Issue: Autumn 2005

Magazine Memories

In one form or another, USC has been regaling its alumni with reports from old alma mater for 88 years. With history on everyone’s mind in this 125th jubilee year, USC Trojan Family Magazine reflects on its own antecedents.

By Christine E. Shade

Commenting on the success of USC’s alumni magazine, a long-ago editor once wrote: “It has demonstrated the fact that Trojan spirit still exists in the hearts of thousands of students who have long since left the scenes of their campus days. Trojan spirit must be mobilized on all fronts. The greatest days of the University of Southern California history are yet to be.”

The year was 1923. Little did that editor, Judge Kenneth C. Newell, guess how prescient his words would be. Now as then, new graduates of USC fan out into the world each year, holding fast to their degrees in engineering, history, business or art, as they prepare to make their marks on the world.

“One of the parts of my job I like best is running into Trojan alumni wherever I go,” wrote President Steven B. Sample in the Autumn 2003 issue of USC Trojan Family Magazine. “They tell me stories of what the university was like when they were students, or how USC helped shape their lives, or how proud they are to see what USC has become. And they almost always close with the same sentiment – ‘I’m a Trojan for life.’”

From the beginning, alumni have been encouraged to keep in touch, to remain involved with their alma mater, to contribute not just monetarily – although that’s certainly encouraged – but through volunteer work. To show Trojan spirit by attending events. And to keep classmates informed about their lives. In turn, USC has kept in touch with its Trojans. But for the first 36 years of the university’s existence – from 1880 to 1916 – there was no official means to regularly reach alumni, except for an “annual class letter” in 1915 and 1916. That changed in the fall of 1916, when the USC Board of Trustees created the position of University Alumni Secretary to give USC a “definite point of contact with its alumni.”

The first issue of The Alumni Magazine, with its plain brown cover, came out in June 1917. It reported university news, alerted alumni to changes in the campus landscape and, true to its time, focused on USC’s role in the war effort. (One article named the first 40 students to, as the author patriotically put it, offer “their all on the altar of the Nation” – i.e., to enlist.)

In fact the Great War, and how it affected the campus, dominated the first few years of the magazine’s existence. Alumni learned that athletic fields had been given up and Bovard Field had become a drilling ground. That women students volunteered at the Red Cross. And (reflecting the industrial nature of this war) that USC’s curriculum had been adjusted to give more attention to engineering, agriculture, biology and chemistry. Enrollment stood at 4,427.

Alumni dutifully sent notices of engagements, marriages and births. (The names of newborns appeared under the heading: “Future Prospects for USC.”) Class notes made it known that so-and-so was now the proprietor of a drug store, an art teacher, a museum curator or a lawyer. The “Year’s Athletic Summary” bemoaned the fact that USC had not “conquer[ed] all her athletic foes in the good old Caesar fashion as Southern California teams were wont to do in earlier days,” while a notice under “Alumni News Notes” related that her recent promotion made liberal arts alumna Ethel Hardie ’99 the highest salaried woman in Pacific Mutual Life Insurance’s Los Angeles office.

By 1919, editors had added a section called “Letters from the Front.” One, written by Clyde Collison, alludes to the university family he had left far behind: “I know that wherever I may go in these uncertain times … that your love may make light many a dark time.” Ten days later, he died in the flu pandemic.

Yet there were signs of optimism too. In the March 1922 issue, reader J. Eugene Harley asserted that USC was at “the crossroad of her history” and that each alumnus was “under a lasting and inescapable [sic] obligation to talk, work, fight, pay and pray for the institution whose flag they fly.”



Then and Now
From those first issues, with their modest, scholarly demeanor, the alumni publication has metamorphosed to many lengths (as few as six pages, as many as 84) and sizes (as small as 6 1/2 inches by 9 1/2 inches, and larger than today’s Los Angeles Times). It has borne different nameplates, been published at different intervals and achieved different circulation sizes. It’s been printed on newsprint and glossy stock; it’s been black-and-white, two-color and four-color. It’s been all over the map with regard to design, content and editorial style. But the mission has never wavered: to forge and re-forge the link between the alumni and their university.

That first issue of the Alumni Magazine stands in stark contrast to the current 84-page glossy now in your hands: USC Trojan Family Magazine. Today’s alumni magazine reaches more than 200,000 readers, some two-thirds of them Southern Californians, the rest scattered across the nation. The university’s international offices in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan and Taiwan also distribute copies to alumni based in these places, as well as in Seoul, Singapore, Bangkok and beyond.

Formative Years
A common thread from the very first issue to the current one has been the desire to keep in touch – and Trojans have never been shy about this. In 1925, the magazine (which went to nearly 5,000 alumni) included a page of alumni business cards and a professional directory. The February issue carried ads for a men’s clothing store, life insurance and local businesses.

Five years later, the plain brown wrapping gave way to more stimulating imagery. The cover of the September 1930 issue, painted by artist Vernon Morse, showed a pastoral scene: “In 1880,” the cover caption explained, “the site of the University of Southern California was a rustic setting of gnarled trees and wild mustard.”

A whole new look (and a new name) greeted Trojan alumni in 1941. Published 10 times a year, the Southern California Alumni Review featured campus scenes on the cover and a new layout and lively graphics inside.

Yet the university was hardly rolling in money. In a column for the September issue, editor Clifford Hughes ’17, LLB ’21 raised the alarm about “recent predictions that this generation will see the end of privately endowed institutions of higher learning.” It would mean the “surrender of intellectual leadership by the United States,” he warned.

Adding to the insecurities of the time, war was back in the headlines. A magazine feature focused on the university’s professional engineering-defense training efforts, which prepared multitudes of office workers – “the so-called ‘white collar’ element” – to contribute to the war effort. New classes were cropping up in industrial engineering, advanced biology and advanced chemistry for students who were either “employed or employable” in fields essential to national defense, the article noted.

The mood of the magazine changed from fortitudinous to euphoric when editor Loyd Wright LLB ’15 wrote of Japan’s capitulation in the October 1945 issue: “We are proud of our Alma Mater’s contribution to the successful war effort.” The creation of the atomic bomb brought with it new questions for academe, such as who will further develop “this terrific force”: “The move is on,” Wright warned readers, to subject private institutions doing research to government control.

By the late 1940s, some 60,000 Trojans had either attended or graduated from the university. The master file of alumni only went back to 1924, but USC strove to keep these records current. It was no small task when each month a thousand Trojans changed their addresses.

Establishment and Anti-Establishment
By the 1950s, USC was an acknowledged leader in Southland life. Two out of three area judges, dentists and school principles were Trojans. So were half of all pharmacists and social workers, and a third of all lawyers.

The magazine reflected this sense of having arrived. The October 1953 issue reported that 12 of 18 superior court judges newly appointed by Gov. Earl Warren were Trojans; so were four others recently named to the municipal bench. The same issue reported on the medical school’s 25th anniversary, celebrated in style by 400 alumni, faculty and friends with a “formal dinner at the Ambassador Hotel.”

But change was in the air. A 1959 article by engineering dean Philip S. Biegler complained how it had “become fashionable to speak disparagingly of materialism.” And as the 1960s arrived, an emphasis on materialism did indeed seem to be on the wane. Always mindful of future Trojans, the magazine published an article directing alumni parents to “nourish curiosity” in their offspring and, when reviewing report cards, to ask “What have you learned?” rather than “What did you get?”

In 1961, the Southern California Alumni Review laid out the university’s landmark Master Plan for Enterprise and Excellence in Education. There were letters from on high, including one from President John F. Kennedy: “You are to be congratulated for having so intensively planned your future and for undertaking this important venture,” the president wrote. A letter from a U.S. embassy-worker in the Philippines to an engineer in Ankara sent words of support. The master plan was called “an historic fork in the road.”

Richard L. Coffey served as editor during most of the 1960s. “Trojan Digest” listed brief news items, and “Personals” related career advances. Articles appeared on urban renewal; religion on campus; running back Mike Garrett ’67; literary censorship; the men’s crew team; the role of the philosopher; and the history of race riots in urban areas, including those in Watts in 1965.

Onward and Up, Up and Away-ward
In the fall of 1967, editor Judith Graybeal took the helm of the Southern California Alumni Review, opening with a cover story titled “Americans in Edinburgh.” The photo feature showed the School of Performing Arts at its second season in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. USC was the first American university to participate; students from the drama division gave 72 performances in 18 days to great reviews. (Trojans still take part in the yearly festival; in May 2005, the USC School of Theatre honored director John Blankenchip for his 50 years of teaching and his role in taking students to the “Fringe.”)

In step with the times, an article in the July 1969 issue of the magazine – newly renamed Trojan Family – reflected on serious problems besetting the nation and the world. “It is easy to see the grimness of life,” President Norman H. Topping was quoted as saying. “It is easy to doubt that any progress toward a life of beauty can be made. Yet, this summer, man probably will stand on the moon and look back upon the Earth as a place of beauty.”

Indeed, that man would be 1970 graduate Neil Armstrong, the first alumnus to be profiled in the “Class Notes” section (1989) and the speaker at USC’s 122nd commencement ceremony (2005).

By 1972, the magazine’s circulation had reached about 75,000. There was a full calendar of campus events to lure alumni back to their old stomping grounds, as well as an array of news items, lists of academic appointments and class notes. The October issue ran an article on the nation’s first lady, alumna Patricia Ryan Nixon ’37, who was then heading up the Annual Giving Program.

Those were turbulent times, and when President Nixon announced that U.S. troops were fighting in Cambodia, it sparked a spirited student-faculty protest on campus. An article in the June 1970 issue didn’t sugarcoat things: Headlined “Four Days in May – Before, During and After,” it gave a complete chronology of the protest.

Even amid civil unrest, football remained a popular subject, and the January 1973 issue commemorated what would be USC’s 18th appearance in the Rose Bowl with a two-page retrospective reliving the team’s triumphs between 1930 and 1970.

Change was again in the air, and the April 1978 issue gave alumni a whiff of the future. Campus enhancement was a major priority of the $2.5 million Toward Century II campaign. “By 1980 – USC’s 100th birthday – the university will be a truly outstanding place aesthetically, as well as academically and athletically,” an article quoted trustee Paul Trousdale as saying. The building- and real-estate developer led the campus renewal fundraising effort.

A new park-like campus would knit together the various halls of learning while relegating cars to parking lots. New entrances with “University of Southern California” boldly carved in concrete proclaimed an identifiable campus boundary, and a new university graphic-identity system was in the works.

Road to the Present
The November 1989 issue carried a cover story on USC’s pioneering program in the neurosciences. Inside, it featured a Q & A with President James H. Zumberge – “USC’s Man of the Decade.” Reflecting on his 10 years at the university’s helm and his view of the future, Zumberge singled out alumni for special attention, calling them “the public results of what we claim to be, and their presence wherever they are reflects on the way that their lives have been changed by having been students at USC.”

The 1990s opened with an article exploring USC’s historic neighborhoods and “Recollections by former President Norman Topping,” who had just celebrated his 80th birthday.

Subsequent issues de-fuzzed a new field called “fuzzy math,” celebrated the musical gifts of four USC student-virtuosi and published a report to the USC Board of Trustees on the status of undergraduate education.

Superchemist George Olah’s work at the Loker Hydrocarbon Institute was featured in the September 1990 issue, wherein Olah declared working in a university setting “superior to working in industry. It keeps you active. It keeps your productive juices flowing.”

He was proven right. Four years later, Olah received the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his discoveries, which had started a revolution in hydrocarbon chemistry. His medal was featured on the cover of the Winter 1995 issue.

With the millennium in sight, some magazine articles of the 1990s nostalgically looked back at the past. In an essay titled “I Remember USC,” Class of 1921 student body president and track team captain Gwynn Wilson shared his memories. Another article reviewed the Zumberge years.

But the future also came into view with the Winter 1990 issue, which introduced incoming president Steven B. Sample to alumni with a feature article that laid out his legacy of accomplishment as president of SUNY-Buffalo and shared his vision for USC. The Autumn 1991 issue, celebrating Sample’s inauguration, presented an extensive interview.



Other issues of the 1990s focused on the USC Family of Five Schools program (neighborhood partnerships had moved even higher on USC’s agenda; Sample’s inauguration had come on the heels of the Rodney King riots). The record cash gift of $120 million from publisher-statesman Walter H. Annenberg in 1993 and the announcement of USC’s $1 billion “Building on Excellence” campaign in 1995 received extensive coverage.

While the magazine’s goal remained the same as ever – to keep alumni informed, involved and engaged – an appreciation for the amazing breadth of Trojan interests was emerging. USC Trojan Family issues of the 1990s had something for everyone. A feature on robots was followed by an article on poetry; a piece on the Trojan Marching Band abutted one devoted to master architect John Parkinson. Alumni read about the launch of the Environmental Studies Institute on Catalina Island, changes at nearby Exposition Park, the USC Symphony’s performance at the Kennedy Center and Tommy Trojan’s 65th birthday bash.

In issues from 2000 onward, alumni rediscovered their campus through a special fold-out feature meant to “minimize the construction shock” caused by a $445 million building plan (“Boom with a View”); they got a sneak peek into USC’s Summer Seminars, a college preview program for future Trojans; they could relive 100 years of law school history. There were stories on medical advances, on cancer and diabetes, on living beyond AIDS and on bionic brains. Dear to the hearts of alumni living in earthquake territory, there was an article on the latest seismological research (“Quake-Up Call”). The magazine, meantime, was acquiring a reputation for pithy and punning headlines.

Today, the magazine continues to seek out stories reflecting the university’s balance between teaching and research. Current editor Susan Heitman, who came on board in 1983, brings to its pages the exploits of the best of USC’s faculty and students in the hopes of keeping alumni close to the vest.

When the university introduced a new graphic identity in 1996, the face of USC Trojan Family Magazine changed again – taking on a sharp new visual edge. Despite encroachment by the Internet (the magazine is archived electronically back through 1997 at www.usc.edu/trojan_family), this print format is likely to be around for a long while. But given all the permutations of publications past, who really knows what the future will bring?

Fight on! Read on!