough season—for the team, whichadvanced to the postseason for the first time, and Sasaki,right, who became the first freshman to be named conferencePlayer of the Year in the history of SCIAC women’s soccer.

“She deserves it,” McFeely says of his No. 1 recruit, aHonolulu native who scored seven goals and tallied fourassists in helping lead the Tigers to a 9-3 conference record(11-5-1 overall), good for second place. “She’s a real teamplayer, a leader by example, and a real nice kid, too.” ClassmateCorrine Winkler tied Sasaki for the team lead for goals, alsoearning First-Team All-SCIAC honors. Joining the freshmanpair with Second Team recognition were senior goalie MelissaWarner and sophomores Elise Devereux and Marci Kang.

The play of the women’s soccer team was just one ofmany fall highlights for Oxy athletics. For the first time in a decade both the men’s and women’s crosscountry teams captured SCIAC titles in the same season. The men were led by senior captain and 2007SCIAC Athlete of the Year Kevin Chaves, who also earned West Region Runner of the Year honors in Port-land, Ore. The Tigers went on to the NCAA Division III Championships, finishing 18th in the nation. Headcoach Rob Bartlett was named West Region Coach of the Year, while Chaves (7th) and Alex Ramon (15th)garnered All-America recognition. Also earning First Team honors were Galen Smith ’08, Keith Blumen-feld ’09, and David Martinez ’09 for the men and Maddie Weissman ’10, Rachel Keylon ’09, Denali Halsey’10, and Grace Peck ’10 on the women’s side. Earning Second Team All-SCIAC honors were freshman RJInfantino and senior Caitlin Croall.

Despite early injuries to key players, the Tigers football team extended its regular-season streak to32 wins before dropping their first SCIAC game in four years during week six, finishing 7-2 overall (5-2conference). Sophomore Alex Groh was named an AFCA All-American with a Division III-leading averageof 45.9 yards per punt. Seniors Rocky Ciasulli, James Sabo, and Chris Kyles were named First-TeamSCIAC along with Jason Haller ’09 on the First Team All-SCIAC, as Daniel Tromello ’08, Victor Lopez ’08,Tom Gonzalez ’09, Brett Henderson ’09, Tim Creamer ’10, and Neil Martin ’10 landed on the Second Team.

The men’s water polo, men’s soccer, and women’s volleyball programs continued to improve thisfall. The junior polo duo of Andrew Valdes and Cameron Brahmst were 1-2 in goals scored with 68 and67, respectively, leading the team to 299 goals, the most offensive production in school history. Bothplayers earned Second Team All-SCIAC honors. The Tigers finished with 5-5 in SCIAC play (14-13 over-all), placing them seventh among Division III schools.

Rounding out the fall season accolades are a trio of soccer seniors. John Minger and Tad Garrettearned Second Team All-SCIAC recognition, while Ben Torgersen, another defensive leader, was honoredwith the Brine Award of Distinction for his excellence on the field, in the classroom, and as a part of theOccidental community. The Tigers put up a 7-9-1 overall record, finishing 6-7-1 in SCIAC play for fifthplace, just one spot out of contention for the inaugural SCIAC postseason tournament.

Faculty & Student Awards

Anthropologists Hail Chin;Statwick Studies YuccaOccidental faculty and students continuedtheir award-winning ways this fall, capturingtwo national awards for teaching excellenceand sophisticated undergraduate research.Elizabeth Chin, professor of critical the-

ory and social justice, was honored by theAmerican Anthropological Association withits Award for Excellence in UndergraduateTeaching in Washington, D.C., Nov. 28.Chin was recognized for her role as an

educator and mentor to students both insideand outside the classroom, according to theassociation. She has led student groups ontwo study trips to Cuba and one to Haiti,developed a project to teach anthropologicalmethods to fifth-graders, designed the cur-riculum for a gang intervention and preven-tion program, and founded a Haitian folkloricdance performance group at Occidental.“It’s really great to have my teaching be

honored and valued,” says Chin, a 14-yearmember of the faculty. Although her courseshave been described as “no cakewalk,” stu-dents rave about her challenging and intel-lectually stimulating teaching style.Joseph Statwick ’08, a biology major

from Wheaton, Ill., was awarded a prestigiousEnvironmental Protection Agency fellowshipto study genetic diversity among populationsof Hesperoyucca whipplei (commonly knownas yucca) in the Los Angeles Basin. “I’m excit-ed to have the opportunity and funding to beable to do a research project of this magni-tude,” Statwick says of the $41,000 award.Working with associate professor of

biology Beth Braker, Statwick plans to studyfactors threatening the survival of localnative plants, such as the encroachment ofnon-native grasses, pollution, and suburbansprawl. “Specifically, I want to address howgenetic diversity in yucca has been affected byboth air pollution and habitat loss, and howthese two factors might interact,” he says.For the last two years Statwick has

worked with Braker on tropical rainforestreforestation and ecology in Costa Rica. “Joehas the right blend of field and lab skills toundertake this project,” Braker says. “I’mthrilled to have the opportunity to supporthim in this important work.”



Photo by Tracy Maple

Twin wins for Oxy’s cross country squads.

Photo by Kirby Lee

Winter 2008 9

Teaching & Research Grants

White Endowment, StaufferChallenge Bring Aid to OxyAn alumni gift and a challenge grant will pro-vide a major boost for two of the hallmarks ofan Oxy education—outstanding teaching andundergraduate research. Linda and Tod White’59 have established a $1-million endowmentfor the College’s four-year-old Center forTeaching Excellence, while a $1-million chal-lenge grant from the John Stauffer CharitableTrust will help create a permanent endow-ment to support chemistry students partici-pating in Oxy’s Summer Research Program. “Linda and I are extremely happy to be

supporting the College’s outstanding facultyand its commitment to enhancing Oxy’s rep-utation for excellent teaching,” says White, amember of the Occidental Board of Trustees.The endowment, which will produce $50,000per year in funding, will allow center directorand Elbridge Amos Stuart Professor of Eco-nomics Robby Moore to offer more programsto support faculty.“I’m excited about this opportunity to

develop new programs to enhance studentlearning, in collaboration with the recentlyestablished Teaching Innovation Com mittee,”says Moore, a 30-year member of the facultyand past winner of the Graham L. SterlingAward, one of Oxy’s highest faculty honors.

Among the programs Moore has alreadyestablished through the CTE, “Talking AboutTeaching” events and lunches have been wellattended, while the First Year Faculty Learn-ing Community gives new professors an out-let to discuss topics such as teaching withtechnology and active learning techniques.Two new initiatives that are in the works

are the direct result of the Whites’ gift. Teach-ers’ Roundtable will allow faculty to visit oneanother’s classrooms and discuss teachingpedagogy. Another idea under considerationis to establish student/faculty dinners, withthe hope that they will become a traditionthat fosters openness and communication.The $1-million Stauffer challenge grant

will serve as a springboard to raise a total of$3.5 million—an amount sufficient to sup-port as many as 23 students conductingresearch in all aspects of the chemical sci-ences, including biochemistry and analytical,inorganic, organic, and physical chemistry.Given the Stauffer grant and a current

endowment of $398,300, the College hasagreed to raise the remaining $2.1 million byJune 2011. “Years ago, thanks to the visionand commitment of faculty, Occidental estab-lished the foundation for this endowment,”says Chris Craney, professor of chemistryand director of Oxy’s UndergraduateResearch Program. “The Stauffer challengeoffers a way to leverage our resources tobenefit future generations of students.”

Occidental in BriefEleven seniors were initiated into Occi-dental’s California Delta Chapter of PhiBeta Kappa on Nov. 28 in recognition oftheir exceptional academic performanceduring their first three years at Oxy. Thenew Phi Betes are: Tervanda Ayrapetyan(a politics major from North Hollywood),Tessa Basford (psychology; Kasson, Minn.),Caitlin Croall (history; Newcastle), JuliaDecker (Asian studies; St. Louis Park,Minn.), Kendra Dority (English andcomparative literary studies; Simi Valley),James Gillan (economics and mathemat-ics; Concord), Hannah McDowell (the-ater; Portland, Ore.), Alison Reed (ECLS;Salt Lake City), Riley Steiner (biology anddiplomacy and world affairs; Spokane,Wash.), Ben Torgersen (philosophy andpolitics; Spring, Texas), and JoshuaWilliams (physics; Humboldt, Ariz.). qWorld-renowned violinist Hilary Hahnhas an Oxy connection. Three of hercousins are alumnae: Margie (Armfield)Rivas ’97, Patty Armfield ’00, and EllieArmfield ’02. “I’ve been hearing aboutOccidental since I was 12, so it’s fun toactually be here,” Hahn said in a question-and-answer session the day before herOct. 20 recital on campus. Thorne Hallwas filled for her performance, her onlySouthern California recital this season.

Photo by Don Milici

Brian Newhall ’83, men’s basketball coach andtennis coordinator, joins former Oxy tennis stand-out Ian McKinnon ’89 and his family (includingwife Sonnet, daughter Ashley, and son William)for the dedication of the recently renovated andnewly named McKinnon Family Tennis CenterOct. 15.

Trustee Dave Berkus ’62, former editor of The Occidental, reviews his volume of the newspaper at the dedication of the Ahmanson Reading Room in Clapp Library Oct. 16. The back issues are among the volumeshoused in the fully restored reading room and adjacent spaces, made possible by a lead gift of $1 millionfrom The Ahmanson Foundation.

Photo by Don Milici

For Barack Obama ’83, the road to the White House begins in Iowa—and Brian McGrane ’06, Sara El-Amine ’07,

and Noah Glusenkamp ’07 are among the true believers working in the heartland to make it happen

h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h

FIRED UP,READY TO GO

FIRED UP,READY TO GO

Winter 2008 11

IF BARACK OBAMA ’83 WINSthe Iowa presidential caucus overnational frontrunner HillaryClinton and fellow Democratichopeful John Edwards, pundits

will likely say the turning point came onNov. 10—the night of the Jefferson JacksonDay dinner in Des Moines. By most accountsthe Illinois senator delivered his most elec-trifying speech since the 2004 DemocraticNational Convention keynote address thatshot him to fame. “I don’t want to pit RedAmerica against Blue America,” he exhorted.“I want to be president of the United Statesof America.”“It was the most exhilarating political

event I’ve ever witnessed,” says Obama forAmerica deputy field organizer Sara El-Amine ’07, who was there along with fellowstaffers Brian McGrane ’06 and NoahGlusenkamp ’07. “We all had red T-shirtsand these incredibly well-organized chantsthat were like call-and-response:

“FIRED UP! “READY TO GO!”“It’s used as a show of who has the most

support, and we rocked their socks off,” sheadds. “There was no comparison. And itspelled out a lot of momentum for us.”El-Amine, McGrane, and Glusenkamp

are among the hordes of campaign workerswho descend on Iowa every four years for the opening salvo of the presidential pri -mary season. They are the true believers, the frontline troops. They are also youngand idealistic, willing to work investmentbanker hours for McDonald’s worker pay.Arriving from all over the country, they’re

more than happy to freeze their fannies offgoing door-to-door in tundra-like tempera-tures. And in Iowa, on Jan. 3, they might justhave the most important jobs in the country.“I have not worked this hard since I workedon my senior comps at Oxy,” McGrane says.In the weeks leading up to the Iowa

caucus, the stakes for the three leading

Democratic candidates couldn’t be higher.The New Hampshire primary follows a scantfive days later, and a compressed primaryschedule for the other big states has onlyheightened expectations in the HawkeyeState. Having a strong, well-run organiza-tion can mean the difference between a winand a loss and whether a campaign has themomentum—and money—to keep going.“I think this is going to be a real trans-

formative election … one that changes thecourse of history,” says Peter Dreier, the Dr. E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor ofPolitics at Occidental and a veteran ofRobert F. Kennedy’s 1968 presidential cam-paign. “Young people are going to have amuch bigger impact on this election thanthey have on any since the late ’60s or early’70s. There’s a sense of ‘It’s our time’ amongpeople in their 20s and 30s, and that’s trick-led down to people 18 to 25.” The absence of an incumbent in the

race and the sense that the nomination in

11

B Y W I L L I A M C O C K E h P H O T O S B Y D AV E W E AV E R

OPPOSITE PAGE: Sara El-Amine ’07works on a campaign sign at Obamafor America’s Cedar Falls, Iowa,office. LEFT: Brian McGrane ’06 discusses campaign issues in thekitchen of a prospective voter inCoralville, Iowa. BELOW: “This is your chance to make your mark onhistory,” Obama told a packed houseat Grinnell College Dec. 4.

h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h


both parties is up for grabs has translatedinto a higher than average number of recentcollege graduates on the candidates’ pay-rolls. “Historically, much of a campaign’shuman and fiscal resources went towardpersonal contact with potential voters,”notes Larry Sabato, director of the Centerfor Politics and professor of politics at theUniversity of Virginia. “In the age of e-mail,Facebook, and text messaging, this trendhas diminished in some parts of the country,but that is not the case during the Iowacaucus. Young, engaged campaign staff andvolunteers are essential for success in Iowa,and the presidential campaigns that are bestable to utilize these assets are much moresuccessful.” In September, McGrane gave up gradu-

ate school at the University of Hawaii, ship-ping his car back to the mainland anddriving out to cooler climes. “I was studyingthe thermal properties of rocks on Mars,”the Oxy geology major says. “I decided itwould definitely make a difference if I wentand contributed to the Obama campaign, soI came to Iowa instead.”As a deputy field organizer in Iowa City,

“The most important part of my day is from

4 to 9 p.m. during weekdays, from 10 a.m. to6 p.m. on Saturdays, and from noon to 8 p.m.on Sundays,” McGrane says. “Eight hourseach day on the weekends, I’m in contact withvoters. We prefer to be in touch with peoplein person so we can make a connection.”Glusenkamp, a religious studies major,

discovered he had a talent for organizationwhen he cajoled students to attend anObama rally on the Oxy campus in February.By going door-to-door in Pauley Hall, he was

able to get about 100 students to turn out, agood showing for the TV cameras. He decid-ed to volunteer for the campaign. “If I have the ability to motivate my

peers to do this kind of thing, this is proba-bly what I need to be doing right now,” hethought at the time. The Obama peoplethought so, too, and he was eventually hired.Now he is a deputy field organizer inKnoxville, one of two staffers in MarionCounty, Iowa. “It’s our responsibility to turnout people in 17 different precincts and todevelop the teams in those precincts so thatpeople know one another, so they knowhow to do the caucus and that they’ve gotgood communication at that level when theyshow up on caucus night.”Glusenkamp—a native Midwesterner

and son of a pastor—traveled all over thestate in the summer, working on the cam-paign’s “faith outreach” initiative. “We set up

these faith forums where we opened up thespace for people to talk about what does itmean to be a person of faith who’s a voter,”he explains. “We were very inclusive.”More recently, he has been coordinating

17-year-olds at five area high schools, goingto government classes and teaching studentshow to caucus. (Seventeen-year-olds whowill turn 18 by the general election areallowed to caucus.) “They’re called the BarackStars,” says Glusenkamp, who has three highschool interns under his wing as well.El-Amine, who is based in Cedar Falls,

works with 15 precincts. Like McGrane andGlusenkamp (with whom she quickly con-nected once the three migrated to Iowa),she’s knocking on a lot of doors. “People arelovely; they’ve invited me in for hot applecider,” says the diplomacy and world affairsmajor from Duxbury, Mass. “Iowans areimpeccably informed. They know their

“It’s about time we hadan Occidental alum in the White House,”says McGrane. “Andthe only way we cando it is to win Iowa.”


issues, they care, and right now they under-stand that they are the most important peo-ple in the nation. They have the power tochange the world.”Sabato notes that this dynamic is partic-

ularly strong in Iowa. “Voters and caucusparticipants are often impressed by the levelof political knowledge and savvy possessedby young campaigners, and see them as morethat just a living, breathing campaign ad,”he says. “Whether it’s a personal connectionor simply the impact of successive contacts,there is a noticeable result. Practically allcampaigns make use of young people, but inIowa they are typically able to exert agreater—and more visible—influence.” There is another dynamic, of course,

going on with these Oxy grads: Obamaattended their school (for two years, beforegraduating from Columbia University).Though their contact with him is limited, the

moments when their paths intersect are to besavored. Glusenkamp remembers the time inthe Des Moines office copy room whenObama suddenly appeared, taking a fewminutes’ refuge before giving a speech. “I gotto talk to him alone for a minute, and toldhim about the Oxy event,” he recalls. Duringthe speech, Obama gave Glusen kamp ashout-out, and took time to praise all his“underpaid and unappreciated” staff. “That’sall I could really want,” says Glusenkamp.At the Jefferson Jackson Day dinner, El-

Amine ran into the candidate and his wife,Michelle. “I said, ‘I’m an Occidental studentand we just love you over there,’” sherecalls. “And he said ‘Go Tigers!’” And even though McGrane hasn’t met

Obama yet, he still feels a special bond. “It’sfunny, I went to Oxy, and I went to theUniversity of Hawaii where his parentsmet,” he says. “I like to joke that Barack and

I have a cosmic connection. We’ve been to allthe same places. There’s sort of a kinship that Ifeel with him that I wouldn’t feel with anyother candidate. That’s just coincidence, ofcourse—I’d support him on his principles andhis issues even if he hadn’t gone to Oxy.”

Freelance writer William Cocke profiledfilmmaker John McDonald ’71 (“ChasingGhosts”) in the Spring 2007 issue.

ABOVE: Obama glad-hands a Grinnell College crowd.LEFT: “Every last voter we can get in touch withmight be somebody extra who’s going to go to thecaucus and help us,” says McGrane, standing. BELOW: A policy class at Oxy “got me to thinkingwhere I could intersect policy at the highest level,”says El-Amine (with Obama at a rally at the Universityof Northern Iowa). “And, honestly, making sure theright person gets elected as the next president ofthe United States is the highest calling right now.” A native Midwesterner and

preacher’s kid, Noah Glusenkamp’07 conducted “faith forums”across Iowa all summer. Now he’s working with highschool-age “Barack Stars.”

Winter 2008 13

O


Photo courtesy Sara El-Amine ’07


ELTS AND OOZE from veins are ofas much interest to artist Mary Beth Heffernan as theelaborate tattoos that decorate her recent subjects’bodies. The red irritation bordering freshly needledskin represents an immediacy that bound her to agroup of Marines from the base at Twentynine Palmswho allowed her to photograph their fresh tattoosthat often bear the names of fallen comrades.Heffernan made her home in a tent in the desert fromFebruary to May 2006, delving far beneath the skinand the ink that scars the soldiers like chiseled letterson a tombstone.

LEFT: Owen McNamara was 20 when, on his second tour in Iraq,10 of his fellow Marines were killed in a booby-trapped patrolbase where they were attending a promotion ceremony. Duringhis first tour in Iraq he, too, was injured and earned the PurpleHeart, which he inscribed as a tattoo on his upper left arm.TOP: A member of the 2/7 Echo Company, Jesse Markel remembers the 2/7 Fox casualties because his birthday fell a day after the Dec. 1, 2005, blast.

15


“These tattoos arepromissory notes—a grimcurrency—to the soldiersthemselves,” says Heffer -nan, an assistant professorof art history and the visualarts at Occidental. “Theyannounce mourning butalso tell people that they,too, have been wounded—and they will be payingthis back for the rest of

their lives. And they want us to know that too.” Heffernan’s recent photography exhibition of the

tattoos at Pasadena City College is representative ofher lengthy and complex fascination with the humanbody and skin in particular—how it functions, how itis represented in the media and how it serves as a kindof canvas for each individual. She sees skin as “anintensified site where nature and culture meet.”

As part of the High Desert Test Sites 5 art festivalin May 2006, Heffernan and other artists were askedto interpret the desert landscape. Many artists choseto sculpt their understanding of the dry hardscape,but she could not separate the people who occupy theMojave from the area itself.

“I have been rock climbing and camping atJoshua Tree since the 1980s, but whenever I would gothere, I couldn’t escape the looming presence of theMarine base just over the hill,” Heffernan says. “Thedesert is spare and beautiful but, for me, it is highlyscripted—and it makes my view of the space verycomplicated. I was haunted by what was happeningon the other side of that hill.”

Heffernan always has been fascinated by religiousiconography and she relates the tattoo memorials tothe story of St. Veronica wiping the face of Jesus as hewas led to his crucifixion at Calvary. It is said that theimpression of Jesus’s face was preserved on her veil,which became a church relic and is stored at St. Peter’sBasilica in the Vatican (though some have questionedits authenticity). “As an artist, that motif is com-pelling—the gift of one’s image and the request tonever be forgotten,” she says.

At first, Heffernan wanted to do monoprints ofthe tattoos—blotting them, freshly inked, ontopaper—as she had done for a previous project. In theart world, this kind of impression is called an indexicallink, and Heffernan explains it as a lipstick stain orcoffee ring that serves as proof of something’s—or inthe case of the tattoos, someone’s—existence.

But she quickly learned two very important thingsabout tattooing: Blotting shouldn’t be possible, andblood-borne pathogens can live in paper for up to 30days. A skilled tattoo artist in Twentynine Palms toldher that good tattoos won’t transfer onto paper, so theone she was able to transfer must have been overly satu-rated. Wanting to avoid subpar tattoos—and disease—Heffernan settled on photographing the inky tributes. “Iwanted to capture the body directly responding to theneedle—the oozing, the welting, the moment whenthe Marine and his skin were expressing their grief.”

The very act of receiving a tattoo—a ritualwound—literally and figuratively opened the Marinesup and made them willing to share their very person-al stories, Heffernan notes. She did photograph oneMarine’s tattoo that was completely healed and shefelt that, as the wound had closed, he too had become

TOP: In lieu of a traditionalexhibit of framed photo -

graphs, Heffernan elected tohave her images be mobile—to make an impact on viewers

at the gallery and beyond. ABOVE: Visitors to Heffernan’s

exhibit at the PasadenaCity College Art Gallery in

November take poster-sizeversions home with them.

closed to talking about his experience and the mili-tary “brothers” he had lost.

“What is intriguing about the photographs inSoldier’s Skin is the banality of the subject matter injuxtaposition with the bruised and bleeding skin ofthe soldier who has just received the tattoo,” saysJennie Klein, contributing editor of Art Papers maga-zine. “There is something unbearably poignant andvulnerable about Heffernan’s version of warrior mas-culinity.”

While braving the elements in the Mojave,including a snowstorm or two, Heffernan spent a lotof time reflecting on her project and empathizing withher subjects, approximately 30 Marines. She began towonder about the soldiers’ families and friends andgroups that support them, what she calls the “net-works of concern.” Since the Pasadena City Collegeexhibit ended, Heffernan has received a number ofcalls and e-mails telling her how her photos intensi-fied some of these networks and personal relation-

ships. She purposely designed the exhibit to bemobile by printing thousands of copies of her photosin poster size to be given away to every gallery visitor.

Brian Tucker, director of the PCC Art Gallery,notes that Heffernan’s exhibit was one of the best-attended shows in the gallery’s history. “Much of thepower of the show comes from her decision to presentthem as stacks of posters rather than framed artprints,” he says. “Both the sculptural presence of theblocks of posters and the question of whether or notto claim ownership of one or more of these imagesdramatically enhance the viewer’s role as a self-con-scious participant in the exhibition.”

Heffernan—who has taught sculpture and pho-tography at Occidental since 2002—recently took herstudents on a camping field trip to the Mojave, wherethey were tasked with using parachutes to heightentheir understanding of the natural landscape, createshelter, relate them to the body, and demonstratemovement. “It was nice to be able to share that land-scape with my students,” she says. “We are invited tobring our research to bear on our teaching.”

“I tried in my exhibition to avoid being pro-waror against it. I am satisfied that the pieces don’t neatlyperform the work of either group; it’s that messinessthat attracted me, that uneasy zone of meaning,”Heffernan says. “This work makes you think aboutyour investment in the war. I wasn’t interested in a

memorial or a protest or a celebration. I just wantedto take a look at how these young men are memorial-izing the people closest to them, how they are han-dling dangerous situations and how they are formingtheir ideas of what it means to be a man, an American,a patriot.”

Heffernan will likely expand this project to sol-diers returning from Iraq. She wonders how veteranswill be viewed. “If after World War II the soldier’sbody represented an American masculine ideal, ametaphor for the strength of our nation and economy,I wonder what kind of body politic and metaphor ofnation our current returning soldiers will suggest?”

Winter 2008 17

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TOP: Maddy, a young girl whoattended the High Desert TestSites 5 exhibition with herfamily in May 2006, holds theposter of Owen McNamara.ABOVE: Terrell Cook was shotwhile leaping betweenrooftops during his tour inIraq. His body armor savedhis life, and his tattoo (whichreads “You’re Still Alive”) isinscribed in reverse—so thathe is reminded of his brushwith death when he seeshimself in the mirror.LEFT: Joshua Hall’s dog tagtattoo memorializes his fallenMarine brothers alongside hisgrandfather and uncle, whoalso died at war.

By trailing alumni

and other professionals

over a day’s work,

the student participants

in Oxy’s Walk In My Shoes

program often find

vocational nirvana—

or eliminate potential careers

BY SAMANTHA BONAR ’90

PHOTOS BY KIRBY LEE & KEVIN BURKE

LEFT: Stacie Roshon ’08 looks on as KTLAentertainment reporter Sam Rubin ’82 pre-pares his celebrity report for the morningnews Nov. 16. In Rubin’s estimation, Roshon“got it.” BELOW: Joshua Williams ’08 listensas Jet Propulsion Laboratory mission engi-neer Mark Garcia ’87 describes his work onthe Mars Phoenix mission, a spacecraftscheduled to land on the Red Planet in May.Williams, a physics major, said the shadow-ing experience opened his eyes to newcareer options. RIGHT: Akiko Hayata Arias ’04of investment management firm Payden &Rygel shows Jamie Thalman ’10 how shetrades foreign currencies using an electronicplatform. Thalman now understands betterwhat goes into stock market trading: “It’sreal people doing real things every day.”

ND YOU THOUGHT 9 A.M.classes were bad. Shadowing for-eign currency traders LyndseyAllison ’06 and Akiko HayataArias ’04 at investment man-

agement firm Payden & Rygel meant JamieThalman ’10 had to set his alarm clock forthe wee hours of the morning. Thalmanarrived at the downtown Los Angeles firm at 5:30 a.m., when Allison and Arias starttheir day. “We’re on New York time,” Ariasexplains. “Being on the trading floor, it’sreally fun, but it’s also very high stress.You’re watching the market 24/7.” On theplus side, she said the day goes by quickly,and they’re off at 3 or 4 p.m.

Thalman, a prospective diplomacy andworld affairs major from Cleveland, observedAllison and Arias—who each sported threecomputer screens on their desks with stream-ing Bloomberg news, instant messaging,

equity information and an electronic trad-ing platform—putting through trades onaccounts. He even booked a trade himself(“nerve-wracking,” he admits). Overall, theexperience “demystified” what goes into trad-ing. “It’s not just this magic stock market,” hesays. “I like to see the humanity behind it. It’sreal people doing real things every day. Thatappeals to me.”

They may not be as cuddly as dogs or ascute as little kids, but Occidental students arejust as eager to visit the workplace for a day.Luckily, students are given the opportunity toshadow professionals on the job through theCareer Development Center’s Walk In MyShoes program. “Unless you do a Walk In MyShoes-type program, it’s really hard to knowwhat exactly a trader does,” says Arias.

Approaching its 10th year, WIMS enablessophomores, juniors, and seniors to trail LosAngeles-based alumni and other professionals

for six to eight hours to learn what they do,how they do it, and why. “It’s a low-leveltime commitment with a high-level impact,”says CDC director Valerie Savior ’85, whocoordinates the WIMS program. The idea isto give participants an insider’s view of theprofessions they may be interested in pursu-ing to help them make sound career andgraduate school decisions. The program alsotakes advantage of Southern California’sremarkably diverse economy. This year stu-dents can choose from industries rangingfrom accounting to veterinary medicine,with fashion, international affairs, and man-ufacturing in-between.

Previous alumni participants have in -cluded Michael John ’89, who has shownundergrads how he runs his own videogame company, and KABC-TV special pro-jects producer Julia Seifer ’85, who has givenstudents insight into what a broadcast news

A

Winter 2008 19


job is like. Half a dozen students have gottena peek into forensic science shadowing CarlMatthies ’94, a DNA analyst in a crime lab.Three students have been inspired to pursueimmigration law after spending time withMeredith Brown ’85.

A few students have traveled a little far-ther afield. For Jeff Pecaro ’08, a religiousstudies major from McLean, Va., that meantventuring up the coast to tail shark special-ist John O’Sullivan at the Monterey BayAquarium in November. Last year, a studentdrove to Sacramento to shadow Gov. ArnoldSchwarzenegger’s public relations manager.Next spring, Sam Kang ’01 of the GreenliningInstitute, a public policy think tank thatadvocates for minority communities, plansto fly a student up to Northern California fora day at his agency. “The experience helpsinspire students or helps them eliminatepotential careers,” says Savior.

About 100 students participate in thefall and spring semesters. This fall 77 appliedfor 52 slots. More than 60 professionals takepart each year, nearly two-thirds of themOxy alumni. The application process in -cludes mandatory information sessions, a

15-minute interview, resume workshops, anapplication, a participation essay, pre-sitetraining, and a post-site luncheon.

“Coming into my shadow day, I had little to no experience or knowledge aboutthe broadcasting world,” says Stacie Roshon’08, a sociology major from Eagle Point, Ore.Early one November morning, she workedalongside veteran KTLA entertainmentreporter Sam Rubin ’82, gathering all the lat-est celebrity dish. Roshon arrived at hisoffice at 5:30 a.m. and left around 10:30a.m., having spent most of her time on thelive set with the morning show cast orwatching Rubin working behind the scenesof his entertainment reports.

“During my day at KTLA, I learnedabout the production team behind a televi-sion show and the way an entertainmentreporter would prepare for his day,” she says.That included poring over the Hollywoodtrades, entertainment magazines, and theInternet for “hot” stories, then putting themtogether in a sequence for the show.

“I was shocked that he was able to keepit all together the way he did,” Roshon says.“Seeing Sam work, being in his element theway he was, and the way he seemed to com-pletely enjoy what he did, definitely rein-forced my interest in broadcasting.”

“I’m happy to do it,” Rubin says of hisparticipation in WIMS. “The program is alsobeneficial to alumni, because it gives you achance to see your job through someoneelse’s eyes. One thing you look for whenyou’re hiring, whether an intern or some-thing else, is if people ‘get it’ or not, andStacie got it. You get a sense as to whetherpeople are interested and willing to work

RIGHT: Allison Riemer ’10, center, hangs outwith Community Build program directorMarva Smith, left, and founder BrendaShockley ’68 in Leimert Park. BELOW: Payden& Rygel’s Akiko Hayata Arias ’04, left, andLyndsey Allison ’06 teach Jamie Thalman’10 the tricks of the investment trade.

WALK IN MY SHOES is always lookingfor new professional participants. Pleasecontact the Career Development Centerat 323-259-2623 or [email protected].

and have the skill set to work. A lot of peo-ple don’t get it, and it’s always gratifying tomeet someone who does.”

Allison Riemer ’10, an urban and envi-ronmental planning major from Half MoonBay, headed to South Los Angeles to spendtime with Brenda Shockley ’68 and MarvaSmith at Community Build, a nonprofitcommunity development corporation estab-lished in July 1992 by Shockley in the after-math of the L.A. riots. To date, 20,000children have been through the program,whose goals include getting at-risk youth ona college-bound track starting in the sixthgrade. Riemer spent her first hour or so atCommunity Build talking with Shockley,then traveled to the group’s nearby YouthCenter with program director Smith, wherethey spent the rest of the day.

“It was great to talk to Brenda and hearabout her experiences at Oxy,” says Riemer,who is considering pursuing a law degree ormaster’s in social work. “I may contact her inthe future to learn more about how she usesher law degree in her work with CommunityBuild. I really enjoyed my time with Marva aswell. I would feel comfortable contacting herin the future if I had any more questions orjust wanted to stay in touch.”

Shockley, a Los Angeles native, attend-ed Oxy on a full scholarship through theRockefeller Foundation. She credits herexperience at Oxy with helping her decide

Winter 2008 21

what kind of career she wanted to pursue,particularly her experience working withUpward Bound on campus as a junior andsenior. “I apply the concepts of that experi-ence to Community Build—you took youthwhere you found them and took them wher-ever they needed to go,” she recalls. “Thatexperience at Oxy was the beginning of myrecognizing that I wanted a career in service.It also made me realize that I wanted towork in a nonprofit.”

Joshua Williams ’08’s shadowing expe-rience at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada opened his eyes to new worlds.He followed Mark Garcia ’87, a deputy mis-sion manager who is working on the MarsPhoenix mission, a spacecraft that is cur-rently hurtling toward the Red Planet andslated to land in May. “Basically I decidewhen you can go places, how to get thereand what you can do along the way,” Garciaexplains. “It’s way fun, but it’s a lot ofresponsibility. You’ve got a $450-millionmachine up there.”

Williams, a physics major from Hum -boldt, Ariz., accompanied Garcia to twomeetings about the project, including onethat walked through the procedure for a 24-hour test the facility would be runninglater that week to perfect the mission’s entry,descent, and landing—some of the mission’smost challenging aspects. “There’s a lot ofdetail here for Joshua to absorb,” saysGarcia, who also majored in physics and hasa master’s in aeronautical engineering fromStanford. He also took Williams to see theJPL museum of space flight, to visit a “testbed” containing duplicates of flight hard-ware, and to check out the Mars Rover mis-sion support area.

“I didn’t realize how complicated it was,but I feel like I took in a lot of it,” saysWilliams, who is also considering going intonuclear or electrical engineering. “It openedup more possibilities for me. Most physicsmajors become professors or physicists. It’skind of reassuring to see what Mark’s doingwith his degree—there are a lot of options tochoose from.”

Garcia, who has worked at JPL since hissophomore year at Oxy, also offered someinsight into the state of the industry, whichhas hit some snags. “In the aerospace indus-try there are lots of ups and downs, andwe’re in kind of a down right now,” he says.

“Yet we’re recruiting. There’s always roomfor the best and brightest who are comingout of college right now.”

Does WIMS ever lead to job offers? “Wehope things like that happen, but it’s not thegoal of the program,” Savior says. However,things have worked out that way for a num-ber of students. Michael Winchell ’07, a fundadministrator at Western Asset Management,shadowed Shannon Stewart Jr. ’05 during hissenior year. Jenna Valentine ’04 walked inthe shoes of Sacha Klein ’94, then director ofthe Association of Community HumanService Agencies, as a senior. When a coordi-nator position opened weeks later, Kleincalled the career center to invite Valentine tointerview. Valentine worked there for twoyears before moving to the Bay Area.

The program has also had long-termimpacts in other ways. In spring 2004,Shauna Cahill ’06 asked to shadow in Gov.Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Sacramento office.She is currently a second-year law student atSuffolk University Law School in Boston andclerking for a litigation firm. “My WIMSexperience encouraged me to continue striv-ing for a political career,” Cahill says.

That same year, Rachael Williams ’04shadowed Dr. Kimberly Shriner ’80 atHuntington Hospital in Pasadena. “Not onlywas Dr. Shriner an inspiration, she was alsoa resource for me during my application tomedical school,” says Williams, now a third-year student at the Boston University Schoolof Medicine. “The Walk In My Shoes experi-ence was truly a pivotal moment in my deci-sion to become a doctor.”

BELOW: Roshon bones up on the latest Hollywoodscoop by reading Daily Variety in the KTLA newsroom. BOTTOM: Riemer talks with students at CommunityBuild’s Youth Center in South Los Angeles.

O

22

Ben Coombs ’59 was

a pioneer in the financial

planning community

nearly 35 years ago.

Now he’s a mentor to

a new generation of “rats”

in the company

of

B Y M AT T D A S I LVA

P H O T O B Y M I K E R U B E N S T E I N

IT STARTED OUT LIKE A BAD JOKE: Twofinancial planners are at a convention…

It was July 24, 2003. The speaker wasPaul Fain, son of late industry pioneer P.Kemp Fain Jr., who had just inherited a finan-cial planning firm after his father died. Fainspoke of his father’s colleagues as the “rats inthe barn,” his guide in a time of professionaluncertainty. If you want to know where thefood is, Fain explained, follow the rats.

Ben Coombs ’59 was one of the rats.Coombs, who alongside the elder Fain

was among the first class to earn the certi-fied financial planner (CFP) designation in1973, listened to his good friend’s son andthought, “Why should only Paul have thatadvantage? Why not have a group of all ofus ‘old timers’ helping young planners?”

Aaron Coates had a different perspec-tive. “I was one of two people, maybe, underthe age of 40 in that room. It was a little

BEN

Coombs met his wife,Judy (Delaney) ’60, duringher freshman orientationweek at Oxy. Their son,Scott, is a 1987 graduate.

Winter 2008 23

discouraging for me,” says the 34-year-oldfinancial planner from Elkhart, Ill. “But I listened to this presentation and thought,whoever these people he called ‘rats in thebarn’ are, there needs to be a way foryounger people to get ahold of them, andwork with them. There were plenty ofyounger people in the profession—they justweren’t engaged.”

The instant Paul Fain dubbed him a“rat,” Coombs cultivated the Rat Pack, amentoring group that requires members tobe 50 or older, have 15 years’ experience infinancial planning, and complete five acts ofmentoring (speeches at colleges, one-on-one consultation with an aspiring planner,or writing articles).

On the other side of the equation wasCoates. He wanted a rat. He wanted otheryoung planners to have rats. So he flippedevery rule of the Rat Pack, and formed theNexGen group. You could only be so old andboast so much experience to be a member,and instead of five acts of mentoring, youhad to complete five acts of honoring. Hewrote their names and numbers on a bunchof blue index cards and distributed them at aRat Pack meeting.

“Most of them got calls from somebodythey read an article about. Some of theirbosses were probably shocked too,” Coatessays. “Then, it just mushroomed.” The twogroups combined to form Coach Match, aWeb initiative Coombs calls “the eHarmonyof mentoring,” in which an interested pro-tégé is electronically matched with a mentorbased on answers to a questionnaire.

Coates, unsurprisingly, was matchedwith Coombs, who despite “restylement” (aterm he uses after selling his interest in PetraFinancial Advisors to cofounder DavidForbes and relocating with his wife, JudyDelaney Coombs ’60, from Woodland Hillsto Longview, Wash.) remains active as everin promoting the profession. Last January,Financial Planning magazine named him oneof eight “Movers and Shakers” in the indus-try—a group that includes Coates.

“In my mind, selfishly, I get to call BenCoombs,” Coates says, “and he’s my mentor.”

Thirty-odd years ago, Coombs couldhave used a rat. All dressed up with no placeto work, he wanted to be like his father, aBay Area life insurance agent and one of thefirst chartered life underwriters in the

United States. The boy would often visit hisdad at the office, and when they left togetherfor an ice cream or haircut, strangers wouldgreet them at every turn.

Coombs thought he wanted that. Ittook eight years of toiling in the insuranceindustry for him to realize, however, that theends did not justify the means—that sellinga product prohibited him from truthfullyaddressing the financial needs of his clients.“I always felt like I was an answer in searchof a question,” he says.

In 1971, Coombs found his answer. Hewas going to be a financial planner. But in anera when most people would rather stufftheir money under a mattress than subject it torecord-high income tax rates due to inflationand astronomical energy costs, the professionlacked definition. There were no rats in thebarn, just a bunch of confused farmers.

Coombs’s first foray into financial plan-ning failed. “We knew how to spell financialplanning, but nobody knew how to do it,” hesays. “I had no role models. My only experi-ence was in life insurance. I knew what I didnot want to do, but I didn’t know how to dowhat I did want to do. Frighteningly, I didn’tknow what I could do to change that.”

Broke, he became a regional sales man-ager for a company that sold real estatelimited partnerships and tax-sheltered annu-ities to California schoolteachers. Dealingfirsthand with the financial products peopleuse to implement a financial plan, Coombsfelt like he had gained enough perspective inthree years there to give this phantom profes-sion another try. Colleagues with whom hegraduated as a member of the College of

Financial Planning’s inaugural class in 1973were doing it and succeeding at it. Whycouldn’t he?

In 1976, Coombs started a private prac-tice as a financial planner, Colin B. Coombsand Associates. He took the schoolteacherswith him as clients. In uncertain economictimes, they turned to Coombs as a man oftrust and confidence. “Everyone had a finan-cial toothache,” he says. “They were lookingfor someone to take away the pain.”

By 1987, Coombs’s clientele had cometo include mid- to high-level corporate exec-utives. He partnered with Forbes, a journey-man forward in the National Hockey Leaguefrom 1973 to 1979 and an intelligent butinexperienced planner whom Coombs hadfirst hired as an intern earlier in the decade.Together, they founded Petra Finan cial inWoodland Hills, specializing in asset man-agement.

By then, Coombs was a household namein the profession. He served as chair of theInstitute of Certified Financial Planners, oneof the two organizations that subsequentlymerged to form the current FinancialPlanning Association, and was on the boardof governors for the Certified FinancialPlanner Board of Standards.

As ICFP president from 1985 to 1986,Coombs started a residency program, a bootcamp for new financial planners to “learnsome street smarts.” He felt compelled toimprove the “reproductive ability” of a pro-fession he helped pioneer as a member of theoriginal class of 42 graduates. According toan April 2007 report by the CFP Board ofStandards, there were nearly 55,000 plannerswith CFP designation in the United Statesalone, and more than 100,000 worldwide.

Mission accomplished. In 2005, he wonthe FPA’s P. Kemp Fain Jr. Award for serviceto the profession, an honor he holds in highesteem. He was one of them.

“This was something they did that wasso far beyond practical,” Coates says of theprofession’s founders. “When you’ve gonethrough creating a profession and convinc-ing people of the validity of it, and you’veliterally spent your life doing that, you thinkat some point you’d be tired.”

But Ben Coombs never tires. He stillknows where the food is.

Matt DaSilva is a freelance writer inBaltimore.

A psychology major at Oxy,

Coombs worked on the

yearbook staff and played

golf for the Tigers. “My

liberal arts education didn’t

make me any better as a

financial planner,” he says,

“but it made me a lot better

as a citizen of the world.”

O

As thousands of acres burned across Southern California, many alumni homes were threatened, but most were spared.

Rancho Bernardo residents John Goodwin ’68 and Linda (Larsen) Goodwin ’71 weren’t so lucky

In an e-mail to family andfriends, daughter TressGoodwin (opposite page, withparents John and Linda, talkingto a German TV news crew)described the feeling of losingthe family home. “Each daygets better, with less tearfulmoments and more optimismfor what lies ahead.”

As thousands of acres burned across Southern California, many alumni homes were threatened, but most were spared.

Rancho Bernardo residents John Goodwin ’68and Linda (Larsen) Goodwin ’71 weren’t so lucky

Winter 2008 25

IT TOOK AS LITTLE as a quarter-hourfor John Goodwin ’68 and Linda(Larsen) Goodwin ’71’s lives to betransformed into a foot-high pile ofashes. In the weeks after the couple

lost their Rancho Bernardo home to theworst of Southern California’s recent wild-fires, the memory lives on, as if in a recurringbad dream. “You kind of look at each otherand say, ‘You mean it’s still true?’” says Linda.

Several other Occidental alumni avoid-ed disaster in fires that burned across aseven-county swath for nearly three weeksin October and November. The Goodwins’Aguamiel Road neighborhood was amongthe hardest hit, with newspapers across thecountry running front-page pictures ofdaughter Tress sifting through remains ofthe family’s two-story home.

When it was over, the Witch Fire—named for nearby Witch Creek Canyon andstarted by downed power lines—had scorched195,000 acres, destroyed 640 homes, and

damaged 250 others. Other blazes threatenedCarol (Findelsen) Millspaugh ’66 in nearbyCarmel Valley and Mary (Nelson) Smith ’73and Ron Smith ’75 in the Orange Countycommunity of Silverado. In each case, loss,fear, and sadness were tempered by an out-pouring of support from family, friends, andstrangers—many with an Oxy connection.“They’ve made it possible to get through thiswith some sense of grace,” John says.

All told, the various wildfires destroyedmore than 2,000 homes and consumed500,000 acres—an area more than half thesize of Rhode Island. They were among theworst in California history, forcing 640,000evacuations and causing more than $1 billionin damage.

The Goodwins, both elementary schoolteachers in the Poway Unified SchoolDistrict, had little time to consider their circumstances when the fire erupted Sunday,Oct. 21. They went to bed that night smellingsmoke, but the blaze seemed a distant threat.

After the

FireThey were awakened at 5:15 the next morn-ing by a phone call from a 16-year-oldneighbor. Flames were advancing towardtheir back yard and were already consuminghomes on a nearby hill.

Linda gathered important papers and hercomputer hard drive. She grabbed pieces ofart that she and John had picked up in travelsto China and Africa. Still, “in my mind, Inever thought this was going to be it,” shesays. Out back, John was calling for a ham-mer. A neighbor’s deck was on fire and heneeded to knock down a fence to attackflames with a garden hose. On the roof stoodTress, armed with her own hose in the face of60-mph Santa Ana winds. She’d only beenhome 12 hours from Stanford Medical Schoolbefore being pressed into action. “I harboredfantasies of actually saving the house,” Johnsays. “I was able to put bushes out. I grew upin L.A. and have been through fires.”

This time he wouldn’t be so fortunate.Less than an hour after the Goodwins’ rude

After theBY A N D Y FA U G H T

PHOTOS BY M A X S . G E R B E RFire

Photos (pages 25, 26) courtesy Tress Goodwin


awakening, firefighters ordered them to leavein no uncertain terms: “Get the hell out!”Their home of 27 years was doomed. So weremany homes in the upper-middle class neigh-borhood. The Goodwin residence wasreduced to ashes in less than half an hour,John says, along with countless memories.

“Unfortunately, I did not get the wed-ding photos, and the videos of the kids walk-ing and crawling,” Linda laments. “Those arethe hard things.” Gone were thousands ofthe family’s books, “and probably some oldbooks from Oxy,” she adds. Son Todd, a highschool history teacher in Stockton, moni-tored the situation helplessly from afar. Hisbaseball card collection was gone.

There have been small bright spots.John and Tress used homemade ash siftersto find two diamond rings that belonged toLinda’s mother and grandmother. The familyis considering organizing shards of dishesand other material into a keepsake mosaic,something not uncommon among familieswho have lost their homes to fire.

After the blaze, John and Linda retreatedto their cabin at Hume Lake in the SequoiaNational Forest. “I probably wrote 70 thank-you notes up there,” Linda says. “We havebeen absolutely overcome by the generosityof people. We’ve gotten gift cards from peo-ple we don’t even know.”

Near Del Mar, Carol Millspaugh got herfirst glimpse of trouble as she drove to thegrocery store Oct. 21. “The sky was notlooking good,” she recalls. Millspaugh andher husband, Dick, monitored the newsbefore going to bed at their Carmel CreekRoad condo. The situation hadn’t improvedby morning, and voluntary evacuations wereunder way.

“You can’t count on the government to takecare of you,” she says.

Outside, thick ash created an other-worldly “snowstorm,” says Mill spaugh. “Itall seemed pretty unreal.” By 7 a.m. Oct. 22,the Millspaughs arrived at a friend’s La Jollahome, where other fleeing couples also hadsought refuge. Carol and Dick spent threenights away from home as the Witch Fireburned to within four miles of their neigh-borhood—a not-so-insurmountable distancegiven the windy and dry conditions. “Wejoked that we’d go down to the beach and

“We didn’t want to wait for it to becomemandatory, so we started getting a fewthings ready,” says Millspaugh, pastor atMission Hills United Methodist Church inSan Diego. “Within a very short time, it wasmandatory to leave.” The couple packedboth of their cars with insurance and legalpapers, photo albums, medicine, a change ofclothes, and Ellie, their 3-year-old cat. TheMillspaughs weren’t entirely unprepared.Since Hurricane Katrina struck the GulfCoast in 2005, they’ve carried flashlightsand first aid kits in the trunks of their cars.

FAR LEFT: Tress Goodwin surveys the ashen remainsand destruction where her parents’ Rancho Bernardohome, left, had stood just days before. “We willrebuild,” says her mother, Linda (Larsen) Goodwin ’71.BELOW: Carol Millspaugh, pastor at Mission HillsUnited Methodist Church, escaped the flames (“Ashwas falling here like snowflakes, only not as appeal-ing”) and encountered a thriving human spirit.

Winter 2008 27

get in the water if it got too close,”Millspaugh says. “We weren’t entirely kid-ding. It was a very unnerving time.”

As tragedies so often do, the Witch Fireunited Millspaugh’s congregation in a com-mon purpose. The church rallied to the aidof six low-income families who lost theirhomes. Donations flooded in and broughtforth clothes, kitchen supplies, and toys.

From a pastor’s perspective, the tragedyspurred examinations of faith and service.“One woman asked why this happened toher co-worker,” Millspaugh says. “I told heras far as I know there’s no answer to the why,but that it’s important to change the ques-tion to how. How, in this circumstance, canwe be part of God’s compassion and pres-ence? With the why question, you just keepcoming up against a wall. We can respond tohow. How can I be helpful given this situa-tion? That frees up people tremendously.”

Millspaugh traces her spiritual ground-ing to Franklyn D. Josselyn, emeritus pro-fessor of religion. An English major at Oxy,Millspaugh studied under Josselyn andfound her true calling after her mentor dis-pelled one important myth: “I didn’t evenknow women could be ordained.” Sheenrolled at Union Theological Seminary(Josselyn’s alma mater), where Millspaughearned her master’s in divinity. “It neverdawned on me that I would become the min-ister of a congregation. It’s been wonderful.”

Farther north in Orange County, thearson-started Santiago Fire was snuffed outjust 300 yards short of Mary and Ron Smith’shome. The couple lives in a small housingdevelopment called Santiago CanyonEstates, which butts against the foothills ofthe Cleveland National Forest. Though fireis a constant threat in the area, “this was theclosest” during the couple’s five years in theneighborhood, Mary says.

Oct. 22 started auspiciously enough.Mary, a children’s librarian in the OrangeCounty Public Library system, drove towork under blue skies. The situation deteri-

orated quickly, and by lunchtime she wasback home grabbing possessions.

“I had in mind basic things we needed:passports, the important papers, enoughclothes to go to work for a couple days.Then I started getting photo albums and pic-tures my mother drew that couldn’t bereplaced. Then I got kind of overwhelmedand thought, ‘This is just stuff.’ I had moreroom in my car, but I figured, ‘Well, I’ll trustthat everything will be all right.’”

With firefighters stretched thin acrossSouthern California, Ron, a captain in theCosta Mesa Police Department, stayed behindand stomped out embers with a neighbor.Neighborhood planning appears to havehelped their cause. A homeowners associa-tion rule requires there to be 200 feet of fire-resistant ground cover around residences.

The Smiths—whose son, Eric, is ajunior cognitive science major at Oxy—were never forced to evacuate. It wasenough of a close call, though, for Mary todouble-check her surroundings. “I had animpulse to walk in and out of every room toreassure myself that it was all still there.”

When it was over, the Smiths and theirneighbors hosted a reception for firefighters.The experience has Mary thinking ahead—just in case. “The things I put in a box thatwere important, the papers, maybe I shouldnot refile them and keep them handy.”

The Goodwins, meanwhile, are now set-tling into a Rancho Bernardo condo they’rerenting until their home can be rebuilt.Friends held a “fire shower” for the couple,who registered for housewares at Crate &Barrel, Linens-N-Things, and Macy’s. Thetransition frequently reminds the Goodwinsthat normalcy could be a while in coming.“It’s rather disorienting not to have the littledetails of life in each of the cupboards anddrawers you expect them,” John says.

While the Goodwins admit to momentsof “overwhelming sadness,” both are resolute.“You just learn to go on and see the silver lin-ings,” Linda says. “We’re going to go intoretirement with new carpeting, new plumb-ing and a new house. I’ve lost weight—andwe don’t have any more termites.”

Former Occidental staff writer AndyFaught now lives in Fresno.

O

Mary (Nelson) Smith ’73 stands next to her OrangeCounty home. She and husband Ron Smith ’75 weretwo of the lucky ones, averting disaster by about300 yards. As firefighters concentrated their effortson the two homes at the end of the Smiths’ cul desac, “Ron and one other neighbor determined tostay,” she recalls. “When embers started falling fromthe sky, I decided that it was time to go.”

On Jan. 1, Frank will assume his newyet comfortably familiar job as dean of theCollege. Frank has served three consecutiveterms as interim dean but now will hold thispermanent position until at least July 2010.“I don’t see the president’s resignation as atransition that will affect the character of theexperience for students, faculty, and theadministration on the ground at all,” hesays. “I feel, in my new, permanent position,that I can be more far reaching in setting andreaching goals and I am very optimistic. It ismy mandate and my promise.”

Frank sees great opportunity in thecoming years, especially for young faculty.He believes that when there is administra-tive change, there are also opportunities forinstitutional change. He hopes for “an open,intellectual, noisy, and productive discus-sion about the future.”


S E R E N D I P I T YHis respect for this sort of dialogue

comes from his own liberal arts background.A native of Queens, N.Y., Frank grew up onLong Island. His parents were proud of mov-ing up in the world, to a suburban neighbor-hood that Frank describes as “populated bycookie-cutter homes so typical of new hous-ing on Long Island at the time.” Frank was,admittedly, isolated from the larger world inthis prescribed environment.

As a sophomore at Dartmouth Collegein Hanover, N.H., Frank took a big step for akid who never traveled anywhere—jumpingthe pond and enrolling in a Dartmouth for-eign study program in Florence, Italy. Thatjourney led Frank to identify his passion,and it didn’t include a stethoscope. “Seren -dipitously, an art history class was alsooffered on this program that included aninternship with a fresco restorer,” he recalls.“The internship was amazing and it touchedsomething in me that was very stimulating.”

After completing his Ph.D at New YorkUniversity’s Institute of Fine Arts, Frankwent on to win the prestigious Rome Prizefrom the American Academy in Rome. Thisfellowship is designed for emerging artistsand scholars who are eager to develop theiraptitudes in a residential environment. Itwas there that he became convinced of thedeep value of a liberal arts education andgained experience that would help him crafthis leadership skills.

Frank is particularly excited about twoCollege self-studies that are related to Occi-dental’s reaccreditation process in the nextfew years. The first study is an institutionalconversation about the school’s governance,while the second explores the nature ofOccidental as a residential college in LosAngeles. “As an institution, we have beenslow in conducting long-term planningbecause we’ve been distracted by financialand leadership issues,” he says. “These arebehind us now—we are financially soundand we have a lot of goodwill and energy tomove forward.”

As the College moves forward, so goesFrank. “The river that I’ve navigated hasbeen a bending and unpredictable one, butthe ride has been rational in retrospect,” hesays. “I think you need to follow whereyou’re being pushed by your passion andyour life’s path will all make sense lookingback.”—COLLEEN SHARKEY

ERIC FRANK IS A DOCTOR, but notthe kind that his parents had inmind. They wanted him to be evalu-

ating human patients, not dissecting ItalianRenaissance Art. It is, however, within thatpast familial struggle that Frank finds theinspiration that fuels his dedication to Occi-dental—a 21-year relationship with no signsof slowing down.

“I believe in the transformative powerof a liberal arts education because I’ve seenit work for 20 years,” Frank says. “Whatmakes Occidental distinctive is its locationin a world-class city, its diversity, its multi-tude of opportunities in terms of internshipsand field trips and, perhaps most important-ly, the intimate texture of the undergraduateexperience here. Oxy is a national treasurethat is, in a way, a hidden gem—and it’s ourjob to increase its visibility.”

The Art of the Dean

In the coming years, Frank envisionsopen discussions involving College

resources, curricular and co-curricularprograms, and ways in which Oxy mayfurther engage the city of Los Angeles.

Photo by Dennis Davis

Before he went off to college, Eric Frank never strayed far from home. Then he discovered his life’s

passion during a semester abroad in Italy

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