91����

Daniel Selon �08 was at a friend house on July 15 when his phone started pinging non-stop. One particular text stood out from the rest: �Congratulations, you genius witch!�

Ron Buckmire

Professor of Mathematics | Years at 91����: 30

�Ron showed me that mathematicians can be cool people with diverse interests who are great teachers and communicators.�
�Jesse Kreger �15

Read his interview and alumni tribute

Peter Dreier

E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics; Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy | Years at 91����: 32

As a student at UC Santa Cruz, Margi Rusmore was the youngest member of the first American Women Himalayan Expedition, which climbed the 10th-highest mountain in the world in November 1978. �There was a lot of buzz� around the expedition, Rusmore recalls�a New York Times headline read, �Himalayan Scaling Called an Inspiration to Women���and I realized early on that I don't take well to talking about myself. Some people are good at it�I�m not.�

Ron Buckmire grew up in a house full of Cap�n Crunch. His father, R.E. Buckmire, a University of Massachusetts Ph.D. turned food scientist for the Quaker Oats Co. in Barrington, Ill., invented the Crunch Berry for the iconic cereal line. �My sister and I had so much Cap�n Crunch as kids,� Ron recalls. �We were testers basically.�

As a student at Palisades High School in 1969, Warren Montag participated in a walkout to protest the Vietnam War. �I wasn't consistently politically active at that time, but looking back, I would say that was an important experience,� he says. After the walkout, he and his classmates went to a demonstration at UCLA�and while they were on campus, �The police attacked the demonstration. I had to run through UCLA, which was like a baptism of fire. It was scary but good.�

On the morning of May 18, as 91���� seniors and faculty lined up along Bird Road for the Commencement procession up to Hillside Theater, Professor of Kinesiology Stuart Rugg was in his element. �I kept teasing my students that it took me 38 years to get my diploma, compared to four for them,� he recalls. �I didn�t know the College actually gave emeriti faculty the equivalent of a diploma�which was kind of cool.�

Every spring, the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy hands out student awards for community service�and this year the department named a new award after Professor Peter Dreier, who retired in June after 32 years at Occidental. �They wanted to call it the Troublemaker Award,� he says. �I said, �Call it the Public Service and Community Organizing Award or something like that.�� (Ultimately, the Peter Dreier Community Organizing and Public Service Award was presented to Emma Galbraith �25 on April 30.)

Alexandra Puerto came to academia later than most. �I went to graduate school in my early 30s,� says Puerto, who joined Occidental as an adjunct lecturer in Latin American history in 2004 and recently was awarded emerita status as an associate professor of history and Latina/o and Latin American studies. �I was at 91���� long enough to retire but still young enough to have a last chapter.�

(Editor's note: After 35 years, Glenn A. Elmer Griffin retired from Occidental last December as professor emeritus in the Department of Critical Theory and Social Justice. A three-time recipient of the Donald R. Loftgordon Award for Distinguished Teaching, he was profiled in Occidental magazine in Fall 2001. A tribute by Jill Normington �94 follows the article.)  

Every dorm room tells a story�and depending on the temperature, it can be a horror story. Arriving at Chilcott Hall as a first-year from Boston, �I thought I�d landed in hell,� Amy Forest Montgomery �96 recalls. �Opening those crazy windows only let in more heat.�  After calling her uncle, William Sherinyan �58, in tears, �He had a massive fan overnighted to me,� she adds. �I kept that fan for at least 15 years.�