Trojan Family Magazine Autumn 2011

USCT R O J A N FA M I LY

A U T U M N 2 0 1 1 | T F M . U S C . E D U

U N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H E R N C A L I F O R N I A

Also in this issue:Little Caesar vs. the McCarthyites: rethinking Hollywood and politics

page 16

USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies invents play with

purpose page 18

Surgical strike: Keck doctors pioneer minimally invasive

techniques page 22

Fas Regna TrojaeUSC’s historic $6 billion campaign – the most ambitious in the history of higher education – heralds ‘the destined reign of Troy’

Fas Regna TrojaeUSC’s historic $6 billion campaign – the most ambitious in the history of higher education – heralds ‘the destined reign of Troy’ PAGE 11

The race isn’t over

until there’s a cure.

Last year, 32,000 men died from

prostate cancer and more than

217,000 new cases were diagnosed.

Today, 2.2 million live with the disease.

Your contribution supports our race toward

a cure for prostate cancer.

Register to run in the L.A. Prostate Cancer 5K at

Active.com or USCUrology.com or call (323) 865-3700

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 6, 2011

Fight On.

[ DEPARTMENTS ]

04 Mail Bag Readers give us a piece of their minds.

07 Trojan Beat

Thinking globally, lab work, shelf life and more

35 Family Ties

Connecting Trojans worldwide

40 Class Notes

NOW ONLINE: tfm.usc.edu 1

[ FEATURES ]

Fas Regna TrojaeThe Destined Reign of Troy

USC launches the most ambitious campaign in the history of higher education.

Politics and HollywoodBy Steven J. Ross

Movie legend Edward G. Robinson mobilized the Hollywood community toward political activism.

Brave New WorldBy Orli Belman

Virtual reality is the new reality at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies.

Healing the HealerBy Mary Ellen Zenka

Minimally invasive colorectal surgery lets veterinarian Nicole Knapp return to her passion for healing animals.

[ COLUMNS ]

02 Editor’s Note The Trojan Family’s generosity is boundless.

03 President’s Page

Moving forward with passion and purpose to support USC

48 Last Word

Money makes the world go round. Test your knowledge on monetary minutiae.

inside

12 16 22 30

On the cover: “Tommy Trojan,” sculpted by Roger Noble Burnham in 1930, remains one of USC’s most recognizable figures. Photo by Philip Channing

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2 USC TROJAN FAMILY MAGAZINE autumn 2011

EDITOR

Nicole M. Malec

SENIOR EDITORS

Lauren Clark

Diane Krieger

ART DIRECTOR

Sheharazad P. Fleming

MANAGING EDITOR

Mary Modina

CONTRIBUTORS

Susan Andrews, Orli Belman,

Anne Bergman, Cheryl Bruyninckx,

Cheryl Collier, Beth Dunham,

Pamela J. Johnson, Timothy O. Knight,

Matthew Kredell, Ross M. Levine,

Steve Linan, Sam Lopez, Carl Marziali,

Eddie North-Hager, Jan Peterson,

Sara Reeve, Julie Riggott,

Steven J. Ross, Darren Schenck,

Liz Segal, Shirley S. Shin,

Ambrosia Viramontes-Brody,

Mary Ellen Zenka

DESIGN AND PRODUCTION

Russell Ono

Stacey Torii

ADVERTISING MANAGER

Mary Modina | (213) 740-8622

CIRCULATION MANAGER

Vickie Kebler

USC Trojan Family Magazine

3375 S. Hoover St., Ste. H201

Los Angeles, CA 90089-7790

[email protected] | tfm.usc.edu

USC Trojan Family Magazine (ISSN 8750-

7927) is published four times a year, in

March, June, September and December,

by USC University Communications.

MOVING? Submit your updated mailing

address at tfm.usc.edu/subscribe

USCTROJAN FAMILY

editor’s note

Pillars of Excellence

EXPLORE USC TROJAN FAMILY MAGAZINE

ONLINE AT tfm.usc.edu››

The quarterly magazine of the

University of Southern California

THE TROJAN FAMILY’S GENEROSITY is astounding. In just the past year, despite a diffi cult

economic climate in California and across the nation, USC received gifts totaling more

than $1 billion for its educational and research missions. Our donors saw enduring value

in supporting our students and faculty, our programs, and our desire and potential to effect

positive change.

Beyond gifts, so many of you also gave your time to organize events, welcome new stu-

dents and spread the word about USC. It’s this infectious affi nity Trojans have for USC

that gives us the unbridled confi dence that we can raise $6 billion to support the continued

ascent of this great university. The collective spirit of the Trojan Family is an intangible as-

set that is impossible to measure – yet it is so clearly one of the most valuable features of our

community. We hope that, as the campaign progresses, each of you will be engaged in the

journey and will be proud of the Trojan Family’s impact both in our nearest neighborhoods

and around the world.

N i c o l e M . M a l e c A S S O C I A T E S E N I O R V P

U S C C O M M U N I C A T I O N S


BY C. L. MAX NIKIAS

As we begin a fresh academic year and celebrate the launch of our ambitious fundraising campaign, I want to open this column with some words of gratitude to each of you, the members of the Trojan Family. This past year, we collectively raised more than $1 billion for USC!

This total includes three historic gifts – $200 million

from Dana and David Dornsife, $150 million from

the W. M. Keck Foundation and $110 million from

Julie and John Mork – as well as heartfelt annual

fund donations from our undergraduates. Each gift

made a difference. Each one of you made a differ-

ence. And today, I sincerely say thank you.

While we’ve achieved a great deal, there is

much more to do, as we march toward our lofty

$6 billion goal. Let us move forward with pas-

sion, but also with purpose. And most of all, let

us be mindful of why we

are supporting our beloved

university. Our campaign

will focus signifi cantly

on strengthening USC’s

endowment, which will

ensure our long-term fi -

nancial stability and stra-

tegic growth. A portion

of these funds will un-

derwrite capital projects,

infrastructure and aca-

demic priorities, while

another portion will

support our faculty and

students. These funds

will allow us to compete for the most brilliant fac-

ulty and the most talented students, while helping

us ensure that their time at USC is maximized,

that their scholarship or creative work reaches so-

ciety and that the impact of their contributions is

fully realized.

We’ve already made tremendous headway on

these fronts. Earlier this year, we welcomed No-

bel Prize-winning economist Daniel McFadden

to our campuses. He is known around the world

for his innovations in economics and mathemat-

ics related to models of learning and choice, and

he holds the prestigious title of Presidential Pro-

fessor of Health Economics. (Along with Distin-

guished Professor George Olah and Presidential

Professor Murray Gell-Mann, he raises USC’s

count of Nobel laureates to three!) But profes-

sor McFadden brings more than a vast garland of

credentials to USC. His work is transformative:

His scholarship has fundamentally altered the

way academics examine choice modeling, as well

as how companies track and predict consumer

decision-making and behavior. He is an intellec-

tual tour de force.

The same holds true for our students. Last

month, our very fi rst group of Mork Schol-

ars arrived at the university. These 20 inspir-

ing individuals hail from 15 different states and

bring a breadth of experiences. Consider John

Humphries, from Charlotte, N.C., who will ma-

jor in chemistry. I could tell you that he gradu-

ated top of his class, interned for federal Judge

Frank Whitney, competed in a dozen triathlons

and scored astronomically high on his standard-

ized tests. But you’ve come to expect such feats

of USC’s students. So I’ll tell you that over the

past seven years, he and his sister raised more

than $15,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation,

having turned their own birthday parties into

fundraisers for the organization. John said he

drew inspiration from a young girl named Hope

Stout, who wished for the wishes of all the other

children in the program – instead of asking for a

wish of her own.

In one year, an additional cohort of Mork

Scholars will arrive on our campuses, which means

in four years’ time, we will have a total of about 80

at USC. Our inaugural group will graduate, but

the intellectual, creative and social experiences

they have at USC will remain with them, forming

the foundation on which they build their profes-

sional lives. In this way, their successes will be

part of USC’s successes. Their contributions will

be part of USC’s legacy.

This is what inspires me. This promise – this

dedication to our collective future and to giving

back to our society – motivates my personal com-

mitment to this campaign. I look forward to the

years ahead, and I warmly extend my hand to

each one of you: Please join me on this journey!

These are pivotal years in USC’s glorious his-

tory, and together we can alter the course of our

university, our community and even our nation.

If we are steadfast, focused and thoughtful – and

we will be! – then I am confi dent USC will soon

assume its place among the pantheon of undis-

puted elite universities. ●

Julie and John Mork with USC president C. L. Max Nikias

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president’s page

Your appointment of this man to dean

of religious life is disturbing to me. Our

culture in this country is predominantly

Christian, but with total freedom to prac-

tice any religion one cares to. Students

from other countries should taste our cul-

ture and spirituality, just as we would if we

went to India or China. The fact that he

is the only non-Christian university dean

of religious life in America shows how far

off-base this is.

Lloyd O. Johnson ’51H A Y D E N L A K E , I D

After reading the article on Varun Soni,

my sense of logic and defi nition of truth

was left severely wanting. My observa-

tion is that an un-chaplain is a contradic-

tion in terms wrapped in a paradox. If the

job description of a chaplain boils down

to counseling others, what, in fact, does

an un-chaplain do? Soni seems like he’s a

fi ne academic and an entrepreneurial type

of guy, but there’s no discussion of conse-

quence in the article of persons he’s helped

and changes he’s helped them achieve in

their lives. Seems like he may be missing

what it takes to be a chaplain.

Dennis Purpura ’70, MBA ’71D A N V I L L E , C A

In the article on Varun Soni, there is a sen-

tence so uneducated and preposterous that

it can’t be allowed to go unchallenged in

an academic publication: “However, ques-

tions of spiritual meaning and religious faith

rarely come up in the classroom, nor should

they in a secular research university.” They

don’t? They shouldn’t? How do you study

anything in the humanities, arts, even the

sciences, without dealing with spiritual

meaning? Dante? Milton? Darwin? Michel-

angelo? Beethoven? The Beatles? The Mid-

dle East on the front page of newspapers? If

this notion is true, then USC’s “education”

is a waste of time and money.

Thomas E. Mille ’81 A P P L E V A L L E Y , C A

TFM RedesignedI am thoroughly impressed with the online

magazine. I’ve seen versions that attempt to

duplicate the look and feel of a print maga-

zine, which seems so forced. But this online

format (which I’m reading on a computer,

not even a phone or iPad) feels fresh and for-

ward-thinking. Great redesign – it’s a tough

job, but you did it. Well done, USC!

Irene Mason ’06 L O S A N G E L E S , C A

I love the article on Varun Soni (“The Un-Chaplain,” Summer 2011, p. 18). It’s an example

of my favorite type of profi le piece – extremely positive, well researched, lots of voices, and

it shows many sides of the individual. I was a full-time reporter for several years and con-

tinue to write on a freelance basis. It’s great to see stories like this at USC.

Laura SturzaG R A D U A T E A D V I S E R

H E R M A N O S T R O W S C H O O L O F D E N T I S T R Y O F U S C

C A M P U S

mailbag


The Spirituality of Troy

WE WELCOME YOUR FEEDBACK.

SUBMIT YOUR LETTER TO THE

EDITOR AT tfm.usc.edu/mailbag››

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Apparently, nobody at USC Trojan Family Magazine paid attention to the recent Gap

logo-redesign epic fail. Nor did they consult

with the USC Roski School of Fine Arts,

the USC Graphic Identity Program or any

freshman graphic design major.

Quite simply, the new font is about the

worst choice that could have been made,

with neither any sense of historical con-

nection to the university nor perspective

beyond a fi ve-year window.

Everybody knows that sans-serif fonts

are all the rage at the moment (just look

at the Facebook, Twitter and Bing logos).

They are terrible choices for a 130-year-old

university and will look dated (“oh, that

late 2010 look”) very fast.

Lansing McLoskey MM ’92M I A M I , F L

Art FactsI loved the photos in “Unexpected Trea-

sures” (Summer 2011, p. 16), particu-

larly the 1931 El Rodeo. I’m a fan of early

fl ight Art Deco

pieces and was

surprised to see

such art in the

El Rodeo. I’d

love to fi nd out

more about the

artist who illustrated the airplane motif.

Lee Anne Fisher Masten ’94 T H E B E R K S H I R E S , M A

USC historian Annette Moore replies: The 1931 El Rodeo would be a treat for any fan of early fl ight art. It features Art Deco-style images with an aviation theme throughout, including a Trojan horse with wings and several scenes with airplanes fl ying in the sky. All told, there are some six color illustrations, in addition to the frontispiece, credited to artists George Spielman and Ray Conners.

Being BozoI loved your missive on my all-time favorite

client Larry “Bozo the Clown” Harmon ’50

(Summer 2011, p. 32). He was anything but

a bozo. He was warm, funny and charming.

Most people do not know he also owned the

rights to Laurel and Hardy and portrayed

Stan Laurel on some commercials. He

loved USC and truly loved bringing smiles

to the faces of his audience. From one bozo

to another, R.I.P. Larry. I miss you.

Dale S. Gribow ’65 P A L M D E S E R T, C A

Short NoticeI was disappointed when I turned to the

obituary pages in the latest issue of the

magazine (Summer 2011, p. 50). They are

the fi rst thing I turn to, to read about old

friends and fellow colleagues. I was dis-

mayed by the abbreviated version.

Dorothy A. Morris MA ’79 H O N O L U L U , H I

Editor’s Note: Full obituaries of Trojan Fam-ily members can be found in the online edition at tfm.usc.edu/memoriam

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Global Challenges and Enhancing OpportunitiesFeaturing New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize winning author

THOMAS FRIEDMAN

Thursday, October 13–Saturday, October 15, 2011JW Marriott Hotel Hong Kong

www.usc.edu/globalconferenceMAKE PLANS NOW!

Sponsorship opportunities still available

LAB WORK

His Stress, Her Stress

When it comes to housework, shared relaxation

eludes the average couple.

IT’S THE CLASSIC grievance in the war

between the sexes: she doesn’t keep the

house neat enough; he never helps out. Only

now, there’s biochemical data to back it up.

A USC study published in the Journal of

Family Psychology found that it isn’t enough

for couples to relax together for their stress

levels to fall at the end of the day. Men fi nd

it easier to unwind if their wives are still

busy with chores. Women prefer hands-on

help: their stress levels go down if their hus-

bands chip in with housework.

This isn’t a promising formula of marital

bliss. “Your biological adaptation to stress

looks healthier when your partner has to

suffer the consequences – more house-

work for husbands, less leisure for wives,”

explains psychologist Darby Saxbe, a post-

doctoral fellow at the USC Dornsife Col-

lege of Letters, Arts and Sciences and lead

author of the study, which received national

media attention.

For both husbands and wives, the

research showed, doing more housework

kept cortisol levels higher at the end of the

day – in other words, doing chores seemed

to limit their ability to recover from work-

related stress.

For wives, cortisol profi les were healthier

if their husbands did chores alongside them

in the home. Alternately for husbands, lei-

sure was linked to healthier cortisol levels

– but only if their wives kept busy with

chores.

The study measured stress hormones

and daily activities among 30 Los Angeles

couples who worked full-time and had at

least one child. The researchers tracked the

families’ activities at 10-minute intervals

and sampled their saliva repeatedly over

three days.

The saliva samples then were analyzed

for cortisol, a hormone that increases in

stressful situations. Saxbe and her col-

leagues focused on the drop in cortisol

after the end of the workday. A steeper drop

is considered healthier. The study found

there was a link between household activi-

ties and physiology. In particular, the way

couples divvy up chores affects the body’s

adaptation to stress.

The result shows that the actions of one

spouse can affect the stress levels of the

partner and “have real implications for long-

term health,” Saxbe says. Cortisol levels

can affect sleep, weight gain, burnout and

weakened immune resistance.

Saxbe conducted much of the research

while writing her thesis at UCLA’s Center

on the Everyday Lives of Families with

co-authors Rena Repetti of UCLA and

Anthony Graesch of Connecticut College.

One of Saxbe’s earlier studies had fo-

cused on marital relationships, stress and

work. Her research found that more hap-

pily married women showed healthier cor-

tisol patterns, while women who reported

marital dissatisfaction had fl atter cortisol

profi les, which have been associated with

chronic stress. Men’s marital satisfaction

ratings, on the other hand, were not con-

nected to their cortisol patterns.

“The quality of relationships makes a

big difference in a person’s health,” Saxbe

says. “Dividing up your housework fairly

with your partner may be as important as

eating your vegetables.”

E D D I E N O R T H - H A G E R

trojan beat


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for posterity – much as Charles

Marville documented Paris

from 1858 to 1877.

The work was unconven-

tional, but Krieger – who has

eight books to his credit – had

enough seniority to take risks.

Along the way, photo docu-

mentation became a passion.

“I’m an extremely happy man

when I can go out and do fi eld-

work,” Krieger says. “In my

career, I’ve spent most of my

time in my offi ce, thinking and reading and

writing.”

Krieger continues to take photographs

and record sounds. He’s currently focus-

ing on the Orthodox Jewish enclave in the

Pico-Robertson area of West Los Angeles.

This work eventually may lead to another

book, although it’s the joy he receives from

documenting the ever-changing cityscape

that keeps him going.

“I do all the work and then the book

comes as the last part,” Krieger says. “You

put enough ingredients in the mix and then

it’s like, ‘Oh, I can make a cake.’ ”

M A T T H E W K R E D E L L

THREE YEARS AGO, during a routine echo-

cardiogram, Martin Krieger gazed at some

30 images of his heart, taken from all dif-

ferent angles, and had an epiphany. Medi-

cal tomography – the imaging of multiple

slices of an organ – was the perfect meta-

phor, he realized, for the amorphous L.A.

documentation project he had been en-

gaged in since 1997.

“I thought, that’s exactly what I’m do-

ing – taking multiple pictures of the city

from different angles and perspectives,”

says Krieger, a professor of planning at the

USC School of Policy, Planning, and Devel-

opment. “I could fi nally make sense of my

projects.”

The result is Urban Tomographies (Univer-

sity of Pennsylvania Press, $49.95), which

explores the concept of tomography as ap-

plied to photo documentation. The strik-

ing cover displays many of the 800-plus

pictures he took of the facades of storefront

houses of worship. Other images in his ar-

chive include markets, streetscapes, every

Department of Water and Power station in

the city (around 150), workers at more than

240 work sites and many other slices of L.A.

urban life.

With the help of USC School of Cin-

ematic Arts professor Tomlinson Holman,

who developed the THX sound quality-as-

surance system for Lucasfi lm, Krieger also

recorded the ambient sounds of Los Ange-

les – from the calls of a tamale vendor to the

buzz of a workshop saw. Many of Krieger’s

photographs and sounds – he snapped tens

of thousands of pictures and made hun-

dreds of surround-sound recordings and

smartphone videos – can be experienced at

tomography.usc.edu/urban

Krieger’s interest in photo documenta-

tion grew out of a fascination with the dis-

tinctive architecture of Iranian-American

immigrant homes in Beverly Hills (the so-

called “Persian palaces”), which he regu-

larly passed on the way to pick up his son

from school.

According to Krieger, everyday life leads

to new subjects. When he started riding the

bus to USC, he discovered another world to

systematically and exhaustively photograph.

“I’m not an artist,” he explains. “I don’t

worry if the photos are great. I just want to

have lots of detail and information that is

clearly visible.”

Krieger had not originally planned to

produce a book at all. He merely wished to

document what was going on in Los Ange-

les, with the vague idea of leaving an archive

THIS URBAN LIFE

Slices of

Southland Life

Urban scholar ‘images’

Los Angeles like a

radiologist.

The Art of Arts ReportingWhat if you threw a bunch of skilled journalists at a subject and

asked them to invent creative ways of reporting it? That was the

intriguing premise behind Engine28, an arts journalism program

that debuted this summer at the USC Annenberg School for

Communication & Journalism.

For one week in June, reporters from 28 media outlets across the

country formed a “pop-up” newsroom to provide extensive coverage of

theatre in Los Angeles. The journalists produced reviews, analyses, forums, podcasts and videos

around three coinciding theatre festivals and conferences – the RADAR L.A. Festival, the 2011

Theatre Communications Group National Conference and the Hollywood Fringe Festival.

Twenty-one reporters and critics – all fellows in USC Annenberg’s seventh National Endow-

ment for the Arts (NEA) Arts Journalism Institute in Theater and Musical Theater – worked

alongside a staff of top editors led by Jeff Weinstein, former arts editor and columnist for The

Philadelphia Inquirer and The Village Voice.

“Rather than simply talk about new models for arts journalism at this year’s NEA Arts Journal-

ism Institute, we decided to create some,” says Douglas McLennan, digital editor and chief

architect for Engine28.com. “Engine28 was a real-time laboratory for journalism about the arts.”

And a crucial laboratory at that, Weinstein says, “because arts journalism – a dull phrase –

is in trouble and needs muscular innovation as well as solid traditional talent to survive.”

To see what the experiment yielded, visit Engine28.com �


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THINKING GLOBALLY

Cross-Continental Show and Tell

A USC surgical team demonstrates robotic and

laparoscopic techniques before 1,800 Chinese urologists.

IN 12 DAYS, they visited fi ve cities – Shang-

hai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and

Singapore. This was no whirlwind tour of

Asia, though. It was a teaching blitz by sur-

geons in USC’s Institute of Urology.

Led by Inderbir Gill, founding executive

director of the institute, the team included

urology professors Mihir Desai and Hui-

Wen Xie, and urology fellow Casey Ng. To-

gether, they offered a series of live-surgery

symposia this past spring.

More than 1,800 Chinese urologists at-

tended these symposia to watch the USC

team perform 15 advanced robotic and lap-

aroscopic surgeries for kidney, prostate and

bladder diseases.

“The goal of this trip was to create a

USC-China Program in clinical medicine,

which will enhance academic exchanges

and make USC a preferred destination for

Chinese patients seeking cutting-edge

medical and surgical treatment,”

says Gill, who is professor and

chair of the Catherine and Joseph

Aresty Department of Urology

at the Keck School of Medicine

of USC.

In addition to demonstrating

their surgical techniques, Gill,

Desai and Xie delivered state-of-

the-art lectures and disseminated

Institute of Urology brochures

and physician business cards that

had been translated into Chinese.

Several Chinese dignitaries at-

tended the symposia, including

the director of the Beijing Mu-

nicipal Health Bureau, dean of

the Beijing Medical University,

dean of The Chinese University

of Hong Kong, president and vice

president of the Chinese Urologi-

cal Association, president of the

Chinese Military Hospitals As-

sociation and more than 40 chair-

men of various urology depart-

ments across China, Hong Kong

and Singapore.

The USC urologists also met with the

U.S. consul general in Guangzhou, of-

fi cials of the USC-Hong Kong offi ce and

the CEOs of seven health care and insur-

ance companies. One health care company

submitted a contract to the institute, which

already has generated patient referrals.

The USC Institute of Urology has been

working on a USC-China collaboration for

the past decade. Since 1998, more than 50

Chinese urologists have visited USC every

year for a week-long instructional sympo-

sium to observe live surgeries and learn

new techniques.

Future collaboration possibilities are be-

ing explored, including teleconsults and

e-consults, remote health monitoring, pa-

tient referrals to USC for advanced medical

care and stronger relationship-building with

Chinese physicians.

C H E R Y L B R U Y N I N C K X

world watch

�USC in Mumbai USC’s Office of Global Initiatives opened a

new international office in Mumbai to pro-

mote academic and research partnerships,

expand opportunities for student service-

based learning in India and help attract top

Indian students to USC. The Mumbai office,

which is led by Kamaldeep Chadha ‘89, MBT

‘98, joins an international office in Bangalore

that recently was opened by the USC Viterbi

School of Engineering.

�Legal Lifeline USC Gould School of Law established a chap-

ter of the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project,

an organization that teams law students with

pro bono attorneys to provide representation

to Iraqi refugees seeking resettlement in the

United States. Spearheaded by USC under-

graduates Ali Al-Sarraf and Jared Irmas, the

USC chapter has already recruited 40 student

volunteers and partnered with eight attorneys

from the Los Angeles offices of O’Melveny &

Myers and Gibson Dunn.

�Gone to Ghana Eight undergraduates from a variety of

majors traveled to West Africa this summer

as the first participants in the Summer

Research Fellowship to Ghana, a new pro-

gram sponsored by the USC Dornsife College

of Letters, Arts and Sciences. For five weeks,

they investigated agriculture, education and

sustainable development. Among their

accomplishments: producing a needs assess-

ment to help local farmers build a demonstra-

tion farm and researching how monoculture

– the agricultural practice of growing one

crop over a wide area – affects farmers in

Ghana for better or worse.

�Global Consultation Hoping to beef up entrepreneurship in the

low-income community of Kumba, Cameroon

in Africa, USC Marshall School of Business

professors Sriram Dasu and Yehuda Bassok

turned to their MBA students. A team of six

students worked with Kumba’s mayor and

city council to analyze viable markets for local

resources and identify products that could

be made by local entrepreneurs. Organizers

hope to replicate the process and make this

type of global consulting work a staple of USC

Marshall’s outreach efforts. ●

Inderbir Gill


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SHELF L IFE

Sign of Fantasy

As American icons go, the

Hollywood Sign is worthy

of a book. USC culture

scholar Leo Braudy obliges.

WITH ITS NINE WHITE steel-and-concrete let-

ters standing 30-feet wide and 45-feet tall,

the Hollywood Sign is one of the most rec-

ognized symbols in the world, yet it remains

an enigma.

Consider these ironies: rather than a sym-

bol or image, it is a word. And though easy

to see, it is quite diffi cult to visit or touch.

Captivated by these and many other con-

tradictions, USC culture scholar, historian

and fi lm critic Leo Braudy set about writing

a thoughtful book dissecting them all. The

result is The Hollywood Sign: Fantasy and Re-

ality of an American Icon, part of the “Icons

of America” series of scholarly works by Yale

University Press.

Viewing the sign for the fi rst time is of-

ten a disappointment, especially if one has

conjured up a symbol of grandeur, glitz and

glamour, says Braudy, who is a University

Professor and holder of the Leo S. Bing

Chair in English and American Literature

at the USC Dornsife College of Letters,

Arts and Sciences. But then much about

Tinseltown lore is that way. The fabled

intersection of Hollywood and Vine – where

people fl ock from around the world – turns

out to be a cluster of nondescript buildings.

Braudy calls this let-down the clash be-

tween fantasy and reality.

He lovingly retraces a history riddled

with irony and let-downs. The original sign,

which read “Hollywoodland,” was con-

structed in 1923 by a real estate developer.

It perched atop Mount Lee, lit by 4,000

bulbs. Through the years the sign fell into

disrepair – it “has endured almost as many

deaths, near-deaths and revivals as Kenny

in South Park,” quipped Braudy in a May

2010 Los Angeles Times op-ed.

In 1949, the Hollywood Chamber of

Commerce contracted

with the L.A. Parks De-

partment to renovate it.

The “land” portion of

the sign was removed,

and its symbolic im-

portance to the city

cemented. In 1978, a

full-scale reconstruction

was undertaken, spear-

headed by the unlikely

duo of adult entertain-

ment mogul Hugh Hef-

ner and heavy metal

rocker Alice Cooper.

The “new” sign was 5

feet shorter than the original but still gran-

diose and a lot more stable.

Even today, its fate is uncertain. A cou-

ple of years ago, 138 acres above and to the

left of the sign were put on the market for

$22 million. If used for housing, the sale

could materially have altered the view of

the sign.

A group calling itself The Trust for

Public Land raised $9 million to purchase

the land and save the view for posterity.

The option to buy, however, was set at

$12.5 million by the Chicago-based com-

mercial developer that has owned the prop-

erty since 2002. The city held its breath,

hoping for a Hollywood ending. That hope

did not prove in vain: The iconic sign was

rescued yet again by a last-minute donation

of $900,000 from Hefner and matching

grants from the Tiffany & Co. Foundation,

Aileen Getty and thousands of individuals,

famous and not. Among the famous: Steven

Spielberg and Tom Hanks.

S U S A N A N D R E W S

�EducatorCarol Campbell Fox

MS ’62, an independent

consultant and outgo-

ing president of the USC

Alumni Association, was

elected to the USC Board

of Trustees. Fox has

taught professionally at

several Southern Califor-

nia universities, including

USC, and has coordi-

nated an innovative teacher-training program

for UCLA Education Extension. Past president

of Town and Gown and the Trojan Guild of Los

Angeles, Fox was the 2006 winner of the USC

Alumni Service Award.

�Administrator Tom Sayles was named

senior vice president for

USC University Relations.

Previously he was vice

president for USC Govern-

ment and Civic Engage-

ment. Before joining USC

in 2009, Sayles was senior

vice president for govern-

ment affairs and corpo-

rate communications at

Rentech Inc., an alternative fuels company in Los

Angeles. He also served as the State of Califor-

nia’s commissioner of corporations and, before

that, as state secretary of business, transporta-

tion and housing. Sayles holds degrees from

Harvard Law School and Stanford University.

�Dean Longtime faculty mem-

ber William W. Holder

was named dean of the

USC Leventhal School of

Accounting, a unit of the

USC Marshall School of

Business. An expert on

financial reporting and

auditing, Holder came

to USC in 1979 and has

directed the USC SEC and Financial Reporting

Institute since 1994. He holds a doctorate

in business administration and a master

of accountancy, both from the University of

Oklahoma. ●

The Hollywood Sign: Fantasy

and Reality of an American Icon

by Leo BraudyYALE UNIVERSITY PRESS, $24

milestones


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Get back out there.

Six billion dollars. That’s the figure President C. L. Max Nikias

vowed USC will raise in the comprehensive

campaign that launched on Sept. 15. ¶ It’s

the most ambitious campaign in history – not

just Trojan history, but the history of American

higher education. ¶ Why such an extraordinary

sum? Because, says Nikias, it’s what USC must

do if it is to reach the pinnacle of excellence

in its academic ascent – what the president

calls “undisputed elite status.” And according

to Nikias, the campaign will ensure that USC’s

contributions to society will be fully realized.

¶ “These things are not only possible; they’re

within our grasp. They’re right here for the

taking. They’re just a few steps down the

road,” he says.

Fas RegnaTrojaeThe destined reign of Troy

[ A WILL TOWARD GREATNESS ]


USC’s historic $6 billion campaign - perhaps the most ambitious in the history of higher education - heralds the ‘destined reign of Troy.’USC’s historic $6 billion campaign – the most

ambitious in the history of higher education –

heralds the ‘destined reign of Troy.’

THE STAGE FOR THE CAMPAIGN for the

University of Southern California was set at

Nikias’ inauguration, when he pledged an

all-out effort to expand and strengthen USC

at an unprecedented rate and in a short pe-

riod of time. Within a few minutes of the

new president’s formal investiture on Oct. 15,

2010, the university announced two separate

gifts of $50 million: one from USC trustee

Ming Hsieh ’83, MS ’84 to establish an inter-

disciplinary cancer research institute bringing

together engineers, scientists and physicians;

another from USC trustee Wallis Annenberg

and the Annenberg Foundation to fi nance a

new building for the USC Annenberg School

for Communication & Journalism.

Since then, four additional donors have

made leadership commitments to USC: in

March, Dana and David Dornsife ’65 gave

$200 million (the largest single gift in USC’s

history) to name the USC College of Letters,

Arts and Sciences; in April, Julie and John

Mork ’70 gave $110 million to fund under-

graduate merit scholarships and stipends,

and longtime USC supporters Roger and

Michele Dedeaux Engemann gave $15 mil-

lion to support a new student health center

on the University Park campus; and in June,

the W. M. Keck Foundation gave $150 mil-

lion to accelerate groundbreaking medical,

clinical and translational research and educa-

tion at USC.

In total, USC has raised more than a bil-

lion dollars in President Nikias’ fi rst year!

“FAS REGNA TROJAE”

From the beginning of his presidency, Ni-

kias vowed to tirelessly push USC forward

and upward, while drawing strength from its

history. In his inaugural address, the newly

anointed president called attention to a little-

read inscription on the southwest-facing base

of the Trojan Shrine: “Here are provided seats

of meditative joy … where shall rise again the

destined reign of Troy.” In Latin, the second

line translates to “fas regna trojae.”

For Nikias – an electrical engineer by

training, but a classicist by temperament

– the couplet is loaded with meaning. The

Trojans stand for excellence and purity of

purpose: “No one worked harder than the

Trojans, no one was more determined than

the Trojans. And their will toward greatness

could even bend the will of the gods in their

favor,” Nikias said in his address.

In Virgil’s epic, the battle-weary Trojans –

routed by the Greeks from their native Ilium

– take to the high seas, battling monsters and

sirens, triumphing over every adversity. “And

when they reached their destination,” Nikias

added, “they would lay the cornerstone for

the great city of Rome – the mightiest and

most enduring of all empires.”

Therein lies a metaphor for today’s Trojans.

“Our own quest for undisputed elite status

could be likened to the voyage of Aeneas,”

Nikias continued. “It means the difference

between being a ‘hot’ and ‘up-and-coming’

university and being undisputedly one of the

most infl uential institutions in the world.”

What has USC got going for it to give

Nikias such confi dence? A dynamic blend

of the arts and humanities and culture, cer-

tainly. Cutting-edge science, medicine and

technology, social sciences and professions –

no doubt. Now add to that the gold standard

of real estate – location, location, location.

“As our world today is shifting away from

an Atlantic to a Pacifi c Century, USC is bet-

ter positioned than anyone else to become

the foremost laboratory of experimentation

of ‘East-West’ ideas – in scholarship and the

arts and media and journalism and culture,

to become the campus where the infl uenc-

ers of the Pacifi c Age will be educated,

shaped and molded. This is our moment,”

Nikias says, “and, I believe, that should be

our vision.”

ENDOWMENT

USC’s academic ascent, like that of every

great university, is fueled by the strength

of its endowment. Over the course of four

major fundraising campaigns since 1961, the

endowment has grown from $18 million to

$2.9 billion.

But more will be needed to lift USC to the

highest pinnacle of academe. Endowment

marches in lockstep with academic excel-

lence. If USC does not get its endowment

rank in the top tier, it will not be taken seri-

ously by its private peers. A principal goal of

the campaign is to add another $3 billion to

USC’s endowment.

Nikias believes momentum is on USC’s side.

“Right now is a perfect storm of economy and

opportunity. Right now is the moment when

our competitors are on their heels, when our

peers are picking up the pieces in a time of

great economic turmoil,” he says. “In uncer-

tain times like these, I hope you fi nd great

comfort in USC’s sound fi nancial planning

and management. While other universities

are looking to cut back, USC is planning to

move forward.”

CAMPAIGN PRIORITIES

“USC must ensure the excellence of our

faculty and fund scholarships that enable

the most talented students to attend USC

regardless of their fi nancial need,” says Al

Checcio, senior vice president for Univer-

sity Advancement. Half of the $6 billion

campaign goal will be earmarked for en-

dowments supporting these priorities, in-

cluding research. The remaining $3 billion

will fi nance immediate academic priorities,

as well as capital projects and infrastructure

improvements.

“Only fi ve schools left at our university

remain unnamed. These schools are some

of our jewels,” noted Provost Elizabeth Gar-

rett at a trustees retreat in March. The un-

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN AND VIEW PHOTOS FROM

THE PUBLIC LAUNCH, PLEASE VISIT usc.edu/campaign››

PH

OT

O B

Y P

HIL

IP C

HA

NN

ING

SCHOOL GOALS

$1.5 billion for Keck School

$750 million for USC Dornsife

$500 million for USC Viterbi

$400 million for USC Marshall

$50 million – $200 million each for remaining professional and arts schools, libraries and athletics

PRIORITIES

$2 billion for faculty and research program endowments

$1 billion for scholarship endowments

$2 billion for immediate academic priorities

$1 billion for capital projects and infrastructure improvement


named schools are architecture, theatre, phar-

macy, social work, and policy, planning, and

development.

How would a much-enlarged endowment

transform life at USC?

Take scholarships. Currently, only about 4

percent of undergraduate scholarship aid comes

from endowment income. Yet USC hands out

more than $225 million a year in undergradu-

ate student aid. The lion’s share comes from

unrestricted funds, which are not as stable a

source of support as an endowment.

Or consider endowed chairs. Top faculty

expect to receive this form of internal recog-

nition. Trying to recruit the best professors

in the world without being able to offer them

endowed chairs puts the university at a dis-

advantage.

“We have 400 endowed chairs or profes-

sorships for a faculty of 3,300,” Garrett ex-

plains. Compare that to 500 at Stanford, with

a faculty of just 1,900.

USC is likewise committed to recruiting

exceptional Ph.D. students. For example, the

Provost’s Ph.D. Fellowship Program targets

individuals who show outstanding promise

for careers in academic research and teach-

ing. USC’s campaign will seek to endow

fellowships such as these to attract talented

students and provide them with the support

they need to do their best work.

BEYOND ENDOWMENT

There are other compelling priorities beyond

building endowment.

A key campaign goal is to erect a number of

new buildings – for example, an undergradu-

ate business building, a social science build-

ing encouraging collaboration between econo-

mists with appointments in law, business, and

policy and planning, and a building shared by

the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts

and Sciences and the USC Viterbi School of

Engineering that brings together stellar new

hires working in the areas where life sciences

and engineering converge.

The campaign also aims to fund dramatic

discoveries and developments in medical re-

search, teaching and patient care.

And there is talk among the arts deans about

creating a one-of-a-kind program modeled on

the Rhodes Scholarship – an international award

that brings the best arts graduate students from

the Pacifi c Rim and India to USC.

The rising energy level is palpable. “It’s time

for USC to embrace its destiny,” Nikias says.

This, as he stated in his inaugural address,

“is the great journey. This is the way forward

to the ‘destined reign of Troy.’ ” O

UNIVERSITY

Source: Huffington Post, “The 13 Largest University Endowments,” http://huff.to/qdP03l

2010 ENDOWMENT U.S. News & World Report 2011 RANKINGS

Harvard $ 27.5 billion 1

Yale $ 16.6 billion 3

Princeton $ 14.4 billion 2

Stanford $ 13.8 billion 5

Columbia $ 6.5 billion 4

Penn $ 5.6 billion 5

USC $ 2.9 billion 23

2011

FOOTBALL PICNICS

COME JOIN US

P I C N I C S C H E D U L E

HOMEGAMEpicnic

SEPTEMBER 3

USC vs. Minnesotaseason opener

Picnic: 9:30 am

Kick-Off: 12:30 pm

HOMEGAMEpicnic

SEPTEMBER 10

USC vs. Utah

Picnic: 1:30 pm

Kick-Off: 4:30 pm

HOMEGAMEpicnic

SEPTEMBER 17

USC vs. SyracusePicnic: 2:00 pm

Kick-Off: 5:00 pm

HOMEGAMEpicnic

OCTOBER 1

USC vs. ArizonaPicnic: TBA

Kick-Off: TBA

HOMEGAMEpicnic

OCTOBER 29

USC vs. Stanfordparents weekend

Picnic: 2:00 pm

Kick-Off: 5:00 pm

HOMEGAMEpicnic

NOVEMBER 12

USC vs. Washingtonhomecoming

Picnic: 9:30 am

Kick-Off: 12:30 pm

HOMEGAMEpicnic

NOVEMBER 26

USC vs. UCLAPicnic: 4:00 pm

Kick-Off: 7:00 pm

OCTOBER 22

USC @ Notre DamePicnic: 4:00 pm ET

Kick-Off: 7:30 pm ET

AWAYGAMEpicnic

NOVEMBER 4

USC @ ColoradoPicnic: 3:00 pm MT

Kick-Off: 7:00 pm MT

AWAYGAMEpicnic

*Note: Times are subject to change

To experience the USC Associateswe invite you to join us at a picnic

Order tickets by phone at (213) 740-8722.

To learn more about the USC Associates,please visit www.usc.edu/associates


Little Caesar McCarthyist Mob

and theby Steven J. Ross

ilm scholars refer to the 1930s as the “Golden

Age of Hollywood,” a time when movies were at their

lavish best. The 1930s were also the Golden Age of

Hollywood politics, the decade when Hollywood and

its stars emerged as a major force in the nation’s politi-

cal life. While Charlie Chaplin concentrated on visual politics and

Louis B. Mayer on electoral politics, Edward G. Robinson engaged

in what soon became the dominant form of Hollywood activism,

issue-oriented politics. Robinson showed how a mobilized com-

munity of movie stars could use their celebrity to draw national

attention to the most controversial issues of the day and help sway

public opinion. At a time when most Americans ignored the expan-

sionist policies of fascist leaders Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and

Francisco Franco, Robinson and dozens of left celebrities marched

in the streets, went on the radio and issued political declarations that

attracted widespread attention.

Studies of political activism in the movie industry during the

1940s and 1950s usually focus on the House Un-American Activities

Committee (HUAC) and its attack on the 10 writers, directors

and producers who refused to testify, commonly known as the

Hollywood Ten. Yet, in many ways, this familiar history is far less

significant than the story of Robinson and the rise and fall of left-

oriented politics. Everyone in the movie industry knew that most

of the Hollywood Ten – especially John Howard Lawson, Lester

Cole, Ring Lardner Jr. and Dalton Trumbo – were or had been

Communist Party members. Therefore, it was upsetting but not

F

In his new book, Hollywood Left and Right: How Movie Stars Shaped American

Politics, USC historian Steven J. Ross chronicles how Tinseltown grew into a vital center of American political

life, using outspoken movie stars as his focus. “My cast of characters features 10 activists: five on the left and five

on the right,” Ross writes in his introduction. They include Charlie Chaplin, Ronald Reagan, Harry Belafonte,

Charlton Heston, Jane Fonda, Warren Beatty and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The following excerpt is taken from

the chapter on Edward G. Robinson (whose papers are housed at the USC Cinematic Arts Library). “The goal

of this book,” Ross writes, “is not to demonize one side of the political spectrum and praise the other. Rather,

it seeks to understand how each of these 10 people saw the world, why they became political, what they hoped

to accomplish, how they affected political life and, in several cases, the steep personal costs of their activism.”

surprising when HUAC went after them. However, Hollywood activ-

ists were truly frightened when Red hunters targeted those who were

decidedly not Communists, particularly Eddie Robinson. In late 1947,

the longtime star was completing Arthur Miller’s All My Sons and get-

ting ready to shoot Key Largo with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.

Three years later, he was persona non grata in the industry he so loved.

Anti-Nazi ActivistRobinson’s desire to stop Hitler led him to join dozens of organizations,

but none proved as important as the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League

(HANL). Founded in April 1936, the HANL was the city’s best known

and most diverse Popular Front organization. Far from being a dilettante

celebrity group, the HANL marked the beginning of a new kind of issue-

oriented politics. In a Hollywood ruled by studios that controlled what

messages went on the screen, movie stars found an alternative way to

reach a broad public. They used their celebrity to raise public awareness

about the dangers Nazism posed in Europe and the United States. The

organization – whose 4,000 to 5,000 members included liberals and left-

ists such as Robinson, Melvyn Douglas and Fredric March, and conser-

vatives such as Bruce Cabot, Joan Bennett, John Ford and Dick Powell

– mounted frequent demonstrations and rallies, held talks on topics such

as “Hitlerism in America,” sponsored two weekly radio shows that publi-

cized fascist activities, published its own biweekly newspaper Hollywood

Now, called for boycotts of German products and blockaded meetings

of the Los Angeles German-American Bund. Heated protests by the

HANL also succeeded in cutting short Hollywood visits by Mussolini’s


[ POLITICS & HOLLYWOOD ]

son Vittorio in September 1937 and by Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler’s favor-

ite filmmaker, a year later.

The internationalist pronouncements of Robinson and other Hollywood

activists soon came to haunt them as HUAC began portraying anti-fas-

cists as the allies of Communists bent on destroying America. Ironically,

the impetus behind HUAC came from New York Jewish Congressman

Samuel Dickstein. In 1934, he called for a House investigation of pro-

Nazi propaganda and subversion in the United States. When Congress

approved the plan in 1938, they made Texas Representative Martin Dies

the chair and excluded the Jewish politician from HUAC. The publicity-

hungry Texan immediately launched an investigation of Hollywood,

which he called a “hotbed of communism,” but paid little attention

to fascist groups that many considered far more dangerous. In August

1938, HUAC investigator Edward

Sullivan turned the nation’s atten-

tion to the movie capital when he

accused the HANL of being a

Communist front.

Robinson entered the national

political stage on Dec. 9, 1938,

when 56 prominent stars, writ-

ers, directors and studio heads

– including James Cagney, Joan Crawford, Henry Fonda, Groucho

Marx, Rosalind Russell, Bette Davis, Paul Muni, Melvyn Douglas,

Harry Warner and Jack Warner – gathered at his home to discuss the

worsening situation in Germany and Western Europe. They consti-

tuted a Committee of 56, named after the number of signatories to the

Declaration of Independence, and signed a “Declaration of Democratic

Independence,” which they sent to Congress and the president. The

“Declaration” called for a boycott of all German products until the nation

ended its aggression toward other nations and stopped persecuting Jews

and all minorities.

When Robinson heard rumors in 1938 that Harry and Jack Warner

wanted to turn FBI agent Leon Turrou’s account of foiling a domestic

Nazi-spy ring into a film, he begged for a role. The Warners responded

by casting him as the crusading Turrou. By participating in Confessions of

a Nazi Spy, the first film to portray Nazis as a threat to America, Robinson

felt “that I am serving my country just as effectively as if I shouldered a

gun and marched away to war.”

He accepted roles in several other Warner Jewish bio-pictures and anti-

fascist films: Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet (1940), which Franklin D. Roosevelt

screened at the White House that March, A Dispatch From Reuters (1940)

and The Sea Wolf (1941). Robinson’s political activism also extended to

radio, which he saw as another way to influence public opinion. In Big

Town, a series that ran from 1937 to 1942, he played crusading newspaper

editor Steve Wilson, who each week battled one of the many problems

plaguing American life.

When war broke out in Europe on Sept. 1, 1939, Robinson began

delivering speeches denouncing Nazism and right-wing isolationist

groups such as America First. Over the next three years, he participated

in an ever-wider array of organizations: the National Bureau for the Right

of Asylum and Aid to Political Refugees, the American Committee for

Protection of the Foreign Born, the Committee to Defend America

by Aiding the Allies and, after Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union on

June 22, 1941, the Russian War

Relief Association of California and

the National Council of American-

Soviet Friendship. He also used his

radio show as a platform to call for

military preparedness.

Once the United States entered

the conflict, Robinson interrupted

his film career to serve his coun-

try. In October 1942, four months after he volunteered for military

service, the Office of War Information appointed the 49-year-old “as a

Special Representative of the Overseas Operation Branch of this Agency

at London, England.” Once in London, Robinson delivered radio

addresses in half a dozen languages to countries under Nazi domination.

He returned to Europe in 1944 and was the first movie star to travel to

Normandy to entertain the troops after D-Day. During his time back

home, Robinson sold war bonds, donated $100,000 to the USO, talked

to workers at shipyards and defense plants, and appeared in numerous

government-sponsored rallies.

Cold War Consequences

The conclusion of the war in Europe and Japan marked the beginning of

a Cold War against the Soviet Union and an equally chilling war against

Hollywood activists. For Robinson, issue-oriented politics did not die

with the end of war. Defeating Nazism and fascism steeled his deter-

mination to forge a more democratic and less prejudiced postwar world.

He joined with Myrna Loy, Danny Kaye and dozens of other stars in

drumming up public support for the United Nations and working with

Robinson’s desire to stop Hitler led him to join dozens of organizations, but none proved as important as the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League.

� Is Hollywood Really Liberal? �

Longstanding conventional wisdom

that Hollywood has always been a bastion of

the political left is wrong on two counts. First,

Hollywood has a longer history of conservatism

than liberalism. It was the Republican Party,

not the Democratic Party, that established

the first political beachhead in Hollywood.

Second, and far more surprising, although the

Hollywood left has been more numerous and

visible, the Hollywood right – led by Louis

B. Mayer, George Murphy, Ronald Reagan,

Charlton Heston and Arnold Schwarzenegger

– has had a greater impact on American politi-

cal life. The Hollywood left has been more

effective in publicizing and raising funds for

various causes. But if we ask who has done

more to change the American government,

the answer is the Hollywood right. The

Hollywood left has the political glitz, but the

Hollywood right sought, won and exercised

electoral power.

Can such a counterintuitive argument

really be true? What did the Hollywood right

achieve to merit such a claim? There have

been two foundational changes in 20th cen-

tury U.S. politics. The first was the creation of

a welfare state under Franklin D. Roosevelt, a

development that established a new relation-

ship between government and the governed,

and crystallized differences among conser-

vatives, liberals and radicals. The second

was the gradual dismantling of the welfare

state that began under a movie star, Ronald

Reagan. The conservative revolution of the

1980s could not have happened without

the groundwork laid by Mayer, his protégé

George Murphy and his protégé Reagan.

STEVEN J. ROSS


the Hollywood Democratic Committee’s successor, the Hollywood

Independent Citizens Committee of the Arts, Sciences and Professions,

to lobby for a Congressional bill that would have provided national health

care for all Americans.

In September 1947, HUAC subpoenaed 43 prominent Hollywood

figures and demanded that they testify before the committee. The 10

writers and directors who refused to answer questions regarding pos-

sible Communist affiliations were voted in contempt by Congress in

November, tried in federal court the following year and sentenced to 12

months in jail. Hollywood liberals and leftists responded to HUAC’s sub-

poenas by organizing the Committee for the First Amendment (CFA).

The group – which included Robinson, Marsha Hunt, Humphrey Bogart,

Lauren Bacall, Katharine Hepburn, Danny Kaye, Judy Garland, Frank

Sinatra and Gene Kelly – denounced HUAC’s actions arguing that “any

investigation into the political beliefs of the individual is contrary to the

basic principles of our democracy.” It was the Constitution, the group

declared, and not the Hollywood Ten that they were defending.

Robinson appeared on the initial list of actors to be investigated by

HUAC. Little did he realize the FBI had closely monitored his activities

for several years. FBI reports listed all the dinners Robinson hosted for

political causes between 1941 and 1945, the dates of every speech and

rally in which he was involved, and even suggested that he and [his wife]

Gladys were “involved in Russian espionage activities.” In May 1945, the

FBI sent the White House a confidential memo naming Robinson as one

of 50 movie stars accused of being a Communist or having Communist

leanings. By the summer of 1947, secret informants told the FBI that

Robinson was a member of the Communist Party and that Red lead-

ers found his political views “to be very

sound and mature.” Their accusations

led FBI agents to place his home under

surveillance and record the license plate

numbers of everyone who visited him.

American Federation of Labor leader

Matthew Woll was the first to openly

accuse Robinson of having Communist

ties. In a September 1946 magazine arti-

cle, he insisted, “Hollywood today is the third largest Communist center

in the United States” and listed Robinson as one of the most prominent

fellow travelers, a charge that was reprinted in the rabidly anti-Communist

Hollywood Reporter. An outraged Robinson sent letters to both periodicals

labeling the charges as “false and unfounded” and charged Woll with

using “Hitlerian tactics” to frighten him “by innuendo, weasel words and

false accusations.” The labor leader, he wrote, was “trying to bludgeon

and coerce me and millions of other American citizens like me away from

all enlightened, progressive, and liberal interests and activities.”

Woll’s accusations and the subsequent publicity generated by the

HUAC hearings damaged Robinson’s reputation and box-office pros-

pects, but Robinson refused to curb his political activities. Instead,

he grew more assertive in supporting controversial groups such as the

Progressive Citizens of America and the Conference of Studio Unions.

Accusations of Red affiliations increased when he campaigned in 1948

for Communist-backed Progressive Party presidential candidate Henry

Wallace, whose platform called for ending the Cold War, ending segrega-

tion and instituting universal health care for all Americans.

Robinson’s frequent clashes with Red-baiters and anti-Semites did not

initially derail his career. The actor appeared in two major features, Scarlet

Street (1945) and The Stranger (1946); in 1947 he starred in The Red House

and began shooting All My Sons, Key Largo and Night Has a Thousand Eyes.

Robinson’s fortunes were about to change. As angry fan letters poured

into studio offices, industry leaders moved to placate audiences by

pressuring stars to refrain from taking controversial political positions.

By participating in Confessions of a Nazi Spy,the first film to portray Nazis as a threat to America, Robinson felt “that I am serving my country just as effectively as if I shouldered a gun and marched away to war.”

NAZI SPIES IN AMERICA: When Robinson learned that the Warners wanted to

turn FBI agent Leon Turrou’s account of foiling a domestic Nazi-spy ring into a film,

he begged for a role.

Robinson never considered himself a radical so he never felt the need

to stop speaking out. But repeated accusations associating the star with

Communist groups made him a box-office risk. Offers for good parts, for

any parts, began to dry up. The proverbial straw that broke the back of

his career came in June 1950, when the three former FBI agents who

authored Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and

Television charged him, along with 150 other people, with belonging to

a number of Communist fronts. Although no Red affiliation was ever

proven, Robinson’s reign as a major star was over.

Outraged by the smear campaign directed against him, Robinson spent

the next three years of his life and over $100,000 of his own money trying

to clear his name and resume his career. When a three-hour visit to the

editors of Red Channels failed to change their minds, the feisty actor wrote

to HUAC requesting an opportunity to testify about his participation in

alleged Communist groups. His request was granted.

On Oct. 27, 1950, the actor appeared before HUAC’s investigative staff

in Washington D.C., with a statement that listed all the organizations in

which he participated, explained the rationale behind his political activi-

ties and accounted for every donation he made from Dec. 16, 1938 to

Dec. 15, 1949. During several hours of questioning by senior investigator

Louis J. Russell, Robinson insisted that he had “at all times subscribed

to and believed in the principles of democracy.” As for his participation

in U.S.-Russian groups, Robinson reminded Russell that at the time

Russia was the United States’ ally and the gatherings at which he spoke

included the likes of secretary of state Cordell Hull, assistant secretary


of state Dean Acheson, secretary of treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. and

numerous U.S. senators. When Russell asked “whether or not you have

ever been a member of the Communist Party of the United States or of

any other country,” the actor immediately shot back, “I am not now, nor

have I ever been, a fellow traveler or a member of the Communist Party.”

Robinson concluded by pledging to “assist and defend the United States

of America in any way within my power against any enemy, including

Russia, her supporters and satellites.”

Hoping to leave no doubts about his loyalties, Robinson wrote J. Edgar

Hoover several days

later asking to present

his case to the FBI.

Robinson told the

FBI head he “would

be more than pleased

to confront any such accuser at any time and place you may designate.”

Hoover, who considered himself “a Robinson fan,” wrote back thanking

him for bringing “your observations to my attention,” but explained that

he could do nothing to help. A similar request by Robinson to appear

before the executive board of the Motion Picture Alliance “to clear his

name of the Communist stigma” was also denied.

When new allegations surfaced several weeks later, the embattled star

returned to Washington to testify before a HUAC subcommittee. On

Dec. 21, 1950, Robinson once again swore that he had “never been a

Communist sympathizer” nor was he “active in anything that smacked

of communism.” Asked if it was true he had once said that he did not

care whether the Soviet Union took over the United States so long as he

was allowed to keep his art collection, the flabbergasted actor replied,

“That is a vicious lie.” In a highly emotional closing statement, Robinson

explained how “my good name and my Americanism” had been “hurt

by a lot of these vicious charges, and the repetition of them in a lot of

irresponsible publications.”

Choking with emotion, Robinson ended with a Patrick Henry-like

appeal: “Either snap my neck or set me free. If you snap my neck I will still

say I believe in America.” When the committee hesitated to do either, lead

investigator Russell

came to Robinson’s

defense, explaining

that he had conducted

a thorough investiga-

tion of Communists

in Hollywood in 1945 and the actor’s name did not appear on any docu-

ment linking him to the party.

News of Little Caesar’s testimony and his denial of any Communist

affiliation were widely reported in the national press. “Now that Eddie

Robinson has been completely cleared of those Communist charges by

Uncle Sam, himself,” gossip columnist Louella Parsons wrote on Dec.

26, “it’s time that all the whispering stopped.” Rumors of his Red affilia-

tion were so widespread, she added, that they were “beginning to affect

his career.” On Jan. 10, 1951, HUAC released a report clearing Robinson

“of ever having engaged in pro-Communist activities or any other activi-

ties against the interests of the United States.” Anxious to get back to

CONGA LINE: Robinson leads a conga line of Hollywood Democratic Committee stars – which included Lauren Bacall, Danny Kaye and Lucille Ball – who campaigned for Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman in 1944.

“Either snap my neck or set me free. If you snap my neck I will still say I believe in America.”

Reprinted from Hollywood Left and Right: How Movie Stars Shaped American Politics by Steven J. Ross with permission from Oxford University Press, Inc.

Copyright © 2011 by Steven J. Ross. Recipient of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Film Scholar Award, Ross is a professor and chair of history at the

USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, co-chair of the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities and the author of four books on Hollywood politics.


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work, the actor sent copies of his testimony to Samuel Goldwyn, Louis

B. Mayer, Harry and Jack Warner, Darryl Zanuck, Joseph Schenck and

Howard Hughes.

Chances for a quick resumption of Robinson’s career were crushed

when HUAC member Rep. Donald Jackson, R-Calif., who hoped to

tarnish all of Hollywood’s Democratic activists, denied that the commit-

tee had cleared his constituent. After receiving complaints by American

Legion investigators who were “disturbed over the apparent ‘white-

wash’ given” to Robinson, Jackson told the press that the actor had been

allowed to make self-serving statements without the committee calling

witnesses “who claimed to have evidence of his alleged Red affiliations.”

Ready for further battle, Robinson wrote back to HUAC chairman John

Wood asking for a quick hearing “because every day that it is postponed

only adds further damage to my name and reputation.”

Not only was Robinson denied a speedy hearing, but the national furor

over his case sparked a new round of HUAC investigations. The com-

mittee subpoenaed John Garfield, Anne Revere, José Ferrer and come-

dian Abe Burrows in March 1951. But Robinson would not be called for

another 13 months. In the meantime, his career ground to a halt. No

studio was willing to take the chance of offering the politically tainted

actor a starring role. A distraught Robinson appealed to Screen Actors

Guild (SAG) president Ronald Reagan for assistance, but the SAG officer

and FBI informant, whom Robinson had alienated during Hollywood’s

contentious postwar labor battles, refused to help him.

In April 1952, the desperate and despondent star traveled to Washington,

D.C., to testify before HUAC for a third time. In a hoarse voice, Robinson

told committee members what they wanted to hear: “I was duped and

used.” Insisting that he had “always been a liberal Democrat” who fought

to “help underprivileged or oppressed people,” a repentant Robinson con-

fessed he had slowly come “to realize that persons I thought were sincere

were Communists” and that “some organizations which I permitted to use

my name were, in fact, Communist fronts.” He had been consistently lied

to. “Not one of the Communists who sought my help or requested per-

mission to use my name ever told me that he or she was a member of the

Communist Party.” He had been a fool. “I am glad for the sake of myself

and the nation that they have been exposed by your committee.” During

the course of several grueling hours of questioning, Robinson named no

names but he did repudiate the progressive organizations to which he had

belonged in the 1930s and 1940s.

His testimony made newspaper headlines throughout the country.

“Robinson Says He Was Duped by Reds,” blared one daily, “EGR Called

‘Sucker’ for Red Fronts” screamed another headline. Desperate to salvage

his career, the actor continued his ritual of rehabilitation through humilia-

tion by publishing an article in the October 1952 issue of American Legion

Magazine titled “How the Reds Made a Sucker Out of Me.” Robinson

told readers that while he had “never paid much attention to communism

in the past,” he now knew how they went about duping loyal Americans.

“They do not reveal themselves as communists,” but pose “as fine

American citizens who are for ‘peace,’ or ‘decent working conditions,’ or

‘against intolerance.’ ” These were lies; their real aim was “world domina-

tion, oppression, and slavery for the working people and the minorities

they profess to love.” The contrite actor ended by swearing, “I am not a

communist, I have never been, I never will be – I am an American.”

Neither his article nor his HUAC testimony succeeded in clearing his

name or restoring his career. During the next several years, the only offers

he received were minor roles, at greatly reduced pay, in minor films such

as Actors and Sin (1952), Vice Squad (1953), Big Leaguer (1953), The Glass

Web (1953), Black Tuesday (1954) and The Violent Men (1955).

Robinson was forced into one last humiliating round of testifying

before HUAC when it was revealed in January 1954 that he had loaned

$300 to Louis J. Russell, the committee’s chief investigator.

Ironically, Robinson was restored to semi-respectability in 1956 when

Cecil B. DeMille, one of Hollywood’s most prominent anti-Communists,

offered him a plum role in The Ten Commandments as the Hebrew informer

Dathan. After making The Ten Commandments, Robinson waited almost

three years before being offered another significant part, this time in

Frank Capra’s A Hole in the Head (1959). Robinson continued making

movies until his death in 1973 and even experienced a mild resurgence

in the 1960s, appearing in 19 movies between 1960 and 1973. Ironically,

his best role of the era was as Lancey Howard, the seemingly washed

up gambler, in The Cincinnati Kid (1965), a film co-written by blacklisted

writer Ring Lardner Jr.

Robinson’s story is more than just the sad tale of a decent man caught in

the web of events beyond his control. In many ways, his persecution and

political retreat had a far more devastating effect on the film community

than that of the Hollywood Ten. Politically aware actors knew that most of

the Ten were Communist Party members. But Robinson was no radical,

let alone a Red.

Robinson’s downfall sent an even greater chill throughout the industry

than the incarceration of the Hollywood Ten. Actors, directors, writers and

producers did not condone HUAC’s actions, but they understood why

the committee pursued such well-known radicals. Robinson was quite

another case. If the government could drive a left-liberal like Eddie out

of the business, a man whom even anti-Communists like Ronald Reagan

called “one of the warmest-hearted, truly kind people in the world,”

then they could go after anyone. And if a star of Robinson’s magnitude

could not survive such attacks, was anyone safe? A whole generation of

Hollywood activists took note of his fate. ●

AMONG FRIENDS: Democratic Party activists Robinson and Humphrey Bogart meet and shake hands with Eleanor Roosevelt.


[ THE FUTURE IS NOW ]

ICT’s Light Stage 5 captures the shape, shine, color and texture of an actor’s face, creating a realistic digital character.


Brave New World


At USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies,

virtual reality is the new reality.

By Orli Belman

FOR APRIL FOOLS’ THIS YEAR, Google introduced Gmail Motion, an e-mail feature that claimed to replace simple key strokes and

mouse clicks with exaggerated body movements like pantomiming opening an envelope to read a message or licking a stamp to

send one. ¶ People got a laugh watching Google’s spoof video. But Evan Suma, a virtual-reality researcher at the USC Institute

for Creative Technologies (ICT), got an idea. ¶ Using skeleton tracking data from Microsoft Kinect, a system that allows users to

interact through voice and body gestures without the need for a controller, Suma proved the prank was possible. His demonstra-

tion video, posted that same day, went viral, earning applause from tech blogs, The New York Times and Google itself. ¶ Suma’s

video was lighthearted. But it is a prime example of the serious work taking place at ICT, a U.S. Army-sponsored research and

development lab in Playa Vista, Calif., where academics, artists, scientists and storytellers take computer-based toys and dream

up futuristic tools that train soldiers, treat patients, teach students and more.

Suma’s gesture-translating toolkit has led to the development of more effective physical rehabilitation systems. His USC col-

leagues have already transformed off-the-shelf headsets and joysticks into successful virtual-reality therapy for treating post-

traumatic stress disorder. ICT-created games teach U.S. armed forces skills ranging from negotiating with people of other cul-

tures to detecting improvised explosive devices. Additional applications build social skills for children with autism and educate

parents about juvenile cancers. ¶ The institute specializes in developing virtual humans, computer-animated characters that

appear, speak, understand, express emotions and display body language in ever-more realistic ways. So similar are the virtual

models to humans that ICT’s graphics guru Paul Debevec received an Academy Award in 2010 for his advances in creating

believable digital doubles in movies like Avatar and Spider-Man 2. ¶ In research settings, these human facsimiles advance social

scientists’ understanding of how people think, feel and behave. Outside the lab, they live in laptops and large installations across

the country, employed as digital docents explaining science to museum visitors, online coaches providing guidance to soldiers

and families seeking mental health resources, and virtual role players replacing live actors for training mental health workers

or teaching troops to better conduct field interviews. ¶ “It is not enough to use technologies to create a cool experience,” says

Randall W. Hill Jr., ICT’s executive director who oversees an interdisciplinary team of nearly 200 experts, including computer

scientists, digital artists, script writers, game designers, physical therapists and psychologists. “We are creating a whole new way

for people to engage with computers so that they can practice, learn and perform better.” ¶ And that is a gesture anyone can

appreciate. ¶ Here and on the following pages are examples of the futuristic research taking place at ICT.

Think play, with a purpose.


NOT JUST GAMES

ICT video games transform textbook teachings and real-world wisdom into

interactive learning experiences. Research teams have collaborated with

experts from the USC Rossier School of Education and the USC School of

Cinematic Arts to develop applications that combine advanced artificial intelli-

gence, evidence-based educational designs and engaging story-based lessons.

In the negotiation trainer ELECT BiLAT (top), the student assumes the

role of a U.S. Army officer who needs to conduct a series of meetings with local

leaders to achieve mission objectives. To be successful, players must establish

relationships with these virtual characters and be sensitive to their cultural

conventions. Declining an offer to drink tea or skipping small talk to discuss

business can set the negotiations back or end them completely. The game

incorporates ICT research on advanced virtual humans who display believ-

able behaviors and computational models of social interaction that emulate

individual and group responses. And it features intelligent tutoring to provide

students with real-time guidance and in-depth feedback.

Serious games like these are used by thousands of American servicemen.

West Point cadet Eric Zastoupil recently tested the game with ICT scientist

H. Chad Lane (bottom).

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DIGITAL DOUBLES

Paul Debevec, ICT’s associate director for graphics research and a research

professor of computer science at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, was

inspired to become a visual-effects innovator after watching a DeLorean fly in

the movie Back to the Future.

Debevec is seen above in Light Stage 6, one of a series of LED light-filled

spheres he developed to capture and simulate how people and objects appear

under real-world lighting conditions. Debevec’s technologies enable virtual

worlds and characters to look convincing. They have been employed to create

detailed digital faces that mirror their human counterparts down to individual

skin pores and wrinkles.

Work on these systems earned Debevec and his collaborators a 2010

Scientific and Engineering Academy Award. ICT’s Graphics Lab also devel-

oped a 3-D video teleconferencing system that beams hologram-like images

capable of maintaining eye contact and conversations with people in other

locations. Back to the future, indeed.

SEE VIDEOS ON ICT’S INNOVATIVE

RESEARCH AT youtube.com/USCICT


VIRTUAL REALITY IS ABOUT IMMERSION

ICT’s Mixed Reality Lab (MxR) studies and creates immersive systems that

incorporate both real and virtual elements. Led by Mark Bolas, who also is an

associate professor in the Interactive Media Division of the USC School of

Cinematic Arts, MxR creates simulated environments in which participants

can speak, move and gesture as readily as they would in the real world.

Above, Bolas demonstrates “stretching space,” an effort led by researcher

Evan Suma (opposite page, bottom right) that uses imperceptible redirec-

tion techniques to transform a limited physical space into a boundless virtual


world. For example, a gravel path inside the lab provides the base for a winding

journey down roadways and through buildings. These virtual research projects

have real implications for training, education and entertainment.

A head-mounted projector generates individualized perspectives (this page,

top and center), providing each wearer a different image on the same screen.

The system allows a user to perceive whether a virtual character is establishing

eye contact, gesturing or pointing a weapon at them.


Meet Ada and Grace, two bright and bubbly educators who arrived at Boston’s

Museum of Science in 2009. Science and technology are literally part of their

being. That’s because they aren’t real people – but virtual ones. Designed to

advance the public’s awareness of, and engagement in, computer science and

emerging learning technologies, the virtual guides make a museum visit richer by

answering visitor questions, suggesting exhibitions and explaining the technol-

ogy that makes them work.

Named after two inspirational female computer science pioneers, Ada

Lovelace and Grace Hopper, these digital docents are trailblazers in their own

right. As part of an exhibition called InterFaces, they are among the first and most

advanced virtual humans ever created to speak face-to-face with museum visi-

tors. As both examples and explainers of technical scientific concepts, Ada and

Grace represent a new and potentially transformative medium for engaging the

public in science.

VIRTUAL HUMANITY

SEE MORE PHOTOS FROM ICT AT

tfm.usc.edu/bravenewworld››

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BRINGING AGENTS TO LIFE

If you have questions or comments on this article, go to tfm.usc.edu/mailbag

Built on the same platform as Ada and Grace, ICT’s Sgt. Star (top, right) is a

life-sized virtual human who can talk about Army life and careers. Other ICT

virtual characters help develop skills in leadership, negotiation and cultural

awareness.

In another project called Gunslinger (middle, right), virtual human technolo-

gies combine with Hollywood storytelling and set building to transport users

to the Wild West. Players speak with virtual characters, who also speak to one

another. By combining improvised conversation with carefully crafted narra-

tive, Gunslinger pushes the frontiers of virtual human research and interactive

storytelling.

Petty Officer Samuel Sarax (bottom, right) is a combat veteran with emo-

tional scars that won’t heal. A collaboration between the USC School of Social

Work and ICT, this virtual patient is helping prepare future clinicians to

address mental health needs of soldiers, veterans and their families. Student

therapists can practice their skills in conducting interviews and making diag-

noses before meeting real patients. Other ICT medical virtual-reality projects

provide therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder and rehabilitation for stroke

and traumatic brain injury. ●

“Awful.”

That is how veterinarian Nicole Knapp, 30, described her experience with ulcer-

ative colitis. “I lost 25 pounds in 10 months. Many foods just ran through me so fast

I couldn’t keep weight on,” Knapp recalls. “I tried to keep up with my busy veteri-

nary practice – running to the bathroom between appointments. My work partners

were very understanding, but it got to the point where I was so debilitated I ended

up in the hospital.”


Ulcerative colitis is an infl ammatory bowel disease of the

large intestine, or colon, with onset usually occurring during a

person’s teen years or twenties. Knapp was 28 in 2009 when her

symptoms, which included painful stomach cramps, increased in

severity. A colonoscopy showed her colon was lined with ulcers.

Though there is no known cause for ulcerative colitis, there

is a presumed genetic component to susceptibility. The dis-

ease also may be triggered in a susceptible person by envi-

ronmental factors. Knapp’s experience matches both theories.

She has a family member who suffers from Crohn’s disease – a

similar condition – and her symptoms fi rst began years ear-

lier as mild stomach upset while she was keeping up with the

grueling pace of academic study in veterinary school. Knapp

chalked the stomach upset and bowel irregularity up to stress.

She felt she was too young for her symptoms to be a cause for

worry, and she assumed all would vanish with her completion

of school. Instead, her problems worsened.

Jacques Van Dam, professor of medicine

at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and

director of clinical gastroenterology at USC

University Hospital, says that young people

with this ailment often have very advanced

disease by the time they arrive at his gastro-

enterology offi ce.

“Young people aren’t used to being ill, so they often seek

care only when symptoms become severe,” Van Dam says.

“Add in the ‘embarrassment factor’ because young people are

still a bit shy about personal issues that may involve exams of

the rectum and colon. That results in a more severe problem

by the time I see them. Their symptoms are no longer mild,

but often painful and weakening, so they are more agreeable to

the diagnostic process. Of course, we make them comfortable

Minimally invasive colorectal surgery

lets veterinarian Nicole Knapp return

to her practice – and a normal life.

BY MARY ELLEN ZENKA

When the Healer Needs Healing

[ DOCTORS OF USC ]


and they learn the tests aren’t too diffi cult.”

Diarrhea and stomach cramping can

come from a foodborne bacteria, poor diet

or stress, among other factors. According to

Van Dam, experiencing these symptoms for

three to fi ve days is generally no cause for

concern. However, if symptoms continue for

many days, a person should consult his or her

physician.

By the time Knapp ended up hospitalized

with dehydration and fever in September

2010, all attempts at controlling her ever-

increasing nausea, diarrhea, cramping and

muscle weakness were failing. She had tried

various drug therapies and dietary restric-

tions for several months without much

effect. She could no longer work and had to

take disability leave from her practice.

“My husband and I couldn’t go out much,

and if I did, I had to know where the clos-

est bathroom would be before I even left

my house,” Knapp says. “I was always tired

from nightly sleep loss due to bathroom

visits. Eating made me anxious because I

didn’t always know how my system would

react. I was miserable, and my husband felt

helpless.”

AT EASE After years of increasing discomfort and pain, Nicole Knapp turned to USC for expert minimally invasive surgery. PHOTOGRAPHS BY PHILIP CHANNING

some cases, a superior overall outcome.

While laparoscopic techniques vary widely,

surgeons generally make a small incision and

insert an endoscope – a long, thin tube with

a lighted, high-defi nition camera at its tip.

The camera sends an image to a high-defi -

nition monitor, which the surgical team uses

to view the area on which they will operate.

Surgeons can then guide specially designed

surgical instruments through the original cut

or through other small incisions.

For Knapp, Senagore and his team per-

formed an ileostomy due to her chronic

infl ammation. This procedure temporarily

re-routed the contents of Knapp’s intestines

to an external opening made in her abdomi-

nal area. The bowel contents exit into a col-

lection bag worn under clothing. During this

initial surgery, her colon also was removed.

“For the fi rst time in years, I didn’t have

cramping,” Knapp recalls. “It was a wel-

comed break, even though I knew I had a

long way to go with future surgeries.”

While optimistic, Knapp knew her heal-

ing would take much longer. She and her

husband chose to leave their apartment and

move in with her mother, a registered nurse,

who would provide the home health care

necessary for Knapp’s recovery.

After several weeks of healing, Knapp

returned to USC University Hospital for the

second of her three-part surgical process.

This time, Senagore used his laparoscopic

skills to remove Knapp’s diseased rectum

and construct a “J Pouch.” Using the end

portion of the small intestine called the

ileum, the pouch is pulled down and sutured

to what remains of the rectum area, forming

a shape similar to the letter “J.”

“This pouch takes the place of the colon

by becoming a reservoir for stool between

bowel movements,” Senagore explains. “A

patient with such advanced disease as this

may not return to the normal bathroom hab-

its she once had. But she will have more con-

trol than she did previously. This will improve

her life and allow her to return to work.”

Minimally invasive techniques often

result in less residual trauma for surgical

patients. The discomfort, pain and potential

for disability or morbidity associated with

conventional surgery is due to the trauma

Exploring surgical options

Knapp’s symptoms had become so debili-

tating that she knew the time had come for

surgical intervention. Her physicians told

her three consecutive surgeries would be

necessary before she could return to work

with a bowel-elimination routine that would

be easier to manage.

Hospitalized at a prominent Los Angeles-

area hospital, she was informed that surgeons

wanted to open her abdominal area using

standard, hands-in surgery, which would

involve large incisions, increased pain, lon-

ger recovery periods between operations

and an increased chance of internal scarring

that might affect her future fertility. None of

this was acceptable to Knapp. She did some

research and found the chief of the division

of colorectal surgery at the Keck School,

Anthony Senagore, who had a reputation for

pioneering minimally invasive, laparoscopic

surgeries for colorectal care.

“When I fi rst met Dr. Knapp, she was a

very sick young woman,” Senagore remem-

bers. “She had been diagnosed with ulcer-

ative colitis for a couple of years and had

taken a variety of expensive and complicated

medicines to try and control it. Those drugs

are not for long-term use and can become

toxic to the body. Plus, her immune sys-

tem was knocked down to the point where

she was having diffi culty fi ghting off other

ailments. She was generally malnourished

because eating was problematic. I knew the

time for her to have the surgeries had come,

and I knew she would benefi t from the min-

imally invasive, laparoscopic surgery tech-

niques that I had developed,” he adds.

Minimally invasive surgery allows sur-

geons to operate through small incisions,

compared to the larger incisions during tra-

ditional surgery. For patients, this technique

often translates into less postoperative pain,

a shorter hospital stay, faster recovery and, in

PIONEERING SURGEON Anthony Senagore recognized that Knapp would benefi t from minimally invasive surgical techniques he developed.

A variety of infl ammatory bowel diseases and

gastrointestinal cancers share the same initial

symptoms as ulcerative colitis – abdominal

cramping, bloody diarrhea, frequent heartburn

and sometimes anemia due to blood loss. Expert

diagnosis is the fi rst step in fi nding relief and

proper treatment.

If a patient is diagnosed with a cancer, he or

she will likely require a multilayered treatment of

drug therapy, such as chemotherapy, and surgery

to remove tumors.

“Timing in cancer treatment is important,”

says Syma Iqbal MD ‘95, assistant professor of

medical oncology at the Keck School of Medicine

of USC. “If a patient needs surgery, often the

recovery period goes on for weeks. This can

delay the onset of life-saving chemotherapy or

halt the progress of an existing chemo treatment

until the patient is strong enough to resume it

after surgery.”

As a gastrointestinal oncologist, Iqbal fre-

quently treats patients who need to have surgery

for cancerous tumors. With recent advancements

in minimally invasive surgery, Iqbal collabo-

rates with surgeons in the division of colorectal

surgery and sees better patient outcomes as a

result. “Since postoperative recovery times have

decreased, morbidity has lessened,” she says.

“We see less physical stress on a patient, as well

as emotional stress, which leads to the chance for

a better result.”

According to Iqbal, laparoscopic techniques

are proving important for surgical options with

metastatic disease, as well. Portions of organs,

such as the liver, stomach, esophagus or colon,

can be removed without the trauma to the body

that a full open incision would cause.

“Cancer is complicated,” Iqbal says. “Some-

times tumor removal is the correct choice, and if it

can be done with a minimally invasive technique,

it is always better for the patient.”

M A R Y E L L E N Z E N K A

Minimally invasive surgery provides advantages for cancer patients

in obtaining access to the area

through large, often muscle-cutting

incisions to perform the surgery,

rather than the surgery itself. With

conventional colorectal surgery, a

patient is hospitalized for fi ve to

seven days and requires at least six

weeks of recovery time.

“Each time, I was only in the

hospital for about two days,” Knapp

says. “I was able to walk out with

only very small incisions and bear-

able pain. My third, and fi nal, sur-

gery was to have the ileostomy

reversed. Getting rid of this external

collection bag was a relief. All went

well with that surgery, too, thanks

to Dr. Senagore and his team.”

Looking ahead

Knapp is eager to put this all behind

her and return to date nights with

her husband. With her increasing

stamina, she has already returned

to the kitchen and her baking. It’s

the little things she says she missed

most, like making holiday cookies with her

mom.

“Though Dr. Knapp’s case was compli-

cated, it also was typical for advanced ulcer-

ative colitis,” Senagore explains. “So many

people affl icted with this problem are young

and anxious to resume their normal activi-

ties. Minimally invasive surgery techniques

expedite that process.”

Knapp also is eager to resume the profes-

sional challenges at her veterinary practice

and spend more time with animals. Though

comforted by the four dogs vying for her

affection at home, she knows it isn’t the

same as spending each day helping to heal

suffering animals. Her spiraling disease

experience taught her how debilitating an

illness can be and has increased her compas-

sion for others – a very important attribute

for someone in her line of work.

“My disease turned life’s simplest plea-

sures into hassles,” Knapp says. “I am so

thankful and relieved to have found Dr.

Senagore and his skilled team at USC Uni-

versity Hospital. It has been a very tough

year – feeling so sick and weak for so long.

Finally, I feel like I can put this all behind

me and move on with both my professional

and personal life.” ●

To schedule an appointment or for additional

information, please call (323) 865-3690, or visit

uschospitals.com/colorectalsurgery


MOVING FORWARD Now recovered from surgery to ease her ulcerative colitis, Knapp looks forward to return-ing to her veterinary practice.

AFRICA / MIDDLE EASTBotswana*March 1–11

Treasures of East AfricaOctober 8–22

Legends of the NileNovember 6–17

ASIA / SOUTH PACIFICSplendors Down UnderFebruary 19–March 8

Journey through Vietnam*March 14–24

Mystical India*March 18–April 4

Tahitian JewelsApril 21–May 3

China and TibetMay 19–June 3

Waterways of RussiaAugust 28–September 7

CENTRAL / SOUTH AMERICACruise the Lesser AntillesJanuary 27–February 3

Samba Rhythms (Brazil)February 25–March 9

Alumni Campus Abroad – PeruMarch 19–29

*USC exclusive departure

Destinations and dates are subject to change

EUROPETreasures of Antiquity(Greece, Italy, Malta)March 18–April 1

Cruise the Canary Islands and the Iberian PeninsulaMarch 28–April 8

Waterways of Holland and Belgium (The Floriade)April 14–22

Celtic LandsApril 22–May 1

Alumni Campus Abroad Apulia (Italy)May 1–9

Continental Passage: Cruise Barcelona to SouthamptonMay 8–21

Sketches of SpainMay 17–27

Italian Lake DistrictMay 19–27

Jewels of Antiquity (French Riviera, Italy, Greece, Balkans) May 25–June 9

Alumni Campus Abroad – Rhône RiverMay 26–June 3

England’s CotswoldsJune 2–10

Changing Tides of History: Cruising the Baltic SeaJune 5–17

Alumni Campus Abroad – AustriaJune 11–21

Danube River and the Habsburg EmpireJune 14–27

Along the Adriatic SeaJuly 1–9

Insider’s BerlinJuly 14–21

Wine and Cheese of Northern Italy*August 4–12

Cruising the Black SeaSeptember 9–17

Ancient Greece and TurkeyOctober 11–19

NORTH AMERICAAlaskaJuly 6–13

The Best of the Canadian RockiesJuly 22–28

WORLD / UNIQUEExpedition to AntarcticaFebruary 15–28

Cultures and Cuisines by Private Jet (Europe and Asia)September 18–October 10

Heaven and Earth by Private Jet (Australia, Europe, Asia & the Americas)October 31–November 20

TRAVEL THE WORLD TROJAN-STYLEMAKE YOUR RESERVATIONS TODAY!

eSCapes: Specialty Travel for Trojans

The Kentucky DerbyMay 3–6

International Lifestyles Explorations: Aix–En–ProvenceMay 26–June 24

Discovery Retreats: ColoradoJune 17–21

Discover SwitzerlandAugust 8–23

YOUNG ALUMNI TRAVEL PROGRAM

Alpine Winter AdventureFebruary 18–26

Call (213) 821-6005 or visithttp://alumni.usc.edu/travel

campaign. This is a high priority for me, and

we’ll develop a day of service – what I call a

“philanthropy in action” worldwide program –

to leverage the deep culture of volunteerism

within the Trojan Family.

What leadership advice would you

give to your son Anthony? I would tell

him to lead with vision, passion, inspiration,

energy, direction and commitment – and by

example. Do not expect others to do a job

that you are not willing to do yourself. Work

side by side with your colleagues and make

it a team effort. You will gain so much more

as a leader who is truly involved and not just

watching from the sidelines.

How do you inspire others to give back

to USC? Inspiring others is easy if you are

inspired! There are so many ways to give

back to USC – volunteering, mentoring,

attending events, financial support – so be

creative, stimulate through new ideas, and

build on the momentum at USC.

Anthony, what inspired you to become

president of Society 53, and what

advice would you give students want-

ing to get involved? I was inspired by my

parents and by Hillary Buckner ’11, a good

friend and past president of Society 53. It

was an honor to serve as her vice president

and work with the program’s dedicated

members. I would encourage every student

to join a campus organization, to give back

to the university and to broaden their col-

lege experience. Whatever I’m involved with,

whether it’s my school or clubs, I make sure I

give back in some positive way; it’s extremely

rewarding and a great way to meet people.

Why are you so passionate about USC

and giving back? The best part about USC

is that it offers everything: excellent academ-

ics, exceptional professors, amazing sports

programs, lifelong friendships, an entertain-

ing social life and unforgettable memories

– all in an incredible urban environment. I

remember going home for Thanksgiving my

freshman year of college and telling my high

school friends how excited I was to get back

to school. That is the effect USC has on peo-

ple. It makes you never want to leave cam-

pus because it offers you one of the greatest

experiences of your life. And the best thing is

that it doesn’t end when you graduate – USC

and the Trojan Family will be there for you

the rest of your life. �

Lisa, what does it mean to you to have

so many of your family members go to

USC? I am extremely proud to come from

a USC family and am honored to have my

three children attend and graduate from USC.

I have relived my USC experience through

them, and I believe this generational legacy is

one of the university’s greatest strengths.

What are your priorities as president?

The Board of Governors provides critical advice

and support to the USC Alumni Association

in the development of USC’s alumni relations

program. As president, I will work closely

with my fellow board members and staff to

increase the USC Alumni Association’s visibility

across campus and in Trojan communities

worldwide.

This year, we also will be working with

University Advancement and alumni lead-

ers to build a culture of philanthropy among

the Trojan Family in support of USC’s capital

family ties


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Lisa Barkett ’81 takes the reins as president of the USC Alumni Association Board of Governors,

following 20 years of service to her local women’s group Trojan League Associates of San Diego

County. Her new post coincides with her son Anthony Barkett taking over as 2011-12 president

of Society 53, the USC Alumni Association’s student outreach program. They spoke with the USC

Alumni Association’s Cheryl Collier.

A Conversation with Lisa & Anthony Barkett

FOR PROFILES OF OTHER

TROJAN LUMINARIES, VISIT

alumni.usc.edu/archives/profiles››


Mark Sanchez ’09 received the inaugural

Young Alumni Merit Award, which recog-

nizes the achievements of alumni under 35.

Other alumni merit awards went to Larry S.

Flax ’67, LLM ’71, co-founder and co-CEO

of California Pizza Kitchen, and Bryan

Lourd ’82, partner and managing director

of Creative Artists Agency, a leading enter-

tainment and sports agency. Lourd spoke of

his enduring bond with his undergraduate

mentor Joan Schaefer, the former USC dean

of women, who had encouraged Lourd to

expand his horizons by studying art, music

and literature.

Four of USC’s most devoted volunteers

also were recognized for their decades of

service to the university and the Trojan

Family. George L. Pla MPA ’74, one of

the founding members of the USC Latino

Elegance Meets Excellence

Ten Trojans Honored at the 78th Annual USC Alumni Awards

MARKING THE END OF an unprecedented

school year for the university and the USC

Alumni Association (USCAA), the 78th

annual USC Alumni Awards drew a record

crowd of nearly 800 Trojans and friends to

the Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites

in downtown Los Angeles on April 30.

USCAA’s premier event paid tribute to 10

distinguished members of the Trojan Fam-

ily, including USC president C. L. Max

Nikias and fi rst lady Niki C. Nikias, who

were awarded honorary alumni status.

In his welcoming remarks, USC Alumni

Association CEO Scott M. Mory spoke

of the “palpable buzz of excitement and

anticipation” at USC and among alumni

about the university’s future under the

visionary leadership of President Nikias.

USCAA Board of Governors president

Carol C. Fox MS ’62 (who completed her

term in May) then welcomed and thanked

friends and supporters of the USCAA.

Their remarks set the tone for the evening,

which unfolded in the Westin’s elegant

California Ballroom.

The Asa V. Call Alumni Achievement

Award, USC’s highest alumni honor, was

presented to longtime university benefac-

tor and trustee Ronald N. Tutor ’63, whose

gifts have helped name the Ronald Tu-

tor Campus Center and the USC Viterbi

School of Engineering’s Tutor Hall. Ac-

cepting his award, Tutor shared fond mem-

ories of his undergraduate days at USC and

described his close-knit friendship with

President Nikias.

Called “a true champion on and off the

fi eld” by Fox, New York Jets quarterback

From left, alumni awards chairs Scott Gilmore ’75, JD/MBA ’78 and Lisa Barkett ’81, Scott Mory, Bryan Lourd ’82, Robert Plumleigh, George Pla MPA ’74, Elizabeth Plumleigh MLA ’84, Niki Nikias, Joann Koll, President Nikias, Ronald Tutor ’63, Mark Sanchez ’09, Carol Fox MS ’62 and Larry Flax ’67, LLM ’71 P

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Alumni Association, and Robert E. Plum-

leigh and Elizabeth Plumleigh MLA ’84,

longtime supporters of several USC schools

and organizations, received alumni service

awards. The Fred B. Olds Award, which

recognizes Trojans for their extraordinary

and unparalleled service to the university

over an extended period of time, went to

Joann Koll, a former chair of the university’s

Alumnae Coordinating Council and, at the

time, a member of the USCAA Board of

Governors.

In honoring President and Mrs. Nikias,

Fox and USC trustee Daniel J. Epstein

’62 presented them with two framed, gold-

plated USC Alumni Association member-

ship cards. Both membership cards were in-

scribed with President Nikias’ inauguration

date: Oct. 15, 2010.

The ceremony also featured perfor-

mances by USC Thornton School of Music

students and the traditional, end-of-evening

send-off by the USC Trojan Marching Band

led by Art Bartner, along with the USC Song

Girls and Spirit Leaders.

T I M O T H Y O . K N I G H T

Carol Fox and President Nikias with Asa V. Call Alumni Achievement Award winner Ronald Tutor (center)

Alumni Merit Award recipient Bryan Lourd with his mentor, former USC dean of women Joan Schaefer

New York Jets quarterback and Young Alumni Merit Award recipient Mark Sanchez (far left) poses with President Nikias. USC Thornton School of Music students Yu-Joong Kim (above left), Kayla Moffett (on violin) and Malena Michota perform at the awards ceremony.

FOR MORE ALUMNI EVENTS,

VISIT alumni.usc.edu››

alumni SCene


1. Let the Games Begin!

With the 2012 Olympic Games on their way

to the U.K. next summer, the USC Alumni

Club of London organized a walking tour of

Olympic Park currently under construction

in East London. Here, alumni, overseas stu-

dents, and Trojan friends and family mem-

bers pose in front of the nearly completed

Olympic Stadium on May 21. Said London

club member Jen Ladwig ’99, “We London-

ers feel lucky that our city will be hosting

the games next year!”

2. Graduating with Pride

On May 7, the USC Lambda LGBT

Alumni Association, in cooperation with

campus LGBT student groups, pre-

sented the 17th annual Lavender Com-

mencement Celebration at USC’s Argue

Plaza adjacent to Widney Alumni House.

Todd Dickey, USC senior vice president

for administration, introduced keynote

speaker Stephanie Miller ’83, host of the

syndicated talk-radio program The Stephanie Miller Show. After the announcement of the

2011-12 scholarship recipients, Patrick Bai-

ley, USC senior associate dean of students,

recognized 60 graduating LGBT and allied

students, many pictured here.

3. An Executive Evening in Dallas

Texas Trojans and friends gathered at the

Park City Club in Dallas on May 25 for the

second annual Executive Evening: Indus-

try Trends and Career Opportunities, pre-

sented by the USC Alumni Club of North

Texas. USC Alumni Association Board of

Governors member John Clendening ’85,

MBA ’92, senior vice president of market-

ing communications for Siemens PLM

Software, moderated a panel discussion

featuring professionals from the worlds of

higher education, medicine and telecom-

munications. Pictured here (from left) are

Clendening; USC Alumni Club of North

Texas board member Nick Tipoff ’89; pan-

elist Maj. Gen. Mary L. Saunders, USAF

(Ret.), executive director of the Texas

Woman’s University Leadership Institute;

and club president Byron Howard ’92.

4. SPPD in D.C.

On May 26, Beltway Trojans attended the

fi rst in a yearlong series of “fi reside chats”

co-hosted by the USC School of Policy,

Planning, and Development (SPPD), the

USC Alumni Association and the USC

Alumni Club of the Nation’s Capital. Held

at the university’s Washington, D.C., offi ce,

the discussion was led by SPPD dean Jack

Knott, who introduced guest speaker Arif

Alikhan, a distinguished visiting professor

of homeland security and counterterrorism

at National Defense University. At left are

Alikhan and Knott; at right are fi ve event

attendees. ●

A busy spring for Trojans in

London, L.A., Dallas and D.C.

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Class of 1961 – 50th Reunion





See how campus has changed as you relive USC memories and create new ones with alumni, family and friends! Reunion Weekend 2011 includes:

• Special class celebrations• Academic presentations highlighting the best of USC• Homecoming festivities• Tailgates and football (USC vs. Washington)

For up-to-date registration information and to support reunion class giving, visit http://alumni.usc.edu/reunion

1 9 3 0 s

Julian Myers ’39 co-produced a feature fi lm

about artists Edward and Josephine Hop-

per titled Nighthawks: 90 Minutes and Nine

Lives. He is a Hollywood publicist living in

Marina del Rey, Calif.

1 9 5 0 s

Jack Couffer ’52 of Corona del Mar, Calif.,

chronicled his experiences as a director of

animal and nature footage in his memoir,

The Lion and the Giraffe: A Naturalist’s Life

in the Movie Business. He has worked on

productions like the Born Free sequel and

series, Never Cry Wolf and Out of Africa.

Michael Halperin ’55 was selected to

showcase his comedy Freedom, Texas on the

performance slate for the National Play-

wrights’ Slam, an annual event held at the

Theatre Communications Group Confer-

ence in Los Angeles.

Carl R. Terzian ’57, a Los Angeles-based

public relations consultant and past presi-

dent of the Los Angeles Fire Commission,

was honored by the Jewish Vocational Ser-

vice with the Corporate Partnership Award.

Carol Lindberg ’59, MS ’64 of Ventura,

Calif., was selected as the Woman of the

Year for California Assembly District 35 for

her efforts on behalf of the community. She

worked as a teacher at Montalvo and Loma

Vista schools before retiring in 1993.

1 9 6 0 s

Roland S. Jefferson ’61 of Los Angeles is

the author of White Coat Fever, a novel that

explores the world of the 1960s when

Motown, jazz and the civil rights move-

ment defi ned the entire generation.

He also wrote A Card for the Players.

Paul Bryan Jr. ’66 painted a portrait of Los

Angeles Philharmonic conductor Gustavo

Dudamel and later sent it to him as a gift.

He lives in Balboa Island, Calif.

Bill Altaffer ’67, MS ’69 spent a week at the

Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center,

a facility in Russia responsible for training

cosmonauts for space missions. He wrote

class notes


Identical Blueprints

IDENTICAL TWIN SISTERS Carolyn McCarron Brink ’54 (left) and Marilyn McCarron

Urmston ’54, ME ’74 lived a life of togetherness. Born one minute apart, the sisters were

so inseparable that there were only two years when they lived more than a mile apart.

After graduating from the USC School of Architecture, they worked at various fi rms

throughout Southern California. Carolyn eventually went on to become head architect

for Kaiser Permanente. Marilyn went into teaching, fi rst as an instructor at Los Angeles

Trade Technical School and later as vice president at Mission College in San Fernando.

Marilyn died June 10, 1992, in Santa Monica, Calif., after a two-decade-long battle

with breast cancer, at the age of 60. Carolyn died July 19 in Arcadia, Calif., of lung cancer,

at the age of 80. ●

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CLASS NOTES ALSO APPEARS ONLINE. READ NEWS

ABOUT EACH GRADUATE AT tfm.usc.edu/classnotes

SEND US YOUR NEWS AT [email protected]››

When U.S. labor secretary Hilda Solis MPA

’81 was looking for internship opportuni-

ties after her fi rst semester in USC’s Master

of Public Administration (MPA) program, a

Trojan alum pulled out his Rolodex and gave

her some names to contact. As a result, she

landed an internship in the White House

Offi ce for Hispanic Affairs under the Carter

administration – her fi rst experience in

Washington, D.C.

Today, she heads the U.S. Department

of Labor, the second-largest enforcement

agency in the federal government charged with providing enforcement and protection in the

workplace. Before becoming the fi rst Hispanic woman to hold a permanent Cabinet post, Solis

was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives – serving from 2001 to 2009 in California’s

32nd Congressional District, which includes East Los Angeles and parts of the San Gabriel Valley.

The Trojan Family remains an important part of her network. In November, Solis returned to

campus to accept the Robert P. Biller Award for Exemplary Public Service. The award is named

after the late USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development (SPPD) dean and longtime admin-

istrator who led the school when Solis graduated.

Before his passing last August, Biller had remarked on Solis’ ascent from community college

trustee to congresswoman to Cabinet secretary. “By learning how politics and bureaucracy and

public policy issues work, and then immediately translating that to a very constructive career of

action, she has benefi tted not just [her] constituents, but the rest of us,” he said.

During her time as a graduate student at USC, Solis built close bonds with her classmates

from the MPA program – bonds that continue to this day. “Some of my best friends are from my

program here. Those friends have been supporting me much of my political career.”

And vice versa. “My classmates have done great, good things, too,” Solis says. “They are mak-

ing signifi cant contributions in whatever positions they hold. It isn’t just my story. It’s the story of

all my MPA classmates. We are all working hard to make the world a better place.”

Working hard, indeed. Immediately upon taking offi ce in February 2009 – at the height of the

fi nancial crisis – Solis had to grapple with the grim statistic of Americans losing 800,000 jobs

every month. She quickly began investing in training for “green” jobs and health and allied-health

training – two sectors of the collapsed economy that were actually growing.

Solis noted there was some fear in local communities about dealing with the federal

government. One of her primary concerns was how to engage people who had been critically

underrepresented in terms of access to job training programs. “Part of the process was building

bridges and reestablishing ourselves as a Department of Labor that would protect workers and

put workers fi rst,” Solis says. “That’s a change, and it’s still hard.”

She undertook a comprehensive strategic plan that reached out to members of Congress

and into local communities. “People who do best in public administration are people who come

in with an open mind, gather information, adapt to what they learn and make decisions.”

Asked what her message would be to current SPPD students, Solis says: “You’re going to

keep learning and changing. You’re going to keep moving forward and adapt and learn new

things. And whatever you learn, don’t be selfi sh. Share it!”

J A N P E T E R S O N


alumni profi le ’81

A Love of Labor

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about the experience for an article in

International Travel News.

John Tumpak MBA ’68 of Reseda, Calif., is

a jazz journalist who specializes in writing

about the big band era. His book, When

Swing Was the Thing: Personality Profiles of the

Big Band Era, along with oral history inter-

views, have been archived at the Smithso-

nian Institution in Washington, D.C.

1 9 7 0 s

Ronald Edward Brown PhD ’72 was hon-

ored with the 2011 Richard W. Hamming

Annual Faculty Award for Interdisciplinary

Achievement from the Naval Postgraduate

School in Monterey, Calif., where he is a

research professor of physics. Previously,

he worked for 40 years in the aerospace

industry.

Pat Nolan ’72, JD ’75, director of Jus-

tice Fellowship, received an award and

a $10,000 grant from the Freda Utley

Foundation in recognition for outstanding

work for criminal justice reform. He lives in

Leesburg, Va.

James E. Nuzum MPA ’72 of Sonora, Calif.,

serves as vice chair of the Tuolumne County

Historic Preservation Review Commission.

For the past four years, he has co-chaired

the subcommittee that plans the annual

historic preservation conference.

Diane Rusling Becket ’74, PhD ’96 received

the Barbara Conrad Leadership Award in

Durango, Colo., for her volunteer work

with Leadership La Plata and various com-

munity and nonprofi t organizations.

BJ (Hateley) Gallagher ’76 of Los Angeles

published her 25th book, If God is Your

Co-Pilot, Switch Seats, a scrapbook of stories,

poems and words of inspiration about the

gifts of spiritual surrender.

William Dickerman JD ’77 is a principal

at the Los Angeles-based Dickerman &

Associates, a law practice focused on busi-

ness and real estate litigations, as well as

personal injury matters.

Wes Kenney ’78, a music professor at

Colorado State University, began his ninth

season as music director and conductor of

the Fort Collins Symphony. He has been

USC vs. Arizona State

Saturday, September 24

USC vs. CAL

Thursday, October 13

USC vs. Notre Dame

Saturday, October 22

USC vs. Colorado

Friday, November 4

USC vs. OregonSaturday, November 19

(no pep rally or tailgate)

JOIN THE USC ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Turn your weekends into Weekenders at

� ve exciting away games across the country.

Make your reservations today!

2011 FOOTBALL

WEEKENDERS

for pep rallies, tailgates and more at the

For reservations and complete Weekender

package information, call (213) 740-2300 or visit

http://alumni.usc.edu/football

Fight On!

The 2011 Weekenders are co-hosted by the USC Alumni Clubs of Phoenix, the San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago and Colorado.

David K. Hansen ’85 dreamed of opening

a restaurant, but fate had something else

in store. After graduating from the USC

Marshall School of Business, he spent 12

years in the Marine Corps, and later as a

civilian, spearheaded the successful Mine

Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle

program, which is estimated to have saved

thousands of American lives in Iraq and

Afghanistan.

Restaurant dreams notwithstanding,

Hansen already had his eye on military service when he entered USC in 1981 and joined the

Naval Reserve Offi cers Training Corps.

“We drilled every morning on Child’s Way at 6:30 a.m.,” he recalls fondly. “I also worked as a

security guard every night at the University Village, so I was tired.”

Though he majored in business administration, and did well, Hansen struggled with statistics,

barely earning a passing grade. Little did he realize the irony in that.

“The day we tossed our hats in the air, we promptly went over to basic training in Quantico

[Va.] and got our commissions,” he says. Hansen saw his fi rst tour of duty in Okinawa, Japan,

where he learned all about “the business-end of acquisitions for the Department of Defense.” He

procured equipment ranging from fi rearms to optics, and enjoyed it so much that he stayed in

the Corps until 1997.

Once out of uniform, he accepted a civilian position with the Corps and eventually advanced

to program manager for acquisitions – the highest level in his fi eld. Along the way, Hansen also

entered graduate school at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in Washington, D.C. This is

where the irony comes in.

“I remember in one meeting, some business people were presenting stats to us. I hated stats

as an undergrad, but here I was whipping out my old textbook to decide about an acquisition,”

Hansen says proudly. He went on to earn two master’s degrees, one in business administration,

the other in national resource strategy.

In 2006, secretary of defense Robert Gates asked Hansen to help lead an urgent new pro-

gram. “Those were the days in Iraq when we were experiencing a lot of Humvees getting blown

up on the road” by improvised explosive devices, he recalls. “Secretary Gates called on us to

develop a strategy to quickly procure and fi eld MRAP vehicles, which raise a soldier higher off

the ground and defl ect any blast to the sides of the vehicle.

Time, as every businessman knows, is money. In this case, time was American lives.

“You hear a lot about programs like the Joint Strike Fighter taking 15 to 20 years. Our pro-

gram mobilized the trucks within 144 days,” Hansen says. He managed six manufacturers, 300

government employees and 500 support contractors to complete each vehicle. In all, he helped

oversee the deployment of 27,000 MRAP vehicles.

For his accomplishment, Hansen received the Department of Defense’s Meritorious Civilian

Service Medal, among the highest honors awarded to civilians by the armed forces.

“The Marshall School totally paved the way for this,” Hansen says. “The best part is getting feed-

back from the soldiers in the theatre, and hearing them say how much we’ve helped save lives.”

Maybe it’s just as well he never opened that restaurant.

L I Z S E G A L


named Music Educator of the Year by the

Colorado Chapter of the American String

Teachers Association and won the fi rst-ever

Varna International Conduction Competition.

Cliff Goldstein MPA ’79 was elected presi-

dent of the American Jewish Committee’s

Los Angeles region. He is founder and

managing principal of The GPI Companies

and P3 Ventures, and is a board member of

USC Hillel.

Udo Wahn MD ’79, an OB-GYN in Del

Mar, Calif., wrote Cabo and Coral Reef

Explorers, a children’s picture book that

highlights the importance of preserving

ocean resources. He serves as a volun-

teer for the Surfrider Foundation and is a

member of the Society of Children’s Book

Writers and Illustrators.

1 9 8 0 s

George Waxter ’81 of Walkersville, Md., is

a physician who spent time in Hawaii and

Tasmania working in outpatient clinics

and teaching trainee physicians and medi-

cal students. He is active in ocean swim-

ming races and rode the Sea Gull Century

100-mile bike race.

George J. Chambers MS ’86, a retired

defense systems engineer and a U.S. Navy

veteran, is completing his fourth book,

World War II as Seen Through the Eyes of

United States Cruisers, a day-to-day story

about the 83 cruisers that served in six of

the seven world’s oceans. He lives in West-

minister, Calif.

Chengyu Fu MS ’86 was appointed chair-

man of Sinopec, also known as China

Petrochemical Corp., the seventh-largest

corporation in the world and Asia’s biggest

refi ner. Previously, he served as president

and chairman of China National Offshore

Oil Corp.

David Williams MS ’87 accepted an assistant

professor position at the University of

Maryland School of Dentistry’s Baltimore

College of Dental Surgery. He leaves his

private practice of more than 22 years to

pursue an academic career in the Depart-

ment of Oncology and Diagnostic Sciences.

Henry “Hank” Malanowski MS ’88 retired

from the U.S. Marine Corps after 28 years

alumni profi le ’85

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infl uence of ancient Mayan art in the West.

He is a fi lmmaker, curator and professor in

the Intercollegiate Media Studies program

of the Claremont Colleges.

Thomas A. Long ’91 is a commander in the

U.S. Navy, who completed his tour as com-

manding offi cer of VR-55, a Navy C-130

squadron located at Naval Air Station Point

Mugu, Calif. His next assignment is with

the 7th Fleet Staff in Yokosuka, Japan.

Ellisen Turner ’97 was named a “Rising

Star” and one of fi ve intellectual property

attorneys under 40 to watch in the nation

by Law360. She is a partner at Irell &

Manella in Los Angeles.

Michael Gallelli MA ’98 of Langley, Wash.,

published “Boomers, Technology and

Health: Consumers Taking Charge!”

a research report on baby boomer aging

and tech-enabled health products for

personal use.

2 0 0 0 s

Shruti Joshi ’00 was named a principal at

consulting fi rm Altman Vilandrie & Co.

Previously, she served as executive director

for consumer marketing for Verizon Com-

munications. She lives in New York City.

Diana Bald MBA ’01 was appointed senior

vice president-director of marketing at ID

Media, a media services company based in

New York City. She previously served as

vice president of business development at

Univision. She is a board director for the

Advertising Women of New York.

Robert Frear MM ’03 was awarded tenure

and a promotion to associate professor at Cali-

fornia State University, Long Beach, where

he serves as director of brass music studies.

Bret Butler ’04 of Woodinville, Wash., was

recognized by the National Association

Experience

the BAA

Connection!

• Networking

�� Mentoring

�� Scholarship

Donors

�� Role Models

�� Life Long

Friendships

�� Progressive

�� Involved

Proud

Trojans!

usc.edu/baa

of service as a professional logistician

and was awarded the Legion of Merit. He

works in AT&T’s Supply Chain and Fleet

Operations organization in Lorton, Va.

Lisa Bolton Singelyn ’88 was appointed

director of social media and communica-

tions for Counterintuity LLC, a marketing,

social media, design and communications

agency in Burbank, Calif. She is a board

member of the National Charity League.

Randy Bouverat ’89 of Los Angeles created

Gether, a peer-to-peer polling app, and

GetherData for marketers to analyze their

social media efforts by demographic and

ZIP code.

1 9 9 0 s

Jesse Lerner MA ’91 of Los Angeles wrote

The Maya of Modernism: Art, Architecture, and

Film, a study that explores the enduring

A L U M N I

William C. “Mickey” Anderson

’41, Orange County, Calif.; April 26,

at the age of 93

Eldon Davis

’42, West Hills, Calif.; April 22,

at the age of 94

James C. “Jim” Creswell

’45, Fullerton, Calif.; May 13,

at the age of 86

Charles Laufer

’48, Northridge, Calif.; April 5,

at the age of 87

Daniel L. Rothstein

’49, MS ’50,

Sherman Oaks, Calif.; May 25,

at the age of 87

Albert A. Johnston

’50, Boise, Iowa; Jan. 7,

at the age of 86

Edward Joseph Lupiani

’50, Claremont, Calif.; Nov. 17, 2009,

at the age of 84

William E. McCroskey

’50, Corona del Mar, Calif.; Jan. 4, 2009,

at the age of 83

Jack B. Kirven

’51, Irvine, Calif.; March 21,

at the age of 83

Albert C. “Al” Hansen

’53, Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.; May 24,

at the age of 90

William “Bill” Garrison

’55, St. Simons Island, Ga.; Sept. 14, 2010,

at the age of 77

John Davies

’56, San Diego; May 20,

at the age of 76

John Walter “Walt” Quist

’58, MS ’76, Oxnard, Calif.; Dec. 21,

at the age of 74

Monroe Nash

’73, San Diego; March 28,

at the age of 61


of Realtors as part of its Class of 2011 “30

Under 30” award in Realtor Magazine.

Previously, he worked for Countrywide

and IndyMac.

George Shaw ’04 released a soundtrack

album for Agents of Secret Stuff, a fi lm on

YouTube starring Ryan Higa and directed

by Wong Fu Productions that has amassed

more than 10 million views to date. He

lives in Los Angeles.

Benhoor Hakim ’05 works as an assistant at

Dickerman & Associates in Los Angeles,

a law fi rm focused on defamation, bad

faith insurance claims and personal injury

matters.

Annam Manthiram MPW ’05 of Rio Ran-

cho, N.M., released her fi rst novel, After

the Tsunami, a story about a young boy who

is orphaned after a tsunami devastates his

coastal village in India.

Beaumont Shapiro ’05 was ordained as a

rabbi by the Hebrew Union College-Jew-

ish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles.

He serves as a rabbi at Wilshire Boulevard

Temple.

Tanya White ’05 qualifi ed for the National

Volleyball League’s main draw tournament

in Baltimore. She also represents Panama

and helped her team secure a silver medal

in the fi rst round of qualifi cations for the

2012 Olympics in London.

Louise Bale MFT ’07 passed the California

board licensing exam and is now a licensed

marriage and family therapist. She works as

a psychotherapist at St. Anne’s, a housing

program for young mothers, and also has a

private practice in West Los Angeles.

Eric Stanton ’09 is vice president of sales

for Jacob Bromwell Inc., one of the oldest

housewares companies in North America.

He lives in Los Angeles.

2 0 1 0 s

Sean Bandawat ’10 of Phoenix is work-

ing to revitalize housewares manufacturer

Jacob Bromwell Inc., where he serves as

president. He also is founder of RateMy-

Fraternity.com, which gives college stu-

dents a free inside look at more than 1,500

fraternity chapters nationwide.

M A R R I A G E S

Tracy Leigh Trenham ’87 and James Mitchell

Davis

Ramin Zolfagari ’97 and Sharon Wie.

B I R T H S

Jonathan Boggs ’83 and Marie Casey, a

daughter, Veronica Julianne

Seth Ford Gilman ’88, MBA ’02 and Susie

(Forte) Gilman ’90, a son, Tate Ford.

He joins brother, Everett, 3. He is the

grandson of Nelson Gilman ’59, MS ’61

and nephew of Justine Gilman ’85, MA ’87,

EdD ’97

Gregory Tonkovich ’94, MS ’01 and Jaclyn

(Talarico) Tonkovich MA ’01, a daughter,

Taitlyn Sarina. She joins brother, Colten,

2. She is the great-great-granddaughter

of Ruth (Dallman) Launer ’16, great-grand-

daughter of Earl Harris ’39 and Eunice

(Launer) Harris ’39, great-grandniece of

Ruthmarie (Launer) Gruber ’41, grand-

daughter of Janet (Harris) Tonkovich ’65,

grandniece of Kathleen (Harris) Windsor ’66,

and niece of Diane (Tonkovich) Miller ’92,

Matthew Tonkovich ’92 and Babe (Foster)

Tonkovich ’04

Heather (Meylor) Dibblee ’95, MHA ’97

and Harrison Dibblee, a daughter, Han-

nah Grace. She joins brothers Rian and

Brandon

Kimberly Bliss ’96 and Ceide Zapparoni, a

son, Felix Zapparoni Bliss

Michelle (Silver) Brunet MA ’97 and Michael

Brunet, a daughter, Madeleine Sophia. She

is the granddaughter of Robert Silver MBA

’70 and niece of Laurie (Silver) Bremer ’97

January Von Luft ’98 and Scott Von Luft ’98,

a daughter, Juliet Day. She joins brother,

Baron Paul, 3

Todd Campbell ’00 and Jennifer Baughman,

a son, Brendan

Adam Rabin Dalesandro ’01 and Deborah

Derickson Dalesandro, a son, Lincoln

Rabin. He is the grandson of Jeffrey C.

Derickson DDS ’78.

in memoriam

READ THE OBITUARIES

OF THESE MEMBERS OF

THE TROJAN FAMILY AT

tfm.usc.edu/memoriam

››

Herman Ostrow DDS ’45,

a graduate of the Ostrow

School of Dentistry and the

benefactor whose name the

school shares, died April 23

in Beverly Hills, Calif. He

was 88.

A lifelong resident of

Southern California, Ostrow

was born in East Los

Angeles and grew up in the

Belvedere neighborhood,

graduating from James A.

Garfi eld High School.

After receiving his Doctor

of Dental Surgery degree from USC, he

served in the U.S. Army Dental Corps

before returning to Los Angeles to treat

patients in private practice. For 17 years,

Ostrow practiced dentistry full- and part-

time, before entering the Los Angeles

construction and real estate market.

During a 2009 visit to the Griffi th

Observatory, Ostrow saw how

private gifts helped an edu-

cational institution grow and

develop. This served as the

inspiration behind his

$35 million gift to the School

of Dentistry in 2010, the

largest gift ever made by an

individual to a dental school.

“We are grateful and proud

that an alumnus of our school

has chosen us to carry his leg-

acy,” said Avishai Sadan, dean

of the School of Dentistry, at

the announcement ceremony

on Jan. 20, 2010.

“I’m proud to give my support and

name to the USC School of Dentistry, an

institution with a well-earned reputation for

excellence,” Ostrow said of his gift. “I am

thrilled that my legacy will provide tomor-

row’s talented professionals with opportu-

nities to achieve great successes.” ●

John Hospers, professor

emeritus of philosophy at

the USC Dornsife College

of Letters, Arts and Sciences

and the Libertarian Party’s

fi rst presidential nominee,

died June 12 in Los Angeles.

He was 93.

“Of all the dimensions

of John’s life … he loved

teaching the most,” said

Kevin Robb, professor of

philosophy at USC Dornsife.

“The classroom was where

he really shined, and he told

me many times it was the most satisfying

aspect of his life.”

After receiving a Ph.D. in philosophy

from Columbia University in 1946, Hos-

pers taught philosophy and humanities

at several universities before coming to

USC in 1968 as chair of the university’s

School of Philosophy. Widely known for

his contributions to the fi eld of

philosophy, he taught classes

on epistemology, metaphys-

ics, ethics, aesthetics and the

philosophy of law at USC.

Hospers also was well-

known for his role in the

Libertarian Party movement.

His beliefs in human rights

and human freedom led the

newly formed party to nomi-

nate him and running mate,

Theodora Nathan, at its fi rst

convention in 1972. Running

on a platform in support of

limited government controls and affi rming

the right of individuals, they received one

electoral vote.

Hospers published on various topics in

philosophy, including Meaning and Truth

in the Arts, Law and the Market and Human

Conduct. He served as editor of The Person-

alist, The Monist and Liberty magazines. ●

Herman Ostrow

John Hospers


Kam Kuwata

’75, Venice, Calif.; April 11,

at the age of 57

Diane Caswell Coluzzi

’81, MPA ’82, Irvine, Calif.; March 28,

at the age of 52

David John Fulton Marriner

’06, Gardena, Calif.; Jan. 1.

FACULTY, STAFF & FRIENDS

Val Clark

DDS ’57, La Cañada and

Newport Beach, Calif.; July 2,

at the age of 79

William H. Crawford Jr.

’58, DDS ’62, MS ’64,

Templeton, Calif.; June 18,

at the age of 74

Harris Goldman

DMA ’71, Los Angeles; May 13,

at the age of 78

Olaf Helmer

Anacortes, Wash.; April 14,

at the age of 100

Kay Mills

Santa Monica, Calif.; Jan. 13,

at the age of 69

Gunnar Nielsson

Seal Beach, Calif.; July 10,

at the age of 77

Alan J. Rowe

Los Angeles; May 19,

at the age of 87

Helen Rowe

Los Angeles; May 13,

at the age of 81

Laura Ziskin

’73, Santa Monica, Calif.; June 12,

at the age of 61. ●

8. First introduced as an Islamic coin in the

late 7th century by Abd al-Malik, the fifth

caliph of the Umayyad dynasty, this mon-

etary unit remains common in Middle East-

ern countries today.

9. Second prize in the world’s-most-worth-

less-money sweepstakes goes to a modern

African nation. It was losing half its value

every 24 hours at its inflationary peak.

10. About 2.5 percent of all the gold ever

refined throughout human history is held in

a fortified vault at this U.S. Army base south

of Louisville, Ky.

11. At least three major Asian currencies are

derived from a Chinese character meaning

“round shape.” ●

1. From China to Thailand, trade used to

be conducted in this ancient unit of weight.

Roughly equal to 1.3 ounces of silver

(though different lands used different stan-

dards), it served as international currency

across Asia right up to the 1930s.

2. This old European currency shows up in

Shakespearean oaths at moments of crisis –

for example, when Hamlet mistakenly kills

Polonius behind a curtain or when Shylock

learns his daughter has eloped with her lover.

3. This currency was based on a pound of

silver. Introduced in Europe by Charle-

magne, it derives from the Latin word for

“pound” – a root still evident in the abbre-

viation “lb” and the symbol £ used to repre-

sent the British pound sterling.

4. An East European nation set the world-

record for hyperinflation in 1946, when its

treasury printed currency in denominations

of 100 million and even 1 billion – leading to

the spectacle of worthless bank notes litter-

ing the gutters of the capital.

5. Lucy Pickens appears on the $100 bill of

this defunct currency.

6. In 1992, this Hungarian-born currency

trader sold short more than $10 billion worth

of pounds sterling, earning him the label

“the man who broke the Bank of England.”

7. Developed in Mesopotamia around 3000

B.C., this currency corresponded to a spe-

cific amount of barley. Its etymology traces

back to the ancient Hebrew “to weigh.”

Submit your answers by Dec. 15 online, by mail to

The Last Word c/o USC Trojan Family Magazine,

University of Southern California, Los Angeles,

CA 90089-7790, or by e-mail at [email protected].

CONTEST RULES Identify the modern-day Croesus of clue 6, the iconic building of clue 10 and the

currencies referenced in the remaining clues, and you could be rolling in cash. The five best responses

will receive $30 gift certificates from Amazon. If more than five perfect entries are received, the winners

will be drawn by lot.

With USC kicking off a $6 billion campaign, green eyeshades are

suddenly all the rage. Numismatists and armchair economists,

we invite you to test your knowledge of monetary minutiae.

SUBMIT ANSWERS OR VIEW

PREVIOUS CONTESTS AT

tfm.usc.edu/lastword››

MONEY MAKES THE WORLD GO ROUND


last word

ILL

US

TR

AT

ION

BY

HA

NK

FIS

CH

ER

USCA legacy of the USC Mexican American Alumni Association since 1973

Latino AlumniA S S O C I AT I O N Get involved. Call us at (213) 740-4735.

[email protected] || www.usc.edu/latinoalumni

DREAM.Be part of their dream.

Contribute to the legacy.

Every contribution transforms a

student’s tomorrow.

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Trojan Family Magazine Autumn 2011

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