WINTER 2017
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WINTER 2017
When Christine Ray ’59 enrolled at Oxy, she was on very familiar ground. Her grandparents, John and Gertrud Addison, moved to California from Michigan and built their home at the corner of Escarpa Drive and Campus Road in the early 1920s. As children, she and her older brother loved to explore the campus. Russ Ray ’57 was the first to matriculate, and she followed two years later. Chris has vivid memories of Clancy’s Sunday morning breakfasts of sausage and sautéed apple slices made with butter and cinnamon. She enjoyed living in Erdman and Newcomb halls as well as the Gamma House, and fondly recalls language department chair and professor James G. Bickley, who taught Spanish with a Southern accent. An education major, Chris taught elementary school in Carmel after college along with some of her friends from Oxy. She was playing bridge on Cannery Row when she met Emlen “Bill” Holmes in September 1962. Bill was taking a year of Russian in the Army Language School at the historic Presidio of Monterey after completing two years in the service. The couple was married in Johnson Hall on June 22, 1963, with professor of religious studies Franklyn Josselyn, the College chaplain at the time, officiating. “It was elegant and beautiful,” Chris says.
Chris hailed from a family of teachers—her mom, aunts, uncles, and so on. She taught for a total of 28 years, including 20 years of kindergarten at Mayfield Junior School in Pasadena. And her family inspired Bill, a graduate of Williams College, to go into education as well: He taught at South Pasadena High School for 30 years before retiring in 1995. Chris and Bill enjoyed their experience as Oxy parents. Their son, Bill ’88, majored in Spanish studies, with a minor in art history and visual arts, and worked for two College legends: food director Clancy Morrison and professor of art George Baker ’58. The younger Bill married a classmate, Marybeth Maury ’88—and Photo by Marc Campos their son, Sam Maury-Holmes, enrolled at Oxy last fall, much to his grandparents’ delight. Chris and Bill Holmes continue to give to Oxy because, “oddly enough, our backgrounds at small liberal arts residential schools are similar,” Bill says. “We are pretty well committed to that model.” Chris appreciates the personal attention she received as a student and treasures the lifetime friendships that began at Occidental. Having created four charitable gift annuities to the College, Chris and Bill agree that supporting Oxy is beneficial for everyone. Bill calls it a “win-win-win all the way around. It is so important to sustain institutions like Occidental, because education is a worthwhile cause.”
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