t

ELLEN
BROWNING
SCRIPPS

t SYLVIA WHITLOCK

t
TRAIL
blazers
J ANUARY 2018
Courier
Claremont

claremont-courier.com

COURIER photo/Peter Weinberger

Sylvia Whitlock, above, was all smiles while being honored for her service with the Rotary Club of Claremont. Ms. Whitlock holds the title as the first female club
president in 1987, when she served in Duarte. She lives in La Verne, and has been a member of the Claremont Rotary since 2004.
t

TARA SCHULTZ
t

GUDRUN MOLL

COURIER photos/Steven Felschundneff

 Claremont COURIER/Focus 2018 3

Claremont’s Advancing ‘Women Also Ellen Browning

first /page 4 nurses/page 8 Serve’/page 10 Scripps/page 14
by Matthew Bramlett by Mick Rhodes by Peter Weinberger by Gayle Greene

Meet the new city man- Gudrun Moll discusses Sylvia Whitlock breaks Professor emertius
ager, Tara Schultz. career at SARH. barriers at Rotary explores biography

Publisher/Owner Photography Business

Peter Weinberger Steven Felschundneff Dee Proffitt
Vickie Rosenberg
Editor Graphics Tom Smith
Kathryn Dunn Kathryn Dunn
Grace Felschundneff 114 Olive Street
Reporters Claremont, CA 91711
Mick Rhodes Advertising (909) 621-4761
Matthew Bramlett Mary Rose Office hours: Monday-Thursday,
Kathryn Dunn Rachel Fagg 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
 Claremont COURIER/Focus 2018 4

Tara Schultz becomes Claremont’s first female city manager

F
or new Claremont city
manager Tara Schultz,
the third time was the
charm.
Ms. Schultz, 47, had applied to po-
sitions in Claremont twice before, first
for an entry-level position right out of
college and then as an assistant in the
city manager’s office.
Now, she’ll be the next person—
and first woman—to become city
manager for the City of Trees. She
told the COURIER she was “over the
moon” about the new job.
“I have to tell you I am so excited
about going to Claremont,” she said.
“Claremont is such a cool city.”
The COURIER caught up with Ms.
Schultz as she was wrapping late
Christmas presents for her son, who
just got out of a 12-week basic train-
ing program for the Marines. She
spent a few days in San Diego to meet
with him, and then it was back to the
Foothills to prep for the new job.
Ms. Schultz is excited to work in a
city with a population that is histori-
cally known for civic engagement.
“It’s really amazing to find a com-
munity that is so involved,” she said
of Claremont. “I worked in Sierra
Madre first, another community that COURIER photo/Steven Felschundneff
TARA SCHULTZ/next page Tara Schultz, who is the first woman to serve as Claremont’s city manager, will begin her job February 5.

TARA SCHULTZ/from the previous page
is really involved in making things hap-
pen for themselves, and Claremont has
the same vitality and I love that.”
Ms. Schultz is the first woman to be
city manager in Claremont’s history, a
distinction that didn’t register with her
at first. To her, she was just applying
for her dream job.
“I
’ll tell you, I didn’t
even think about that
when I was applying,
it kind of hit me later,” she
said. “It was a really special
honor for me, and I’m really
excited I get to be that for
Claremont.”
In fact, Ms. Schultz said she didn’t
realize her historic distinction until her
mom told her.
“My mom noted it right away,” she
recalled. “I said, ‘I am? Oh I am!’ She’s
big into women’s issues so that was a
big deal for her.”
Ms. Schultz says she fell into local
government by accident. She was ini-
tially aspiring to work for Lockheed
when she got her bachelor’s degree in
recreation administration and her mas-
ter’s in public administration from Cal
State Northridge.
But that industry was fading. While
she was looking for an internship, her
sister-in-law recommended she go to
Sierra Madre—a town of roughly
10,000 people in the foothills north of
Pasadena—to see if the city needed
help.
The assistant city manager at the
time, Sean Joyce, took her in and
started her off by giving her tasks
around the city. It turned out to be a
perfect fit.
“I loved it,” she said. “I was working
for the city manager and the assistant
city manager doing all kinds of stuff.”
Ms. Schultz helped out with commu-
nity events and worked with the city’s
cultural heritage commission with a
focus on home preservation. She even
worked on improving the community
bus service.
“I’ve done a little bit of everything,
Claremont COURIER/Focus 2018 5
“
I like to say that Sierra
Madre kind of raised me in
this career, because they
introduced me to local
government and how a
community should work
Tara Schultz
Incoming city manager
“
that’s how I got into it,” she said.
She spent six years in Sierra Madre,
which she says profoundly influenced
her and taught her what it takes to run a
city.
“I like to say that Sierra Madre kind
of raised me in this career, because they
introduced me to local government and
how a community should work,” she
said.
After leaving Sierra Madre, Ms.
Schultz took a job in Alhambra in 1999,
where she rose up the ranks, first as as-
sistant to the city manager and then fi-
nally as assistant city manager. She
worked on a number of projects such as
revitalizing the human resources de-
partment.
“When I went [to Alhambra], I was
fortunate for the opportunity to do a lot
of different projects, and that was really
great for me,” she said. “Just the vast
breadth of experience I got was really
invaluable.”
When she applied for the city man-
ager job in Claremont, Ms. Schultz COURIER photo/Steven Felschundneff
went through a tough hiring process; Ms. Schultz takes a practice run in the chair normally occupied by city manager
including panel interviews with local Tony Ramos during council meetings. Mr. Ramos retired in December and will
professionals, citizens and the city stay on until mid-February to help Ms. Schultz get settled.
council before she was chosen in De-
cember. cility needs to be replaced, it’s kind of said. “To keep it moving forward is re-
She already has a number of local dated and it has some issues. I know the ally what I am hoping to do.”
Claremont issues she is looking at in community has been working on it and Ms. Schultz officially starts her job
the weeks, months and years ahead— I’m really excited to be a part of that.” on February 5. The public is invited to
including the city budget, the upcoming But above all that, Ms. Schultz em- attend a meet and greet at the Hughes
Gold Line expansion and the incoming phasized that she hopes to be a leader to Center on February 12 from 5:30 p.m.
police station ballot measure. move the city in a positive direction. to 7 p.m. —Matthew Bramlett
“That is hugely important,” she said “I don’t see Claremont as broken, I news@claremont-courier.com
of the police station measure. “The fa- think it’s a fabulous community,” she

Four million ways to
empower girls
I healthcare reform
t’s almost time. Approximately four
million boxes of Girl Scout cookies
officially arrive on Saturday, January
27, and area Girl Scouts will begin honing
entrepreneurial skills as they initiate sales
beginning Sunday, January 28.
After thousands of Girl Scout volunteers pick up
cases of cookies at “mega-drop” cookie deliveries—
picture caravans of troop leaders and towering pallets
of cookies—local Girl Scouts will grab their wagons
and head door-to-door selling to friends and family.
Booth sales in front of local storefronts begin Feb-
ruary 9 and continue through March 11. Find cookies
by visiting girlscoutsla.org/cookies.
Along with the favorites like Thin Mints, Samoas,
Tagalongs, Trefoils, Do-si-Dos, Savannah Smiles and
Toffee-tastics, Girl Scouts in the LA area will again
OUR TOWN
pay tribute to a campfire treat popularized by Girl
Scouts in a 1927 handbook: Girl Scout S’mores, a
new favorite variety that debuted in 2017.
Girl Scout cookies are $5 a box, except for the two
specialty cookies: gluten-free Toffee-tastic and non-
GMO Girl Scout S'mores, which are $6 a box.
Buying Girl Scout cookies helps girls gain impor-
tant life skills. By running their own cookie busi-
nesses and working with others, Girl Scouts learn
money management, people skills, goal setting, deci-
sion making and business ethics.
The sales fund local Girl Scout troop activities and
girl-led programs like outdoor camps, robotics tour-
naments, community service projects, public speak-
ing trainings, after-school programs in underserved
communities and much more.
Claremonters, keep your eye out at Vons, Stater
Bros. and in front of Starbucks in the coming weeks.
Buy a box, it’s a good deed.
Claremont COURIER/Focus 2018 6
Chamber hosts lunch
program, discussion on
The Claremont Chamber of Commerce hosts
“Healthcare Reform: What does it mean for your
small business” at its next lunch and learn event on
Wednesday, January 31 from noon to 2 p.m.
The program, which is geared toward small busi-
ness owners, begins at noon with the screening of the
film, Fix It: Healthcare at the Tipping Point.
University of La Verne Campus Center, 1950 Third
St., third floor, ballroom A, in La Verne.
Expert panelists include Dan Geiger, co-director of
Business Alliance for a Healthy California and Debo-
rah Freund from Claremont Graduate University’s
School of Social Science, Policy and Evaluation, and
professor of economic sciences.
The film screening begins at 12:10 p.m., followed
by the panel discussion at 12:45 p.m. Time for a Q
and A is set aside at 1:10 p.m. as well as an optional
networking session from 1:30 to 2 p.m.
The cost is free but registration is required. For in-
formation, contact Julissa Espinoza, University of La
Verne office of civic and community engagement at
(909) 448-4745 or by email at
jespinoza@laverne.edu.

Women as first
responders
The Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum at
Claremont McKenna College, 385 E.
Eighth St., hosts a free 5:30 p.m. lecture
on Tuesday, January 30 titled,“First Re-
sponders: Women as Witnesses to Mass Vi-
olence,” with guest speaker Jo Scott-
Coe.
“People say we are having a ‘moment’
for women’s testimony,” an Ath press re-
lease stated. “But listening is the labor of
generations, not seconds. Although pub-
lic violence is often preceded by attacks or
murders in the home, private crimes con-
tinue to be treated separately in the pub-
lic imagination, avoided or even erased by
repeated narratives.”
Making room for women’s voices,
contends Ms. Scott-Coe, can expand and
transform the narrative “canon” on mass
violence. Ms. Scott-Coe is an associate pro-
fessor of English composition, literature
OUR TOWN
and creative writing at Riverside City Col-
lege.
She is also an independent researcher on
themes of gender, sexuality and vio-
lence—in education and elsewhere. Her
writing about an eight-year legal case of
student-on-teacher sexual bullying and ha-
rassment appears in (Re)Interpretations:
The Shapes of Justice in Women’s Ex-
perience. She is also the author of Teacher
at Point Blank: Confronting Sexuality,
Violence, and Secrets in a Suburban
School and MASS: A Sniper, a Father,
and a Priest (forthcoming in April 2018).
Her first-ever portrait of Kathy Leiss-
ner Whitman, “Listening to Kathy,” re-
ceived a Notable listing in Best American
Essays. Ms. Scott-Coe’s nonfiction has ap-
peared in American Studies Journal, Pa-
cific Coast Philology, Salon and many oth-
er publications. Her Athenaeum presen-
tation is co-sponsored by the Center for
Writing and Public Discourse and Gender
and Sexuality Studies.
More information can be found by
visiting cmc.edu/athenaeum/open-events,
calling (909) 621-8244 or via email at
athenaeum@cmc.edu.
Noted soprano to
perform free con-
cert at Little Bridges
Pomona College presents a free concert
with soprano Christine Brandes and pianist
Eric Moe, at 8 p.m. on Saturday, January
27 at Bridges Hall of Music, 150 E.
Fourth St. Doors open 30 minutes prior to
the concert.
Noted for her radiant, crystalline voice
and superb musicianship, Ms. Brandes
brings her committed artistry to repertoire
ranging from the 17th century to new
works. She enjoys an active career in North
Claremont COURIER/Focus 2018 7
America and abroad, performing at many
of the world’s most distinguished festivals
and concert series in programs spanning
from recitals and chamber music to ora-
torio and opera.
Joining her is composer and pianist Eric
Moe, who has received numerous grants
and awards for his work, including a
Guggenheim Fellowship, commissions
from the Fromm Foundation, the Kous-
sevitzky Foundation and Meet-the-Com-
poser USA. His playing can be heard on
the Koch, CRI, Mode, Albany, New
World Records and Innova labels. The New
York Times has called his compositions
“music of winning exuberance.”
The program will include Debussy’s 3
Chansons de Bilitis, Schoenberg’s Das
Buch der hängenden Gärten, excerpts
from Schubert’s Schwanengesang, as well
as selections from Barbara White and the
performing pianist, Mr. Moe.
More information can be obtained by
calling (909) 607-2671.
 Claremont COURIER/Focus 2018 8

Claremonter sees good changes for women in nursing

C
laremont resident Gudrun Moll, who
has been San Antonio Regional Hospi-
tal’s chief nursing officer since 2015,
has adapted well to her new home.
Ms. Moll, 56, and her husband, Heinz, live in the Village.
The tree-lined locale reminds her of their homeland.
“Most of the towns in Germany have a pedestrian zone,”
Ms. Moll said. “In Claremont, we live on Twelfth Street, and
we walk the town every weekend when we walk our dogs. I
really enjoy it. It has a family atmosphere. It’s quiet, but it
has a lot of things going on. It’s a like an oasis in Southern
California.”
The Molls immigrated to the US from Grevenbroich, a
small town near Düsseldorf, Germany, in 1997. They both
became US citizens in 2003, and have lived and worked in
New Jersey, San Diego and Oxnard since their arrival. Their
daughter and granddaughter live in San Marcos, in north
San Diego County.
Ms. Moll earned a master’s degree in nursing from the
University of Phoenix and second master’s, in business ad-
ministration, from Edinburgh Business School, the graduate
school of business of Heriot-Watt University, in Edinburgh,
Scotland.
She came to the US in 1997 not knowing what to expect.
“And it was a dream from my perspective,” Ms. Moll re- COURIER photo/Steven Felschundneff
Claremont resident Gudrun Moll is the vice president of clinical services and chief nursing officer at San
GUDRUN MOLL/next page Antonio Regional Hospital.

Courier
Every Friday in print. Every day online Claremont

claremont-courier.com 621 4761 claremont-courier.com


GUDRUN MOLL/from the previous page
called. “Compared to Germany, here was nursing
heaven. You were so much more autonomous, and
you had so many more options: you could get your
doctoral degree, work in the community, and in the
hospital there were so many different roles. I always
liked that flexibility in nursing.”
She hadn’t planned on a career as a CNO, but after
her boss at an early job left on an unexpected medical
leave, she stepped up, and her path was altered. “I got
into leadership nine months after graduating,” she
said. “I went to my boss and said, ‘I’d love to be your
leader. I have no idea what to do, but if you want me,
you can have me.’”
T
he leap of faith paid off. She now
oversees some 900 employees, a
number that includes everything
from nurses and respiratory therapists to
social workers and staffing office coordi-
nators at Upland’s San Antonio Regional.
The facility has more than 2,300 employ-
ees overall.
She arrived just in time to see the hospital open its
new, four-story Vineyard Tower.
“Our patients and staff love it,” she said. “It’s won-
derful.” The addition features 92 new, state-of-the-art
private rooms. “I don’t like anybody being sick, but if
they’re sick, I do hope they’ll come see us.”
Perceptions have changed quite a bit in the time
Ms. Moll has been working in the US, she said. “I
think now there is a lot more respect for what we do,”
she said. “And what I’ve seen is that people listen to
the chief nursing officer now, and that may not have
been there in past years.”
Claremont COURIER/Focus 2018 9
A chief nursing officer plays a crucial role in a hos-
pital, Ms. Moll said. “I don’t think a lot of people
know what it is that we do. There are a lot of things
hospitals are measured against, from the government
agencies, to patient satisfaction, and we oversee this
and so many other things.”
Her job encompasses managing San Antonio’s
nurses, attending all medical staff meetings and myr-
iad other duties, both clinical and administrative. Her
skills as a both an advocate and a diplomat have been
honed over her 28 years as a nurse and 13 as a CNO.
“I’ve worked in several hospitals, in different states
and two countries, and my experience has taught me
that you not only look after your nurses, but you look
after the whole house, because what’s good for the
nurses is sometimes not always good for the whole
house.” —Mick Rhodes
mickrhodes@claremont-courier.com
Have you seen
our videos?
 Claremont COURIER/Focus 2018 10/11

COURIER photos/Peter Weinberger

ABOVE: Marc Winter definitely needed help down the steps as Club President
Bonita Ramos, left, and District Governor Raghada Khoury lend a helping
hand. AT RIGHT: Rotarian Ron Coleman tries to get just the right fit. He was the
first volunteer to tear up the rug.

Women in Rotary
recognized in fun,
high-heeled event Tim Harrison was quick to get his groove on at the Frank Dining Hall at Pomona College, much to the delight of the room.
ebrating 30 years of women in Rotary.

W
hat started out as a
normal Friday
lunch for the Ro-
tary Club of Claremont turned
into high-heeled, fun-filled,
free-for-all as men in the club
attempted to walk down a red
carpet wearing women’s
shoes, all for a good cause.
The club’s program focused on cel-
So in comes Camille Lavee, a well-
known Rotarian from South Pasadena ROTARY/from previous page high-heels. she has written a book, Women Also Serve,
and creator of the fundraiser “Wheels It also should be noted most people had spot- about life when women were just beginning to
in Heels.” watch that special man friend ham it up for
This stage event required the ladies charity. And if you were nominated and refused ters to make sure no one fell flat on their face. make an impact as Rotarians. The other person
to participate? No problem, just pledge a $60 Needless to say, spotters became the most im- was Carol Dorsey, Claremont Rotary’s first fe-
to nominate male volunteers to walk portant people in the room. male President in 1996-97.
down a red carpet with high-heel donation.
The main goal is to raise awareness of contri- Claremont Rotary also honored two pioneers Currently, 27 percent of Rotary’s member-
shoes, just like a fashion model.
Well…kinda-sorta like a model. butions made by women in Rotary, while rais- who helped create a voice for women in Rotary. ship is female—a figure that keeps growing
ing money for the thousands of projects Rotary Back in 1987, Sylvia Whitlock was the first fe- each year. But as many Rotarians would tell
Of course the women attending male club president in the entire Rotary organi- you, “They have come a long way, but also
where all but ready to pay $30 to takes on all over the world.
Finding people to walk was easy, as men kept zation. have a long way to go.” —Peter Weinberger
ROTARY/next page coming up to the stage ready to try on a pair of She has not only served others for decades, pweinberger@claremont-courier.com

Los Angeles chief
sustainability offi-
cer to discuss
green jobs in talk
at CMC
The Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum
at Claremont McKenna College, 385 E.
Eighth St., hosts a free 5:30 p.m. lecture
on Friday, February 2, “Stepping Stones
to Sustainability: The Landscape of
Green Jobs,” with Lauren Faber O’Con-
nor, chief sustainability officer for the
city of Los Angeles.
Ms. O’Connor will reflect on her ex-
perience working at the Environmental
Defense Fund, the California EPA and
the US Department of Energy State En-
ergy Advisory Board, as well as discuss
environmental careers in public and pri-
vate sectors.
Her talk will detail the current and fu-
ture landscape of jobs in environment
and sustainability. Ms. O’Connor is
driving the implementation of LA’s
landmark Sustainable City pLAn, re-
leased in April 2015, which puts forth
an actionable vision for transforming
LA’s environment, economy and equity.
Working with every city department and
outside stakeholders,
Ms. O’Connor focuses on strategic
integration of the plan’s pillars in order
to achieve the city’s short- and long-
Claremont COURIER/Focus 2018 12
OUR TOWN
she was dedicated to the design and im-
plementation of California’s landmark
Global Warming Solutions Act, AB 32.
Prior to her work at CalEPA, she
served as senior director for Lighthouse
Consulting Group in Washington, DC,
where she advised on comprehensive
national climate change and energy
Press photo strategies for domestic and international
Lauren Faber O’Connor, chief sustain- companies, and non-government organ-
ability officer for the city of Los Angeles izations, and in particular, the US Cli- Press photo
will discuss “Stepping Stones to Sus- mate Action Partnership. Liz Lerman, an American choreographer
tainability: The Landscape of Green and founder of Dance Exchange will vis-
From 2005 to 2009, she served at the it Scripps for a talk titled “Artist as Ac-
Jobs” on Friday, February 2 at CMC.
British Embassy as senior policy advi- tivist: Liz Lerman in Conversation.”
sor for climate change and energy. Ms.
term goals, ensure benefits accrue to all O’Connor serves on the Board of the
communities in LA, and pursue regional California League of Conservation Vot-
and international collaborations, includ- ers and the US Department of Energy Explore ‘Wicked
ing Climate Mayors, a coalition of near- State Energy Advisory Board. She is a
ly 400 US mayors committed to US member of the Catto Fellowship for en-
Bodies,’ images
leadership on climate change. vironmental leadership at the Aspen In-
Prior to joining the Garcetti adminis- stitute and of the Truman National Se- of women’s bod-
tration, she served for four years as the
west coast political director for the En-
curity Project.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in earth
ies in history
vironmental Defense Fund in San Fran- systems and economics from Stanford The next installment of Scripps Pres-
cisco. At EDF, she worked on building ents will offer “Artist as Activist: Liz
University, and a master’s in climate
successful strategies and constructive Lerman in Conversation”on Thursday,
and society from Columbia University.
partnerships to win support on innova- February 8 at 6 p.m. at Garrison Theatre
Ms. O’Connor is the keynote speaker
tive approaches to protecting and pro- at Scripps College, 241 E. 10th St. in
for CMC’s fourth annual Green Careers
moting climate, clean energy, land, wa- Conference sponsored by the Roberts Claremont.
ter and wildlife. For the past four decades, Ms. Ler-
Environmental Center.
In 2010, Ms. O’Connor was appoint- man—the choreographer, performer,
More information is at cmc.edu/
ed to assistant secretary for Climate writer and teacher—has engaged artists
athenaeum/open-events, (909) 621-
Change Programs at the California En- and audiences alike with her intellectual-
8244 or by email at
vironmental Protection Agency, where athenaeum@cmc.edu. OUR TOWN/next page
 Claremont COURIER/Focus 2018 13
OUR TOWN/from the previous page DIY for the WTF

ly curious, nimble explorations.

Pussyhat Project co- World, an illustrated
compendium that pro-
She brings her generous and generative spirit to
Scripps for a conversation and exploration of her latest
founder discusses vides inspiration for to-
day’s activist.
ongoing project, Wicked Bodies, prompted by power-
ful and grotesque images of women’s bodies through-
feminism, activism Yumi Sakugawa, the
Ignatz Award nominat-
Scripps College hosts a free lecture, “The Pussyhat
out history. Project: Krista Suh in Conversation,” on Wednesday, ed comic book artist,
In addition to her work as a choreographer, Ms. Ler- January 31 from 6 to 7:15 p.m. at Balch Auditorium, joins her for this conver-
man created the Critical Response Process (CRP), a 1030 Columbia Ave. sation. Presented in
method for giving and receiving feedback. She devel- Following the 2016 presidential election, when mil- partnership with the In- Press photo
oped CRP in 1990 alongside publication of the book lions of people were seeking outlets for their political tercollegiate Feminist “The Pussyhat Project: Krista
Critical Response Process: getting useful feedback frustrations, Ms. Suh had the idea to use handicrafts to Center and SCORE. Suh in Conversation,” will
on anything you make, from dance to dessert in More info is at scripp- take place Wednesday, Janu-
mobilize the nation. ary 31 from 6 to 7:15 p.m. at
2003, which she wrote with co-author John Borstel. As cofounder of the Pussyhat Project, she helped scollege.edu/events or
Balch Auditorium, 1030 Co-
Her visit is presented in partnership with Scripps turn the multiple events of the 2017 Women’s March (909) 607-8508. lumbia Ave.
Dance and the Alexa Fullerton Hampton ‘42 Fund. into a sea of pink-capped protestors. The Los Angeles–
based writer, artist and feminist will discuss her book,
Pomona Valley Hospital
to ‘Paint the Night Red’
at annual fundraiser
Grab your paint brushes and get ready for an
evening filled with art, health education, heavy hors
d’oeuvres, wine and desserts.
Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center
(PVHMC) Foundation is hosting its 11th annual
Power of Red event to raise awareness about heart
disease in women and funds to support the Stead
Heart and Vascular Center’s Stead Heart for Women
Program.
The theme for this year’s event is “Wear it! Feel it!
Live it!” and will feature a guided painting lesson by
Raquel Danieri from Purple Easel. Guests are encour-
aged to wear red.
The event takes place Thursday, February 1 from
5:30 to 8 p.m. at Sheraton Fairplex Hotel, 1301 W.
McKinley Ave., in Pomona.
Tickets are $100 for a Power of Red membership
(includes food, wine, painting and special member-
ship gift). The cost is $60 for food, wine and the
painting lesson only.
To purchase tickets online, visit pvhmc.org under
the special events tab.
The PVHMC Foundation hosts this event annually
in support of the American Heart Association’s Go
Red for Women campaign, which is part of an ongo-
ing effort to educate the public about heart disease in
women, and to advocate for preventative services.
All proceeds from the event benefit PVHMC’s
Stead Heart for Women, a program that offers infor-
mation on risk factors, lifestyle modification, diet and
exercise, as well as individual support to women in
the community.

F
ull disclosure: I taught at
Scripps College for 40
years and knew nothing
about Ellen Browning Scripps,
nor did I have any interest in
knowing about her, though I
was reaping the benefits of her
bounty all that time.   Money and American Philanthropy”
There was little in the photographs to
attract my attention. The photo most of-
ten seen, from the1926 cover of Time
Magazine, shows an 89-year-old lady,
white hair in a prim bun, sitting straight
as a ramrod, looking every bit the gen-
teel, self-effacing Victorian lady, a
woman of her time.
I assumed she was someone who hap-
pened into a fortune and was seized by a
do-good impulse late in life to endow a
women’s college. I had a vague sense
there were powerful brothers in the pic-
ture, and assumed they were the ones
who made the fortune, which I was dim-
ly aware came from a newspaper
chain. I assumed that one of the brothers
or a cousin (surely someone male) had
founded the Scripps Oceanography In-
stitution in San Diego, one of the great
scientific institutions in the country.
Wrong on every count, except the bit
about self-effacement. How sexist these
assumptions seem to me now, and
ageist, too. Young women can be so re-
sistant to acknowledging that older
women have anything to teach them—I
see this now from the other side of the
generational divide—and the photos
show a woman so very old, so obviously
from another century.  mediating between James and E.W.,
Because she was self-effacing, reluc-
tant to put her name on the gifts she
gave, others have written her out of the
story, too. The Wikipedia entry on her
younger brother E.W. Scripps says he
founded Scripps University. Ouch. There
is no Scripps University. There is a
Scripps College, and she is the one who
made it happen.
VIEWPOINT
Ellen Browning Scripps was dead-
center crucial to building the newspaper
empire that made her fortune, working
with her older brother James on launch-
ing the Detroit Evening News, doing the
grunt work of writing, editing, copyedit-
ing and proofreading.  thought that women ought to be the
Later, she launched the career of her
younger half-brother, Edward Willis
(E.W.), encouraging and enabling him to
become independent of James; it was
E.W. who made the Scripps-Howard
newspapers.
All the while she was a mainstay of
her large, complicated family, caring for
the young, seeing family members
through pregnancies, illnesses, deaths, as
befit a Victorian spinster, and moreover,
whose power struggles became nasty
and quite public for a decade while a
contested will dragged through the
courts.
It was she who endowed the Scripps
Institute of Oceanography and many
other San Diego and La Jolla public in-
stitutions, the zoo, museums, libraries,
schools, playgrounds and parks, a hospi-
Buried treasure:
A review of
“Ellen Browning Scripps: New
by Scripps professor emerita Gayle Greene
Photo courtesy of the University of California, San Diego
tal, and countless philanthropic projects
that she hoped would contribute to “the
evolution and uplift of the human race,”
as she said.
The endowment of Scripps College
was the culmination of her long and seri-
ous concern with education, particularly
the education of women. “She said she
equal of men; they should have their
work, interest and place just as much as
men should. This was really her idea and
hope,” a friend wrote. That idea and
hope gave birth to Scripps College.
Thanks to Molly McClain’s biogra-
phy, Ellen Browning Scripps: New
Money and American Philanthropy,
Ms. Scripps now steps forth from behind
that dusty image in the photographs and
shines forth as a truly extraordinary
woman, strong-minded, independent, on
the pulse of her times and ahead of her
times.
“I wonder how you are picturing Miss
Scripps,” her sister-in-law Katharine
wrote of her in 1927, when she was
more than 90 years old. “She has broken
loose from all conventional lines in
thought. She calls herself a socialist...de-
cries churches and churchgoing...flames
Claremont COURIER/Focus 2018 14
up in defense of many things that seem
wrong to most people, and yet to see her
you would see a very thin-bone, frailest
woman, self-effacing almost to shyness,
and you would have to know her from
others to get any idea of what she is
thinking—what doing. A very interest-
ing, wonderful character, and a contra-
dictory character, too.”
In a quiet, unassuming way, she
forged her own way against the authority
of powerful, condescending, occasional-
ly bullying brothers, and took coura-
geous stands that often flew in the face
of public opinion. She made a fortune,
was worth the equivalent of $4 billion in
today’s dollars, at the end of her life, and
it away.
ELLEN IN CHILDHOOD
Ellen was born in London in 1836.
Her mother died in childbirth when she
was five, leaving her with a father who
had no talent for business but a great tal-
ent for fathering children.
The family came to this country, trav-
eling by covered wagon to a prairie
town, Rushville, Illinois, where “she
learned how to turn livestock into ham,
BROWNING SCRIPPS/next page

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sausage meat, and lard,” to harvest apples and nuts and
bake bread and knit stockings. And to care for her
younger siblings, for her father had two more mar-
riages and she had nine brothers and sisters. She cared
for them dutifully and lovingly, helping to educate
them as well. “Ellen read Shakespeare to me before I
could read it myself,” recalled E.W.
Her father, “a bookish man,” she called him, had a li-
brary that included the 19th century English poets, a
beautifully-bound Shakespeare, and progressive works
of history and philosophy such as Thomas Paine’s Age
of Reason. She loved and revered books all her life.  COURIER photo/Steven Felschundneff
Even at the end of her life when her eyesight was
failing, she continued to receive weekly shipments of
books from New York, and subscribed to 62 periodi-
cals. “‘A good book is the next best thing in life to a
true friend,’ she wrote, quoting Walter de la Mare. ‘It
gives all it has to give, solely for the asking, and wants
nothing in return, but just a thankful blessing on the
man who wrote it.’”  stock market, graft or exploitation of the masses. On
Reading expanded her imagination and sense of so-
cial responsibility, and no doubt reinforced a native in-
dependence of mind. “As a child, I hated to be forced
to anything. I hated the word ‘must.’”
Scripps College Balch Hall with its grand courtyard.
She was 12 when she and her 14-year-old brother
James put together their first newspaper, “a handwritten
periodical called The Monthly Star for family and
friends,” producing “three sheets of news each week.”
She earned a certificate from the Female Collegiate
Department at Knox College, where she studied sci-
ence and math; this was one of the few colleges that
admitted women, though it did not grant degrees. She
returned to Rushville as a teacher in the one-room
schoolhouse. She then followed James to Detroit to
help him begin a newspaper, though she was called
Claremont COURIER/Focus 2018 15
back to Rushville to nurse her father through his final
illness. 
After her father’s death in 1873, she was in low spir-
its and longing for work, stating “I shall be so glad to
plunge into work—work of any kind, it doesn’t matter
much what, so it keeps the mind employed,” and re-
turned to Detroit, moved in with James and his family,
and helped him launch the Detroit Evening News.
Work she got, not only 16 hours a day on the paper, but
caring for James’ four children. Theirs was a real rags
to riches story.
“Scripps newspapers were cheap to produce, easy to
read, and pitched to a working class audience,” and
they “transformed their owners into millionaires almost
overnight.” This was the age of the so-called robber
barons—Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt, John
D. Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan—“when glittering fortunes
could be made through graft, speculation, and other du-
bious schemes.”
The Scripps money was remarkable among these
fortunes for not being made by manipulations of the
the contrary, the papers championed the cause of the
working class. 
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However, when James incorporated the Evening
News in 1876, he allotted himself 30 of 50 shares; their
younger brother George got 16, not for his work, but
because he could always be counted on for ready cash
(he was “rolling in wealth,” as Ellen said, while other
family members were “drudging in poverty.”) To Ellen,
James gave two shares, and to E.W., one.
THE SCRIPPS MOVE WEST
W
hen he began to hire new edi-
tors, they were male. He gave
her a gold watch as a birthday
gift, a hint that her career as a journalist
was over. Depleted and disappointed, she
told E.W, “I’ve had to do a man’s work
long enough, and I’m tired of it,” and she
turned her attention to helping him. The
two moved west, setting up house on 600
acres east of San Diego, Miramar, built to
accommodate their elderly mother and un-
married sisters.
Of all her siblings, she’d been especially close to
E.W., who was more flamboyant than James, more
risk-taking, and more progressive. She urged him to
strike out on his own, loaning him money, giving him
business advice, fussing over his health and working
with him in the building of the Scripps Howard empire.
E.W. explained that they stood “on exactly equal
footing, sometimes, as to shares and values...and
[Ellen] has on the average been more successful than I
have.” She was a shrewd money manager, more ag-
gressive than he in terms of turning a profit, and usual-
ly reinvested those profits back into the papers or into
new papers.   
E.W. had more appreciation for her intelligence than
James had, but there’s a whiff of condescension in
some of his remarks. When, in her midlife, he thought
she was doing too much traveling and urged her to
come home and “pursue the same kinds of activities as
other unmarried women,” she retorted:
“I am puzzled over your suppositious ‘old maid line
of conduct’ that I am likely to pursue. I must plead utter
ignorance of what such conduct should or would be. I
am an old—a very old—maid in years, but in every-
thing else I’m an anomaly. I don’t know anything about
what an old maid ought or is expected to do.”
He acknowledged, late in her life, “Old as you are
and female as you are, I am sure that your vision is
clearer and your imagination more vivid in such [busi-
ness] matters than that of any man that I know of.” He
thought her intelligence in a man would be “enough to
lift him head and shoulders above his fellows.”
At Miramar, Ms. Scripps found herself once again
caring for a brother’s young children, as a Victorian
spinster should and, once again, moved out of a broth-
er’s home, making a home of her own in La Jolla,
which was then “a dusty old beach town,” its streets
barely more than cow paths.  lieved, moreover, that they needed meaningful work
She brought two unmarried sisters with her—Annie,
almost crippled with rheumatism, and Virginia, outgo-
ing and adventurous in a way Ellen was not—thus lib-
erating them from the expectations of a patriarchal
household, making a communal living space for them,
“an old maid’s establishment,” she called it. She
bought up adjacent lots to make a large garden, gather-
ing wildflower seeds and seedlings from other parts of
California, giving rein to her interest in botany, horti-
culture and landscaping.  through her editorial work on the Detroit Evening
ELLEN ON FEMINISM
She was drawn to La Jolla because it was, in its early
days “a woman’s town,” as she said, full of educated,
knowledgeable, well-travelled women, many of whom
were widowed or unmarried. It had a sort of bohemian
women’s culture. She joined the Women’s Literary
Club of La Jolla in 1899. When it became the La Jolla
“
I am an old—a very old—maid in
years, but in everything else I’m an
anomaly. I don’t know anything
about what an old maid ought or is
expected to do.
“ on her travels through the world.
Eleanor Browning Scripps
Women’s Club in 1914, she commissioned an architect
to design a permanent clubhouse. Such clubs were the
way women kept their minds alive and stayed current
with world events, in the days before most could attend
college.
Ms. Scripps described the club, in 1918, as a place
“for serious thought and work and study; a means of
mental growth spiritual culture,” and the development
of women’s “natural forces and resources.”
When World War I came, its members turned their
attention to knitting socks for soldiers, collecting dona-
tions for refugees, making bandages for the Red Cross,
and opening their facilities to soldiers. This was the
second major war effort Ellen worked for, having par-
ticipating in women’s aids societies during the Civil
War.  me in the world’s work. I was born out o’ time!”
Ms. Scripps had a great belief in women as the hope
of the world and thought they’d be a force for the re-
generation of society if they could get the vote. She be-
for their own sake, to spend their time in activities oth-
er than “cooking dainties and embroidering under-
wear;” she thought her sister Virginia “would have
been far better off with a career suited to her energy, in-
telligence, and ambition.”
Ellen had been a part of the suffrage movement since
the days of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady
Stanton. She had joined the National Woman Suffrage
Association in 1873 and supported the movement
News.  in the Los Angles Times building, killing 21. This was
When suffrage came on the ballot in California, she
made use of the Scripps papers in Los Angeles, San
Francisco, Fresno, Berkeley, Oakland and San
Diego. Her brother later wrote, ‘I put all of the Califor-
nia Scripps papers at her service in this respect and so,
in an indirect way perhaps, I believe she is responsible
for the success of the movement in this state.”
Claremont COURIER/Focus 2018 16
COURIER archive photo
In 1911, women in California gained the right to
vote, years earlier than elsewhere, thanks in great
measure to Ms. Scripps.
The natural beauty of La Jolla was an inspiration to
her. She became fascinated with the ocean, which she
saw as a “source of beauty and mystery” and possibly a
window on the origin of life itself—she collected
shells, kelp, mosses, specimens and visited aquariums
This interest lead her to generously endow the Ma-
rine Biology Association in 1903, which became the
Scripps Institute of Oceanography in 1906. She worked
with William Ritter, head of zoology at UC Berkeley,
and shared his belief that “all organic beings, including
humans, are subject to the principle of evolution” and
that “man was part of nature, not the product of super-
natural forces. She allowed that faith in nature—God’s
creation—was as close to religion as she was likely to
get.”
But it was the hospital that Ms. Scripps described as
one of her most successful public ventures. Her interest
in the project was inspired by the war; it was ready in
time to accommodate the victims of the influenza epi-
demic at the end of the war in 1918.
As the hospital was being built, she said if she were
younger she’d “go into this work, which seems to be
the one for which women are particularly fitted. The
only thing that troubles me is that there is no place for
Despite her years as a journalist and editor, she felt
she had “no special gift for writing;” she’d have done
better as a doctor or psychologist, if those jobs had
been available to 19th century women.
The first decade of the 20th century was a turbulent
time in San Diego. The Scripps papers ran up against
the moneyed interests represented by sugar tycoon
John D. Spreckles, who owned and controlled much of
San Diego. E.W. saw the Scripps papers as “the servant
of the common people and not of the money class.”
The San Diego Sun was one of the few papers to car-
ry news of the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World)
demonstrations, even going so far as to defend the Mc-
Namara brothers, trade unionists who’d set off a bomb
not a popular position, and not without dangers.  
When socialist leaders and union labor officials be-
gan coming from LA to San Diego, city leaders for-
bade freedom of assembly in the commercial center, ar-
resting protestors and throwing them in jail. Reac-
tionary groups known as vigilantes roamed the streets
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with weapons to prevent the influx of la-
bor agitators and IWW supporters. E.W.
was on their hit list.
“We ought to go out and get old
Scripps,” cried an angry mob. When a
crowd of men reached Miramar one
evening they were turned back by a
guard at the ranch gate.  “public spaces, including the Torrey
Ellen inclined toward the kind of
Christian socialism advocated by Eu-
gene V. Debs, who ran for president five
times on the socialist ticket, was one of
the founders of the IWW and a champi-
on for women’s rights.  Diego,” as well as “the Egypt Explo-
“I
find nothing in the
church to satisfy
me,” she said. “My
creed would be substantially
socialistic—the brotherhood
of man.” She believed in the
fundamental goodness of hu-
man beings, that “Coopera-
tion, not competition, guided
human behavior and advanced
evolution.”   mont Colleges.
PHILANTHROPY
Ms. Scripps lived her ideals, humani-
tarian to the core, opening her gardens
to the public and “made her car avail-
able for use by neighbors and friends.”
She lived simply, kept few servants,
dressed humbly and unostentatiously
stating that, “No one needs less to eat
or to wear than I.”
She did not believe in inherited
wealth, viewing it as “fundamentally un-
democratic,” and regarded her wealth as
“’a trust for the benefit of humanity,’
rather than a source of status for her
family or herself.”
Issues of accumulated wealth, free-
dom of speech, freedom of assembly, ri-
oting in the streets—all this is so timely.
So is her tart comment on Andrew
Carnegie’s philanthropy “He has
amassed $20,000,000. The question of
benefitting mankind should have been
considered and solved at a time and in a
way that should have prevented his be-
coming a millionaire.”
Her kind of generosity puts to shame
the billionaire philanthropy practiced to-
day. Her gifts had no strings attached, no
agenda, and moreover tried to involve
the beneficiaries. She used her philan-
thropy as “a form of social advocacy...
investing money in institutions that
would contribute toward the greater pub-
lic good.”
“In the last decade of her life, she be-
gan the most expansive phase of her phi-
lanthropy,” writes Molly McClain, con-
tributing substantial sums of money to
Pines State Reserve, the Zoological So-
ciety, the Natural History Museum, the
San Diego Museum Association, the La
Jolla Library, the children’s pool, the
YWCA and associated charities of San
ration Society, the Women’s Christian
College in the Orient, Constantinople
Women’s College, and Yenching Uni-
versity, among others.”  occasionally get glimpses of the aston-
That list gives you an idea of the
range of her interests: she was a Renais-
sance woman, an environmental activist
and an advocate for women’s education
worldwide, seeing in education the hope
for human development and social re-
form. She and her sister Virginia found-
ed the Bishops School in San Diego, a
college preparatory school for girls. She
then turned her attention to the Clare-
FOUNDING SCRIPPS COLLEGE
She’d become acquainted with James
Blaisdell, the new president of Pomona
College, and given generously to pur-
chase land for dormitories. Mr. Blaisdell
envisioned a consortium of colleges
modeled after Oxford. And what a bril-
liant idea that was, strength in numbers,
for the Claremont consortium has shown
itself capable of weathering financial
storms that have buffeted institutions
standing on their own.  She said, “I am thinking of a college
Mr. Blaisdell had a vision of a Scripps
College for Women that “could bear the
special influence and ideas and name of
Miss Scripps…an institution that in its
very initiation is committed to breadth
and tolerance and freedom.”  ranean Revival style, a campus that in-
Ms. Scripps traveled to Claremont to
celebrate the start of a fund raising cam-
paign in 1924, and not long afterward,
committed to the Scripps College for
Women. (Mr. Blaisdell later recalled,
“our conversations were always brief.
She left me with the impression of a re-
markable power of visualizing things
that she had never seen.”)
By the end of 1925, plans were under
way, and Mr. Blaisdell and his wife trav-
eled to Europe to visit educational insti-
tutions abroad, a trip financed partly by
Ms. Scripps. At first she didn’t want the
college to bear her name; she felt that it
ought to be named after an educator, not
a philanthropist, but he persuaded her
that the Scripps name would provide the
new college with prestige and publicity.
And so in 1926, Scripps College came
into being, which precipitated the 1926
Time Magazine story with her photo-
graph on the cover, much to her dismay.
She did not seek publicity. She was too
frail to travel from San Diego to Clare-
mont to see the first buildings, but enter-
tained students from the first entering
class and “talked about the campus as
though she had been here,” as a friend
wrote.
And as usual, the gift was made with
Undated photo of Ms. Scripps.
no strings attached. Her lawyer told the
board of trustees, “It has been her policy
always to leave to those who manage the
enterprise absolute liberty,” but the col-
lege “shall illustrate what we hear spo-
ken of as ‘Academic Freedom’ [with] no
clamp put on the search for truth in
whatever direction it may be found.”
Ms. Scripps stated her hopes for edu-
cation: “Life, it seems to me, is about the
most important thing there is. One may
learn stenography or typewriting or
bookkeeping or even teaching, but
preparation for life is fundamental and
ought to be the foundation.”
Her terms speak to arguments today
that would redefine education as voca-
tional training—education is about mak-
ing a life, not just a living. Ms. Scripps
also considered the aesthetic of the cam-
pus as part of its mission.
campus whose simplicity and beauty
will unobtrusively seep into the student’s
consciousness and quietly develop a
standard of taste and judgment.”
And so was built, in the Mediter-
variably appears on lists of the top 10
most beautiful campuses in the country.
Though to my mind, there is no campus
more beautiful.   tained its progressive views?
FINAL THOUGHTS
Ms. McClain has done a heroic job of
excavating this story from the archives,
and an excavation job it was. It took her
10 years to write this book. She reckons
there were about 90 cubic feet of materi-
al in the archives of the Scripps li-
brary—photographs letters, papers, di-
aries, travel diaries—and Ellen’s hand-
writing was terrible. But there are a few
areas covered in the book where I want-
ed more.
I’d have liked more about the political
background, “the great problem of our
day and country—the warfare between
capital and labor,” as she describes it, a
struggle that the Scripps papers were of-
ten embroiled in. E.W. maintained that
the capitalist class controlled the press
and was determined to provide the
workers’ side.
A staunch supporter of unions, he ex-
perimented with an advertisement-free
newspaper that would allow him to ex-
press pro-labor opinions; and he had
Ellen’s backing in this. These were ex-
Claremont COURIER/Focus 2018 17
traordinary positions for millionaires to
take, and certainly not shared by other
major chains, Hearst and Pulitzer, nor, to
my knowledge, by any mainstream me-
dia since.
E.W. sounds fascinating, but remains
a shadowy character in this book. The
death of a son is mentioned in passing,
the disillusionment that caused him to
leave San Diego after Miramar was
mobbed, Ellen’s feeling that he never
got the obituaries he deserved. I’d have
liked a fuller portrait.  
And I’d like to know more about the
newspaper business, since hardly any-
one has heard of the Scripps-Howard
chain anymore. The press is there, rum-
bling away in the background, churning
out a fortune for the Scripps family, we
ishing reach of “America’s largest chain
of newspapers, linking midwestern in-
dustrial cities with booming towns in the
West.”
Ellen “loaned [E.W.] the money to
build the first economically efficient
chain of newspapers in America,” Ms.
McClain tells us. But what made it so ef-
ficient?  Wikipedia says that E.W. had a
knack for taking over a paper while al-
lowing it local control—one of his
“guiding tenets” was that “local editors
know best about running local newspa-
pers. Editors were carefully groomed
and given considerable autonomy;” one
wishes that the vast conglomerates of to-
day understood this.
I wonder, is there a connection be-
tween this savvy business practice,
which worked so spectacularly well, and
Ellen’s respect for her beneficiaries, her
sense that they’d know better than she
how to spend her gifts? Did she pick this
up from her brother, or he from her?
I understand that Ms. McClain is not
writing a history of journalism and
there’s only so much any one book can
do, but a fuller picture would have added
to the life and drama of this biography.
And what’s become of this empire
since? Wikipedia tells us Scripps
Howard became the E.W. Scripps Com-
pany, a media conglomerate.  Has it re-
       
Ms. McClain, in a lecture, describes
Ms. Scripps at the end of her life writing
checks as fast as she could, giving her
fortune away, seeing to it that her family
was provided for, but having no desire to
make them millionaires. She let nobody
in on what she was doing and kept three
bank accounts. Her will was 148 pages
long and had 23 codicils.
I am filled with such fondness and ad-
miration for Ellen Browning Scripps,
reading the story of her life, and pride, as
well, that she was the founder of “my”
college. Where has she been all my
teaching life? Buried in the archives,
that’s where, but thanks to Molly Mc-
Clain, she is out.
I wish I’d known about her while I
was teaching, for she represents so many
of the ideals and values I’ve tried as an
educator to get across. “There is no
wrong committed anywhere—legally or
morally—that does not concern every
one of us,” she said.  
Yet the book also fills me with sadness—
how distant and lofty her ideals seem to-
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day. Her ringing exhortation, “Do you think
if women knew their power and willed to
use it that the pitiful cry of little children
could be heard from the factories and
sweatshops of our cities? Can you con-
ceive that if women had the power and the
will to use it, babies should be dying like
flies from disease and starvation in this
United States?”
Well, yes, I can, actually, having seen
women in politics who show that males
have no monopoly on mean-spiritedness
or opportunism. It’s not so easy today to
believe in “the evolution and uplift of the
human race,” when so many things have
turned so sour. But that doesn’t stop us
from striving to bring about the world
Ellen Browning Scripps envisioned.
H
er words light a way:
“Look upward, not
downward. Look out-
ward, not inward. Look for-
ward, not backward,” and
“lend a hand.”
Now that this biography has brought her
out from the shadows, I hope that Scripps
College will make much of her, find a way
of showcasing her and her legacy, a lega-
cy which is more than monetary, for she
is a model to us all, idealistic, altruistic,
nonmaterialistic, concerned for the wel-
fare of others rather than ego or person-
al aggrandizement, quietly non-con-
frontational yet formidably effective and
feminist to the bone.
Claremont COURIER/Focus 2018 18
It’s a legacy that goes against the
grain of our times, that’s sure, but what
a marvelous role-model, how wonderful
that she should be the founder of this col-
lege that has given so many women a
chance to follow their best talents in a way
she herself never had. Other colleges
make much of their founding fathers,
sporting busts and statues—let’s hear it
for a founding mother. She considered the
students of Scripps College to be her heirs.
And so they are.   
The New York Times obituary got her
right, describing her as “one of the pioneers
of modern journalism who saved the
Scripps newspapers from disaster through
her business acumen and her implicit faith
in the abilities of her younger brother. A
woman who had perfected the art of liv-
ing as well as the art of giving, she revealed
all the graces of a mid-Victorian in the
midst of an active, modern American ex-
istence.”
Thank you, Molly McClain, for turning
on the light.
—Gayle Greene
Scripps College professor emerita
COURIER photo/Steven Felschundneff
In a long-standing tradition at Scripps
College, graduates are given one long-
stem red rose to hold at commencement.
Their gowns are “Scripps Green,” the
college’s own color, which was de-
signed as a nod to the sagebrush that
originally covered the campus. The col-
lege also has its own font (“Goudy
Scripps” or “Scripps College Old Style”)
and a printing press.