Trojan Family Magazine Autumn 2010 by University of Southern California

Inside FEATURES

24 Art Stars Recent MFA graduates of the USC Roski School of Fine Arts are exhibiting around the globe at museums and gal leries and are having a major impact on the art world. Interviews by Allison Engel

33 Daring Young Men In 1948, the Berlin Airlift seemed an impossible adventure. But heroic young pilots saved West Berlin. We excerpt the gripping new book by a storied USC Annenberg journalist. By Richard Reeves

38 Good Business USC Marshall teaches social entre preneurs how to balance a revenue mission with environmental, health and community missions. By Julie Riggott

›› PAGE 27

Mindy Shapero: “Advice I hold on to: ‘Make things that embarrass you. Always take the risk of failing.’”

44 A Return to Normalcy Brain surgery for epilepsy can stop a lifetime of seizures. By Sara Reeve

›› PAGE 38 “Whenever I say we’re out to change

the world, everyone automatically assumes that’s for the better. Nobody asks, ‘What are you changing it to?’ They just say: ‘You’re going to change the world? Great.’ ”

– USC professor Adlai Wertman, founder and director of the Society and Business Lab at the USC Marshall School of Business

USC Trojan Family Magazine Autumn ’10 Published by the University of Southern California Volume 42 Number 3

Kenneth Turan

›› PAGE 17

Autumn 2o1o 12

COLUMNS

4 Editor’s Note

64 Last Word Remember tailfins and windshields that looked like cockpits? It’s Car Talk, circa 1950.

18 Shelf Life Tortoises are in trouble, warns primatologist Craig Stanford. The fabled reptile may face extinction within our lifetime. 19 Arts & Culture USC Thornton Opera resurrects a rarely staged comic opera; scholars Leo Braudy and Scott Soames get “Academy” awards.

6 Mailbag Pats, pans and pithy observa tions from readers.

21 Lab Work USC biologists crack the genetic code behind important plant traits, and a new theory on what makes volcanoes grow.

10 What’s New USC “turns it up to 11” with a new president who is a classi cally trained engineer and a fervent supporter of the arts.

23 Reaching Out The staff of USC TRiO Upward Bound gets a national award, recognizing the academic suc cesses of its at-risk students.

DEPARTMENTS

12 Support Report The Kortschak family establishes a one-of-a-kind center to pro vide support for USC students with learning differences.

››

PAGE 10 The Nikias Family: C. L. Max Nikias: “My wife, Niki, and I and our daugh ters (Georgiana, right, and Maria) love being a ‘Trojan family,’ and we love being a part of the greater Trojan Family.”

16 People Watch A pair of successful screen writers who sing their pitches, and why reknowned film critic Kenneth Turan makes time to teach at USC.

48 Family Ties The USC Alumni Association’s new president, Carol Fox, out lines her goals for the lifelong and worldwide organization. 53 Class Notes Who’s doing what and where. On the cover: USC’s 11th president, C. L. Max Nikias, on the Bovard Administration Building roof, with Plato over his shoulder. Photo by Philip Channing

For past issues of USC Trojan Family Magazine, visit www.usc.edu/dept/pubrel/trojan_family

U S C T R O J A N F A M I L Y M A G A Z I N E autumn 2010

[ editor’s note ]

A Man of Action

USC’s new president, C. L. Max Nikias, signaled his approach to his new job by announcing in July that his first act as president would be to formally name Pat Haden ’75 as the new athletic director at the university, replacing Mike Garrett ’65, who led the program for 17 years.

Editor

Susan Heitman

This announcement came in the wake of strong NCAA sanctions on

Art Director

programs in football and men’s basketball. Along with Haden’s appoint-

Rick Simner

ment, Nikias outlined a number of other changes aimed at strengthening USC’s athletic compliance office, with the goal of making it “one of the preeminent compliance teams in the nation.”

senior Editors

Allison Engel Diane Krieger Contributing Writers

Haden embraced this vision. Facing his first media swarm in Heritage Hall on the day of the announcement, he pledged to focus on compliance with NCAA rules, on enhancing the extracurricular experience of USC’s 640 student-athletes competing in 19 men’s and women’s sports, and on Pat Haden

USC

Trojan Family Magazine

making the women’s athletic programs at USC world-class. “We want to compete ferociously,” he told reporters, “but to do it ethi-

cally and within the rules.” Though Haden may be best remembered as a famed USC and LA Rams quarterback, he brings many other assets to the table. A Rhodes Scholar, two-time Academic All-American and a magna cum laude graduate in 1975, Haden has been a general partner in a private equity firm as well as a member of USC’s Board of Trustees since 1991, chairing the academic affairs and student affairs committees and acting as a key adviser to two USC provosts. In his announcement, Nikias paid tribute to Mike Garrett, pointing out that during his tenure, USC teams won almost two dozen national championships – in men’s water polo, tennis, football and baseball, and in women’s volleyball, water polo, golf, track and field, swimming and diving, and soccer. He also was dedicated to helping student-athletes prepare for life after athletic competition. Nikias’ complete letter to the Trojan Family can be found at http://uscnews.usc.edu/university/ pat_haden_named_new_athletics_director.html – Susan Heitman

Susan Andrews, Andrea Bennett Alex Boekelheide, Mary Bruce Ariel Carpenter, Talia Cohen Mel Cowan, Lori Craig Jackson DeMos, Bill Dotson Beth Dunham, Kevin Durkin James Grant, Richard Hoops Pamela J. Johnson, Timothy O. Knight Ross M. Levine, Meghan Lewit Sam Lopez, Eric Mankin, Carl Marziali Cynthia Monticue, Annette Moore Laurie Moore, Jon Nalick Katie Neith, Eddie North-Hager Justin Pierce, Sara Reeve Leslie Ridgeway, Shirley Shin Gilien Silsby, Kukla Vera, Suzanne Wu acting managing Editor

Sheharazad P. Fleming Design and production

Russell Ono Stacey Torii Photography

Allison Engel (coordinator) Dietmar Quistorf advertising/Circulation Manager

Vickie Kebler (213) 740-3162

Moving? Please attach your current mailing label and send to: USC Trojan Family Magazine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-7790. Or e-mail us at: magazines@usc.edu

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USC Trojan Family Magazine University of Southern California Los Angeles, California 90089-7790 tel: (213) 740-2684 / fax: (213) 821-1100 e-mail: magazines@usc.edu web: www.usc.edu/trojan_family USC Trojan Family Magazine (ISSN 8750-7927) is published four times a year, in February, May, August and November, by the University of Southern California, Office of University Communications, 3375 S. Hoover St, Los Angeles, CA 90089-7790.

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U S C T r o j a n Fa m i ly m a g a z i n e autumn 2010

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Mailbag

“Ted Healy and his Three Stooges caused a mild eruption with their hilarious antics. The boys participated in the Homecoming rally as one of the featured acts in Bovard Auditorium. With this appearance approximately 70 years ago, I wonder if any alumni who saw them are still around?” QUOTED ››

Invisible Wounds Your story on Military Social Work (“Healing Invisible Wounds,” Summer 2010, p. 36) was a fascinating insight into the extent of trauma existing in our armed forces returning from Afghanistan. It made me wonder what happened in the past, as in the example of soldiers in our Civil War. Was there any recognition of such problems, or did they even exist in the same sense? Indeed, is there a record that reflects on this? The disaster to Grant’s Union Army at Cold Harbor, Va., in early June 1864 must have affected many soldiers. Approximately 7,000 men were shot down in under 20 minutes by a storm of Confederate fire described as a “continual crash of thunder.” Is there something critically different about a war such as the one we are fighting in Afghanistan that places a greater emotional burden on troops? Louis C. Kleber ’51 LAS VEGAS, NV

Ask, Don’t Tell” (Patriots), I was thrilled to hear about the attention ﬁnally being given to the mental health issues of service members. And I am looking forward to the time when the School of Social Work will acknowledge and publicly address the unfairness of and the harm done by “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” As social workers, we ﬁrst learn to “meet the client where the client is.” It

[LAST WORD]

doesn’t matter if the client is gay, in the military or both. It is hypocritical to support the military and let the military ﬁnancially support the school without pointing out that social work is about accepting the other as the other is, while the military is not. Robin Rumack ’06 LOS ANGELES, CA

Your article, “Healing Invisible Wounds,” was about the ﬁne work USC is doing to help treat combat veterans’ issues. However, in a sidebar titled “Mars and Minerva,” the following sentence appears: “A social worker does not implicitly endorse their lifestyle by agreeing to treat them.” The idea that this is just a “lifestyle” choice is condescending at best, and offensive at worst, since it implies that serving one’s country in a time of war and seeing the horrors of combat are just a

Hurray for No. 2

Holy bat-trap, you Last Worders sure know your sidekicks! Most of the 144 entries that came back in response to the last puzzle showed real mastery of hero-sidekick lore. A handful of you mixed up Robin Givens and Robin Quivers, and several proposed dream comedy teams of their own: Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby, anyone? How about Crosby and Danny Kaye? One puzzler reached back into the silent era, with Buster Crabbe and Fuzzy Jones. But errors aside, the main problem that felled

Concerning the article “Healing Invisible Wounds,” Lt. Col. George Youstra (USAF), whom I heard speak recently before he left for Afghanistan as chief chaplain, could add another level of experience as you develop this much-needed service to/for America’s armed forces. Craig S. Reynolds ’58

Last Worders was a lamentable disregard for instructions. We requested the names of the No. 2s and their corresponding No. 1s. A few clues called for two sets of heroes and sidekicks. Many entries were disqualified due to incomplete answers. Of 32 perfectly correct entries, these five winners were randomly selected to receive $50 Borders gift certificates: Adele Fergus-O’Brien BS ‘76, MS ‘84, Juan Albornoz ‘96, Bruce Brown MBA ‘71, John Holler MS ‘87 and Anita M. Scotti ‘06 Answers ›› 1. Front-side trouser pocket 2. Sancho Panza to Don Quixote 3. Igor (or Fritz) to

SCOT TSDALE, AZ

Dr. Frankenstein, and Smithers to Mr. Burns 4. Friday to Robinson Crusoe 5. Donkey to Shrek

As a graduate of the USC School of Social Work, I was glad to see all of the attention being shown to a generally unappreciated major. As co-producer of a documentary ﬁlm about life in the military under “Don’t

6. Ed Norton to Ralph Kramden, and Barney Rubble to Fred Flintstone 7. Buddy Pine (aka Syndrome) to Mr. Incredible 8. Tattoo to Mr. Roarke 9. Ed McMahon to Johnny Carson 10. Bob Hope to Bing Crosby, and Jerry Lewis to Dean Martin 11. Ethel and Fred Mertz to Lucy and Ricky Ricardo 12. Chewbacca to Han Solo 13. Robin Quivers to Howard Stern ●

We welcome letters from readers although we do reserve the right to select and edit for space. Please include your name, address, e-mail address, degree and year of graduation, if applicable, with each letter and mail to: USC Trojan Family Magazine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-7790 or e-mail us at: magazines@usc.edu. Please note that, because of our production schedule, it might be several months before your letter appears.

U S C T R O J A N FA M I LY M A G A Z I N E autumn 2010

â&#x20AC;&#x153;lifestyle,â&#x20AC;? much like joining a street gang. I hope this reďŹ&#x201A;ects a poor choice of words by the writer and not the position of USC. Joseph W. Koletar MPA â&#x20AC;&#x2122;81, DPA â&#x20AC;&#x2122;93 U.S. Army 1967-1969 BOLIVIA, NC

I am a USC alumnus and frankly very disturbed by your article. My husband is a Vietnam veteran who suffers from PTSD and has hearing loss, sleep disorder and various other ailments. Jeff was a documentation cameraman in the U.S. Air Force, ďŹ&#x201A;ew numerous combat missions from 1970 to 1972 and received Air Medals for his service. There were several occasions when he manned the guns. He put his fellow comrades in body bags too many times to count, and he is aware that several of his fellow soldiers committed suicide when they returned home. Your article missed the boat when you primarily focused on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and the serious mental traumas these soldiers will face when they return home. When Jeff returned home, he was mocked for serving in the Vietnam War, spit on at the train station and humiliated on numerous occasions. After all, Jane Fonda,

her fellow celebrities and various politicians thought the war was a joke and only recently apologized for their insensitivity. How demoralizing for our servicemen to be treated with such disdain. Jeff enlisted to serve our country and did what he was told to do. Your article states that the ratio of wounded in combat compared to those killed in the Vietnam War was 3 to 1, a very signiďŹ cant casualty rate! Why have these former soldiers been neglected for so many years? Jeff went to the VA for help over 15 years ago. His concerns were not taken seriously, and his claim that he suffered from PTSD was dismissed. We were shocked and dismayed at the cavalier attitude displayed by the VA staff. Jeff returned to the VA almost two years ago for help with his conditions. The process is extremely slow, and he still does not have a resolution regarding his disabilities. It is very frustrating and unfortunate that it has taken all these years for his conditions to be addressed. He needs help! Your article disregards the Vietnam War and the traumas these individuals face many years later. It took years for that war to be recognized. These soldiers deserve

some respect and recognition for what they endured, whether or not we agree with the warâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s purpose. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s my opinion that you should address this war and the needs of these soldiers. Indeed, there is a mental health crisis in Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s armed forces. Cheryl A. Fox, â&#x20AC;&#x2122;75 NORTHRIDGE, CA

Teacher Stats Regarding Starshine Roshellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s article â&#x20AC;&#x153;Teaching the Teachersâ&#x20AC;? (Summer 2010, p. 30), I am hoping to determine the information source(s) of the lead sentence: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Research shows that more than a third of Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s teachers could retire within the next four years, creating a dire shortage of qualiďŹ ed instructors in the nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s schools.â&#x20AC;? James E. Richards S T. L O U I S , M O

P.S. My dad (now deceased) was a proud USC alumnus, PhD â&#x20AC;&#x2122;50 in musicology. The source is the National Commission on Teaching and Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Future. For more informa-

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tion about its report, visit www.nctaf.org/docu ments/NCTAFLearningTeams408REG2.pdf Archaeological Mapping The article “Mapping the Possibilities” (What’s New, Summer 2010, p. 17), about Lynn Swartz Dodd of USC, Raﬁ Greenberg of Tel Aviv University and a team of Israeli and Arab experts developing the ﬁrst map detailing 40 years of Israeli archaeological activity in Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem, was very inspiring. We now have an interactive satellite map showing the locations of around 7,000 archaeological sites. This has great possibilities for opening a whole new chapter in archaeological and historical research in Israel. Michael Bussio ’72 S C O T T S VA L L E Y , C A

Larry, Curly and Moe Redux

I applaud USC’s continuing efforts to improve the quality of education, as a graduate of the class of 1981, I found the statement offensive. I wonder how many of my fellow graduates of a “lesser caliber” felt the same and will remember this the next time we are solicited for a donation. Janice L. Merrill ’81 P O N C E I N L E T, F L

Clocking In We were so impressed with Jonathon Nostrant’s Moshi clock in the article “Masters of Their Own Universe” (Spring 2010, p. 24) that we looked for it at Bed, Bath & Beyond and purchased it for graduating high school seniors. It was a double winner! Not only could we support a fellow Trojan, but also what a great gift idea! Thank you, USC Trojan Family Magazine. Without your article we never would have thought to look at clocks. What a great way for incoming freshmen to start each college day! Ann Cooper HOUSTON, TX

Re: “Stooges Run Amok,” (Class Notes, Summer 2010, p. 61). Here’s some additional information about the connection between USC and the Three Stooges. In 1933, Larry, Curly and Moe made an appearance on campus as part of the entertainment at the USC Homecoming rally. How do I know? Check out page 65 of the 1934 edition of El Rodeo yearbook. Pictured (above) are the Stooges with comic Ted Healy (far right) and other guests. Quoting from the page: “Ted Healy and his ‘Three Stooges’ caused a mild eruption with their hilarious antics.” According to the story, the boys participated in the Homecoming rally as one of the featured acts in Bovard Auditorium. With this appearance approximately 70 years ago, I wonder if any alumni who saw them are still around? Jim Pauley P H I L A D E L P H I A , PA

Underwater Undergrad Reader Melanie McLaughlin had it right (Mailbag, Summer 2010, p. 9). Mr. Anderson was my swimming instructor in spring 1965. I remember him as a small, somewhat wiry man who carried a reputation for having served as a USC swim coach in the distant past. He may have been semiretired at the time, and I also think I heard his associates call him “Danny.” I owe my life to Mr. Anderson, literally. In April 1965, I asked him to monitor my attempt to break USC’s underwater swim record. I was nearing completion of the third transverse lap in the old “gymnasium” pool when I blacked out. Next I knew, I heard Mr. Anderson’s voice, “Pull his tongue out,” as I lay on the pool deck. He and his associate pulled me up as I choked out water. An interesting commentary on those days when students weren’t so coddled: I dressed and calmly went to my Physics 141L discussion class – a bit late – but thirsty for more knowledge. I hadn’t heard Mr. Anderson mentioned for 45 years until your magazine, which I count on for news and memories of the great institution of my upbringing, USC. David W. Crain ’68, MS ’71, PhD ’76 HACIENDA HEIGHTS, CA

Loose Page I read with amusement the reprint of The Daily Beast article inserted in the Spring 2010 edition, which boasted that USC is now “matriculating a completely different caliber of student than it once was.” While

U S C T R O J A N FA M I LY M A G A Z I N E autumn 2010

Cardinal, Gold and Greene The University of Southern California has always epitomized the motto, “actions speak louder than words.” This applies not only to its academic and athletic endeavors,

but also to its student services and community outreach. I have fond memories of the ’70s, working as a volunteer mentor in the USC Black Student Union/United Mexican-American and Asian-American Tutorial Programs, and teaching part-time in the Urban Semester program. It was great working with college students and elementary students as part of USC’s community involvement and academic support programs. Recently, I have retired and am now working with the California Teachers Association’s Boys and Men of Color Program (funded by the California Endowment), which focuses on at-risk elementary and middle school African-American and Latino students. The objectives of the program are to have our youngsters become responsible young adults, learn and respect societal values, understand the importance of a college education, and express gratitude to their parents and teachers by their actions. In the last few months, I have taken both middle and elementary school students to the USC campus. We are grateful to the Admissions Office (especially Sam and Nick), El Centro Chicano (Leticia and student interns), and Black Cultural & Student Affairs (Corliss and staff) for their tremendous support and willingness to impart lasting impressions on the young minds. Our students have been mentored on where to sit in classrooms to optimize learning, to share with their parents that they want to go to college now, to follow their passions, and to have a contingency plan in their lives. It is no wonder that most of these students have USC in their sights for the future. In the last outing, our elementary school students were eating lunch by the fountain in front of Doheny Memorial Library. The semester was over and the campus was mostly devoid of students. However, a young fellow with an infectious smile came by riding his bicycle and stopped to talk to our students. He was asked how he got to USC. He replied that he studied hard and practiced hard. He was also asked what advice he had for the students. He responded that they should thank their parents and everyone who helped them get into college. Unfortunately, he had to leave in order to catch an airplane flight back home for the summer. These students will always remember the class and selflessness of this inspirational young man, Kevin Greene, defensive end, number 81. Thank you, USC, for sharing with all of us. Rocky Barilla ’70, JD ’75 B E L M O N T, C A

Notice Board Take 500 carefully vetted recipes, mix in vibrant watercolor paintings by Gayle Garner Roski (namesake of USC’s Roski School of Fine Arts), divide among tabbed categories in a padded three-ring binder, and leaven with 83 meetings and ample volunteer help. The result is LUSCious, a cookbook from USC’s Alumnae Coordinating Council. The first edition, printed in 2009, sold out immediately. Now the second edition is available. There are recipes from former USC first lady Kathryn Sample (Frozen Cranberry Banana Salad) and new USC first lady Niki Nikias (Galaktoboureko – Greek Custard Pastry), as well as toothsome contributions from trustees, alums, parents and friends. In all, 1,500 recipes were reviewed by a committee of seven women. Recipes then were examined by a different panel, with the goal of finding the 500 best submissions. The Alumnae Coordinating Council is a board representing 19 USC women’s support groups, and the proceeds from the book sales go toward scholarships. The book can be ordered for $35 (including shipping) through the USC Alum-

nae Coordinating Council Web site (www. uscacc.com/cart) or by sending orders with checks, payable to “Alumnae Coordinating Council,” to Mary Richardson, 16852 Morse Circle, Huntington Beach, CA 92649. Mary Richardson ’62 HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA

CAMPUS

The USC Gould School of Law is presenting the third annual “U.S. Supreme Court: A Preview” program, featuring distinguished legal scholars Kathleen Sullivan of Stanford Law, John Eastman of Chapman Law and Rebecca Brown of USC Gould on Sept. 20. The program is co-sponsored by USC Gould and the student chapters of the American Constitution Society and Federalist Society. The symposium, moderated by USC Gould professor Elizabeth Garrett, begins with a reception at 4:30 p.m. The panelists will discuss and debate the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court term. They will look at the dynamics of the court, the conﬁrmation of U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan and the court’s future. Sullivan, Eastman and Brown also will examine several high-proﬁle cases scheduled for the 2010 term, which will include

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We need your assistance in preserving the heritage of our university. The USC University Archives exist to collect, preserve and make available records having permanent value in documenting the history of the university, its administrative ofﬁces and academic departments, and USC-related organizations as well as the activities of faculty, staff and students. Books, manuscripts, USC periodicals and newspapers, posters, photographic images, disc and tape recordings, and other archival items are available for research under supervised conditions. Please contact me at (213) 740-2587 or czachary@usc.edu, or visit us at www.usc. edu/arc/libraries/uscarchives. Claude Zachary USC University Archivist CAMPUS

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U S C T R O J A N FA M I LY M A G A Z I N E autumn 2010

What’s New NEWS

NOTES ON ALL THINGS TROJAN

President C. L. Max Nikias USC’s 11th president is widely hailed for his energy, innovative ideas and skill in building partnerships. the selection of C. L. Max Nikias as USC’s 11th president, Board of Trustees chairman Edward P. Roski, Jr., called him “a remarkable and inspiring leader, a brilliant scholar, and the best possible person to lead our university forward,” an opinion that is widely shared among faculty, students and alumni. Over the course of his career as a researcher, educator and university administrator, Nikias has earned accolades for his leadership, innovation and fund raising, as well as his ability to build partnerships among varied constituencies. As the university’s chief academic officer since 2005, he is credited with accelerating the university’s recent academic momentum, recruiting new leadership, strengthening the academic medical enterprise, helping attract a series of major donations to the institution, creating innovative cross-disciplinary programs, enhancing the university’s globalization efforts, and increasing support for students at the undergraduate, graduate and doctoral levels. His selection by the Board of Trustees

IN ANNOUNCING

›› “I interviewed

a number of sitting presidents and provosts. It’s no accident we chose our incumbent provost, a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and a maven of innovative technologies and teaching.” - Warren Bennis, USC University Professor and leadership expert, in The Washington Post

U S C T R O J A N F A M I L Y M A G A Z I N E autumn 2010

photo by philip channing

OVERHEARD

followed a search process that involved an advisory committee of trustees and senior faculty representatives working with one of the nation’s premier search consulting

firms serving higher education. Between November 2009 and January 2010, the advisory committee met with 15 key USC constituent groups, including students, faculty, alumni leaders, community representatives, staff, and various university supporters and friends. After reviewing approximately 75 candidates, the committee interviewed seven finalists, all of whom were sitting presidents or provosts at major universities.

photo by philip channing

“It is a testament to Max Nikias’ abilities that, from such an impressive group of educators, he was unanimously recommended by the advisory committee,” Roski said. “During his 19 years as a faculty member and administrator at USC, he has provided distinguished service to the university in a variety of roles.” Although Nikias was widely expected to succeed USC President Emeritus Steven B. Sample, he told the Daily Trojan that he took nothing for granted, and was thrilled when he got the official call. “In the whole space of higher education today, this is by far the very best job,” he said. He called it “the greatest honor to be given this opportunity to work toward realizing the dreams and aspirations of the Trojan Family. “This incredible, wide-ranging university represents an electric environment, one remarkably skilled at producing new ideas and new leaders to strengthen our society,” he added. “Moving USC forward, and accelerating its breathtaking momentum, strikes me as the most rewarding endeavor in American higher education today. “It has been said that the only sure way to predict the future is to invent it. And because USC’s faculty, students, alumni and staff comprise a global intellectual community of unsurpassed breadth, energy and dedication, I have exceeding confidence in USC’s own future. “My wife, Niki, and I and our daughters love being a ‘Trojan family,’ and we love being a part of the greater Trojan Family. To be able, then, to lead the Trojan Family forward now is the opportunity of a lifetime, as we write together the next chapter in USC’s extraordinary history.” AFTER BEING named provost in 2005, Nikias worked with faculty and deans to develop a number of new programs that would help create a distinct academic environment at USC. To enhance the undergraduate experience for USC students, he established new scholarship programs that reward innovative scholarship and global academic immersion. He also sponsored a USC Arts curriculum that encourages crossarts interdisciplinary programs, including minors, progressive degrees, joint degrees and joint classes. He drove the creation of USC’s groundbreaking Visions and Voices initiative in the arts and humanities, now in its fourth year, which has drawn tens of thousands of undergraduates from all disciplines to a

range of artistic and cultural programming. Nikias launched other initiatives as well, including a quintupling of funding for Ph.D. fellowships to $20 million per year, a grant program for advancing scholarship in the humanities and social sciences, and a program to recruit leading interdisciplinary scholars as Provost’s Professors. He recruited new leadership to the Keck School of Medicine of USC, spearheaded the integration of the school’s 19 faculty practice plans, and oversaw the transfer of USC University Hospital and USC Norris Cancer Hospital from Tenet Healthcare Corporation to the university. Nikias also was instrumental in negotiating on behalf of the university the relocation of the Shoah Foundation – originally established by filmmaker and USC trustee Steven Spielberg – and the establishment of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education. Nikias established an Office of Research Advancement in Washington, D.C., that has been directly responsible for helping faculty win more than $140 million in federal research funding in the past 30 months. to USC in 1991 to develop a national-caliber center for multimedia research, and became the founding director and principal investigator for the Integrated Media Systems Center (IMSC). In a fierce competition in 1996, USC’s IMSC proposal to NSF was ranked first out of 117, a pool that included proposals from America’s top-ranked research universities. He served as dean of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering from 2001 to 2005. During a fund-raising campaign that lasted under four years, he secured a naming gift from Andrew J. and Erna Viterbi, as well as other gifts from major donors and institutions for individual academic departments and institutes. Nikias was the only dean in USC’s history to secure more than $200 million in such a brief period of time. He recruited 30 world-class faculty members to the USC Viterbi School and also tripled the number of women on the faculty. In April 2008, he was named inaugural holder of the Malcolm R. Currie Chair in Technology and the Humanities. As president, he also holds the Robert C. Packard President’s Chair. Each fall, Nikias teaches a micro-seminar to incoming freshmen on the development of democracy and the dramatic arts within ancient Athens. l

NIKIAS WAS RECRUITED

Left to right: Maria, Niki, Max and Georgiana Nikias outside Mudd Hall

C. L. Max Nikias ›› EDUCATION Graduated with honors from Famagusta Gymnasium, a school in Cyprus that emphasizes sciences, history and GrecoRoman classics. Received diploma from National Technical University of Athens, also known as National Metsovion Polytechnic, Greece’s oldest and most prestigious institution of higher education. Earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from State University of New York at Buffalo.

›› PROFESSIONAL Internationally recognized for pioneering research on digital signal processing and communications, digital media systems, and biomedicine. Founding director of two national research centers at USC: NSF Engineering Research Center on Integrated Media Systems and Department of Defense Center for Research on Applied Signal Processing. Innovations and patents in sonar, radar and communications systems adopted by Department of Defense. Author of more than 275 journal articles and papers, three textbooks and eight patents. Mentor of more than 30 Ph.D. and postdoctoral students.

›› HONORS Member of the National Academy of Engineering and fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), California Council on Science and Technology, and American Association for the Advancement of Science. Recipient of 2008 IEEE Simon Ramo Medal.

›› PERSONAL Wife Niki has an accounting degree from Athens University of Economics and Business in Greece, and an MBA in finance from SUNY Buffalo; daughter Georgiana is a third-year student at USC Gould School of Law; and daughter Maria is a senior at the USC Annen berg School for Communication & Journalism. l For more information on President Nikias, visit http://www.usc.edu/president

U S C T R O J A N F A M I L Y M A G A Z I N E autumn 2010

A ‘Different’ Gift The Kortschak family designates $10 million to support students with learning differences. Walter and Marcia Kortschak have made a historic gift commitment of $10 million to establish the USC Kortschak Center for Learning and Creativity – providing innovative services to USC students with dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and other identified learning differences. This gift is the largest received by the Division of Student Affairs in university history. Under the direction of Edward Roth, current director of USC’s Disability Services and Programs, and the supervision of Patricia Tobey, associate dean of Student Affairs responsible for academic support services, the new center will offer enhanced academic support, such as individual learning strategy sessions, tutoring in academic disciplines and state-of-theart assistive technologies. Students at the center also will have access to outside professionals, including educational psychologists, occupational therapists, neuropsychologists within the university and

USC PARENTS

U S C T R O J A N F A M I L Y M A G A Z I N E autumn 2010

other learning specialists. “The USC Kortschak Center is the realization of the Kortschak family’s and USC’s shared commitment to ensuring that every creative mind has the opportunity to thrive and succeed, regardless of learning style,” says USC President C. L. Max Nikias. “The center will position the university at the forefront of both support and research for students with learning differences.” Walter and Marcia Kortschak are the parents of Andrew Kortschak, a junior majoring in cinematic arts and political science; and Sarah Kortschak, a freshman majoring in sociology. The couple’s $10 million commitment is among the largest gifts from non-alumni parents in USC history. Walter Kortschak is a Silicon Valley venture capitalist and a senior adviser and former managing partner of Summit Partners, a private equity and venture capital firm that invests in profitable growth companies. Students with special learning needs already received assistance through USC’s

Center for Academic Support and Disability Services and Programs. Rather than duplicating the current efforts of these groups, the new center will expand on existing academic support services and focus on specific needs of students with learning differences. “We saw a need for the establishment of a separate center to help take our programs and services to another level of excellence,” says Michael L. Jackson, USC vice president for student affairs. “There’s no doubt that the USC Kortschak Center will help us achieve that.” The USC Kortschak Center will take a multidisciplinary approach to assisting students. Because of the number of experts in fields related to learning differences at USC, the center will emphasize partnerships and collaboration among faculty and staff across the university. The center will become a field site for researchers and graduate students, attracting the most accomplished disability scholars in the nation. “We are excited to be partnering with a dedicated and outstanding group of educators to help further our family’s passion for supporting students who learn differently,” says Walter Kortschak. “To our knowledge, there is no other center in the nation with a multidisciplinary approach to enhancing learning and support strategies for this population of students.” “What is most exciting to our family is to have the opportunity to partner with USC to support students who learn differently and to provide these students with the supports necessary for them to reach their full academic and creative potential,” Marcia Kortschak says. “It is our hope that the USC Kortschak Center will inspire other universities to examine and improve upon their own levels of support, emphasizing students’ abilities rather than their disabilities.” – Sam Lopez

OVERHEARD

›› “We gravitate

toward a simple, rote practice structure because we’re basically lazy. But it turns out memory is enhanced when we engage in practice that requires us to reconstruct the activity.” – USC biokinesiology professor Carolee Winstein in U.S. News & World Report

I l l us t r a t i o n b y M i c h a e l K l e i n

Support Report

got your back

High ROLLERS

Believers Behind Science On the brink of developing a revolutionary new Alzheimer’s drug, a researcher acknowledges the longtime sponsors who backed her ideas as she vied for government grants. “ALL DISCOVERY INVOLVES RISK,” says Roberta Diaz Brinton. The USC pharmaceutical researcher knows this from 20 years of lab experience. So with the euphoria of winning NIH support for the first clinical trial of an Alzheimer’s compound painstakingly devel oped in her lab comes a healthy dose of gratitude – not only to her lab-coated colleagues, but also to the many others who have backed her pursuit of scientific “risks” over the last two decades. “While NIH grants have supported our research since the ’80s, scientists inevitably face junctures where high-risk hypotheses must be tested to advance an overall project,” says Brinton, holder of the R. Pete Vanderveen Chair in Therapeutic Discovery and Development at the USC School of Pharmacy. “That’s when foundations and individual donors have played an invaluable role in catapulting our work forward and leading us to the next award from the NIH.” A timeline of Brinton’s research bears

this out. When Brinton arrived at USC in 1988, she required advanced microscopic imaging technology to study intra-cellular signaling activity in the brain. The Kenneth T. and Eileen L. Norris Foundation provided funding for the needed equipment, which resulted in Brinton’s identification of the switch that marks the transition from healthy brain function to the type of impairment inherent in Alzheimer’s disease. This early support of a high-risk conjecture began a long and still vibrant partnership between Brinton and the Norris Foundation, which named her laboratory in 1999. “The Norris Foundation has always been willing to take risks to support our boldest initiatives,” says Brinton. “Its support has moved our projects forward at numerous pivotal junctures as we vied for NIH grants along the way.” Continuing to ask questions about the role of hormones in the brain, Brinton directed her research toward the effects of hormone replacement therapy on women’s brain function. Brinton explained her Supporters take risks together with scientists and both reap results, says Roberta Brinton.

›› A BOOST FOR BRAIN RESEARCH Joyce J. Cammilleri, owner of World Gym International, has given $2 million to the USC Brain and Creativity Institute. The funds support research and construction of a new facility on the University Park campus. In recognition, the auditorium in the new institute facility will bear Cammilleri’s name. Founded in 2006, the USC College-based institute researches the underpinnings of the brain’s functions – from emotion and decision-making to innovation and creativity – at the level of systems, cells and molecules.

›› INNOVATING GLOBALLY

A $1 million gift from Don Murray, executive chairman and CEO of Resources Global Professionals, will support ongoing research of the USC Marshall School of Business Center for Global Innovation. “This generous gift will enable the center to create and disseminate research on how innovation helps firms compete, grow and succeed in today’s global environment,” says director

Gerard Tellis, a USC Marshall professor of marketing. Past research supported by Murray has uncovered how technologies evolve and has pinpointed elements that drive innovation across nations.

›› A FIRST IN PHYSICAL THERAPY A $1 million gift and a $250,000 matching pledge from the Sykes family have established the first endowed faculty chair within the Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy at the Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC. Professor Linda Fetters is the inaugural holder of the Sykes Family Chair in Pediatric Physical Therapy, Health and Development. The donors are Tracy Sykes, a 1998 graduate of the USC Doctor of Physical Therapy Program, and her husband, Gene T. Sykes, a managing director with Goldman Sachs.

P h o t o b y S t e v e n He l l er

›› RECORD-BREAKING RADIO

Classical KUSC (91.5 FM) reached a record-setting 10,408 pledges during its winter membership drive, raising more than $1.1 million from listeners in 38 states and 11 countries. USC Radio president Brenda Barnes says she was gratified that KUSC is valued so highly. “It feels like a great honor in economic times like these.” Last spring, Classical KUSC became the top-ranked public radio station in the nation. l For news stories on campus developments, visit http://uscnews.usc.edu/university

U S C T R O J A N F A M I L Y M A G A Z I N E autumn 2010

OVERHEARD

›› “Such an

extreme finding that produced a zero response underscores the difficulty of getting Internet users to pay for anything that they already receive for free.” – Jeffrey Cole of the USC Annenberg School on why micro-bloggers won’t pay, in Time

U S C T rojan F amily magazine autumn 2010

re-gifting

Brain Trust The Dornsife family continues its generous support of neuroscience with a building for collaborative research. DAVID AND DANA DORNSIFE have made a lead gift of $6 million for a new Brain and Creativity Institute facility to be housed in USC College. This follows a lead gift of $8 million to create the Dana and David Dornsife Cognitive Neuroscience Imaging Center, which opened in 2004. Overall, the Dornsife family has contributed more than $21 million in support of neuroscience at the college. The new institute building will include a conference center, a state-of-the-art auditorium, laboratory space for faculty and students, and executive and staff offices. The new structure, which is in the planning stages, will bring together the institute team in a central location to foster collaborative research on early brain development, aging, education and learning, emotions, and consciousness. “I view the building as an opportunity to move the institute forward and advance the groundbreaking work of Antonio and Hanna Damasio and their staff,” says David Dornsife ’65. Previous philanthro-

pic support from the Dornsifes – in the form of endowed chairs and an imaging center – proved instrumental in USC College’s recruitment of the world-class neuroscientists. The Dornsife legacy began with Harold and Ester, who were active USC alumni and generous supporters of their alma mater. In time, they passed the torch to their son David, who is chairman and CEO of the Herrick Corp. and a USC trustee. According to his son, Harold Dornsife arrived at the university with empty pockets. “My dad was awarded a basketball scholarship and was given help in securing a job,” says David Dornsife. “He believed that his subsequent success was a result of his USC education and that it was important to give back.” David Dornsife’s mother, Ester, a biology major, maintained a lifelong interest in medicine – neuroscience in particular. To honor their parents, David and his wife, Dana, along with his sister Dody Jernstedt, endowed the Ester Dornsife

Photo by Steve Cohn

work to Board of Councilors member Eileen Goodis PharmD ’77, who recognized its importance. Goodis introduced the project to the John Douglas French Alzheimer’s Foundation, where she also is a board member. The foundation provided a grant funding the next step in Brinton’s investigation. The research was accelerating when support from the L. K. Whittier Foundation opened the door for Brinton’s team to identify the sequence of events that lead to mitochondrial dysfunction in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Recognizing the potential of this work, Raymond T. Poon PharmD ’71 challenged his fellow Board of Councilors members to establish the chair that Brinton now holds. This positioned the Brinton lab to win an $8 million NIH program project grant investigating the effects of progesterone on the brain and Alzheimer’s disease. Another board member, Gale Bensussen ’70, with his wife, Jane Bensussen MA ’69, then established the Bensussen Transla tional Research Floor. The Bensussens’ funding supported the lab’s findings that showed the efficacy of PhytoSERMs – botanically derived substances that selectively act on estrogen receptors. Last year, Brinton compiled data that convinced the NIH’s National Institute on Aging to award a $1.3 million grant for a clinical trial of the efficacy of PhytoSERMs. The principal investigator is Lon Schneider of the Keck School of Medicine of USC, director of USC’s NIH-sponsored Alzheimer Disease Research Center. “Our first clinical trial is the direct result of the supporters who have consistently been our partners,” says Brinton, who shares co-investigator status with colleague Liqin Zhao. “They have believed in our work, leading us to where we are today – ready to test a therapy to prevent and treat Alzheimer’s disease.” – Kukla Vera

Chair in Biological Sciences in 1998 and the Harold Dornsife Neurosciences Chair in 2000, as well as the Harold Dornsife Section in USC’s Galen Center in 2005. Through the Hedco Foundation, the Dornsife family’s legacy also has helped create the Hedco Neurosciences Building, the Hedco Auditorium and the Hedco Petroleum and Chemical Molecular Biology Laboratories. “The Dornsifes’ investment of their family’s name, and their vision for what

[student support]

are essential to create great universities and research. “The Dornsifes are the best kind of philanthropist,” Damasio says. “They are generous, they are committed to an ideal and they know precisely what they want to achieve.” “We are honored to participate in the development of a literal ‘brain trust’ in the college,” says Dana Dornsife, who is founder and president of the Lazarex Cancer Foundation, a nonprofit that provides financial assistance to defray the costs associated with patient participation in U.S. Food and Drug Administration clinical trials. “The progressiveness of the research and, most importantly, the caliber of the students and postdocs it attracts are a reflection of the high standards we’ve come to expect at USC,” she adds. l

this research center will accomplish, are legacies that will last for generations,” says President Emeritus Steven B. Sample. He calls the new institute “a vital academic and research tool that will serve as an interdisciplinary catalyst for important scientific, medical and educational breakthroughs that will improve human health and well-being.” According to Antonio Damasio, USC’s David Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience, the actions of donors such as the Dornsifes

New Annenberg Grants

The Annenberg Foundation has donated $10 million to establish the Wallis Annenberg Endowed Scholarship Fund to support students at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. The fund – divided evenly between the schools – covers a substantial portion of tuition costs, providing up to $35,000 per year to recipients at the Keck School and $25,000 per year to undergraduates at USC Annenberg. By its third year of existence, the fund

Running the Numbers

will support up to 17 Annenberg scholars in the two disciplines.

USC Preliminary FY10 Fund raising

“The ability to provide scholarship support is a vital component of USC’s quest to attract the

$420M

most talented students,” says USC President C. L. Max Nikias. “This generous gift will not only pro-

Increase in overall giving

vide a strong incentive for those students to come to USC, but also will help ensure both schools’

Increase in number of donors

legacy of educating and training world leaders in their respective fields.”

Increase in average USC gift

At the same time, scholarship support helps to “level the playing field,” according to Wallis Annenberg. “Scholarships ease the burden of students who might not have the money to attend college or graduate school,” says the chairman of the board of the Annenberg Foundation, who is also the longest-serving member of USC’s Board of Trustees. “They are crucial to offering access to higher education to a broader range of people, regardless of any one person’s or family’s financial circumstances.” The establishment of this fund comes at a pivotal time for USC Annenberg and the Keck School. As the information landscape continues to transform, USC Annenberg is helping chart the course of communication and journalism for the 21st century. “Wallis’ outstanding vision and philanthropy continue to ensure that, in a time of extraordinary need and rising costs in higher education, more students will be able to pursue their dreams,” says USC Annenberg dean Ernest J. Wilson III. The Keck School also is facing transformative challenges, according to dean Carmen A. Puliafito. “We are on the forefront of medical education, with a recently designed curriculum that is integrated and hands-on,” he says. “With the generosity of the Annenberg Foundation, we will ensure that generations of P h o t o C o ur t es y o f t h e A n n e n b er g F o u n d a t i o n

Estimated fund raising

Keck students receive the financial assistance they need.” Established in 1989 by Walter H. Annenberg, the Annenberg Foundation supports nonprofit organizations around the world. Its major program areas are education and youth development; arts, culture and humanities; civic and community life; health and human services; and animal services and the environment. – Sam Lopez

For more on the Annenberg Foundation, visit www.annenbergfoundation.org

16%

Largest gift (Herman Ostrow – Dentistry) $35M Rank among top fund-raising universities 7th

Milestones

People Watch

›› businesswoman

Tamara Gustavson ‘83, the owner of American Commercial Equities Management, LLC, a commercial real estate company, has been elected to the USC Board of Trustees. She also is the majority owner of PS Canada Co., a real estate company that owns and operates self-storage facilities. Gustavson built her management career at Public Storage, which was founded by her father, USC alumnus and life trustee B. Wayne Hughes. Gustavson worked at Public Storage from 1978 to 2003, serving recently as senior vice president of administration. She has been a member of the company’s board of trustees since December 2008. Gustavson earned a B.S. in public affairs. She lives in Malibu with husband, Eric, and two children. Ken Daurio, left, and Cinco Paul

›› philanthropist

›› physician Robert F. Padgett ’68, a retired emergency room physician and outgoing president of the USC Alumni Association Board of Governors, has been elected to the USC Board of Trustees. Padgett earned his B.A. in history and lettered on the crew team. After earning his M.D. from the University of California, Irvine, he did his internship at LAC+USC Medical Center. He is a fellow of the American Board of Emergency Medicine and a member of the American College of Emergency Physicians. He and his wife, Valerie, live in Manhattan Beach with children Cody ‘06 and Shayne. l For a complete list of USC trustees, senior officers and deans, visit www.usc.edu/about/administration

U S C T R O J A N F A M I L Y M A G A Z I N E autumn 2010

The Singing Screenwriters The writers of Despicable Me (and other ’toons) have a tuneful way of selling scripts. IN THE STRUGGLE to get noticed in Hollywood, the screenwriting duo of Cinco Paul MFA ’93 and Ken Daurio has come up with a winning formula for their story pitches: They sing them. It doesn’t always work. One stone-faced producer, they recall, witheringly commented: “Well, that was loud.” But the strategy works often enough that the two have churned out a string of produced work, including Bubble Boy (2001), an unlikely romantic comedy about an immunedeficient man, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Swoosie Kurtz; and the 2008 RavenSymoné comedy, College Road Trip. Lately, they have specialized in animated films for major studios, such as the feature adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! (2008), starring Jim Carrey. The two were personally chosen for the job by Audrey Geisel, the widow of Theodor Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss. Their latest effort, Despicable Me, opened July 9. It stars Steve Carell as an archvillain who may have met his match in three orphan girls looking for a potential dad. It is the twosome’s first 3-D movie. Last spring, Paul, who was given his unusual first name by dint of being born on Cinco de Mayo, returned to campus with

Daurio to talk about their film careers on the student-run television program CU@USC. Following graduation from Yale Uni versity, Paul received a fellowship at the USC School of Cinematic Arts after winning a short-film competition. He remembers his years here fondly, citing screenwriting professors David Howard and the late Frank Daniel as especially helpful. Paul also found his agent here: Frank Wuliger, who taught a class on the business side of Hollywood. “I loved it,” Paul says. “I came to USC with no connections and after two years, I learned everything I needed to know.” Daurio, who began making films with a Super 8 camera at the age of 9, started directing music videos straight out of high school. More than 100 videos later, he teamed up with Paul. Within a year, they had sold their first script. A year later, their second script was made into a movie. The two prefer to work independently, divvying up scenes and coming together to read pages to each other. “The goal is to make the other guy laugh,” Daurio says. Next up – on the heels of their success with Horton Hears a Who! – the duo will write and direct an adaptation of another Dr. Seuss classic: The Lorax. – Allison Engel

P h o t o b y D i e t m a r Q u i s t o rf

William M. Keck II ’66 has been elected to the USC Board of Trustees. Keck is president of the investment company Coalinga Corp., director and vice president of the W. M. Keck Foundation (named for his grandfather), and president and director of the William M. Keck Jr. Foundation (named for his father). A non-voting trustee since 2002, Keck joined the board in 1979. Among USC’s most exemplary supporters, Keck and the Keck foundations have given nearly $123 million to the university, including the W. M. Keck Foundation’s pledge of $110 million to endow and name the Keck School of Medicine of USC in 1999. Keck lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Nicole.

A Conversation with KENNETH TURAN

Twenty-four years ago, Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan began an oral history of theatre impresario Joe Papp. After Turan turned 10,000 pages of transcripts into a manuscript,

Critical Thinker The film reviewer has been at USC for 11 years (bringing his own apple a day to class), and can’t imagine life without teaching.

the volatile Papp changed his mind and refused to have it published. Finally, in 2009, with the approval of Papp’s widow, Free for All: Joe Papp, the Public, and the Greatest Theater Story Ever Told, was published by Doubleday to wide acclaim. (The paperback edition comes out in November.) Turan has been at USC since 1999, teaching nonfiction writing each fall in the Master of Professional Writing Program and critical writing each spring at USC Annenberg. He spoke with USC Trojan Family Magazine’s Allison Engel, who is one of his past students. What was it like to have the manuscript sitting in your closet all those years? It nagged at me constantly. I never forgot about it. It was like a low-grade infection. I felt it was too significant to let die, but not because of what I did. It was that all these people had spoken to me. They often had spent hours and hours and really been very candid about difficult, significant portions of their lives. A lot of them now have died – roughly 40 out of 160 I spoke to. They aren’t going to be telling these stories to anybody else. How did Joe Papp, without formal training, become such a force in the theatre world? He came from a generation when there were really, really good public school teachers. There were teachers he remembered to the end of his life. That’s how he discovered Shakespeare, that’s how his speech patterns changed. Public education did what it’s supposed to do in his case. It changed his life. Once Free for All was published, what was the reaction? David Hare, the playwright, wrote me: “If I didn’t work in the theatre already, I would want to after reading your book.” It feels like I’m talking about someone else’s book because I wrote it so long ago. I end up saying, “This is really good,” which I usually don’t say about my own work. But I feel like this is someone else’s work, in an odd way. This is a guy I was 24 years ago. Why do you teach? I certainly don’t do it for the money. I really find it very satisfying to help students. It’s great to see people improve over the course of a semester, and mostly, they do. Everyone has ability, and ideally what the writing school structure does is allow you to make the most out of your ability. You don’t make terrible writers into great writers, but people improve within their range. You seem to have found a way to give criticism that is pointed and honest, but not ad hominem. It’s on my mind: What’s the best way to talk to people so they can take it in? I’m only there for one reason. I don’t need to hear myself talk. I don’t have a lot of spare time that I want to fill up. I’m there to help the students write better. It’s one night a week, but I’m reading papers all week. It takes all my lunch hours to read the papers. After you finish your reviews, you are known for proofing them multiple times. I try to read them in different visual formats. I read them on my computer screen and then I read them again as printouts. If there’s time, I’ll read them on the paper’s screens, which is yet a third format. And each time I read it, I’ll catch something. Do you get tired of being asked for film recommendations? I never get tired of being asked, because if you care enough about films to be a critic, there’s really kind of a proselytizing aspect to it. You want to share the good news. There are so many good ones out there, it frustrates me that people are not seeing them. I’m talking about films that people have not heard of, that they will really like. Give me some examples. Like Children of Paradise. My favorite films often are French

Photo by Philip Channing

films. Children of Paradise is one I really love. Another is the French film The Earrings of Madame De. … It’s a romantic film. I tend to like romantic films. Why is that? I don’t know. I just like them. l Hear Kenneth Turan’s reviews on KUSC’s “Arts Alive” program at http://kusc.podbean.com/category/arts-alive

U S C T R O J A N F A M I L Y M A G A Z I N E autumn 2010

Interchange; Concertos by Rodrigo and Assad

Los Angeles Guitar Quartet TELARC INTERNATIONAL

Formed 25 years ago when its members – including USC Thornton faculty guitarists William Kanengiser and Scott Tennant – were still students at USC, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet has gone on to international acclaim. On its new CD, Interchange, the ensemble presents two concertos – a world premiere of Brazilian composer Sergio Assad’s Interchange, commissioned by the LAGQ, and a new interpretation of Joaquin Rodrigo’s timeless Concierto Andaluz.

Kevin Fitz-Gerald Plays Liszt: Sonata in B minor, Dante Sonata, Chants Polonais and Midsummer Night’s Dream Fantasy

Shelf Life Tortoise Trouble The grand old reptile is running out of options as it nears the end of its race. The Last Tortoise: A Tale of Extinction in Our Lifetime

by Craig B. Stanford BELKNAP PRESS, $24

after it was first told, Aesop’s fable may soon have a different ending: The tenacious tortoise – admired for its stately pace, natural good looks and efficient mobile home – is in danger of losing the race. The race for survival, that is.

SOME 2,600 YEARS

Kevin Fitz-Gerald IVORY CLASSICS

When Franz Liszt retired from the concert stage at age 35, he was considered the greatest pianist of his time. He settled at the court in Weimar and focused on composing. Among the gems that followed: the legendary Sonata in B minor. Playing Liszt’s piano music requires formidable skill, and USC Thornton keyboard professor Kevin Fitz-Gerald lavishes that skill on this collection of Liszt solos.

Canyon Cove

Bob Mintzer PONY CANYON

Organ trios have a long history in jazz, from the 1920s to the Jimmy Smith-era in the 1960s and beyond. The Hammond B3 organ and the distinctive whir of the Leslie speaker provide a new and fertile sound for saxophonist Bob Mintzer, professor of jazz studies at USC Thornton. With Canyon Cove, the Grammywinning leader of the Bob Mintzer Big Band has formed an organ trio that includes fellow faculty member Peter Erskine on drums and Larry Goldings on organ. (Japanese release only. Available at www.bobmintzer.com) l

Hear USC Thornton faculty recitals and more at www. usc.edu/schools/music/performance/recordings

U S C T R O J A N F A M I L Y M A G A Z I N E autumn 2010

While tortoises are evolutionary wonders – females may live to 100 years old and their fertility only increases with age – they are no match for human predators. “We are at great risk of losing them all, not within our grandchildren’s lifetime but within our lifetime,” says Craig Stanford. A renowned primatologist and co-director of the USC Jane Goodall Research Center, Stanford turns his attention to this threatened species in The Last Tortoise: A Tale of Extinction in Our Lifetime.

At risk is not a single species, but the entire family of Testudinidae, comprising all tortoises, or land turtles. Stanford’s book – his 14th – travels the world, describing this marvelous animal’s adaptations to life in the desert, on islands and in tropical forests. The USC College professor’s research took him to the Mascarene and Galapagos islands, where the plight of giant tortoise populations illustrates the threat faced by all tortoises. Stanford’s glowingly reviewed book details how human predation has already extinguished several species and threatens the remaining 45. How does a biological anthropologist come to write a tome on reptiles? Stanford, an expert on chimpanzees and other primates, spends months out of the year doing field research in remote locations. It was on such a trip to Asia five years ago that he happened to see a passing truck packed with live tortoises and turtles. His guide told him the reptiles were on their way to market to be sold for food. Stanford learned that highly endangered species of tortoises can fetch as much as a luxury car on the global black market. Faced with a dearth of information, funding and awareness, Stanford began studying the issue. Asian tortoises, he discovered, aren’t the only ones at risk. The most popular pet tortoise in the United States comes from Eastern Europe. More than 5 million have been imported in the past 20 years. For every one that makes it to a home, eight die in transit. Stanford believes action must be taken immediately. The pet trade needs to be discouraged by educating prospective pet buyers. And if the tortoise is to remain part of a culinary tradition, there need to be sustainable, economic incentives to stop its mass harvest. “If we don’t act now,” he warns, “we will allow an entire family of amazing animals to slide into extinction.” – Eddie North-Hager

P h o t o b y M a rk T a n n er

NewRELEASES

Arts & Culture

“Banned Love” Exposed

o p er a P h o t o b y K r i s t i n a J a c i n t h / M uske - D ukes p h o t o b y C a r l o s Pum a

Thornton Opera premieres an early Wagner opera that’s uncharacteristically accessible – indeed, even merry. WHEN ORGANIZERS of the Ring Festival L.A. invited USC to participate in the citywide roster of events related to the first-ever Los Angeles Celebration of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, Ken Cazan and Brent McMunn decided to make some history of their own. The USC Thornton Opera creative team staged the West Coast premiere of Das Liebesverbot (The Ban on Love), an early Wagner comic opera that has seldom seen the light of day since its disastrous debut in 1834. Indeed, this was only the second fully staged U.S. production of Das Liebesverbot. The American debut came two years ago, with Glimmerglass Opera’s 2008 production in Cooperstown, N.Y. Why the 176 years of neglect? Completed when the composer was just 22, it’s an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. After a nightmare opening night with the lead soprano forgetting her part, followed by fisticuffs between the baritone (her husband) and the tenor (her lover), the piece was permanently shelved. Wagner himself, later in life, was mortified he had ever written it. Drawing on Italian bel canto and French opera styles, it lacks “the massive, sweeping, multilayered, multi-motifed style” that came to be known as Wagnerian, says Cazan, who is USC Thornton Opera’s resident stage director. It does, however, foreshadow the

signature German aesthetic mysticism to come. Passages from the convent scene, for example, anticipate the Easter music in Parsifal, and a recurring leitmotiv accompanies the villain. Said villain is the puritanical Friedrich,

[WELL VERSED]

interim governor of Palermo, who, on the eve of Carnival, has decreed a ban on carousing and lovemaking, under penalty of death. Naturally, much carousing and lovemaking ensues. The tale features no fewer than four pairs of lovers – Friedrich himself among them. “It’s a genuinely charming, beautiful piece, with stunning music – and it’s a comedy, it’s witty,” says Cazan, who together with music director Brent McMunn put on three shimmering performances in late April. Indeed, Los Angeles Opera director James Conlon attended the sold-out second show and, according to Cazan, “was ecstatic afterwards.” Cazan’s updated production was set in 1930s Palermo, with Friedrich and his charcoal-uniformed thugs hinting at Fascist authoritarianism, and the Sicilian bon vivants they menace decked out in shameless reds. Staging Das Liebesverbot proved a monumental undertaking, requiring an enormous cast: 11 principals and a chorus of 27, plus eight supernumeraries. “We used practically the entire voice program,” Cazan says. The chorus did yeoman’s duty, singing about 350 pages of the 580-page score. “We chose to make relatively few cuts in order to ‘show what the man wrote,’” says McMunn, who whittled the threeand-a-half-hour piece down by about 20 minutes. The opera proved “unbelievably difficult” on a technical level, says McMunn – both in its “thick and endurance-testing

Poetry on Wheels

When Carol Muske-Dukes was appointed California Poet Laureate in 2008, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that she would be expected to create a statewide poetry project. The project turned out to be the Magic Poetry Bus. And on March 1, a virtual bus (you could call it “the imagination,” says Muske-Dukes) rolled onto campus, bringing together actors, poets, professors and students to revel in the world of verse. Headlining was the Get Lit troupe, teenage poets who perform original works and well-known poems. “Get Lit players are doing something that no other hip-hop artists or spoken word group is doing,” Muske-Dukes says. “They learn great poems by heart like my mother did way back – they commit them to memory, they recite them and then add their own spoken words.” Poets Gabrielle Calvocoressi and Tom Healy read, and actors Stacy Keach and George Wendt paid homage to others’ words. Muske-Dukes, a professor of English and creative writing, is raising funds to publish and distribute “The Magic Poetry Bus Driver’s Guide” to all California public schools. – Susan Andrews

For video coverage, visit https://college.usc.edu/videos/faculty/140/all-were-aboard-on-the-magic-poetry-bus

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orchestration and less-than-practical vocal demands.” Luckily, says Cazan, “this year we happen to be very deep in mature voices who could do it.” A standout among those mature voices was the dramatic coloratura of Alexandra Loutsion, singing Isabella, the object of Friedrich’s lust. An angry postulant, she is bent on saving her rakish and rather cowardly brother (condemned to death for impregnating his fiancée) without sacrificing her own virtue. Cazan says: “She is on stage easily two hours, singing – full, flat-

out singing – top to bottom, up to high Cs, most of it exclamatory. She’s really pounding it out there; she has all these moments of righteous indignation.” Also mesmerizing was baritone Kyung Teak Lim, in the role of the conflicted Friedrich, a scholarly esthete whose orderly worldview is shattered by his out-of-control lust for a nun! A Culture Spot LA review also praised Sophie Wingland as “the tempting Dorella, with crystal clear voice and superb comic timing.” – Diane Krieger

fellow fellows

‘Academy’ Awards Two USC humanists get the nod from the elite American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Leo Braudy and philosopher Scott Soames have been named fellows of the 230-year-old American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the world’s most prestigious honorary societies. The two USC College professors are among 211 newly elected academy fellows. The addition of Braudy, a University Professor and holder of the Leo S. Bing Chair in English and American Braudy Literature, and Soames, director of the School of Philosophy, brings the number of AAAS fellows at USC to 24. Based in Cambridge, Mass., the AAAS was founded during the American revolution by John Adams, James Bowdoin and John Hancock. It honors “scholar-patriots” who have Soames brought the arts and sciences “into constructive interplay with leaders of both the public and private sectors.” Fellows of the early 20th century included Albert Einstein, Woodrow Wilson and William Howard Taft. “It’s a wonderful honor,” Braudy says. “We’re used to seeing scientists receiving big honors; it’s rarer for humanists. So for Scott Soames and I to be elected to a national academy of this caliber is fantastic.” Braudy has appointments in English, cinematic arts and art history, and his research covers classics, philosophy, history, psychology and more. Among the country’s LITERATURE SCHOLAR

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leading film critics and cultural historians, he is a respected authority on the works of Jean Renoir and François Truffaut. The prolific author and editor has written books that have been finalists for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award and a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times. His forthcoming book is The Hollywood Sign: Fantasy and Reality of an American Icon. Braudy joined USC College in 1983, arriving from Johns Hopkins University. Soames joined USC College in 2004, coming from Princeton University, where he had been a philosophy professor for 24 years. He specializes in the philosophy of language and the history of analytical philosophy. Soames is best known for defending and expanding on the “anti-descriptivist revolution” in philosophy, led mostly by acclaimed philosopher Saul Kripke. Soames earned his doctorate at MIT, working with legendary founder of modern linguistics Noam Chomsky and becoming one of the first scholars to combine theoretical linguistics with the philosophy of language. Soames has written scores of articles and five scholarly books, and is the general editor of the Princeton series Foundations of Contemporary Philosophy, a collection of 21 books. – Pamela J. Johnson

ArtSHORTS ›› THE STUDENT MAESTRO When the Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra performed student composer Zhou Tian’s piece, The Grand Canal Symphonic Suite, at Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts in April, the piece already had been performed on national television. Commissioned by the Chinese government to celebrate the Grand Canal, the world’s longest and oldest canal, the 45-minute suite features Chinese instruments, Chinese opera vocals, mixed chorus and full orchestra. A CD recording received a nomination for China’s Golden Recording Award and was selected as theme music for the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. Tian, currently a third-year doctoral student at USC Thornton, earned earlier degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School. ›› AN ANIMATED CROWD

Animation devotees gathered by the hundreds for a rare campus visit by renowned Russian animator Yuri Norstein in February. Best known for his short films Hedgehog in the Fog and Tale of Tales – the latter recognized by an international jury at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Arts Festival as the “Greatest Animated Film of All Time” – Norstein pioneered a 3-D technique that allows for a uniquely flexible and realistic range of emotions. Over the course of a threeday visit to the USC School of Cinematic Arts, Norstein – who earned the nickname “the Golden Snail” for his perfectionism and the lengthy time frames of his projects – delved into the minutiae of his technique in seminars with animation students.

›› MUSIC IN THE ETHER In February, the USC Thornton School of Music co-hosted a vocal arts master class with the Manhattan School of Music in an Internet2 video teleconference. It was organized by USC vocal arts faculty member Cynthia Munzer and Gordon Ostrowski, director of opera studies at the Manhattan School. Brian Shepard, assistant professor of pedagogical technology at USC Thornton, has been a pioneer in using Internet2 technology for music education. He recently created groundbreaking new software, EchoDamp, designed to eliminate the echo that musicians encounter in cyberspace. It is available free of charge to nonprofit educational and performing arts institutions. l To read more about Brian Shepard’s EchoDamp technology, visit http://tinyurl.com/2dgfyed

Lab Work

Department of Biological Sciences at USC College and now based at the Gregor Mendel Institute in Vienna, Austria. “It’s been Magnus’ pet project for a very long time,” Atwell says. “Arabidopsis is arguably the best model organism” for mapping genes to observable USC biologists crack the gene code behind dozens of traits, Nordborg said recently. “It naturally exists as inbred lines that important plant traits. are genetically adapted to a wide variety of environments.” Atwell’s co-first authors were PLANTS HAVE BEEN used to fight human fellow postdoc Glenda Willems disease for eons. In a turnabout, human and USC graduate students Yu disease now is teaching us something new Huang and Bjarni Vilhjalmsson. about plants. A method pioneered to find More than 30 other scientists the genetic bases of human diseases, it contributed to the study, repreturns out, can locate the genes behind senting 10 institutions: the Keck important traits in plants, such as flowering School of Medicine of USC; the time and disease resistance. University of Chicago; Purdue A large team led by USC biologists carUniversity; the University of ried out the first extensive use of genomeSciences and Technologies in wide association in a plant species. The Lille, France; the Howard research, published in the journal Nature, Hughes Medical Institute; the broke new ground for two reasons: The Salk Institute for Biological authors studied natural variations of 107 Studies; the John Innes Centre different traits – a far higher number than in Norwich, England; the Max in previous studies – in nearly 200 strains Planck Institute in Cologne, of a common weed collected from all over Germany; Sainsbury Laboratory the world; and advances in genetic analysis in Norwich; and the Max Planck enabled the authors to check the genome Susanna Atwell Institute in Tübingen, Germany. for mutations at many more points. The National Science Foun “The useful applications to agriculture, dation and the National Institutes biofuel production and potentially changcists working on A. thaliana, which numbers of Health supported the research, with addiing and challenging plant growth condiabout 5,000 laboratories worldwide. tional support from several other institutions are vast,” says Susanna Atwell, a The Nature study culminates years of tions, agencies and foundations. co-first author and postdoctoral researcher work by scientists led by senior author at USC College. “This data set and methMagnus Nordborg, on leave from the – Carl Marziali odology hold the potential to determine genes involved in natural variation in metabolite levels, biomass, flowering time, salt or heavy metal tolerance, and disease [ABOUT THE WATER] resistance, to name but a few.”

Flower Power

Flow of Ideas

the authors compared the genomes of up to 192 families of Arabidopsis thaliana, a plant widely studied by geneticists. The comparison, which took place at 250,000 pre-selected locations in the genome, allowed the authors to identify parts of the genome that may contain genes responsible for observed variations in a given trait such as flowering time. Since the comparison does not guarantee that a gene causes a particular trait, any genes identified through genome-wide association need to be tested further. Team members now are studying about 60 previously unknown genes to confirm their predicted function. Atwell expects the study to become a major resource for the community of geneti-

In the study,

Experts from many disciplines met at USC in April for a “Water Retreat” – a daylong forum on all things H20. “Water is life,” said marine biologist David Caron – except when it is not, as in the case of pollution or of the toxic algal blooms studied in Caron’s laboratory. One billion of the planet’s inhabitants lack clean water, Caron noted, and about 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation. Organized by computer engineer Gaurav Sukhatme with support from the Center for Excellence in Research, the Water Retreat brought together pessimists and optimists alike. “Water infrastructure is really in serious trouble,” warned engineer Jean-Pierre Bardet of USC Viterbi. Bardet helped the city of Los Angeles study a series of water-main breaks last summer. Caron is an advocate for water recycling, calling it “something we absolutely, fundamentally have to do.” Putting off recycling by importing water through pipes or in bottles worsens the problem, he noted. Josh Newell of USC’s School of Policy, Planning, and Development explained that 20 percent of the energy used in California goes into pushing or treating water. Policymakers, he said, should start paying attention to water mileage – miles driven per gallon of water used to make a particular fuel. – Carl Marziali

Thirsty for more? A longer story about USC’s Water Retreat is at http://tinyurl.com/2a7h8dh

U S C T R O J A N F A M I L Y M A G A Z I N E autumn 2010

Inquiring MINDS ›› School Traffic and Asthma Living near major highways has been linked to childhood asthma, but a new study suggests that traffic-related pollution near schools also contributes to the development of asthma. Children in schools located in high-traffic environments had a 45 percent increased risk of developing asthma, researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of USC found in a study that appeared in Environmental Health Perspectives. The lead author is Keck School professor Rob McConnell.

›› A Window into Brain Cancer Patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), an aggressive type of brain cancer, have new hope. According to a study published in Cancer Cell, tumor DNA methylation profiles were distinctly different in about 10 percent of patients. Most GBM patients survive fewer than 15 months, says Peter W. Laird of the

›› Vitamin A and the Fetal Heart Human heart tissue forms in two phases: the first heart field, which includes the left ventricle and portions of both atrial chambers, and the second heart field, which consists of the right ventricle and outflow tract. Principal investigator Henry Sucov, a researcher at the Keck School and the Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research, said that vitamin A is a critical regulator of second heart field development, and too much or too little retinoic acid can lead to congenital defects. The study was published in Developmental Cell.

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Stomach Cancer clue For the first time, USC researchers have identified genetic variations that predict clinical outcomes in patients with gastric cancer. Variations within the CD44 gene may be responsible for early tumor recurrence and metastasis, says lead author Thomas Winder, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Keck School. If findings are confirmed, testing for the CD44 genetic variations could help identify patients who might benefit from more aggressive treatment. l For the latest in USC research breakthroughs, visit http://www.usc.edu/research

U S C T rojan F amily magazine autumn 2010

Dismantling a Volcanic Puzzle A new theory finds mountains and volcanoes in the Mediterranean rise due to pressure from mantle flow. If, as every fifth grader knows, tectonic plate collisions cause volcanic eruptions, why do some volcanoes erupt far from a plate boundary? The answer, proposed by USC College earth scientist Thorsten Becker, has seismologists shaking with excitement. In a study published in Nature, Becker and coauthor Claudio Faccenna of the University of Rome suggest that volcanoes and mountains in the Mediterranean grow from the pressure of the semi-liquid mantle pushing on Earth’s crust from below. “The rise and subsidence of different points of the Earth are not restricted to the exact locations of the plate boundary,” says Becker. “You can get tectonic activity away from a plate boundary.” The study connects mantle flow to uplift and volcanism in “mobile belts” – crustal fragments floating between continental plates. Becker’s model should be able to predict uplift and likely volcanic hotspots in other mobile belts, such as the North American Cordillera (including the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada) and the Himalayas. Scientists previously had surmised that there’s a connection between man-

tle upwelling and volcanism. The Nature study is the first to propose the connection in mobile belts. Becker and Faccenna believe that smallscale convection in the mantle is partly responsible for shaping mobile belts. Mantle that sinks at the plate boundary flows back up farther away, pushing on the crust and causing uplift and crustal motions detectable by a global positioning system, the authors found. The slow but inexorable motions can move mountains – both gradually and through earthquakes or eruptions. The study identified two mountain ranges raised almost entirely by mantle flow: the southern Meseta Central plateau in Spain and the Massif Central in France. Becker and Faccenna inferred mantle flow by interpreting seismic mantle tomography, which provides a picture of the deep Earth just as a CAT scan would, using seismic waves instead of X-rays. Assuming that the speed of the waves depends mainly on the temperature of crust and mantle (waves travel slower through warmer matter), the authors used temperature differences to model the direction of mantle convection. – Carl Marziali

I l l us t r a t i o n b y M i c h a e l K l e i n

USC Epigenome Center, who led the study with colleagues from Johns Hopkins and the University of Texas. “We have identified a subset of patients with a distinct type of GBM that have substantially better clinical outcomes.”

Reaching Out

Trojan CONNECTIONS ›› Golden Briefcase

Leaping Boundaries

P h o t o b y A l ej a n dr o R u i z

A national award attests to USC TRiO manager’s masterful mentoring. Whenever Cecilia Carbajal-chavez gets a postcard from Sweden, an e-mail from Egypt or a text message from Brazil, she feels the thrill of success. The messages are tangible reminders that her work as manager of the USC TRiO Upward Bound math/science program changes lives. TRiO, encompassing three federally funded outreach efforts, is designed to motivate and support low-income and firstgeneration minority students as they make their way through the academic pipeline, from middle school through college. And Carbajal-Chavez, who earned this year’s Staff of the Year award from the national TRiO program, is justifiably proud of her program’s 95 percent high school graduation rate and 85 percent college attendance rate. But the messages from abroad speak of an even higher achievement. “They are getting it,” Carbajal-Chavez says of pupils sending greetings from faraway places. “They have no boundaries. I love when they know they can go farther.” For many of them, the United States was once a foreign land, though not one without Cecilia Carbajalboundaries. Finding oneChavez, second from right, and self in a strange place, at other TRiO staff an economic or academic disadvantage, and not speaking the language can be daunting. Carbajal-Chavez can identify. She left Mexico City at age 14 to follow her father to the United States. When she started at John Adams Middle School, she did not know any English. So she latched on to the international language of math. Along the way, a teacher helped her enroll at Roosevelt High School, a math and engineering magnet. Her ROTC instructor prodded her to apply for college at UC Santa Cruz, located in a

city she had never visited. “Key people helped me move forward, and I hope to be that for my students,” says Carbajal-Chavez, who was the first in her family to graduate from high school and the first to go to college. But she was not the last. Four siblings followed in her footsteps. “In TRiO, I am in a place to do that for others,” she says. “I can help them see their potential and guide them to whatever that may be.” Education is at the core of USC TRiO (which, in addition to Carbajal-Chavez’s math/science program, includes three other Upward Bound programs and two Educational Talent Search programs). But Carbajal-Chavez also emphasizes discovery and wonder, encouraging her students to seek academic challenges that can lead to prizes and conferences in faraway places. “This breaks boundaries,” CarbajalChavez says. “Traveling helps them look beyond what is immediate. It gives them a sense of pride.” – Eddie North-Hager

In the spring, Trojan MBA students shared with their UCLA peers the coveted Golden Briefcase Award, bestowed by the Stanford-based Challenge for Charity in recognition of the MBA program with the most volunteer hours and funds raised for charity. More than 300 USC Marshall students – about 70 percent of the school’s full-time MBA program – donated their time to the Special Olympics of Southern California and Junior Achievement, a program that teaches business skills at two elementary schools.

›› Jumpstart on Kindergarten Twice a week, nearly 30 USC students visit local schools as part of Jumpstart, a program designed to get children ready for kindergarten. The volunteers make a one-year commitment to complete 300 hours, for which they receive a $1,000 education award from AmeriCorps. “It’s been the best work I’ve done,” says senior Annie Hatley. She and her classmates work in the USC Head Start classroom at the County Kids Child Development Center. “The kids get excited when they come,” says supervisor Maria Arenas. “We’ve seen a lot of progress.”

›› A Week in Montgomery

Last April, USC’s Center for Black Cultural and Student Affairs hosted its first alternative spring break trip, taking 13 Trojans to Montgomery, Ala. They spent the mornings working for Habitat for Humanity, restoring a house. They spent afternoons visiting the cities of Selma, Birmingham and Tuskegee. Trip coordinator Syreeta Aboubaker arranged for the group to meet a former typist for Martin Luther King Jr., and a minister who participated in King’s strategy meetings.

›› Rites of Sisterhood

“What is college life like?” wonders Mykala Davis, a freshman at Foshay High School. Since 1997, USC undergraduate women have been answering that question through Rites of Sisterhood, a mentoring organization that pairs them with neighborhood girls. “There was a need to show them that college was attainable,” says Rites of Sisterhood co-president

Michaela Simpson, a senior. “An aspect of that is letting the girls see women who look like them going to college.” l The full range of USC’s programs in neighboring communities is described at http://communities.usc.edu

U S C T rojan F amily magazine autumn 2010

Art Stars

Meet six young USC Roski MFAs having a major impact on the art world.

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Talk about a graduate program that’s small but potent. The MFA program at the USC Roski School of Fine Arts accepts only eight students per year. Competition is stiff, because the school is one of a kind. First, it does not apply artistic labels to its students by requiring them to declare a concentration. They are free to create sculptures, paintings, multimedia and whatever else inflames their artistic passions. ¶ Another attraction is the program’s generous financial support. USC Roski offers all of its graduate students full or half tuition and stipends. ¶ A spate of high-profile faculty hires began in 2001 with the addition of Sharon Lockhardt. In 2005, the MFA program moved to its own building, at 30th and Flower streets. And in 2006, the school received a $23 million naming pledge from Gayle and Edward P. Roski, Jr. ¶ The combined impact of these three actions has been a major boost in the caliber of the artists who are accepted into the two-year program. ¶ Not surprisingly, the school’s recent MFA grads have turned out to be an extraordinary lot. These serious artists have big-league representation and are exhibiting all around the globe in prestigious museums and gallery shows. One of many achievements noted by Charlie White, director of the program, is that the upcoming exhibition New Photography 2010 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York includes work from only four artists. Two – Amanda Ross-Ho and Elad Lassry – are USC Roski MFAs. ¶ White calls the recent evolution of the program “unprecedented,” and says the generous support offered to students in this terminal degree program benefits the entire school. ¶ Although the Roski MFAs hail from all over, many have stayed in Los Angeles, adding to the vibrant art scene they experienced as students. As sculptor and photographer Claude Collins-Stracensky MFA ’03 explains simply: “Los Angeles is a good spot to make stuff. In New York, space is hard, and sourcing materials was difficult.” ¶ There are so many young USC Roski standouts that it is difficult to single out a few. With that caveat, we bring you six recent graduates who are making international reputations for themselves.

U S C T R O J A N F A M I L Y M A G A Z I N E autumn 2010

Claude Collins-Stracensky in his studio. For more on CollinsStracensky, turn to page 30

Interviews by Allison Engel / Photographs by NoĂŠ Montes

Elad Lassry [MFA ’07, Tel Aviv, Israel, 32] Undergraduate degree: Cal Arts Work: Film, conceptual photography and installations. Lassry creates photographs that reflect on the possibilities of the medium in this era, often incorporat ing found images from various sources. Recent highlights: Major solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, part of the triennial exhibition “Younger than Jesus” at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City. One of 15 artists nominated for the LUMA Foundation Award in Arles, France (along with USC Roski professor Shannon Ebner). Solo shows in Milan and Zurich

A hint of what’s in his studio: Two standard poodles named Carter and Jess, a photo wall of collie dogs, a vintage photo of Shirley MacLaine playing pool, stacks of old LIFE magazines and many shelves of books, including these titles: Kitsch, Art Deco and Modernist Ceramics, The History of Photography, Faces of Our Time, Andy Warhol Screen Tests, The Antique Bottle Collector, Fabrics for Interiors, Young People’s Science Encyclopedia, The Reptiles, China Diary Quoted: “Sharon Lockhardt was the reason I came to USC. After going to an art school as an undergraduate, I wanted to be part of a university. I was able to take an elective class in comparative literature from Akira Lippit of the USC School of Cinematic Arts. The class was on human perceptions and reactions to artwork – their effect on the human mind. He’s a great thinker.” Web site: www.davidkordanskygallery .com/?n=artists&aid=12

Mindy Shapero

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Studio location: Second floor of a retail building, East Hollywood

[MFA ’03, Louisville, KY, 35]

Undergraduate degree: Maryland Institute College of Art Work: Large sculptures constructed out of wood, metal

and fiberglass and obsessively marked using tiles, hand-cut paper and other materials. Paintings made using materials found in her sculptures, such as stencils, spray painted and then worked with gold and silver leaf. Using narrative as a starting point, Shapero deals with spirituality and shamanism in her work. Recent highlights: Solo exhibitions in Athens, New York and Los Angeles; group shows in Los Angeles, London, Munich, Paris, New York, Washington, D.C., and Newport Beach, Calif. Studio location: Former screen printing factory, Glassell Park A hint of what’s in her studio: Boxes of tiles, rebar sculpture, rubber molds, finished works wrapped for shipping, daughter Olive Simone, 4 months old Quoted: “I was a painting major undergrad and started making sculpture at USC. Nuggets of advice that I hold on to: Make things that embarrass you. Always take the risk of failing. It helps you grow. Another nugget: If you can roll an artwork – sculpture, painting, anything – down a hill and something falls off, you don’t need it, conceptually or physically.” Web site: www.marianneboeskygallery.com/artists/mindy-shapero

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“USC is so well endowed, it’s a good deal for graduate students. The classes are so small that everyone’s still in dialogue with each other. I like to think that constant conversation helps everyone develop their work.”

Justin Beal [MFA ’07, Essex, MA, 32] Undergraduate degree: Yale University (architecture) Work: Sculpture, photography, graphic design and installation. Recent pieces include aluminum, Plexiglas, mirror, enamel and stretch wrap. His work addresses mistranslations that emerge between the logic of design, politics, advertising and language. Recent highlights: Solo exhibitions in Los Angeles and New York City; group exhibitions in Paris, Glasgow, Miami, London, Los Angeles and New York; several book projects Studio location: Former auto glass shop in Lincoln Heights A hint of what’s in his studio: An entire shipping container, a large sailboat, welding gear and a wood shop. On the roof, amid old windshields, there’s a killer view of Dodger Stadium. Quoted: “USC is so well endowed, it’s a good deal for graduate students. The classes are so small that everyone’s still in dialogue with each other. I like to think that constant conversation helps everyone develop their work.” Web site: www.acmelosangeles.com/artists/ justin-beal

Ry Rocklen [MFA ’06, Los Angeles, CA, 32] Undergraduate degree: Cal Arts and UCLA Work: Innovative sculptures, from hand-painted and powder-coated aluminum medallions to a mattress frame studded with nails to a birdcage bisected with colored rods Recent highlights: Solo shows in Austin, Athens, Brussels, French West Indies, New York and Thailand. Group shows in Los Angeles, Geneva, Paris and the Whitney Biennial in New York City

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Claude Collins-Stracensky [MFA ’03, Lakewood, OH, 35]

Undergraduate degree: The Cleveland Institute of Art Work: Perceptual systems, structures and images explored

through sculptures, photography and collective projects – practical applications of California Percep tualism and the Light & Space experiments of the 60s and 70s Recent highlights: Solo exhibitions at the Hammer Museum, Nicoletta Rusconi Gallery in Milan and elsewhere in Los Angeles; group shows in Grenoble, France and in New York City, Baltimore, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Upcoming is an exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art in which he and other artists will respond to the Rodin sculpture The Thinker, which was bombed in 1970 and still stands damaged in front of the museum. Studio location: Upper floor of a manufacturing building near USC A hint of what’s in his studio: Drum set, woodworking tools, palm fronds, photographs of Ikebana floral arrangements, part of a Joshua tree, hammock and a sweet Visla named Happy Quoted: “In the Milan show, I engineered a visual and physical exchange between inside and outside the exhibition space by engaging a flower seller across the street from the gallery.... I enjoy talking to people about the work, as the dialogue I’m engaging viewers with in the work is nonverbal. Sometimes when seeing a work, language can act as another filter that muddies the water. Most times I learn a thing or two.” Web site: www.collectivefield.com

U S C T R O J A N F A M I L Y M A G A Z I N E autumn 2010

Studio location: Old electrical building in the east side’s Dayton Avenue neighborhood A hint of what’s in his studio: Fifty or so trophies for judo and lowrider competitions found in a thrift store, animal cages, a well-chewed doghouse, an old wooden ladder, bronzed square of shag carpet Quoted: “My mind works better in three dimensions, as it is hard for my brain to flatten something out. I really like finding things, so it’s rare to start something from scratch. I see found objects as reservoirs of energy, enriched by the residue of use. I’m always on the road looking for objects.” Web site: www.marcjancou.com/artists/ry-rocklen

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Amanda Ross-Ho [MFA ’06, Chicago, IL, 35]

Undergraduate degree: Art Institute of Chicago Work: Assemblages of mismatched media, often

incorporating photographs, jewelry, drawings, found images and textiles Recent highlights: Group exhibitions in Lisbon, Berlin, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles and New York, including the Whitney Biennial. Solo exhibitions in Ghent and Knokke, Belgium; in London and New York City Studio location: Old warehouse, produce district A hint of what’s in her studio: Shares an expansive 4,200-square foot downtown space with Erik Frydenborg MFA ’05, another notable recent USC Roski grad. The studio includes a hidden garden and is home to three cats. There are interesting photos tacked on the wall under a sign “ASTC: Administering Sabotage Through Craft.” An opaque projector is positioned in front of a wall for tracing silhouettes. Quoted: “It’s important to have an adequate laboratory. We’ve got 12-foot ceilings and a lot of wall space, which we need for these sprawling works. Los Angeles is totally home now. We’re nested. But it does get crazy. We had solo shows here that opened a week apart.” Web site: www.cherryandmartin.com/artistDetail.php?id=11

U S C T R O J A N F A M I L Y M A G A Z I N E autumn 2010

An excerpt from the much-lauded new book by USC Annenberg’s Richard Reeves. Tom Brokaw calls it “a dazzling story of bravado, management genius and the perilous circumstances of our first great showdown with Stalin’s Russia.”

Daring Young Men

The Heroism and Triumph of the Berlin Airlift June 1948 – May 1949

The clearance above the roof of the apartments was just 17 feet and pilots swore there were skid marks on that roof. The approach pattern was just one of the problems of the airport, which had originally been built as a parade ground, enclosed on one side by a Hitler-approved terminal, three-quarters of a mile long with seven underground levels that had included a full hospital, barracks and a Focke-Wulf aircraft factory. The other side of the field, the southern rim, was guarded by of World War II, the apartment buildings, which were separated by a cemetery. Allied powers, including the Soviet Union, divided Germany into Lafferty had been ordered back to Rhein-Main, so four occupation zones: American, Soviet, British and French. Berlin, at least he and his crew would get to sleep in their which was 110 miles inside the Soviet zone, was divided into four own beds. But the first voice they heard on the radio as they exited Soviet-controlled air space over East occupation sectors. As tension increased between the wartime vic- Germany told them to keep going 25 miles farther tors, the Soviets, with more than a million soldiers in East Germany, west to another American base, Wiesbaden. “But ... ” said Lafferty. blockaded land, rail and canal entry into the old Nazi capital. In late “No buts! Understand! You’ve been diverted to June 1948, the Americans and the British decided to try to feed and Weisbaden, get over there.” This time they were greeted by another colonel, maintain the more than two million citizens of western Berlin. It Bertram Harrison, commander of the 60th Troop seemed an impossible adventure. Carrier Group based at Wiesbaden. “Congratulations, Lieutenant.” “What for?” Lt. William Lafferty, a 23-year-old Air Force pilot, was stationed at “You don’t know what you did? Didn’t you get a briefing? Didn’t Rhein-Main Air Base, seven miles south of Frankfurt in West Germany, the field where German Zeppelins flew to and from in the 1930s. He had anyone tell you the Russians said they’d shoot down anything that came already made a midday C-47 flight to Tempelhof Airdrome in Berlin on down that corridor?” “Nobody told me anything.” June 26, 1948, carrying food, cigarettes and other supplies for the 6,000 “Well, congratulations again, Lieutenant,” Harrison said. “You’ve just or so American men and women who made up the force occupying one of the four sectors of the broken capital. Tempelhof was in the center flown the first mission of the Berlin Airlift ... .” of the American-occupied sector of the Allied half-city that stood as an island 110 miles inside Soviet-occupied East Germany and surrounded Bill Lafferty, from a small farm town in Illinois, did not know what by hundreds of thousands of Red Army troops. When he returned to the Berlin Airlift was but he had flown two of the 32 flights carrying Rhein-Main, which was also functioning as the largest commercial air- food and other essential supplies to West Berlin that day. The 32 C-47 port in Germany, he was surprised to be stopped by an operations offi- flights brought 80 tons of cargo into the city two days after the Soviets cer, Lt. Herschel Simmons, who pointed to another “Gooney Bird,” as had blockaded all land, rail and water routes from West Germany. This the old C-47s were called. “When it’s loaded with those cartons of food,” was the first full day of the Allied attempt to feed, heat and preserve not Simmons said, “get a crew together and fly that one to Berlin.” only their own 25,000 personnel but also the more than 2 million people “Too dark,” said Lafferty. Allied pilots rarely used the three 20-mile- living in the American, British and French sectors of the old German wide air corridors over Soviet-occupied territory at night. The pilot said capital city. The Berliners, defeated and emaciated, called themselves he would take off at first light and began walking away. die Insulaner, “the Islanders.” “You’ve got to go now,” the ops officer called. Americans and most everyone else, including Soviet premier Joseph “No, it’s not safe,” Lafferty repeated. Stalin, thought the job was impossible. The most important excep“Lieutenant!” a scarier voice bellowed. “You get your ass out to that tion was President Harry S. Truman, who listened to his military and plane now and take it to Berlin as soon as they finish loading.” diplomatic advisers explain why an airlift was “absolutely impossible.” He turned around. It was the base commander, Col. Walter Lee, com- The only routes available to allied planes were the three corridors maning toward him. He quickly recruited a co-pilot, a guy making his first dated by international air traffic safety treaties – agreements signed by flight into Tempelhof, and they landed in almost total darkness. Lafferty the Soviets. Gen. Omar Bradley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wanted to stay in the airport for the rest of the night, but he was told to argued for evacuation of the city before the Soviets had a chance to drive turn around again after the plane was unloaded. They took off in the out the Allies. grey light of European summer. Lafferty’s co-pilot saw for the first time Truman stood up and said: “We stay in Berlin. Period.” the seven-story apartment building a hundred yards from where they So, in Berlin, Gen. Lucius Clay, the American military governor of had touched down in the dark. Germany, called Gen. Curtis LeMay, the commander of the United “Did we go over that when we landed?” the new man asked. States Air Force in Europe. The conversation may not have been exactly “Yep,” said Lafferty. as Air Force and Army information officers presented it to the world. “Jesus!” This was their version: “Welcome to Berlin.” “Curt, have you any planes that can carry coal?”

At the End

From Daring Young Men by Richard Reeves. Copyright © 2010 by Reeves-O’Neill, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Richard Reeves, a senior lecturer at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, is the bestselling author of three presidential biographies: President Kennedy, President Nixon and President Reagan, and 10 other books. He is also a syndicated columnist.

U S C T r o j a n F a m i l y m a g a z i n e autumn 2010

“Carry what?” “Coal!” “We must have a bad connection. It sounds as if you’re asking whether we have planes for carrying coal?” “Yes, that’s what I said.” “General,” said LeMay. “The Air Force can deliver anything, anytime, anywhere.” Brave talk. Clay and LeMay guessed the effort would last a couple of weeks while diplomats worked new supply agreements. Neither of them thought an airlift could be sustained for much longer than that – if it could be done at all. On June 26, 1948, there were 48 old C-47s in West Germany – the plane

was designed in the early 1930s in Santa Monica, Calif. – and only 98 in all of Western Europe. Each one could carry a maximum cargo of three tons. United States Air Force base commanders in West Germany were desperately calling the old birds into Rhein-Main and Weisbaden, loading just about anything they could get their hands on – 295 tons were delivered on day two, 384 on day three – flying them into Tempelhof around the clock. The battered planes, many still painted with vertical stripes to identify them when they were used to drop supplies on D-Day, June 6, 1944, had barely been used since the European war ended in the spring of 1945. Others were painted a dusky pink, the camouflage color used over the deserts of North Africa in 1942. The young pilots and crews of CRASHED AND SAVED Capt. Kenneth Hawk Slaker was saved after his plane the Army Air Corps who had flown them and the other planes into France crashed by a German who had spent two years as a POW in America. and then Germany after the D-Day landings were long gone, demobilized within months after the Nazis surrendered. They were the men who had fought off the Luftwaffe, destroyed it and then, along with was shocked when he first Great Britain’s Royal Air Force, dropped 750,000 saw the grass of Tempelhof. He worried his wheels would hit tons of bombs, from B-17s, B-24s and Lancasters, on Berlin, turning it and dozens of other German the roofs of the surrounding apartment houses. He was also cities into stony and dark wastelands, smelling of frightened when he saw how short the runway was. Pilots death, with German survivors still living in caves did not exactly “land” – they dived for the ground. of rubble. The few who stayed in the military switched to the new uniforms of the new United States Air Force, created in 1947. But most went home as fast as they No plane was immune. A British Dakota took off for Berlin with the could. Their war was over. Now they were busily picking up civilian lives loading crew still on board in the back. An American diplomat, highthat had been on hold for four years. They went to work for airlines or the ranking enough to have his own C-47, flew to Frankfurt for meetings, family business, back to their hometowns, back to colleges, settling down then came back to Rhein-Main and found his plane had been stripped with wives they barely knew and children they had never seen. and loaded with three tons of flour. In London, the Royal Air Force requisitioned two Dakotas from Ciro’s, the fanciest nightclub in the city, The airlift began with those leftover American C-47s and whatever which had been using the planes to ferry customers to the pleasures of planes, usually old bombers, the British could get their hands on, flown the French Riviera. The U.S. Air Force, too, grabbed civilian planes by any pilots they could find. After the war ended in 1945, a British pilot that happened to be on the ground in Germany. Jack O. Bennett, the described the old C-47s, which the British called “Dakotas” for Douglas chief pilot of American Overseas Airlines, part of American Airlines, was Aircraft Company Transport Aircraft, this way: “a collection of parts fly- persuaded to strip his shiny, refurbished DC-3 of its seats and other amenities to haul a load of coal in Army duffel bags. Other airlines, including in loose formation.” The first calls in June and early July, the easy ones, were to the men ing Pan American, Alaskan and Seaboard & Western, were pressed into still on active duty. Lt. J. B. McLaughlin, a fighter pilot during the war, service transporting aircraft parts, particularly wheels and engines from was the air attaché at the U.S. embassy in Athens. Someone noticed that the United States to air force bases in West Germany. Only two of the Air Force’s 400 C-54s were in Germany as the airlift he had also logged 300 hours piloting C-47s and he was ordered immediately to Weisbaden. The same kind of thing happened to Capt. William began. Most were thousands of miles away, transporting men and supA. Cobb, who was passing through Weisbaden to test one of the Air plies from country to country, island to island, across the Pacific Ocean. Force’s new jet fighters, the Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star. A personnel Lt. Fred V. McAfee, a B-24 pilot during the war, got the word at Hickam officer noticed that Cobb had an engineering degree. New orders were Field outside Honolulu, Hawaii, that he was going to Germany – back to immediately cut for him and he became the maintenance control officer the country and city he had bombed on more than 20 runs in 1945. One at Rhein-Main, scheduling repairs and overhauls, first for the C-47s and group of 12 planes was based in Guam, more than 3,800 miles west of then for newer C-54s, four-engine airliners designed in 1939 and known Hawaii and more than 11,000 miles from Germany. The news got there as DC-4s back home, which were being stripped of seats and bathrooms during a large party at the base. Just before midnight, a sergeant came in as a band played Glenn Miller and officers and their wives danced away to become 10-ton transports.

Noah Thompson

U S C T r o j a n F a m i l y m a g a z i n e autumn 2010

JUBILANT END After 10 months, the blockade between East and West Berlin was lifted on May 12, 1949.

Pfc. L. W. “Corky” Colgrove, who was 18 years old, went straight from training in Biloxi, Miss., to Rhein-Main, and was astonished by his assignment: He was supervising a crew of 10 German loaders, the men bringing coal and flour into the C-47s. “One of my guys was a Messerschmitt pilot with 26 kills of American planes!” he wrote home. “It’s tough to hate these people when you work with them. It wasn’t long before we totally trusted them.” That, however, did not stop Colgrove, a joker by nature, from patiently tutoring a German janitor in his hangar to say, in English: “Good morning, Major, you son of a bitch ... .” The British also used German loaders at Gatow Airfield in Berlin and six Royal Air Force (RAF) bases in their zone of western Germany. One 19-year-old RAF airman, Peter Izard, was put in charge of a crew that included a former Luftwaffe squadron commander and a U-boat captain. With all the wild energy of the first two weeks of the airlift, there were only so many pilots still in uniform, only so many flight engineers, ground crewman, weathermen and ground control operators and especially mechanics still on active duty in both England and America. The British were even closer to the action and adventure, so RAF mechanics just grabbed their toolboxes and hitched a ride with any plane headed to Germany. It took British officers weeks to figure out who was where. In the United States, telegrams were arriving all over the country, calling up Air Force reservists. “TDY,” temporary duty for 30 days, that’s what they said. One of the first called up was Arlie Nixon, the chief DC-4 pilot of Trans World Airlines. In a day, he was First Lt. Nixon again. His pay dropped from $550 a month to $180. Noah Thompson, a farm boy from Colchester, Va., who had logged more than 414,000 pilot miles as a bomber and transport pilot in the Air Force, had just passed his airline pilot’s examination, which meant he could fly for any civilian airline in the country. Before taking a job, he brought his wife, Betty, and their new son, Glenn, to meet his parents on the family farm when the notice came. TDY. He kissed Betty and Glenn goodbye, then took off for Germany with other pilots and crewmen of a new Military Air Transportation Service squadron based at Westover. He boarded a C-54 that skipped back and forth across the country picking up pilots, stopping at Kearny, Neb., before coming to Westover and then landing at Bermuda and Lagans Field in the Azores before the final leg to Rhein-Main. They took turns in the cockpit. There were so many of them on board that they spent most of their time in the back, sleeping, reading, playing bridge. Within 24 hours of arrival, Thompson was piloting 10 tons of coal toward Berlin. He knew the landscape below from 21 bombing missions over Germany in the B-17s of the Eighth Air Force. More than 40 percent of his group’s 450 crews had been shot down or had crashed. Below him now were the people who beat to death his buddy, Lt. Don Dennis, the man in the bunk next to him in 1945, who had parachuted onto farmland from his burning B-17 one spring day. What happened next was not unusual: Civilians on the ground, local farmers, enraged by incessant Allied bombing, killed Dennis with pitchforks and clubs, and probably set dogs on him as well. “And now I’m bringing them food,” Thompson thought. “What a world.” The radio in Thompson’s C-54 crackled with a controller’s voice: “You are cleared for Berlin’s Tempelhof Airfield. Climb out on the Darmstadt leg of the Frankfurt Range, at the beacon marker home in on Aschaffenberg, pass through that beacon at 900 feet altitude, then turn on a heading of 33 degrees, and climb to your assigned altitude of 3,500 feet. Report in when over the Fulda checkpoint.” Air traffic control was stacking planes over the field. A Time magazine correspondent inside the tower described the scene and the dialogue:

p a g e 3 3 p h o t o b y c o r b i s / PAGE 3 4 p h o t o c o u r t e s y o f l a n d e s a r c h i v b e r l i n / o t h e r p h o t o s c o u r t e s y o f s i m o n & S c h u s t e r

the tropical night. He was looking for the base commander, who took the papers and moved to the side of the room to read them. The group was ordered to Hawaii, taking everyone: mechanics, technical personnel, radio operators. “Gentlemen!” said the colonel, taking the microphone from the bandleader. The room became silent and he read the order: “Hawaii, California, on to Wiesbaden. We fly in two hours.” “What about our families?” “The Air Force will take care of them,” was the answer. It didn’t very well, at least not in the beginning. Pilots and other airmen kidded about “the Lost Wives Club.” First Lt. William J. Horney of Vineland, N.Y., flying east from Manila, looked down and saw a transport ship headed the other way, figuring his new wife was probably on it (she was), and told his co-pilot, “My future just passed.” The wives of men in the crews ordered to Germany, particularly the wives of enlisted men, were left for weeks without money, reduced to begging local merchants and landlords for credit until they finally saw their absent husbands’ paychecks. Mary Widmar, who was 19 years old and had a 6-week-old son, was the wife of an officer, Navy Lt. Charles Widmar, but she could not even get his paychecks in Hawaii because she had no power of attorney in her husband’s name when he left for Berlin. She headed for his hometown, Livingston, Ill., to live with in-laws she had never met. Earl Von Kaenel’s wife, pregnant and with a 2-year-old son, arrived at Hickam 24 hours after her husband had taken off, piloting a C-54 on the long route to Rhein-Main. Meanwhile, at Hickam Field, which was also being stripped of all its C-54s, Lt. McAfee and his crew co-pilot Lt. John McNeill and navigator Lt. William Skelly had also left. They took off on July 1, landing first at Fairfield, Calif., then on to Chicago and Westover Air Force Base at Chicopee Falls, Mass., before taking off over the Atlantic Ocean and arriving at Rhein-Main at 5:15 p.m. on July 6. McAfee was briefed for an hour and took off for Tempelhof at 8 o’clock that night, carrying 10 tons of flour.

Thirteen GIs worked around the clock, surrounded by Coke bottles, cigarette smoke and the brassy chattering of radios. The chaotic chorus of American voices was tense but happy. “Give me an ETA on EC 84 ... That’s flour coming in on EC 72 … Roger ... Ease her down ... Where the hell has 85 gone? Oh, yeah, overhead. Wind is now north, northwest … The next stupid C-47 has nothing on his manifest ... Are you in charge of putting de-icer fluid in aircraft? Well, who the hell is?” Thompson was shocked when he broke through the clouds and saw the grass of Tempelhof for the first time. Like Lafferty, he worried his wheels would hit the roofs of the surrounding apartment houses. He was also frightened when he saw how short the runway was – 6,100 feet of perforated steel planking laid out on the grass – calling for full flaps from his co-pilot and cutting the throttle back as far as he could. Pilots coming into Tempelhof did not exactly “land,” they dived for the ground. The GOONEY BIRDS Old C-47 airplanes, known as “Gooney Birds,” were unloaded minimum glide slope path for American military planes after the war by Germans and some of Europe’s thousands of displaced persons. was 40-to-1, that is, a pilot was expected to reduce altitude one foot for every 40 feet of flight. At Tempelhof, because of the apartment buildings and short runways, the path was 16-to-1 on the primary runway and Ursula Erika Yunger was comforted 10-to-1 on a secondary runway. by her father, who had gotten a loading job at Tempelhof. Below him, Thompson saw small crowds. “We are not being attacked. The Americans and English are Maintenance crews, Germans, men and coming to rescue us. ... Mama said that God had heard our women, more women than men, were filling in holes in the single runway and replacing bent prayers and sent angels to help us. Angels in uniform.” Marston Mats – two-yard squares of perforated steel weighing 55 pounds each – then scurrying informed about them only between midnight and two in the morning. So away with their wheelbarrows and shovels as Thompson touched down. we run outside when the RIAS van appears. It reports the most important “Christ,” someone said. “What if they drop one of those wheelbarrows news: ‘The airlift has increased to 100 flights daily. Swimming prohibited and leave it there in front of us.” That did not happen, but tires were in lakes and rivers because they are likely to be polluted with sewage due to regularly cut to ribbons by broken planking. the power cuts ....’ ‘We will dry out the Western sectors like a tied-off wart,’ After the dive to the first few feet of the runway, pilots used full brakes the Soviets have supposedly said. And this time they no doubt mean it.” to avoid the real danger of rolling off the far end into grass and mud. The They meant it. The Soviets were never able to completely cut off wheelbarrow people Thompson saw were running back out just behind electricity to the Western sectors, but not for lack of trying. Before the him. The men and women, some of them wearing their best clothes, British and Americans arrived in July 1945, the Soviets had already dismaybe their only clothes, were filling holes more than a thousand times mantled the city’s largest power plant (Berlin West) and shipped it to each 24 hours before the next plane popped out of the low cloud cover. Moscow. At the beginning of the airlift, the western sectors of the city generated only 11 percent of their own electricity. As in most big cities, In Washington, the Air Force, having used up much of its person- all the utilities and services of Berlin were interconnected in complicated nel around the world, was preparing long lists of reservists and civilians ways. In the case of the S-Bahn and U-Bahn, the elevated trains and the working for airlines. Edwin A. Gere Jr., who just graduated from Alfred subways, it was impossible to cut off Western service without also shutting down Eastern trains. University in upstate New York, was woken by a phone call at dawn. Twelve-year-old Ursula Erika Yunger ran to hear the loudspeakers on “Lieutenant Gere?” said a sweet-voiced Western Union operator. Nobody had called him that since he returned home after flying B-24s, American jeeps and met her father coming back from Tempelhof, where bombing the Japanese in the Pacific. “You have a telegram from the Air he had gotten a loading job. “The planes are bringing us food and supForce: ‘By direction of the president, you are ordered to active duty for plies,” he said. “We are not being attacked. The Americans and English are coming to rescue us. We are going to be free .... Mama said that God the Berlin Airlift, reporting to Camp Kilmer ....’ ” “How can they do this to me?” Gere complained to his wife, Doris. He had heard our prayers and sent angels to help us. Angels in uniform.” had just been accepted into law school at the University of New Mexico. “What about me?” said Doris, an Alfred graduate who had just signed The daring men of 1948-49 were hardly angels – the venereal disease on for a teaching job in Albuquerque. “Wherever you’re going, I’m rate among airlifters was as high as 40 percent – but they did the job and going. I have to give up that job.” a bit of God’s work, too. On May 12, 1949, after the Americans and the British were landing as many as 13,000 tons a day of food and supplies even through a horrific northern European winter, Stalin called off the By June 29, according to the diary of Ruth Andreas-Friedrich, a Berlin book editor, planes were going over her place every eight minutes. She Berlin Blockade. The airlift was the first Allied victory of the Cold War. was not sure what was happening because electricity had been rationed By the end of the flying, West Germany had been created as a separate to midnight to 2:00 a.m. in her neighborhood. “Loudspeaker vans from country and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization had been signed as RIAS” – Radio in the American Sector, an 800-watt station often drowned a mutual defense treaty by the United States and the democratic counout by the 50,000-watt Radio Berlin on the Soviet side – “have been driv- tries of Western Europe. l ing through the streets of the Western sector, substituting for the news service. It’s quite annoying to be at the focus of world affairs and to be If you have questions or comments on this article, send them to magazines@usc.edu.

12-year-old

U S C T r o j a n F a m i l y m a g a z i n e autumn 2010

Hope for Homeless Society and Business Lab founder Adlai Wertman in downtown Los Angeles, outside the nonprofit Chrysalis, where he was formerly CEO. Photo by Philip Channing.

U S C T R O J A N F A M I L Y M A G A Z I N E autumn 2010

Good Business For starry-eyed idealists, the Society and Business Lab at the USC Marshall School of Business offers practical tools for changing the world. BY JULIE RIGGOTT

When the Society and Business Lab at the USC Marshall School of Business launched in October 2008, founder and director Adlai Wertman shot for the stars. Actually, that may be an understatement. The lab’s stated mission is to develop new strategies for solving global and social issues such as poverty, homelessness, education and health care, and to provide support for students and faculty who want to use their business skills to change the world. A cynic might ask if trying to save the world is a bit of an overreach. Wertman, who has worked as both an investment banker and head of a nonprofit devoted to helping the homeless, would respond, “Why not aim high?” “We also use the term change a lot, rather than save the world,” he says in the Davidson Continuing Education Center, where the lab has its offices. “We don’t have the conceit of save the world – but change the world? Absolutely. “Whenever I say we’re out to change the world, everyone automatically assumes that’s for the better,” he adds, laughing. “Nobody asks, ‘What are you changing it to?’ They just say, ‘You’re going to change the world? Great.’ ” Wertman and his staff of three don’t organize volunteers for charities or lecture about corporate social responsibility – a common misconception. Instead, they study and teach about social entrepreneurship – the creation of a new kind of hybrid business model for organizations that balance a revenue mission with a more important social, environmental or health mission. The Society and Business Lab, so called because it focuses on new ideas and the next genera-

tion rather than research, is one of 13 centers of excellence at USC Marshall. Very much a student-centered entity, the lab has several fellowship programs, develops and offers courses, supports student organizations, subsidizes internships at nonprofit organizations and provides career mentoring. It also organizes a speaker series that brings social entrepreneurs and industry leaders from local, national and international social enterprises to campus. Although in its infancy, the lab has two new projects on the horizon that will take students further into the community: One will bring social organizations together with businesses and government agencies in Los Angeles to create jobs for low-income residents, and the other will offer an online learning platform for budding social entrepreneurs, matching them with volunteer experts in order to analyze the feasibility of their concepts. TO UNDERSTAND what the lab does, it’s necessary to grasp what a social enterprise is and how it works. For that background, Wertman goes back to his years at Chrysalis, one of the larger social enterprises in the country and the U S C T R O J A N F A M I L Y M A G A Z I N E autumn 2010

U S C T R O J A N F A M I L Y M A G A Z I N E autumn 2010

photo by dietmar Quistorf

vate businesses, paying us to clean the streets. We’re competing financially against private-sector companies. I’m bidding on the contracts, so running that business, which balances multiple missions, becomes enormously complex.” Finding people to help run the Skid Row enterprise, which pays somewhat less money than a similar position in the private sector, was one of Wertman’s biggest challenges. What he found was: “Young people tend to do really well in these industries. They are very idealistic. But they haven’t been trained to run a business. “We have a new generation,” the father of three adds. “This millennial generation is focused on deriving meaning from their careers, taking very seriously their responsibility in the greater community, and looking for practical tools to help them use their educations, careers First Fellows The Society and Business Lab’s inaugural group of fellows in 2010, left to right: and resources to make a difference Breana Teubner, Todd Benshoof, Erin Woods, Molly Larson, Jacob Sullivan, Pat Hodgins, Jyoti in the world.” Gaur. Not shown: Vince Lazalde While he was at Chrysalis, UCLA asked Wertman to teach nonprofit management and develop courses only nonprofit in Los Angeles devoted solely to “unemployable” group needed something more. for its master of social work students. “I hoped “The only way to help them get that training to grow my own people for the business and helping the homeless turn their lives around by and a bridge to the community was to start our create these models around the world.” getting and keeping jobs. But he soon realized that social work graduThat’s where Wertman, who left an 18-year own business,” Wertman says. Pointing beyond his office window, he indi- ates are not trained to run a business, nor do career as an investment banker to become president and CEO of Chrysalis for seven years, cates several men in blue shirts sweeping the they typically have an interest in that career saw a model of a social enterprise that not only streets outside the University Park campus path. So he drafted a proposal for a center for worked, but also garnered a lot of attention, all who are Chrysalis clients under contract to city society and business and sent it to the deans Business Improvement Districts, or to property of the business schools at UCLA, Pepperdine the way to the White House. Chrysalis’ model works like this: The non- owners. They work for four to six months, learn- University and USC. USC Marshall dean James G. Ellis called the profit runs the largest street-maintenance busi- ing things most people take for granted, such as ness in Los Angeles County and hires home- how to show up reliably for work, how to deal next day. “The proposal from Adlai really hit a nerve less people long enough to help them get the with a boss and how to manage stress. And afterskills they need to find and keep a job in the ward, 90 percent successfully find a job in the with me, because one of the issues that continues to come up, even as recently as today community. The street-cleaning business pro- private sector. Like all social enterprises, the model works, with Goldman Sachs testifying to the SEC and vides income so the company can keep hiring Congress, is the negative side of business and and training the homeless, which is the primary but it has its challenges. “If you were going to start a street-cleaning their dealings with society,” Ellis said in April. mission. That business model came about when the business, any service business, your goal in “Adlai was proposing a way to use business in staff at Chrysalis found that nearly half of the recruiting would always be to go to the best a positive manner, to be the economic driver 2,500 people who came through its doors each labor pool that you can get, interview and hire behind some opportunities to help with society’s year were deemed unemployable because they’d the best of the best, and train them and retain issues, and he wanted to use our student brain power and enthusiasm to set that up. never had a job, had been in jail for many years them as long as possible,” Wertman says. “He had a great idea, and I said, ‘How fast “The business model at Chrysalis was to go to or had become completely de-socialized. The rest were sufficiently served by programs that the worst labor pool in the country, hire the worst can you get over here?’ ” help them learn job-hunting skills and apply for of the worst, train them and then fire them” when a position (with a 93 percent success rate), but the they are ready to find work in the community. WHEN THE WORD was put out to USC Marshall “At Chrysalis, if a guy does not show up for alumni, the Salesforce.com Foundation, Orfalea Julie Riggott is a freelance writer and creator and work for three days, you don’t fire him, you Foundations and Lord Foundation responded editor of CultureSpotLA.com, which covers arts and work on getting him to show up on the fourth with generous donations that made the Society day,” he adds. “But we still have customers, pri- and Business Lab a reality. culture in Los Angeles.

USC’s Society and Business Lab

“There is a lack of this kind of curriculum in many business schools around the country, and especially in the Southern California area,” says Marc Benioff ’86, who helped launch the lab with a $1 million commitment from the Salesforce.com Foundation. “What better place to support this important work than my alma mater?” USC has always taken pride in its focus on fostering a culture of public service in the local community and around the world. And Ellis said that when Wertman’s proposal came across his desk, USC Marshall students were already expressing an interest in a program like that. Margaux Helvey MBA/MSW ’08, now associate director of the Society and Business Lab, was one of those students. “In college I was motivated by the mission of solving social problems, and I had a business mind for organizing and strategizing,” she says, “In grad school, I learned there were models out there.” But at the time, there was nothing like the lab, so “I had to piece together my own social entrepreneurship degree with an MBA and a master of social work.” A group of students, including Helvey, who had already been pitching the idea for a program combining business and society, joined Wertman when Ellis hired him as clinical professor, and helped develop the new organization. Part of their initial research included a sevenmonth analysis of every business school with a social-focused program. There are schools across the nation doing work in related areas – Stanford University, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard

University study social entrepreneurship, and the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley is involved with corporate social responsibility – but none is doing exactly what the Society and Business Lab does. Leveraging the interdisciplinary nature of USC, and building on USC Marshall’s topranked Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, Wertman says, the lab offers something unique at a business school that is consistently included among the best in the nation by U.S. News & World Report and BusinessWeek. More important, the lab finally provided a home for those idealistic students who were looking for a different type of business education. As a USC alumnus recently told him, parents want their children to have business skills, while their children want to change the world. The lab reconciles the two worlds. “Historically, there has been a wall of separation between business and business schools and social issues,” says Wertman. “If you cared about social, environmental and health issues, you didn’t go to business school. The business discipline was pure profit mode. Now, we are saying, ‘No, we need your business skill set to address these global challenges.’ ” MOLLY LARSON MBA ’11, part of the first cohort of Society and Business Lab fellows, says it has been invaluable to have support from her peers and the staff. “We are breaking the mold,” Larson says of the fellows. “Despite how driven and passionate we all are, it is a scary thing that we are doing. With the lab, we are definitely not in it alone.”

The eight Society and Business Lab fellows, interested in future jobs in micro-finance, the environment, nonprofit management, education and government, not only benefit from a cohort of like-minded students, but also receive professional development assistance in the form of funding to attend the annual Net Impact conference, the opportunity to spend one-on-one time with industry leaders and a $2,500 subsidy for summer internships at nonprofits. The Society and Business Lab also offers the fellows career mentoring and job assistance in partnership with the MBA Career Resource Center – an important perk considering the difficulty in finding jobs in social enterprises without a network, points out Abby Fifer-Mandell, director of education at the lab. Wertman and Fifer-Mandell cite the twoyear fellows program as an early success story for the lab. Ten percent of the MBA Class of 2011 applied to be fellows and have since also taken on roles as leaders, club presidents and student ambassadors. About half of the second cohort, arriving in fall 2010, say that they expressly applied to USC Marshall because of the chance to be a fellow. “The fellows program is absolutely a reason I applied to Marshall,” confirms Patrick Hodgins, a member of the first cohort who plans to pursue a career in clean technology or sustainability consulting. “In terms of impact on my life, I think my experience with the Society and Business Lab has helped me to become more pragmatic in my idealism, which will ultimately make me a more effective leader.” Enrollment in the classes associated

In the Company of Students

The Society and Business Lab supports five USC Marshall student consultant groups that provide pro bono services to local organizations with a social mission. A snapshot of each group follows. Net Impact Service Corps As a graduate student, Margaux Helvey, now associate director of the Society and Business Lab, found Net Impact to be an important “support group for nontraditional MBAs” interested in alternative careers focusing on social causes. The USC chapter, established in 2005, sends students to a

national conference each fall in addition to having them manage consulting projects. For 20092010, teams worked with the Clean Economy Network, Clean Tech LA, the Pasadena Humane Society, the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship and Project:Possibility. Molly Larson ’11, a lab fellow and recently elected president of Net Impact, worked on the

humane society project. “We conducted research about the people who live in areas that they serve and made recommendations as to how the society can better market its efforts to certain segments,” she says. “It has been an amazing experience for me, as I have never been a part of a consulting project.” Adam Miller MBA ’05 found the experience essential to his career goals. “I did a consulting project for Green Dot Public Schools, a burgeoning charter school management organization,” he says. “I was able to leverage that experience and knowledge gained into a position as vice president of finance and member services with the California Charter Schools Association, where I have been since graduation.”

U S C T R O J A N F A M I L Y M A G A Z I N E autumn 2010

with the lab, and two that Wertman teaches, also demonstrates the popularity of the idea. Wertman teaches an undergraduate survey course, “Entrepreneurial Solutions to Global Challenges,” which examines business models and covers topics from micro-finance to social entrepreneurship. It was taught for the first time in fall 2009 and filled up on the first day of registration. His “MBA Social Entrepreneurship” course more closely examines business models. Forty-two students enrolled in spring 2010, and several more were on the waiting list. “Those numbers speak to the growing interest in the field and to USC Marshall’s dedication to resources in this area,” says Fifer-Mandell, who helps with curriculum development and manages student programs. AT THE END OF THE SPRING semester, in a classroom in Popovich Hall, students in the MBA course gave presentations on organizations ranging from the education-focused SEED Foundation to micro-finance for education in China. The students outlined opportunities, challenges and trade-offs, and offered recommendations for growth and improvement. Fifer-Mandell says the class gives students “the resources to understand how business models can be applied to the social sector,” and teaches them to make “sound choices about how to attack the most pressing social problems.” It is also an experience that lays the groundwork for consulting projects, which many students are involved in outside of the classroom as members of student consulting organizations

Alpha Zeta (AZ) Consulting AZ Consulting worked with its first client in spring 2009: Creative Migration, a nonprofit social entrepreneurship program interested in launching a Web series of documentaries focused on young people creating social change through art. The students helped the startup by developing a marketing plan and providing recommendations on how to structure the Web site and attract donors and sponsors. Their findings were implemented when the first part of the Web series launched in April 2010.

that offer pro bono services to companies with social missions. When the Society and Business Lab was founded, it became the point of contact for Net Impact and four other undergraduate community consulting groups: AZ Consulting, Students in Free Enterprise, Los Angeles Community Impact and the Trojan Consulting Group. The lab serves as a connecting force for the groups, providing networking opportunities, creating contract templates, giving recommendations for best practices and supplying professional help for challenges that arise with clients. It also is the adviser of record for the USC chapter of Global Business Brigades, a student-run club that visits Panama each year to put marketing, operations, finance and accounting skills to work for a micro-enterprise of farmers in a small rural community. Undergraduates who participate in and learn about the Global Business Brigades end up applying to be interns at the Society and Business Lab. When Fifer-Mandell interviewed 14 possible interns last spring, they all said that they wanted to work at the lab because the Global Brigade experience changed their lives. Fifer-Mandell hears that a lot. She says it makes her job particularly rewarding when business students realize they don’t need to give up their idealism or disappoint their more practicalminded parents. “Business is a sensible degree, but then they get to a class where they are so moved by the speakers that they feel they can be a successful business person and make a difference in the world,” she says. Graduate students at USC Marshall also have

“We are constantly improving our skills and learning from the organizations through feedback on our recommendations and interactions,” says Karan Sharma, AZ Consulting’s current president. “It’s a very valuable experience to apply our skills in the real world and see the impact.” AZ Consulting is part of the USC chapter of Alpha Kappa Psi, the nation’s oldest and largest professional business fraternity. Projects for 2010 included writing a business plan with marketing strategies and information about record keeping for an organization that tutors students in the University Park community. Students also helped a nonprofit that provides books to children in Indonesia figure out how to start a chapter at USC.

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opportunities to get started in social enterprise careers through the MBA Enterprise Corps and the Clinton-Orfalea Fellowship Program. Fifer-Mandell acts as staff liaison to the MBA Enterprise Corps, which places MBAs from top business schools in assignments in emerging economies worldwide. She also helps with the application and selection process for the ClintonOrfalea Fellowship Program. There, the Orfalea Foundations, established by USC Marshall alumnus and Kinko’s founder Paul Orfalea ’71, provides fellowships for USC students to work at the Clinton Foundation on issues such as climate control and childhood obesity. classroom and club experiences, students can round out their education in social enterprise by taking advantage of the Society and Business Lab’s “Lunch and Learn” speaker series, where industry leaders are invited to speak to the USC community. Fellows and interns help come up with speakers and topics. The seven events in the 20092010 series responded to the question: “Can business models save the world?” Doris Huang, director of venture and fellowship for Ashoka in Mexico and Latin America, and one of the speakers, answered with a confident “yes.” Huang’s presentation about investing in social ventures attracted students from USC Marshall and the School of Policy, Planning, and Development, and a USC Marshall alumnus working in social entrepreneurship. Another speaker was Paul Polizzotto, founder of Southern California-based EcoMedia, an environmental media group he recently sold to

IN ADDITION TO

Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) Founded in 2005, the USC chapter is part of an international organization of the same name that is made up of business executives, university students and academic leaders. It has three ongoing projects that involve educational and environmental causes. President Stanley Lam says, “We saw a niche where we could provide consulting and other services and involve students across the campus.” The Toy Library after-school program at the 24th Street Theatre simulates a mini-market economy that allows children to borrow toys on a weekly basis. A point system helps

the borrowers learn about supply and demand as prices fluctuate with children’s interest in individual items. SIFE also has worked with six USC student organizations through its Student Org Marketing Project, helping new groups figure out competitive positioning on campus by developing and implementing marketing proposals. The ongoing Biodiesel Alternative Energy Project partnered with the Lot food court at USC, recruiting engineering students to turn used cooking oil into fuel. Since then, the project has turned to raising awareness about the benefits of recycling. SIFE regularly involves students in fields outside of business. In 2008-2009, premed students joined USC SIFE to help St. John’s Well Child and Family Center launch an initiative to raise awareness at high schools about the clinic’s resources.

USC’s Society and Business Lab

CBS, where he is now a division president. A stu- lum and offer feedback on their ideas. The pro- STUDENTS AREN’T THE ONLY ONES excited dent asked Polizzotto to speak after hearing him gram will feature lectures by Wertman, quizzes about the lab. “Alumni have been generous give a presentation at a Net Impact conference. and homework, and videos from experts such in every way possible, giving as much time as Polizzotto quickly got on board as a senior fellow. as Polizzotto. financial support,” Wertman says, mention“At the early stages, the entire focus for ing alumni such as Daniel Powell ’62, who is “I’m a serial entrepreneur in the environmental space, so this is right up my alley,” says VentureBuild will be on USC students and another strong supporter of VentureBuild; Polizzotto, who started and sold another social alumni as social entrepreneurs, and USC faculty David Bohnett ’78, who is a regular speaker; enterprise before founding EcoMedia. “But they and alumni as volunteer professionals,” and Kevin Mintie ’78, who is sponsoring a didn’t teach these things when I was in school. Wertman explains. “VentureBuild allows the named fellowship for five years. All three are I think teaching the brightest young members of the lab’s advisory council. business minds to bring business mod“I love seeing USC and Marshall “They didn’t teach these things els and passion and creativity to solving think outside the box, and it’s excitsocial issues is the future. It’s critical.” ing being on the ground floor watching when I was in school. I think Polizzotto also is participating this move forward,” says Mintie, who teaching the brightest young in a project currently in the works: was hooked after hearing Wertman talk business minds to bring business VentureBuild, the lab’s first social about the lab at a Marshall Partners models and passion and creativity venture project focused on offering Board leadership retreat. “I think this to solving social issues is the early-stage social entrepreneurs access program is going to be something that to online education and partnerships puts USC way out there from any other future. It’s critical.” to assess the feasibility of their ideas. business school in the country.” – Paul Polizzotto, EcoMedia founder Polizzotto shared the step-by-step proMintie, Polizzotto and Ellis all mencess of building his own ventures in tion another reason the lab will continue a video that will be part of a 10-hour to gain momentum: Wertman’s passionTrojan Family to become part of mission-based ate investment in a new kind of business educaonline class. “I think the lab is taking a very innovative startups in a way that is accessible for them and tion. Mintie and Polizzotto both use the word approach, and that’s going to make this program where they can apply their specific expertise.” “contagious” to describe his enthusiasm. The Society and Business Lab also has plans successful,” he says. As Wertman puts it, “I’m all about the stuMargaux Helvey, who is spearheading for a scholars program in the next academic year dents, and the students here at USC are truly VentureBuild’s development, says while there that will focus on job creation in the commu- amazing. They are not only driven in the right are some resources for people who launch social nity. Involving internships, workshops, lectures direction, but also brilliant, mature, hardworkenterprises, there are few, if any, for those who and fellowships, this program aims to bring Los ing and generous. I am fully focused on supneed to evaluate their ideas and move them Angeles-based social enterprises together with porting this new generation of business-minded private businesses and local government agen- change makers.” l from paper to practice. Social entrepreneurs will use the online plat- cies to create business models that combine form to connect with volunteer professionals resources to create jobs for the economically If you have questions or comments on this article, who will help guide them through the curricu- disadvantaged. please send them to magazines@usc.edu.

Los Angeles Community Impact (LACI) LACI has an impressive résumé. Since it was established in 2006, it has had more than 70 clients, including nonprofits and small businesses with social missions, spanning education (Iridescent), the environment (Cenergie) and health (the Safety Girls). Students learn real-world skills by applying their business knowledge for the betterment of the community. Jared Slagle MBA ’07 co-founded LACI with Reed Doucette ’08. Slagle says he is impressed with the group’s growth. “I am so proud of how the

students have jumped on the vision and increased LACI’s efficiency and impact to the point where it is known across the university.” Ian Nelson, the group’s vice president of external relations, pointed out that LACI has won several honors, including Best Service Organization at the Tommy Awards, USC’s student organization and involvement awards, over the past three years. It also was named Most Outstanding Student Organization at the USC Marshall Student Organization Awards Banquet for the past two years. In 2009-2010, the group worked with Urban Possibilities, a nonprofit that uses theatre and writing to inspire the homeless and working poor of Skid Row to become contributing citizens. Students created a strategic plan focused on funding and sponsorships.

Trojan Consulting Group (TCG) TCG takes pride in the fact that each member is at the top of the class at USC Marshall, and graduates “place extremely well into the working world,” says president Ivan Whittey ’11. Job placements in the past few years include Bain & Company, Morgan Stanley, KPMG, J.P. Morgan and Apple. Founded in 2001, TCG provides clients with marketing analyses, comparable studies, marketing strategies and business plans. Each semester, the entire team concentrates on one project. Past clients include United Way and Goodwill

SOLAC. For the Los Angeles Unified School District, TCG piloted a strategy to develop alternative sources of revenue through corporate sponsorships and partnerships. For Linc Housing, the group provided an in-depth analysis of the current and future downtown Los Angeles market and created a business strategy for developing low-income mixeduse housing. One 2010 project involved creating a business plan for the nonprofit CDTech, which was interested in launching a computer repair shop to generate an unrestricted revenue stream for its activities. Whittey says: “We explored costs, service options, competition and revenue streams. Our goal was to have CDTech know exactly what it will encounter when the organization opens the doors to its social enterprise.” – Julie Riggott

U S C T R O J A N F A M I L Y M A G A Z I N E autumn 2010

a life of calm Jennifer Griffin has traveled a long road to recovery, from experiencing several seizures a day to living seizure-free, thanks to epilepsy surgery.

USC neurologists and neurosurgeons help restore epilepsy patients’ independence and confidence. by sara reeve

A Return to Normalcy A

s Jennifer Griffin sped through the intersection seven years ago, her mind wasn’t on her driving. A barrage of electric impulses attacked her brain as she suffered an epileptic seizure, the type she had dealt with since she was 10 months old. Griffin, now 30, says: “While I was seizing, I drove five city blocks, blew through an intersection, through a wrought iron fence and crashed into a tree while going 45 miles an hour.” Epilepsy is a medical condition that produces seizures affecting a variety of mental and physical functions. When a person has two or more unprovoked seizures, he or she is considered to have epilepsy. “Seizures are basically electrical storms in the brain,” says Christianne Heck, director of the epilepsy program at USC University Hospital and associate professor of neurology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. “Brain cells speak to each other electrically, and when the electrical impulses become deregulated and synchronized, patients experience seizures.” Griffin, who lives in Whittier, Calif., survived the crash with minor injuries, but she knew that something had to change. She needed to find a new way to calm the seizures that were dictating the terms of her life. Epileptic seizures take different forms and can last from a few seconds to several minutes. The symptoms often vary so much that the seizures are not always recognized as such by either the patient or health-care professionals for months or even years. Photographs by Philip Channing

U S C T r o j a n Fa m i ly m a g a z i n e autumn 2010

“The spectrum of seizure symptoms is very wide,” says David Ko, associate professor of neurology at the Keck School. “A lot of patients have small seizures, which we call ‘auras.’ These can be funny smells or funny tastes, or even strong déjà vu feelings. They can progress to a patient having a generalized tonic-clonic seizure, which is, I think, the most dramatic medical event that can happen – somebody who makes a loud cry, their eyes roll up, they foam at the mouth, shake all over and initially don’t breathe, so they turn blue. The shaking is very dramatic. People can break bones, fall and get head injuries.” Although risk factors for epilepsy can include prior head trauma, brain tumor, stroke, encephalitis and meningitis, 70 percent of people with epilepsy have no identifiable cause. “My seizures always came in spurts,” says Griffin. “When I was a baby, I was on medications, and they’d wean me off, and I’d have more seizures. Then they decided that I should always be on medications, that I couldn’t function without them.” While the rate of development of new anti-seizure medications has increased in recent years, there are still many people whose epilepsy is termed “medically intractable,” or uncontrolled by medication. For these individuals, daily life can be severely affected. The ability to drive a car, care for children and even take a shower without fear of having a seizure can be an unfulfilled dream. “Patients with seizures should never take baths alone,” says Laura Kalayjian, an assistant professor of neurology at the Keck School whose research focuses on the role of hormones in women with epilepsy. “Moms with babies should not be bathing their babies alone – they can do sponge baths, but no standing water. I had a patient who placed the baby on the counter to get a glass of water, had a seizure, and the baby fell off and had a hematoma (blood clot).” Patients with intractable epilepsy may turn to surgical intervention to change their lives. The epilepsy program at USC University Hospital is categorized as a Level 4 Epilepsy Center, the highest level of qualification, based on medical and surgical expertise and experience. Griffin was referred to USC at age 17 after a recurrence of seizures previously thought to have been controlled with a new medication.

U S C T r o j a n Fa m i ly m a g a z i n e autumn 2010

team approach Christianne Heck, top left, considers input from her colleagues during a weekly team meeting. Neurologist Laura Kalayjian treats women with epilepsy who are desperate to gain control over their seizures and their lives. David Ko listens intently as epilepsy team members discuss surgical options for patients at USC University Hospital.

“My original neurologist referred me to USC when he couldn’t figure out the right combination and levels of medication,” says Griffin. “I tried every seizure drug under the sun. My doctor was frustrated because he didn’t know what to do. He realized that USC, with its academic resources and research base, would have more resources.” The patients who seek care from the USC epilepsy program often come looking for a way to live a life free from the threat of seizures that interrupt every activity. “Most of them are patients who are frustrated with not getting all the answers, or not being completely cured,” says Heck. “Many of them have had epilepsy for a very long time. The average number of years it takes somebody to finally get to us is somewhere around 15, and that’s a real tragedy.” Patients are considered possible candidates for surgery if they have failed two or more epileptic medications or have had severe adverse side effects. The operations generally consist of the removal of tissue from the area of the brain where the seizures arise, or interruption of nerve pathways that allow seizures to spread. “If the patient has been properly worked up, if the risks have been ascertained, the potential risk of anything terrible happening is exceedingly low,” says Charles Liu, director of epilepsy surgery and holder of

the Michael L. J. Apuzzo Professorship for Advanced Neurological Surgery. “But when you put the two words, ‘brain’ and ‘surgery,’ together, people don’t necessarily see that. We really are able to offer patients a new lease on life.” with a complete physical and neurological examination, as well as a comprehensive review of previous seizure activity. A series of tests are conducted to identify the location of the seizure focus, the type of seizures, and the relationship of the seizure focus to other brain functions, such as short-term memory and vision. The USC epilepsy team, which consists of experts in neurology, neuroradiology, neuropsychology and neurosurgery, meets weekly to discuss each surgical candidate, test results, and the potential costs and benefits of surgical intervention. When initial tests to pinpoint the location of the seizures do not provide enough information on the site of the seizure focus, additional surgical tests on the brain can directly monitor seizure discharges. “Surgery is considered for all patients who continue to have seizures despite optimizing medications, and it is recommended to patients only after a thorough evaluation by our experts deems that it will be helpful,” says Liu. “The choice of type of sur-

Evaluation for surgery begins

deteriorate. “There is evidence that a single seizure can cause some amount of injury to brain tissue, and the longer a seizure goes on, the higher the risk of injury,” notes Heck. “What we are seeing in epilepsy centers is that in the patients whose seizures are not fully controlled, their disease process starts to look like a progressive illness. They end up with memory dysfunction; they end up with worsening seizures over time. And that can be prevented in a lot of cases.” The operation can take several the results are in Neurosurgeon Charles Liu, left, reviews test results while deciding if an epilepsy hours, as surgeons first locate and patient would be a good candidate for surgery. The USC epilepsy team begins its weekly meeting by using then remove the area of the brain specialized software to view MRI results of patients. identified as the source of the seizures. After the operation, the patient stays in the hospital up to a week. the most successful approach for the right gery is made only after careful evaluation Griffin’s recovery from the lobectomy was patient.” and consultation with the patient, taking long and slow, taking three months before For Griffin, the prospect of being seizureinto account all the risks and benefits and she really felt “whole” again. She spent the free for the first time in her life was exhilapatient desires.” first two weeks sleeping as her brain healed. rating, but the nature of the surgery was The most common form of epilepsy surAs she began to return to everyday actividaunting. gery is a lobectomy, in which a part of the ties, she felt like a new woman. “When the subject of surgery came up, I lobe of the brain is removed surgically. Sei“I used to take 16 pills a day,” says Grifthought it was no big deal,” she says. “I said: zures in the lobes may be treated if the seifin. “I’m now on 6 pills, and my doctors are ‘Let’s do it now! If I can have a life withzure-producing area can be safely removed weaning me off two and lowering the dosout seizures, let’s do it tomorrow!’ When without damaging vital functions. Other age for the others. I’m amazed that I don’t the surgeon said, ‘OK, let’s do it Monday,’ surgical treatment options include the vagus have to pop pills like they’re M&Ms anyI agreed. But at dinner two days before, I nerve stimulator, a pacemaker-like device more. When you have epilepsy, you become couldn’t sit still. I kept thinking, ‘In two that produces electric impulses to disrupt a professional pill popper.” days, my brain will be open.’ I had a bit of a seizures, and gamma-knife radiosurgery, a Now, three years after her surgery, Griffin nervous breakdown.” noninvasive investigative procedure that has not had a single seizure. While the concept of brain surgery may uses radiation to remove brain tissue. “I don’t worry like I used to,” she says. be scary for many patients, the damage that “It is thought that 70 to 90 percent of “I used to be scared to take a shower. If I years of seizures can do to the brain is truly patients who undergo epilepsy surgery for had a seizure and slipped, I could drown. If frightening. Patients with uncontrolled seitemporal lobe seizures are seizure-free postI had a seizure while cooking, I could burn zures may see their overall brain function operatively,” says Heck. “Obviously, that’s the house down. I don’t have to worry about that now.” Allowing epilepsy patients to return to Hormonally Challenged a normal life is the guiding principle that Heck and her team follow. “By the time Being a woman living with epilepsy presents unique “Therefore, when the hormones are out of balance, they get to us, patients are beaten down challenges. that can trigger seizures. The hormones themselves by the thought that there is no hope; that “In the past, doctors would say, ‘No, you cannot don’t cause epilepsy, but they are a trigger in they are just going to have to live with it,” have a family’ [if you have epilepsy],” says Laura certain women.” Heck says. “I don’t think any one of us on Kalayjian, assistant professor of neurology at the The onset of puberty, pregnancy and menothis team would go along with that. Even if Keck School of Medicine of USC. “Unfortunately, I pause can change the frequency and severity of a we aren’t able to solve the problem today, I care for some women who did not have children woman’s seizure pattern. Even hormonal changes truly believe that at some point, there will because someone told them that they shouldn’t be during a woman’s 28-day menstrual cycle can be an answer for any given patient. Our job a parent. We are educating women that they can do affect the onset of seizures. But by advocating for is to find the answer.” l this, that they can have good outcomes.” themselves and pursuing the right combination of Kalayjian’s research focuses on the role female hormones play in the promotion and regulation of epileptic seizures. “Estrogen is actually a pro-seizure hormone, and progesterone is an anti-seizure hormone,” she says.

medications or surgery to control their seizures, Kalayjian believes women can live normal lives. “We counsel women to make the best choices possible for themselves and their families,” Kalayjian says. l

For more information or to make an appointment with a physician at the epilepsy program at USC University Hospital, call (800) USCCARE or visit http://tinyurl.com/29br32m

U S C T r o j a n Fa m i ly m a g a z i n e autumn 2010

Family Ties news from the usc alumni association

77th Annual USC Alumni Awards The USC Alumni Association’s premier event of the year honors brilliant stars of the Trojan Family. AMAX Information Technologies; and Melissa Ward ’86, the first African-American woman to serve as a flight instructor in the U.S. Air Force and as a captain for a commercial airline. Alumni Service Awards were presented to Gale Bensussen ’70; his wife, Jane Bensussen MA ’69; and Roger W. Rossier MS ’62, EdD ’72. The Bensussens are benefactors of the USC School of Pharmacy. Gale is a former USC trustee and past president of the USC Alumni Association, while Jane is a past president of the Trojan Guild of Los Angeles and a member of the USC Davis School of Gerontology Board of Councilors. Rossier, benefactor of the USC Rossier School of Education, is chair of the USC Orange County President’s Council and president of the Trojan Club of Orange County. In addition to the tribute to the Samples, the event included entertainment by students from the USC Thornton School of Music and a send-off by the USC Trojan Marching Band.

USC’s equine mascot, Traveler, makes his appearance as part of the alumni awards finale.

From left, Steven B. and Kathryn Sample with actress Helen Mirren and her husband, Asa V. Call Alumni Achievement recipient Taylor Hackford ’67

– Ross M. Levine

Scott M. Mory, USC Alumni Association CEO, flanked by alumni awards dinner committee co-chairs Mike MacGillivray ’02 and Susan J. McKeever ’61

From left, Alumni Merit and Service Award honorees Roger W. Rossier MS ’62, EdD ’72, Ming Hsieh ’83, MS ’84, Melissa Ward ’86, Janet Evans ’95, Jane Bensussen MA ’69, Gale Bensussen ’70, and USC Alumni Association president Robert Padgett ’68

photos by Steve Cohn

The Trojan Family was out in force on April 24 for the 77th annual USC Alumni Awards at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. In addition to honoring seven accomplished alumni, this year’s dinner featured a tribute to USC Emeritus President Steven B. Sample and his wife, Kathryn, for their 19 years of service to USC. The Asa V. Call Alumni Achievement Award, USC’s top alumni honor, was presented to Taylor Hackford ’67, Academy Award-winning director (Ray, An Officer and a Gentleman) and president of the Directors Guild of America. Describing his feelings about receiving the honor, Hackford said, “As a USC student, you’re just trying to survive – it’s not until you graduate that you become fully aware of what it means to belong to the Trojan Family.” Six other Trojans were recognized for their accomplishments and service. Alumni Merit Awards went to Janet Evans ’95, fivetime Olympic medalist in distance swimming; USC trustee Ming Hsieh ’83, MS ’84, cofounder of Cogent, Inc., and cofounder of

A Conversation with CAROL FOX

Carol Fox MS ’62 is a career educator with a long history of volunteer leadership at USC. She has served on the USC Alumni Association Board of Governors and the USC Rossier

A Life Full of Teachable Moments A passionate educator takes the role of USC Alumni Association president for 2010-11.

School of Education Board of Councilors, and as past president of Town & Gown of USC. She spoke with the USC Alumni Association’s Ross M. Levine. You’ve called USC your hobby. What has inspired you to be such an active volunteer? My involvement at USC has been an opportunity to give back to an institution that has given me so much. I’ve made lifelong friendships with other alumni, professors, administrators, university friends and students. It is tremendously satisfying to think that I may have made a difference for others through my work at USC. The administration and trustees are extremely appreciative of the role volunteers play in making the university successful, which is a significant motivation for continuing to give back. I believe USC is unique among universities in the respect shown to its volunteer partners. What drew you to the alumni association and what are your goals as president? After years of volunteering in support of the USC Rossier School of Education and various alumnae groups, I was drawn by the broader nature of the alumni association and its motto, “lifelong and worldwide.” One goal is to work with the alumni association Board of Governors and CEO Scott Mory in continuing the programs started by other presidents. We have entered a new era of leadership under President C. L. Max Nikias and want to support him in any way we can as he builds upon President Sample’s legacy of success. I look to enhance the relationship between the USCAA and the deans and administrators to help make the alumni association more representative of the entire university. I would also like to continue to build the involvement of young alumni, second-decade alumni and, of course, our treasured Half Century Trojans. It is exciting to be the first president to use the Epstein Family Alumni Center, which offers many additional opportunities to integrate alumni into campus life. I want to reach out to alumni who have graduate degrees from USC and to international alumni. With technology, their active involvement can be a reality. What was the most important way in which your USC education prepared you for your career as an educator? It was the mentoring by professors and administrators at USC that helped me most, plus the fact that many of the district, county and state leaders with whom I worked had also received their educations at USC. The Trojan network was – and is – extremely strong. What are you most proud of as a USC volunteer? Perhaps my most meaningful experience was as president of Town & Gown of USC during its centennial year. Town & Gown is the oldest and largest women’s support group on campus and awards approximately $1 million in scholarships annually to hundreds of deserving undergraduate and graduate students. It is very rewarding to be involved in such an outstanding organization and to follow in the footsteps of Elisabeth von KleinSmid, who served as president of Town & Gown for 25 years. Why is it so important for alumni to stay connected to and involved with the university? Why would alumni not want to be involved with USC in some way? Alumni can give back through service and financial commitments, which in turn increases pride in having a USC degree, establishes lifelong friendships, creates awareness of innovative USC programs, and provides opportunities for intellectual stimulation through continued contact with professors, administrators and fellow alumni. When not volunteering at USC, what activities do you enjoy? Good question, since I’m typically involved in something related to USC, either on campus, at another venue or at

p h o t o b y p h ili p c h a n n i n g

home. My other interests are travel, theatre, reading, movies, spending time with my son, Chris ’92, and walking my Shetland sheepdog, Duncan. He is proud to wear a USC collar and leash and considers himself an important part of the Trojan Family. l

For profiles of other Trojan luminaries, visit http://alumni.usc.edu/archives/profiles

U S C T roja n Family maga z i n e autumn 2010

Dinners and SCuppers

The Alumni SCene

p h o t o b y J e r e m y A ll e n

4 1. Celebrating a Latino Legacy The USC Mexican American Alumni Association’s 36th annual scholarship dinner drew a sell-out crowd to the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles on March 19. Telemundo anchor Azalea Iñiguez hosted the dinner and program, which featured entertainment by the USC Afro Latin American Jazz Ensemble. Pictured is this year’s Raúl S. Vargas Alumni Award recipient, Pablo Prietto ’55 (third from right), a member of one of the university’s oldest Latino legacies: His father earned his DDS in 1931. With Prietto are, from left, dinner co-chair Leo Cortez, MAAA Board of Directors chair Maria Jones ’87, MAAA executive director Domenika Lynch ’98 and dinner co-chair Ken Gaitan ’88. 2. Close Encounters, Trojan Style On March 5-7, approximately 300 USC students attended one of 21 “Trojan SCuppers.” These dinners, introduced in March 2009 by the USC Alumni Association and Society 53, its student outreach program,

p h o t o b y C h uck E s p i n o z a

p h o t o b y L e r o y Hamilt o n

photo by Steve Cohn

Trojans pull up chairs to chat and celebrate.

U S C T roja n Family maga z i n e autumn 2010

are hosted in the homes of USC alumni or at other locations selected by the hosts. The SCuppers program gives USC students the opportunity to meet and engage influential alumni and fellow students over dinner in a relaxed, supportive atmosphere. Pictured here is the SCupper hosted by Mark Krouse ’74 MPA ’77 (seated left center), held at El Cholo Restaurant in Los Angeles.

3. Building on Excellence “Foundations of Excellence” was the theme of this year’s USC Asian Pacific Alumni Association Scholarship & Awards Gala at Town & Gown on April 9. The association honored four alumni who have demonstrated extraordinary merit and dedication to the Asian-Pacific community. Flanked by Mitchell Lew ’83, MD ’87, then-president of APAA (left) and Grace Shiba ’77, senior director of alumni relations (right) are this year’s honorees: (from left) filmmaker Ken Ochiai ’06 (Young Alumni Award); USC Korean Alumni Association chair Christine Lee JD ’79 (Service Award); U.S.-Japan

Council President Irene Hirano ’70, MPA ’73 (Leadership Award); and the Honorable Joyce Kennard ’71, MPA ’74, JD ’74, the first Asian American to serve on the California Supreme Court (Distinguished Alumni Award).

4. BAA Fills Scholarship Coffers The USC Black Alumni Association held its 32nd Annual Scholarship Benefit and Alumni Awards Dinner at the Beverly Hills Hotel on April 15. The event raised more than $200,000 for scholarships, which USC then matched two-to-one. Pictured are: (from left) Michael McTaggart ’10 (Outstanding Scholar Award); USC professor of clinical accounting Ken Simmonds (Barbara Solomon Faculty and Staff Award); Jason Price ’10 (Outstanding Scholar Award); BAA executive director Michele G. Turner; Keith Wilson ’77 (Outstanding Alumnus Award); California Assemblyman Mike Davis (Kilgore Service Award); and Black Alumni Association president Stephanie Farmer. l

Class Notes who’s doing what

& where

’39 Julian Myers, the 92-year-old head of Julian Myers Public Relations in Marina del Rey, Calif., competed in nine events at the California State Senior Games. He is in pre-production on his first feature film, about the artist Edward Hopper. ’49 Clarence “Cully” Cullimore Jr. was presented with a California Preservation Foundation President’s Award at the CPF annual meeting in Grass Valley, Calif. He was honored for his 15-year term as executive director of the State Historical Building Advisory Board, and for his efforts to develop and implement the California State Historical Building Code. ’51 Robert S. Earl MS ’54 was added to

the Wall of Honor of the city of Covina, Calif. He was principal of Covina High School from 1976 to 1988, a member of the Covina Breakfast Lions Club and involved in the Covina Masonic Lodge, leading its Students in Government program.

’52 Jack Couffer released his memoir,

›› TRAVELER CHECK As the university prepared for Steven B. Sample to hand over the reins of power, the USC President Emeritus and his wife unexpectedly handed over another set of reins – in bronze. On May 4, the Samples surprised the university community with the gift of a life-sized statue of USC’s beloved equestrian mascot, Traveler. It stands proudly on a grassy rise in Hahn Plaza, gazing confidently toward the timeless statue of Tommy Trojan. The equine statue, given in memory of Kathryn Sample’s grandparents, was sculpted by Ronald Pekar. l

The Lion and the Giraffe: A Naturalist’s Life in the Movie Business, a reflection on his 50 years in the entertainment industry as a director, writer, cameraman, producer, naturalist and Oscar nominee. His specialty has been films in which animal characters interact with humans. He lives in Corona del Mar, Calif. • Howard E. Rieder MA ’61 of Prescott, Ariz., recently completed Go South, a documentary recounting the experiences of an educator from Iowa who took his wife and children to teach at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama at the height of the civil unrest in the South. The film won a Bronze Remi Award at the 2009 Houston International Film Festival.

’53 Nick Apple MA ’69 completed two

three-year terms as a board member of the Friends of the Libraries at Wright (Ohio) State University. He also received a certificate for 2,000 hours of volunteer work from the National Museum of the United States

Air Force. He lives in Kettering, Ohio, with his wife, Joanne Wilkin Apple ’54.

’54 Frank Warren of La Selva Beach, Calif., celebrated his 52nd wedding anniversary with wife, Mary Jo, in Hawaii. He is a retired insurance broker who plays on the United States Tennis Association 3.5 Men’s team. ’55 Michael Halperin released his full-

length comedy, Freedom, Texas, which follows an 18-year-old Los Angeles college student as he drops out of school to take a job as a disk jockey. He also has written numerous television episodes and books, working as a story editor for Universal Television and as an executive story consultant at 20th Century Fox.

’56 Cammie King published Bonnie Blue

Butler: A Gone with the Wind Memoir about her time on the set of Gone with the Wind, which she had a role in as a child. She lives in Mendocino, Calif.

’58 Arnold J. Cole, former Daily Trojan managing editor, was inducted into the Circle of Honor in the city of Lomita, Calif., for his six decades of public service to the city and the South Bay region. He was credited as the chief strategist of Lomita’s 1964 incorporation campaign and later served three terms as mayor and city councilman. ’66 Paul G. Bryan Jr. painted a portrait of President Barack Obama and donated it to the White House. Bryan lives on Balboa Island, Calif. • Murray E. “Ray” MacNeil was a keynote speaker at the American Composites Manufacturers Association’s “Composites 2010” conference in Las Vegas. He retired in 2007 after a 35-year career in the glass and fiberglass divisions of PPG Industries, Inc., but continues to consult in the composites industry. ’67 Howard Bennett MS, Playa del Rey,

Calif., is featured in the recently published

We welcome news items from all USC alumni. Please include your name, street address, e-mail address, degree and year of graduation with each submission. Mail to: USC Trojan Family Magazine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-7790 or e-mail us at: magazines@usc.edu. Please note that, because of our long production schedule and the heavy volume of submissions, it might be several months before your notice appears.

U S C T r o j a n Fa m i ly m a g a z i n e autumn 2010

alumni profile

’68 Douglas W. Ayres of Sedona, Ariz.,

While on vacation in a beautiful locale, most people think, at least

was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree by Roanoke (Va.) College for aiding the operations, finances and management of hundreds of governments worldwide as a consultant for Public Administration Service, a unit of the National Governmental Center at the University of Chicago. • Edward H. Crane MBA of Washington, D.C., is founder and president of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. He is co-editor of several books, publisher of Regulation magazine, a member of the Mont Pelerin Society and serves on the board of U.S. Term Limits. He also is a chartered financial analyst and former vice president at Alliance Capital Management Corporation.

’69 Rhoda Coleman EdD ’06 of Glendale, Calif., has co-written four articles based on her recently published book Promoting Academic Achievement Among English Learners: A Guide to the Research. ’71 Lee Kanon Alpert, an advocate, attorney and arbitrator in San Fernando, Calif., has been elected for a second term as president of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Board of Water and Power Commissioners. He is founding member of Alpert, Barr & Grant, a law firm based in Encino, Calif. ’72 Rick Scuderi MS, PhD ’77 recently

photo courtes y pura v i d a a d v e n tures

Class of ’92

book Dirty Water, which tells the story of how he fought pollution in the Santa Monica Bay and laid the foundation for the environmental organization known as Heal the Bay.

Her Work Is Play once, “What if I stayed here forever?” Most people, of course, never do it. Then again, most people aren’t Tierza Davis ’92. She followed a traditional path through college, majoring in business administration with an emphasis in marketing, and set the goal of working for an advertising agency. After being laid off from an Internet marketing job in September 2001, she left her home in San Francisco and headed south to Costa Rica for a bit of R&R. What happened next, Davis never planned. She was only scheduled to be gone for a week, but the people, natural beauty and lifestyle of Costa Rica captivated her, and she started wondering how she could stay. Although she was just a beginning surfer, and the idea of owning her own business had only ever been a thought in the back of her mind, a surf and yoga retreat for women is what she settled on. “I created a business where I can be outside part of the day, if not all day,” Davis says. “I didn’t want to be stuck and chained to a desk, and have just one function in a company. Doing something like this, you get to wear many hats, which keeps it interesting.” She set up shop in 2003, and she credits her education at USC with providing her the skills she needed to start the company. Building a business model, setting price points and doing projections were all things she learned as an undergrad, all things that turned a pipe dream into reality. Running from November through August, Pura Vida Adventures offers an active vacation in a laid-back environment, typically attracting low-maintenance women ranging in age from 20 to 60 who have highpowered, high-stress occupations – something Davis can relate to. “I am a type A personality, and this just allows me to slow down and enjoy what’s out there for the few hours that I’m surfing,” she says. A typical day at Pura Vida (that’s a common response in Costa Rica to “¿Cómo estás?” and means

retired and is living in Santa Clarita, Calif., with his wife, Indira, and sons Jeremy, 16, and Joshua, 14. Scuderi was a counselor and director of Disabled Student Programs at Los Angeles Mission College for more than 30 years, and was past president and legislative chair of the California Association for Postsecondary Education and Disability. • William “Bill” R. Wilson MBA was honored by the Colorado School of Mines Alumni Association with an Outstanding Alumnus Award. He serves as president of the board of trustees for Alpha Tau Omega, participates in CSMAA’s Mentoring Program and lectures on specialized topics for several departments on campus. He serves as president, chief operating officer and chief financial officer of New Horizon Uranium Corporation.

“life is good” or, literally, “pure life”) includes two surfing sessions, yoga, relaxation time and plenty of

’73 Bob Kovitz MPA has been elected

ahead. If you put your energy and willpower into something, it will usually work out.”

2010 president of the Tucson (Ariz.) local access television board of directors. • Michael Meloan recently co-published The Shroud, a science-adventure novel that

fresh food. Attendees are free to sit on the beach, take an afternoon siesta while lounging in a hammock, salsa in town come evening time or curl up in their cabins with a book. The women who attend camp – some are experienced surfers, but about 50 percent have never caught a wave – appreciate the supportive, distraction-free environment that comes with the all-female getaways, as well as the camaraderie that develops among the group. “Adults don’t get praised much at all,” Davis says. “One thing that’s so nice about coming to camp is you get praised by everybody; everyone’s getting encouragement and feeling good and hearing things they don’t hear in their day-to-day life.” Davis now splits her time between Costa Rica and Bend, Ore., and couldn’t be happier with the 180-degree career change and new life she’s created for herself. “In California, people always feel like they’re inadequate; everybody’s striving for more,” she says. “Here, everybody’s okay with what they have and they appreciate it. After you make a certain amount of money, Americans think, ‘I can’t restart again,’ but why not? I did it. Go back to school. Try another job. At the end of the day, what I’ve found from life is that there are ups and downs, but you always come out

– Haley Shapley

U S C T r o j a n Fa m i ly m a g a z i n e autumn 2010

alumni profile

’74 Sylvia Simon Tansey MS, PhD ’82 is a retired teacher of the Los Angeles Unified School District. She volunteered as a Spanish-speaking retiree at an elementary school in East Los Angeles for 10 years.

ning to flower in Washington, D.C. “It was a gorgeous day and we

’75 Shannon Alter, founder and president

House Roosevelt Room with President Obama, Biden and dozens

of Alter Consulting Group, a real estate consulting firm in Santa Ana, Calif., has published Say it with Success: Foolproof Ways to Improve Your Presentation Skills. She is a professional member of the National Speakers Association and a faculty member of the Institute of Real Estate Management. • Richard Bruce of Ridgecrest, Calif., was elected as an associate fellow in the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, an international organization that promotes air safety and contributes to aeronautical advancement. He currently performs flight testing for the U.S. Navy. • William T. Evashwick of West Toluca Lake, Calif., has been recognized with a National Telly Award for writing and directing Mega Beasts: T-Rex of the Deep for the Discovery Channel. This is his 11th Telly Award.

’76 Joseph Arellano JD is a book reviewer and has written reviews for the New York Journal of Books, San Francisco Book Review, Sacramento Book Review and his own book blog, Joseph’s Reviews. He lives in Elk Grove, Calif. • Raymond Hino MPA ’78 is chief executive officer of the Mendocino (Calif.) Coast District Hospital. He was recently honored by the Fort Bragg (Calif.) City Council for his contributions to the growth of the hospital. ’77 Steven Meloan recently co-published

The Shroud, a science-adventure novel that explores a variety of scientific, spiritual and ethical questions. Together with his brother, Michael, he has published work in Wired, Rolling Stone, Playboy and the San Francisco Chronicle.

photo b y scott robi n so n

Class of ’91

explores a variety of scientific, spiritual and ethical questions. Together with his brother, Steven, Meloan has been published in Wired, Rolling Stone, Playboy and the San Francisco Chronicle. • Larry S. Westfall MBA ’76 has been elected chairman of the San Diego City Ethics Commission for 2010-2011. He has served on the commission since January 2004.

’78 Ben Eubanks was recently elected to the USC Black Alumni Association board of directors. He also is president of Aloha Royal Hawaiian Realty, Inc., in Marina del Rey, Calif. • Dongwoo Joseph “Joe” Pak of Garden Grove, Calif., has been appointed as a member of the National Council on Disability, an agency that advises federal

Sidekick to the V.P. The day the House of Representatives passed health-care reform, Alan Hoffman, MPA/JD ’91, couldn’t help but notice that the sun was out, the skies were blue and cherry blossoms were just begin-

had something amazing to celebrate,” says Hoffman, deputy chief of staff to Vice President Joseph Biden. Hoffman watched the historic health-care vote from the White

of their close aides. Later that evening, Obama invited the group to the Truman Balcony for a toast. “I’ve been given an unbelievable window seat on the making of history,” says Hoffman. “Did I ever think I would be working for the vice president in the White House? Not a chance. But either government service is in your blood or it’s not. It just happens to be in my blood.” Two years after graduating, Hoffman got his first Washington, D.C., job working with Hillary Clinton on health-care reform. He never imagined he would be working on health care again some 17 years later. “I’ve been very fortunate to work in government and work for the American people in areas that I’m passionate about,” says Hoffman. “My law degree and my public administration degree from USC prepared me for the road ahead. USC really gave me the ability to obtain a footing in public service.” It’s been a whirlwind for Hoffman, who joined Biden in Washington shortly after Biden dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination. After serving twice as chief of staff to Sen. Biden, Hoffman thought he had left politics for good after Biden’s last campaign. But when Biden was tapped as Obama’s running mate, Hoffman got a call asking him to come back to Washington. “I know the vice president and I understand him – he’s a mentor and a good friend,” says Hoffman. “I couldn’t say no to him.” As deputy chief of staff, Hoffman manages the daily operations of Biden’s office, focusing on administration, the legislative agenda and outreach. “I oversee the day-to-day management of the vice president’s office, our outreach to Congress, outreach to local and state officials, public interest groups and trade associations,” he says. “I also oversee the vice president’s political activities.” After reading three newspapers each morning, Hoffman is briefed about important developments by his staff. He also travels with Biden everywhere – whether it’s to California, New Mexico or Florida. Biden has described Hoffman as having a “sharp political sense, a keen sense of timing, a sense of what makes people tick and a sense of humor.” In addition to health care, Hoffman is working on numerous other issues, including closing the sentencing disparity between those prosecuted for selling powder cocaine versus crack cocaine. “I’m a former prosecutor and I believe in law enforcement, but we need to be fair and just,” says Hoffman. “My law degree gave me a greater perspective on all the different elements necessary to pass legislation, and on the implications for our society. My master’s in public administration gave me insight into what it means to work in the public sector and the challenges that happen. “I always had a penchant for working in public service,” he adds. “It’s a great way to give back and effect change. I’m one of those guys who wakes up in the morning and opens the newspapers and gets outraged about social injustice. To do something about it from time to time gives me the greatest level of satisfaction.”

– Gilien Silsby

U S C T r o j a n Fa m i ly m a g a z i n e autumn 2010

officials on policies, programs, practices and procedures affecting people with disabilities. Pak is vice president and loan officer of the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach, Calif. He also is a former board member and program chair for the Korean Health, Education, Information and Research Center. He is an associate board member of Acacia Adult Day Health Care Services and a planning commissioner for the city of Garden Grove. • Ronald D. Speizer PharmD has been named director of pharmacy at Renown Regional Medical Center, a nonprofit integrated health network in Reno, Nev.

of Georgia. • Cynthia Rhodes Langley MSW is a licensed clinical social worker at Family Outreach Counseling in Long Beach, Calif. She also provides clinical consultation and training to nonprofit organizations.

recently serving as head of the applied information sciences department. He also chairs several engineering programs in the Johns Hopkins Engineering for Professionals graduate program.

’80 Rad Domingo MS was selected as 2009-2010 Teacher of the Year at La Quinta (Calif.) Middle School. This is the second time he has won the award. • Steven A. Nichols JD was selected as one of California’s Top 100 Lawyers by the legal publication Daily Journal and has been voted by OC Metro magazine as one of its Top 25 for 2009.

’79 Thomas W. Chessum, a founding principal of Los Angeles-based CO Architects and a practicing architect since 1983, was recently elevated to fellow of the American Institute of Architects. • Roy W. Copeland, founding partner of the law firm Copeland, Haugabrook & Walker in Valdosta, Ga., published “The Nomenclature of Enslaved Africans as Real Property or Chattels Personal” in the Journal of Black Studies. He also published an article in the Calendar Call, a magazine of the General Practice and Trial Section of the State Bar

’81 Shelley D. Lane MA, PhD ’82 has been

’82 Robert “Bob” Bernatz MS ’91, PhD ’94 has launched www.VOXopolis.com, an online service facilitating interactive and anonymous messaging, surveys and polling. He is the author of the book Just One Great Idea and lives in Newport Beach, Calif., with his wife Kimberly (Dwan) Bernatz ’82. • Cynthia Hunt was selected to serve on the Women’s Executive Committee of the Illinois CPA Society. She will act as a liaison to the CPA Endowment Fund, which offers Advancing Women in Accounting scholarships. • Christopher Padilla was named vice president of the West Coast ancillary services for Prommis Solutions, a provider of processing services in foreclosure matters. He lives in San Diego.

U S C T r o j a n Fa m i ly m a g a z i n e autumn 2010

promoted to associate dean of undergraduate education in the school of arts and humanities at the University of Texas at Dallas. An educator and author, she recently published her memoir, A Stirling Diary, and co-wrote a textbook, Communication for a Civil Society. • Ralph D. Semmel MS was appointed the eighth director of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, a division of Johns Hopkins University located in Laurel, Md. He has worked at the laboratory for 23 years, most

’83 K. Christopher Branch practices

international wine, food and spirits law at KC Branch Law Firm in San Luis Obispo, Calif., and Napa Valley. In his practice, he emphasizes protection of clients from

domestic and international counterfeiting and has presented on those issues at the International Association of Wine Lawyers Congress in Europe and at the American Wine Economists Convention in Davis, Calif. • Edward Cibener has joined the faculty of the Veksler Academy of Music and Dance in Sunnyvale, Calif. He also is an instructor and heads the postgraduate studies department at The Beacon School in San Jose, Calif. • Mark R. Henschke PharmD was recognized with a national On-Time Physician Award by MDx Medical, Inc., a New Jersey-based company that provides consumer reviews to the public. He also is a two-time winner of the national Patient’s Choice Award. He is a board-certified physician in both internal medicine and medical management, and maintains a solo practice in Newington, N.H. • Mike Huckman of New York has been appointed senior vice president and director of media strategy for MS&L Group, a global communications firm. He previously worked as an on-air correspondent for CNBC, covering the drug, biotechnology and medical device industries. Earlier, he spent nine years at WXYZ-TV in Detroit, Mich.

’84 Mark Degner has been appointed

managing director of acquisitions at Liquid Realty Partners, a San Francisco-based real estate secondary and recapitalization investment firm. He joined the firm after 10 years with Morgan Stanley. • John Sacco was elected chairman of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries. He is vice president of the Bakersfield, Calif.-based Sierra Recycling & Demolition, which buys, processes and sells scrap domestically and internationally. He also is president of Sierra International Machinery, which sells scrap processing and handling equipment around the world.

’85 Catherine Bauer JD has been appointed a judge for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court-Central District of California. • Jeffrey R. Bell PhD, a professor of cellular and molecular biology at California State University, Chico, was appointed chairperson of the biology department. • Mark Binder, a private wealth advisor at Merrill Lynch, was recognized on “America’s Top 1,000 Advisors: State-by-State” list in Barron’s magazine. This is his third time making it on the list. He lives in Newport Beach, Calif. • Tom Bowman MA, recognized as a leader in green business and climate communications, has served as president of Bowman Design Group in Signal Hill, Calif., for more than 20 years. The company received honorable mention in the Alliance to Save Energy’s 2010 Stars of Energy Efficiency Awards. Bowman

writes a monthly “Ask Mr. Green” column for Exhibitor Online, contributes to federal climate literacy standards, and speaks at high schools, universities and professional conferences. • Laura Castañeda EdD ’10 was named assistant director of the School of Journalism and director of distance learning at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. She also is an associate professor of professional practice at the school. • Douglas Hopkins MFA released Citizen’s 2% Solution: How to Repeal Investment Income Taxes, Avoid a Value-Added Tax, and Still Balance the Budget, a book that highlights issues and challenges associated with the disparity of tax rates on earned income in the United States. He has more than 25 years of strategic and operational consulting experience, and is president and managing principal of Kestrel Consulting LLC, in Parsippany, N.J. • Kevin Kenney, a captain in the U.S. Navy, has been appointed commanding officer of Air Test & Evaluation Squadron ONE. • Steven Rose MS of Kingston, Ontario, was named a member of the Professional Engineers Ontario Order of Honour in recognition of his dedication to improving the status and operation of the engineering profession in Canada. • Wanda Wen is the author of The Art of Gift Wrapping: 50 Innovative Ideas Using Organic, Unique, and Uncommon Materials. She is the founder of Soolip, a paper and lifestyle boutique in Los Angeles.

’86 W. Michael Madden DDS received the

Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC’s Clinical Science Faculty Award. • Suzy Witten MA ’90 won the silver medal for historical fiction at the 2010 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY) for her debut novel, The Afflicted Girls: A Novel of Salem. She works as a public affairs writer and researcher for FEMA in Los Angeles.

’87 Gina La Monica MA published Tid Bits, a reference book of quick and healthy snacks for children. She is director of the Adult Degree Evening Program and a faculty member at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, Calif. • Richard W. Kroon, senior project manager in the digital content delivery division of Technicolor in Burbank, Calif., published A/V A-Z, an encyclopedic dictionary of media and entertainment terminology. ’88 Gaston L. Bernstein MBA of Torrance,

Calif., was promoted to vice president and general manager for CoramRx Specialty Pharmacy. In 2009, he was recognized with the Managed Markets Vice President of the Year performance award. Previously, he was national director of managed care

for IVPCare Specialty Pharmacy (now Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy). • Victoria K. Hall, an attorney practicing in Bethesda, Md., settled a landmark intellectual property case that resulted in an injunction and payment for her client, Robert Jacobsen. • John A. Roach EdD, superintendent of Carlsbad (Calif.) Unified School District, was named Regional Superintendent of the Year by the Association of California School Administrators. • Mark Rocha PhD has been appointed superintendent/president of Pasadena (Calif.) City College. He has more than 20 years of experience in higher education, most recently serving as president of West Los Angeles College. He serves as chair of the Workforce Education Task Force for 2nd District Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark RidleyThomas, and is a member of the board of councilors of the USC Rossier School of Education.

’90 Alex Simon of Los Angeles won first

place in the 20th annual Cinequest Film Festival screenwriting competition for his screenplay Baron of Havana. • John Stimson published his first novel, Runnin’ with the Devil, a crime fiction about a card dealer who works with career criminals to rob a local casino. Stimson lives in Sherman Oaks, Calif.

’92 Michael J. Brinkmeier MS has been

re-elected as a member of parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state in Germany. Since 2000, he has served as a spokesman for the Christian Democratic Union in the field of science and innovation.

’93 Gang Chen MLA of Irvine, Calif., is

the founder of ArchiteG, Inc., a full-service architectural firm. He published his sixth book, LEED ID&C Exam Guide. • Cathy Hyodo, an audit partner at Grant Thornton LLP in Los Angeles, was recognized as an emerging leader in the accounting profession with a Women to Watch Award by the California Society of Certified Public Accountants. She sits on the board of the USC Accounting Circle and works with high school students through Junior Achievement. • Ross Lawrence is an ethics and compliance officer with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

’94 Brian Cruver of Austin, Texas, co-

founded CancerForward: The Foundation for Cancer Survivors, a nonprofit, Webbased networking and educational resource for cancer survivors. • Marla Echeverria Sumner is New Orleans chapter coordinator for Architecture for Humanity, a nonprofit design-services firm that offers architec-

U S C T r o j a n Fa m i ly m a g a z i n e autumn 2010

tural solutions for humanitarian crises. She is a partner at DMK4, an architecture and design firm.

• Donald Vega took home the top prize at the 2010 Great American Jazz Piano Competition in Jacksonville, Fla.

’95 E. Felicia Brannon MPA launched an online cookie company, Felicia’s Sweets & Other Treats, at www.feliciassweets.com. She is executive director of community and local government relations at UCLA. • Keith Calmes DMA received an Outstanding Educator Award from the College of New Jersey for his work as a guitar teacher at Wall High School in Wall Township, N.J., where he has taught since 1995. • Wendy Goldman MS/MBA has been selected for a second term on the West Hollywood Women’s Advisory Board, which works toward achieving equal rights for women on a global basis. She is the founder and president of GeroBiz, a consulting practice that promotes age-neutral policies in the workplace.

’00 Erin Carufel signed on to the cast of The Lincoln Lawyer, a film starring Matthew McConaughey. Past credits include Untraceable and Without a Trace. • Kian Clineff MSW is foster care and adoptions director at Canyon Acres Children and Family Services in Orange County, Calif. • Lusine Mkrtchyan launched SPORTi, an official USC licensee of women’s apparel aimed at providing fashionable tops and dresses for female sport fanatics. • Brian Sapp of Santa Monica, Calif., launched www.Fuzzedout.com, a music discovery site that features songs from mostly unknown bands and engages users to vote and download their favorite new songs each week. • Mike Voight PhD co-authored Mental Toughness Training for Basketball: Maximizing Technical and Mental Mechanics. He is an assistant professor at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Conn.

’96 Maureen O’Keefe Hodge MSW and

her family moved back to California, after living in Nueva Suyapa, a slum community of Honduras, for the last four years. She helped start a nonprofit, Puerta al Mundo, that provides Hondurans with training in leadership development. • Christopher Johnston MAcc has been promoted from senior manager to partner at Ernst & Young LLP’s Orange County office. He has 14 years of experience serving public and private clients in the real estate, hospitality and construction industries. Johnston is a certified public accountant, and a board member of the City of Hope Construction Industries Alliance and the USC Leventhal Accounting Circle. • Jurline K. Redeaux MSW has established New Impression, a transitional housing facility in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles.

’97 Rebecca Wilke EdD is co-author of

The Leading Edge: 9 Strategies for Improving Internal and Intentional Leadership. She is co-founder of LEADon, Inc., a leadership development company based in San Diego.

’98 Karen Corey MSW is a licensed clinical social worker in private practice in Redondo Beach, Calif. • Nicholas Pinhey MPA, DPA ’03 participated in a congressional briefing on water quality from public supply wells. He is director of utility planning and projects for the city of Modesto, Calif. ’99 Tiffany Patterson of Costa Mesa,

Calif., is a senior sales manager for Allergan, a multi-specialty health-care company. She has worked for the company for three years and has received the Allergan Academy Award of Excellence in Training.

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’01 Alex Grager JD ’04, an attorney at Los

Angeles-based Feinberg Mindel Brandt & Klein LLP, passed the family law certification examination, the first step to becoming a certified family law specialist. • Sarah (Mast) Huoh was promoted to director of global communications at Edwards Lifesciences, a leader in cardiovascular disease treatments based in Irvine, Calif. She was an adjunct professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. • Donna K. Lee MBA ’08 of Los Angeles recently participated in Ernst & Young’s Corporate Responsibility Fellows Program, which offers entrepreneurs the opportunity to work alongside Ernst & Young’s top-performing employees.

’02 Cory Hebenstreit recently earned

his MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business and accepted a job in the diversified industries group of the investment banking division at J. P. Morgan. • Andrew Norman MM ’04 has been nominated by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in New York for its first installment of Project 440, a new method of commissioning chamber orchestra pieces from up-and-coming composers. He is one of 60 candidates who will be considered by the orchestra to compose new work to premiere during the 2011-2012 season.

’03 Karla Arriaran-Rodriguez MSW is a

counselor at Hart High School in Newhall, Calif. She also facilitates a group, Padres Unidos, to bridge the gap between Spanish-speaking parents and the school

community. • Alicia Taylor Bolton has been awarded the 2010 Fulbright Institute of International Education Dissertation Abroad Award. She will be traveling to São Paulo, Brazil, where she will research Brazil’s invisible children.

’04 Merritt Johnson is an engineer at GM’s Powertrain Advanced Technology Center in Torrance, Calif., and is working on the second-generation rear-wheel-drive hybrid program. She is the design-release engineer for the high-voltage electric cables that transfer power to the electric pump. ’05 Jerome Hruska recently graduated

from medical school at Touro University Nevada. • Leah Hruska received her master’s of education in school counseling from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. • Meghan Schinderle launched Intertwined, a special-events and wedding planning company. The company has offices in Los Angeles and Orange County, and its Web site and blog are at www.IntertwinedEvents.com. • Kristen Schultz has been accepted into the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. She was a fundraising analyst at EMILY’s List, a political action committee in Washington, D.C.

’06 Constance Dunn MA has authored Practical Glamour: Presenting Your Most Beautiful & Polished Self to the World, a grooming, style and etiquette manual. She is a writer and researcher and lives in Los Angeles and southern Florida. • Frank Harris III EdD of San Diego and Shaun R. Harper, founding executive director of the USC Rossier School of Education’s Ed.D. program, published College Men and Masculinities: Theory, Research, and Implications for Practice. • Bobby Ojose EdD published Mathematics Education: Perspectives on Issues and Methods of Instruction, a mathematics education text. He is an assistant professor at the University of Redlands, Calif. ’07 Rachel Cantrock MSW is a clinical social worker at UCLA Neuropsychiatric Hospital. • Cheryl Wengren is a morning news producer at KHSL-TV/KNVN-TV in Chico, Calif. She previously worked as a news producer and assignment editor at KBAK-TV/KBFX-TV in Bakersfield, Calif. • Courtney R. Wise MS was named a winner of Gulf Coast Business Review’s “40 Under 40,” an award program that recognizes young business leaders, professionals, entrepreneurs and executives from Tampa to Naples, Fla. She is executive director of Take Care Advisors, a geriatric care management firm that provides non-medical services to support older adults’ health and well-being. • Brandon Wu MBA of Covina,

Worldreach Foundation in Nicaragua, which helps educate children working and living on the streets. • Dallas Woodburn was nominated for the Glamour Magazine/ Sally Hansen Best of You contest for her volunteer work with the youth organization Write On! For Literacy, which she founded in 2001. She is enrolled in the MFA program in creative writing at Purdue (Ind.) University.

Bryan Shumey, a son, Samuel Scotti • Jamie Allshouse Hall ’98, MA ’00 and Kenneth Michael Hall MBA ’04, a daughter, Grace Abigail. She joins sisters Ella and Madeline. She is the granddaughter of Leo Richard Allshouse III MBA ’73 • Judson Walker Karlen ’98 and Melissa Roland Karlen, twin daughters, Natalie Jo and Ainsely Louise. They are the great-granddaughters of James K. Walker DDS ’51, granddaughters of Janis Walker Marsh ’71, EdD ’00 and Russel C. B. Karlen ’71, great-grandnieces of Willis G. Wright MA ’49, grandnieces of Diana Wright ’74, and nieces of Eric B. Karlen ’97 • Paige Greenspan ’00 and Christopher Greenspan ’00, a son, Brooks Andrew • Julie (DeRosa) Krueger ’00 and Nick Krueger, a daughter, Allison Jane • Philip Ruder ’00, MS ’02 and Darlene (Santiago) Ruder ’03, a daughter, Keira Eve • Rachel Calderon Young ’00 and Justin Young, a son, Tyson Lucas Calderon • Sarah (Mast) Huoh ’01 and Michael Huoh ’01, MD ’05, a daughter, Cassidy Ming-Zhu • Carol Lu MBA ’01 and Edward Cho, a son, Brandon Derek • Leah Hruska ’05 and Jerome Hruska ’05, a son, Jett Andrew • Wendy (Tracy) MacGinnis ’05 and Matthew MacGinnis DDS ’09, a son, Dane Takeshi • Bryn (Knapper) O’Connor MS ’06 and Adam O’Connor, a son, Finn. He is the grandson of Terry Knapper EdD ’76.

Marriages

Deaths

Sheryl Stanton Gerrie Soden ’57 and Horace B. “Benny” Benjamin ’58 • Ross Lawrence ’93 and Erin Weiler • Queena Wei ’00, MBA ’05 and Alan Quan • Ari Demirjian ’01, MBA ’09 and Olga Furga MBA ’09 • Suzanne Ogden ’03, MBA ’07 and Charles Vannatter ’07 • Jessica Marek ’04 and Nilay Vora ’04 • Samuel Chin-Yuan Lau MBA ’07 and Shirley Seunghae Shin MA ’07.

Josephine Kent Coleman MSW ’37, of

Calif., published 30-Day GMAT Success: How I Scored 780 on the GMAT in 30 Days … And How You Can Too.

’08 Eric Guinivan MM ’08, DMA ’10 is one of 60 candidates who will be considered by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in New York to compose new work to be premiered during the 2011-2012 season. • Allison Taylor Manning received her MBA from Oxford Brookes University in England and was awarded the 2010 Business School Prize in the department of economics and international business. She accepted a position with Condé Nast International Digital in London. • Carlos Moran MSW is project director for families in transition at Homeless Outreach Program/Integrated Care System in Los Angeles. ’09 Erica Lim MSW is a coordinator for

Births Paul Marks JD ’88 and Kerri Speck ’94, a daughter, Esme Marabelle. She joins sister Maggie, 7 • Valarie (Kraly) Ruig ’94 and Paul Ruig, triplets, Dalton Christopher, Peyton Grace and Ava Elizabeth • Achim Bergmann ’96 and Emily Aronstamm Bergmann, a daughter, Berlin Snow • Alisa C. Brownlow ’96 and Michael R. Absmeier ’98, a son, Oliver James Ryan. He is the greatgrandson of the late John C. Absmeier ’50 and the grandson of John D. Absmeier ’66, MPA ’69 • Jeffrey Jim ’96, MS ’99 and Jennifer (Mar) Jim ’97, a daughter, Jacie Caitlyn. She joins twins Jocelyn and Justin, 2 • Kelly Berg ’97 and Elliot Berg ’97, triplets, Jack Henry, Dalya Shoshana and Hana Sara • Claudine (Scotti) Shumey MSW ’97 and

Pasadena, Calif.; April 9, at the age of 94.

Roland Kenton ’40, of Mamaroneck, N.Y.; March 7, at the age of 91. After graduating from USC, he joined the U.S. Navy for flight training and was designated Naval Aviator in 1941. He was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions as a fighter plane pilot in the Solomon Islands. He received three Air Medals during the Korean War, and retired in 1973 at the rank of captain. In 1946, he joined his father in operating Press-On, a family business that later merged with Thermopatch, a developer of heat-seal machines for textiles. He served as president of Thermopatch for many years. He also served as president of the board of directors for the Bantam Lake Protective Association in Morris, Conn., and on the board of the Torrington Country Club. He was a member of many naval fraternal organizations, including the Military Officers Association of America, the Reserve Officers Association and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. He was preceded in death by his wife of 55 years, Doris Conklin, and his second wife, Marcella Scop. He is survived by his daughters Lynne Kenton Capecelatro and

Diane Kenton Flynn, sons-in-law Ronald Gallicano and Gareth Flynn, grandson Bernard Jay Ward, granddaughter-in-law Lara Ward, great-grandsons Graham Roland Ward and Brent Jordan Ward, sister Marion Kenton, nephew George M. Clark Jr., and niece Caren Clark Vestal. Wesley W. “Wes” Rollo ’40, of Fullerton,

Calif.; May 3, at the age of 92. While a student at USC, he was elected to the Blue Key National Honor Society and was president of Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity. He was drafted into the U.S. Army prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, attended Officer Candidate School and served in the Pacific during World War II. After the war, he remained in the Army Reserve, retiring with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Following a distinguished career in real estate banking, he retired in 1980 as vice president of real estate lending for the Bank of California. He was involved in community service in the Long Beach area, serving as a member of the Salvation Army board and Kiwanis International, and as an elder of the Bixby Knolls Christian Church. He served as president of the Half Century Trojans for 1999-2000. A deans-level member of the USC Associates and recipient of the USC Alumni Association President’s Award, he was honored with the Half Century Trojans Distinguished Service Award in 2001. He is survived by his wife, Betty, children Carol Loughner ’66 and Robert “Bob” S. Rollo ’69, MBA ’70, daughter-in-law Kim Rollo ’71, MEd ’75, MPL ’91, grandchildren Christopher Loughner, Matthew Loughner, Rob Rollo ’98, Jonathan Rollo, Katheryn Rollo O’Connor and Patrick Rollo, and three great-grandchildren.

Frederic Clift McCall ’48, of Goldsboro,

N.C.; Feb. 5, at the age of 88. He was a three-year varsity letterman on the USC football team, receiving the Life Pass Award for his contributions to Trojan football. During World War II, he served three years in the Corp of Engineers in the Mediterranean Theatre. At the time of his retirement, he was vice president of Olinkraft Forest Products Company. In Monroe, La., he was president of the YMCA and was on the board of directors of the Southeastern YMCA. He received the Founder’s Medal from the Northeast Louisiana chapter of the American Diabetic Association. He is survived by his daughter, Fran, sons Randy and Clift, and grandchildren Fred III, Carmen and Michael.

Richard “Dick” Fixa ’49, of Brea, Calif.; June

29, of heart failure, at the age of 85. After graduating from Marshall High School in Los Angeles, he was drafted into the

U S C T r o j a n Fa m i ly m a g a z i n e autumn 2010

Army Air Corps. He flew 35 combat missions over Europe as a B-17 bombardier in the 351st/510th squadron of the 8th Air Force. He worked in the paper industry for his entire career, first at U.S. Envelope and eventually purchasing Accents Paper Products in 1987, remaining there until retirement. He held volunteer board positions in several Los Angeles organizations, including the Braille Institute, Los Angeles Junior Chamber and Rotary Five Downtown. He also served on the board of the Orange County Philharmonic and Southern California Optometry School. He was preceded in death by his brother Jack, sister Anna, and brother-in-law George. He is survived by his wife, Katherine, sons Charlie ’80 and Andrew, daughters-in-law Cyndi and Gina, and six grandchildren.

Navy in World War II on a destroyer in the Pacific Theatre. While at USC, he founded the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He served as president of the San Diego Mortgage Bankers Association and as district manager of Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company in Los Angeles. He retired as chief of loan management at the Department of Housing and Urban Development in Camden, N.J., in 1988. He was a former golf club champion at San Gabriel (Calif.) Country Club and former president and club champion at Torrey Pines Country Club in San Diego. He won the Southern California Public Links Championship in 1961. He is survived by his wife, Virginia, daughters Jolaine Pollard and Kim, son Ronald, stepchildren Judith Thompson and Victor Scott, 10 grandchildren, and one great-grandson.

Robert William Travenick ’49, of Mount Holly, N.J.; Nov. 24, 2009. He served in the

Glenn Lawrence Arbogast Jr. ’51, of Rancho

[ in memoriam ]

Palos Verdes, Calif.; April 2, at the age

Flora Laney Thornton

Philanthropist Flora Laney Thornton, whose 1999 gift to USC’s music school was the largest ever given to a university school of music, died on May 7 of pulmonary disease. She was 96. In recognition of her $25 million gift, the USC Board of Trustees voted to rename the school the USC Flora L. Thornton School of Music. In February 2006, Thornton made an additional gift of $5 million to jump-start a drive aimed at creating a state-of-the-art building to accommodate the increasing needs of its students and faculty. “Few members of the Trojan Family have left a legacy that is as significant, extensive and enduring as that of Flora Thornton,” said USC President Emeritus Steven B. Sample. “She believed that education – whether it is focused on music, medicine or literacy – has the power to transform lives. Thornton also was a longtime champion of the health sciences, especially nutrition, preventive medicine and community education. Through the Flora L. Thornton Foundation, she made several generous gifts of more than a million dollars to health-related programs at USC. She was a member of the Board of Overseers of the Keck School of Medicine of USC and a founding member of the governing board of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. In honor of her leadership and support, Thornton received an honorary doctorate from USC in 1999, and in 2000, she became one of the first honorary members of the USC Board of Trustees. She was active in various charities and organizations throughout Southern California, including the Los Angeles Opera, Walt Disney Concert Hall and Los Angeles World Affairs Council. Thornton was born in Independence, Kan. She attended Texas Tech University and studied voice

of 89. He attended Long Beach Junior College before being called to active military duty for nearly five years. He was stationed in Hawaii during the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor, and later at Fort Bliss, Texas, where he met his late wife, Helen Todd. After USC, he pursued his architecture career with Kegley, Westphall & Arbogast; Glenn Arbogast & Associates; and Arbogast Jones Theiss Associates. He was licensed in several western states and worked on numerous projects, including the Los Angeles Public Library in Van Nuys, Brigham Young University Men’s Residence Halls and the Los Angeles Police Department. He also was the owner and developer of the University Hotel across from USC, which is now the Radisson Hotel. He is survived by his son Todd Lawrence Arbogast, son-in-law Christopher R. Theiss, and grandchildren Ryan Todd, Joan Michelle, Jonathan Wesley, Andrew Lawrence and Alicia Joy. Gray Berg ’51, DDS ’60, of La Cañada

Flintridge, Calif.; Feb. 4, at the age of 83. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps on D-Day and served in Germany after the war. He later practiced dentistry and was the editor of the San Fernando Valley Dental Society Bulletin. He is survived by his wife, Joanne.

George M. Fox ’52, of Costa Mesa, Calif.; May 11, at the age of 82. After serving in the U.S. Army in Korea, he attended USC on the GI Bill and earned a degree in engineering. He had a long and distinguished career as an environmental engineer. For decades, he was a dedicated and active member of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach, Calif. He is survived by his wife, Natalie Fox, son Christopher Fox, and daughters Carrie Fox and Kimberly Fox. John Charles Irving ’52, MS ’70, of Rose-

burg, Ore.; Oct. 16, 2008, of cancer. After getting his master’s degree in systems management, he worked as a contracts administrator for several aerospace companies in Southern California. In 1970, he moved to Oregon, where he owned and managed John Deere farm equipment. He is survived by his wife, three children and six grandchildren.

in New York. She performed in two Broadway musicals, May Wine and White Horse Inn, then married Charles Bates “Tex” Thornton. In 2005, she married Eric Small. They established the Eric Small Centers for Optimal Living, serving people with multiple sclerosis and similar challenges. She is survived by her husband, sons Charles and Laney, seven grandchildren, and three greatgrandchildren. l

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George Arthur Bissell ’53, of Newport Beach, Calif.; Jan. 2, of lymphoma, at the age of 82. Following his service in the Merchant Marine in World War II, he entered the USC School of Architecture. While at USC, he was a member of Alpha Rho Chi, Trojan Knights, Trojan Squires and the USC Crew team. He remained

an active member of the Architectural Guild throughout his career and sat on the Dean’s Advisory Council. His achievements within the architectural profession over a 52-year career include more than 60 national and regional design awards and presidency of both the American Institute of Architects California Council and the American Institute of Architects Orange County Chapter. In 2000, he was honored with the AIACC Lifetime Achievement Award. He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Laurene, daughters Therese ’80 and Catherine Hazen, sons Thomas, William and Robert ’83, son-in-law Jim Jennings, daughters-in-law Lenka, Julie ’78 and Leanne, grandchildren Brian, Matthew, Thomas ’08, Catherine, Grant, Megan and Annie, 10 nieces, and 12 nephews. Joan “Joni” Mannix Neckerman ’55, of Eagle Rock, Calif.; June 4, at the age of 76. She was the woman’s editor of the Daily Trojan and a member of the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority. She became a bylined writer for the Los Angeles Examiner and Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and was a member of the Theta Sigma Phi Association for Women in Communications. She worked as a technical editor and writer for several Ventura County firms. She is survived by son Michael Neckerman ’87 and sister Pat Calhoun. Ward Stanley Cayot ’56, of Harbor City,

Calif.; Jan. 3, at the age of 79.

Paul W. Kane PhD ’69, of Yorba Linda, Calif.; Jan. 29, at the age of 72. After earning his secondary teaching credential at Long Beach State University, a master’s in history from the University of Wyoming and a doctorate in philosophy from USC, he joined the faculty in the school of education at California State University, Fullerton. He became a full-time professor at the university, and served in a number of administrative positions, including acting dean of the school of education and chair of the teacher education division. He retired after 40 years. He is survived by his wife, Carol, sons Mark, Kevin, Neil and John, daughters-in-law Jan, Karen, Pam and Sharon, grandchildren Lilyanne, Gavin, Keaton, Karson, Paul, Thomas, Jack, Connell and Bailey. Lyle G. Frost MS ’70, of San Juan Capis-

trano, Calif.; July 16, 2009. He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth M. Frost.

Chris Limahelu ’75, of Los Angeles; April 7,

of prostate cancer, at the age of 59. He lettered as the placekicker on the USC foot-

ball team for two years, including the 1974 team that won the national championship. His 47-yard field goal against Ohio State in the 1974 Rose Bowl was the longest ever by a Trojan, breaking a 64-year-old record. He earned All-Pac-8 first team honors as a senior in 1974, making a 50-yard field goal against UCLA that season to break his own record. After graduating, he became an accountant and was a volunteer for the Pasadena Tournament of Roses for the past 15 years. He is survived by his mother, Juliana, brothers Al, Robert, Frank, Henry, Rocky and Patrick, and sister Juliette. Michael M. Cooper MSW ’87, of Los Angeles; March 24, 2009, at the age of 62. A licensed clinical social worker, he worked at the Los Angeles County Probation Department where he was the driving force of the department’s intern initiative. He is survived by his wife, Diana Weihs, daughters Sydney Schwartz and Lesley, sons Scott Grossman and Todd Grossman, son-in-law Joel Schwartz, daughter-in-law Kat Grossman, six grandchildren, sister Susan Reinfeld, and brother-in-law Hesh Reinfeld. Sharon Valerie Quam Bell MSW ’02, of Aliso Viejo, Calif.; May 23, 2009, at the age of 39. After graduating from USC, she worked at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif. She is survived by her husband, Andrew, daughters Brooke and Andrea, father Dennis, mother Kikue, sister Jennifer, and brother Fletcher. Maggie Feiss ’08, of Baltimore, Md.; Nov. 2,

2008, of epilepsy, at the age of 22. In 2004, she graduated from Bryn Mawr School, where she won an Alumni Award for spirit. While at USC, she pioneered the first Relay for Life at USC, a fund raiser for the American Cancer Society, and was a member of the Hellions of Troy, the women’s ultimate frisbee team. She worked for Enterprise Community Partners in Los Angeles, a national nonprofit that helps with community development and affordable housing. At the time of her death, she was about to begin a job with Living Classrooms Foundation, a nonprofit educational organization. Recently, her mother, Meg Tipper, released Standing at the Edge: A Year of Days After Sudden Death, a memoir chronicling the first year after Feiss’ death. In addition to her mother, she is survived by her father, Bill Feiss, brother Stephen Feiss, and grandmothers Peggy Taliaferro and Elinor Feiss.

Carl Roger Freberg of Los Angeles; June 5, at

the age of 94. He was a professor emeritus

at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. After getting his Ph.D. from Purdue (Ind.) University, he worked as a draftsman at Cereal Engineering and Construction Company. He served as director of equipment research for the U.S. Naval Civil Engineering Lab, and then as associate director of Borg Warner Research Center. He worked as an educator for several decades, first as an instructor in machine design at the University of Minnesota and then as an instructor in mechanical engineering and assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Purdue University. At USC, he served as a professor of mechanical engineering from 1966 until his retirement. He was a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, American Society for Engineering Education and American Society of Metals. He also authored the books Elements of Mechanical Vibrations, 2nd edition, and Aircraft Vibration and Flutter. He is survived by his children, Charles Alan and Barbara Ann. Estella Mysels of Los Angeles; March 31, at the age of 89. She was a researcher in the chemistry department at USC in the 1950s and 1960s. Born in Berlin, Germany, she left in 1938 to study chemistry at UC Berkeley, where she received her Ph.D. She was an active member of the League of Women Voters and a supporter of several charities. She was preceded in death by her husband, Karol Mysels, who was a faculty member in the chemistry department at USC. Marion Schulman of Los Angeles; May 2, at the age of 89. She was a longtime USC librarian, beginning shortly after the end of World War II and retiring in 2009, two weeks short of her 64th anniversary at the university. She previously worked as a circulation and reference librarian at Brown (R.I.) University. Three years later, she relocated to Los Angeles. Hired during USC president Rufus B. von KleinSmid’s administration, she distinguished herself as one of the libraries’ most tenacious reference experts. From 1945 to 1973, she worked as a reference librarian in Doheny Memorial Library. In 1956, she earned a master’s in library science from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. In 1980, at the age of 60, she took on a new role in the USC Libraries as a general bibliographer and held this position until her retirement. Schulman was an active member of the American Trust for the British Library, the Society of California Archivists, the Friends of the Huntington Library, and the California Academic and Research Libraries Association. l

U S C T r o j a n Fa m i ly m a g a z i n e autumn 2010

Last Word

You’ve seen them hundreds of times – the elongated tailfins and cockpit-like windshields inspired by the postwar aesthetics of jet aircraft and a nascent American space program. Most recently, they were on display at a photo exhibition in Doheny Memorial Library. Can you name those vintage cars? 1. Named after a class of small, fast warships, this General Motors model debuted in 1953. With its streamlined racing style and plastic-reinforced fiberglass body, it was hailed as the “first of the dream cars to come true.” A later model with retractable headlights and a wraparound windshield hit the 1957 racing circuits at Sebring and Le Mans. 2. With its projectile-shaped front end, metallic gold paint, vestigial tailfins and taillights shaped like jet exhausts, this GM model – first seen at the 1956 Motorama car show – looked like a car ripped from the pages of a sci-fi magazine. Among its innovations: When either door was opened, the roof panel automatically rose and the seats swiveled outward. 3. Rocketry morphed with an ocean predator in this Chrysler model, introduced in 1956. Even its name suggested the sea. Its 300-horsepower V8 engine growled from behind a narrow slit instead of a conventional front grill. Its most striking feature, however, was the large dorsal fin rising up from the rear deck.

›› CONTEST RULES We are looking for the names of the vehicle(s) referenced in each clue. Up to five $30 gift certificates from Borders Books and Music will be awarded to the canniest carhounds among the Last Worders to respond. If more than five perfect entries are received, the winners will be drawn by lot.

4. Drawing inspiration from Lockheed’s P-38 Lightning fighter plane, designer Harley Earl introduced the tailfin to America. His last experimental car for General Motors was a two-passenger beauty. With a clear plastic bubble canopy, twin nose cones that housed obstacle-warning radar devices and two large taillights resembling jet exhausts, this 1959 model also featured an intercom system that allowed passengers to communicate with pedestrians.

5. In 1953, General Motors produced a test vehicle that looked – and drove – like a rocket ship. Built from lightweight titanium, it sported a turbine engine so powerful that the tires lost traction in second gear. Three years later, the company unveiled a more practical version – a fourseater that pioneered all-wheel independent suspension with power disc brakes. 6. Built in Italy by Carrozzeria Ghia and unveiled in 1955, this Ford concept car was extravagantly impractical even by Space Age standards, with its undulating clear plastic canopy top, enormous tailfins that obscured drivers’ rear vision and a lack of side-view mirrors. In a Hollywood twist, the prototype became the inspiration for TV’s Batmobile. 7. In 1954, Ford imagined a car that would run on a nuclear-powered engine. The chassis featured two foot-long spikes protruding like jet intakes from the headlights. Instead of a steering wheel, the car was controlled by two joysticks. A year later, Ford followed up with a fantastical prototype featuring push-button ignition, glass roof, a television set in the back of the front seat and a steering wheel that allowed the front passenger to act as co-pilot. 8. “Dream cars” made a mark on production models, such as this 1956 Ford sedan. At nearly 19 feet long and more than 2 tons, this behemoth boasted low, rounded bumpers and unusual jet-pod exhausts. Other dashes of Space Age style: a windshield that partially wrapped around the sides, recessed headlamps and a dramatic hood ornament resembling the prow of a ship. 9. In the pursuit of ever-larger tailfins, Chrysler turned to “airfoil” styling. The rear fenders of this 1956 model trailed off into space, “leaving no question that the car is racing forward,” its designers explained. Under the hood, it boasted the first pushbutton automatic transmission to appear in an American automobile. l

Send your answers no later than Oct. 15 to The Last Word c/o USC Trojan Family Magazine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-7790. Submissions by fax (213-821-1100) and e-mail <magazines@usc.edu> are welcome.

U S C T R O J A N F A M I L Y M A G A Z I N E autumn 2010

ILLUSTRATION BY TIM BOWER

Car Talk, Circa 195o