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- Outstanding in Her FieldThe USC School of Social Work has announced the appointment of Micki Gress to senior clinical fellow in field education. This newly created position is a first at USC and for any social work program in the United States.
Gress’ new role will be to lead development in field education, with a primary focus on mental health, probation and child welfare.
Gress has been a field educator for 25 years who has worked with children in residential treatment and severely and persistently mentally ill adults.
Her career at USC as assistant dean for field education has been characterized by community outreach and a commitment to reshaping the concepts and methods of field education.
She currently collaborates with the school’s associate dean for research in a pilot project using interns to introduce new evidence-based practices in one of Los Angeles’ foremost private agencies.
As a fellow, she will continue to lead and extend this experiment to other major settings and disseminate this experience to field educators throughout the country.
Kedes Steps Down
Laurence H. Kedes announced his resignation as director of the USC Institute for Genetic Medicine, effective June 30.
He will return full time to research and remain at the institute as the William M. Keck Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology.
Keck School of Medicine of USC Dean Carmen Puliafito acknowledged Kedes’ role in building the school’s reputation.
“He is an innovative researcher, one that brought USC into the molecular era,” Puliafito said. “We’re pleased that we will continue to have an opportunity to work with him as an accomplished researcher.”
During his tenure, Kedes oversaw the recruitment of more than 20 faculty members, oversaw the design and development of the institute’s research facilities and led its participation in development of multi-investigator research programs, including heart disease, hypertension, gene therapy and craniofacial defects.
Etc.
Horsing Around
Artist LeRoy Neiman and USC trustee Wallis Annenberg were honored at the annual Town & Gown benefit luncheon at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
Neiman and Annenberg received the Trojan group’s Lifetime Scholarship Award and Lifetime Achievement Award, respectively
When Annenberg accepted her award, she announced that the Annenberg Foundation would make a $1 million donation to Town & Gown Program, which annually awards scholarships to more than 300 undergraduate and graduate students.
Neiman plans to help immortalize Traveler with a painting of the beloved Trojan mascot.
For the Record
A story in the April 28 USC Chronicle referred to a new professional doctorate program in regulatory science offered by the USC School of Pharmacy. It will lead to a DRSc degree, not a Ph.D.
In Memoriam: Harlan Hahn, 68
The USC College political scientist was a major force in the disability rights movement.Activist Harlan D. Hahn, leading authority on disability rights and a faculty member at USC College for 35 years, died April 23. He was 68.
Hahn, professor of political science specializing in American and urban politics, had a heart attack in his Santa Monica home, said his only child, Emily Hahn.
“My dad had a great passion for helping the disadvantaged,” Hahn, 29, said. “He cared about people. He was an amazingly smart, smart man. But the funny thing was, he didn’t think he was smart.”
Hahn, who had a joint appointment at the Keck School of Medicine of USC as a professor of psychiatry and behavioral science, earned his master’s and doctoral degrees at Harvard University and authored or co-authored about a dozen books.
The books included Pulitzer Prize-nominated Ghetto Revolts: The Politics of Violence in American Cities (The Macmillan Co., 1973), Disabled Persons and Earthquake Hazards (University of Colorado Institute of Behavioral Science, 1988) and Urban America and Its Police: From the Postcolonial Era Through the 1960s (The University Press of Colorado, 2003).
He wrote hundreds of articles and editorials about heath politics and policies, criminal justice policy, and urban issues and politics for professional journals, books and major metropolitan newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times.
Hahn left USC in 2007. He had been writing his memoir when he died.
“Harlan Hahn’s death is an enormous loss because of his international reputation on disability research and his activism,” said Ann Crigler, chair and professor of political science in the College. “He was also a very well-known researcher in American and urban politics in general. He was one of our department’s most prolific, highly cited and distinguished professors.”
Gelya Frank, professor of anthropology in the College and professor of occupational science and occupational therapy, recalled arriving at USC in the early 1980s, when Hahn and junior faculty members were developing the university’s first disability studies program.
At that time Hahn also was involved in a famous right-to-die case in which quadriplegic Elizabeth Bouvia had sued a California hospital for refusing her request to starve to death.
Hahn had filed an amicus brief with the California Supreme Court, arguing against the woman’s wish to die and urging society to better support the disabled. Bouvia eventually lost the case and later decided she wanted to live.
“I recognized that what Harlan was doing was exciting and important,” Frank said. “He was on the front lines of the shift in political thinking about the disabled. Rather than disability as a private medical matter, he believed in treating the disabled as a minority group that deserved rights.”
Hahn pushed for the U.S. Rehabilitation Act of 1973, prohibiting discrimination based on disabilities, and the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, a wider-ranging civil rights law prohibiting discrimination based on disabilities, his friends said.
“We wouldn’t have these laws without people like Harlan,” Frank said. “We have to see Harlan Hahn as one of the major figures in the disability rights movement.”
Born July 9, 1939, in Osage, Iowa, Harlan Hahn had an identical twin who died at birth so he grew up as an only child, his daughter said. His parents were teachers. At age 5 he contracted polio and spent the next six years in and out of hospitals. He entered school at 11 and used a wheelchair most of his life.
Before entering Harvard, Hahn earned his bachelor’s magna cum laude at St. Olaf College in Minnesota. He was a perpetual student, earning two additional master’s degrees – an M.S. in 1982 from California State University, Los Angeles, and an MPH in 2004 from UCLA.
“Education was really, really important to him,” said Emily Hahn, who is earning her master’s degree in psychology at California State University, Long Beach. “He tried to do the best in helping people who didn’t have access to an education or to health care to get opportunities. He wanted people in disadvantaged situations to have a voice.”
At times Hahn’s activism hit closer to home. In 1998, he filed a suit against USC, claiming that the University Park campus had numerous physical barriers preventing disabled people from equal access to structures. As a result of a settlement in the case, the university has steadily increased its budget for removing such barriers.
“My dad was a real fireball,” Emily Hahn said. “If I accomplish half of what my dad did in his life, I’ll be happy.”
Judy Garner, associate provost for faculty development, created a stem cell research ethics course with Hahn.
“I appreciated working with him,” said Garner, an associate professor at the Keck School. “He broadened my perspective on how stem cell work has become a political force and how the development of this research area has resulted in conversations about ethical dilemmas that really need airing.”
Longtime friend Gerald Caiden, professor at the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development, remembered Hahn as a complex and tireless man whose “mind bubbled over with ideas.”
“When I heard of his death, I immediately felt a loss,” Caiden said. “Never again would I hear his unmistakable voice, ‘Ah, Gerald, how nice of you to phone. Listen, I have this new idea I want to try on you …’ ”
A memorial for Hahn will take place May 15 at 8:30 p.m. inside the craft room at Joslyn Park, 633 Kensington Road, Santa Monica. In lieu of flowers, donations may go to the Disability Rights Advocates in Berkeley.
For questions about the memorial, e-mail HarlanHahnMemorial@gmail.com.
In Memoriam: Ahmed Abdel-Ghaffar, 61
The innovative civil engineering professor was an expert in analyzing and interpreting measurements from long span bridges.Ahmed M. Abdel-Ghaffar, an internationally known USC civil engineering professor specializing in the analysis and monitoring long span flexible bridges, died April 17 after a long illness. He was 61.
Abdel-Ghaffar’s 1974 investigation of the dynamic characteristics of the Vincent Thomas Bridge in Los Angeles, done when he was a graduate student, led to new standards on how to collect, analyze and interpret structural dynamic measurements from complex, three-dimensional, extended structures.
His investigation allowed the development of high-fidelity computational tools used to reliably design such structures to resist the action of earthquake ground motion.
The California Department of Transportation used Abdel-Ghaffar’s computer program when it embarked on a major retrofit of the Vincent Thomas Bridge, and he served as a consultant, determining the damping characteristics of the bridge.
“Professor Abdel-Ghaffar’s excellence and innovation in the area of long span bridges was known internationally and he was much beloved by his students,” said Yannis C. Yortsos, dean of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. “He will be greatly missed by all of his colleagues here and around the world.”
“Building tall bridges that span engineering frontiers and withstand great earthquakes was Ahmed Abdel-Ghaffar’s passion. Ahmed was a gentleman engineer and a dedicated educator,” said Jean-Pierre Bardet, chair of the USC Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering where Abdel-Ghaffar was a member of the faculty.
Abdel-Ghaffar also made major contributions to understanding and analyzing the behavior of structures interacting with soil during earthquakes. He was among the pioneers who conducted forced-vibration experiments on the Santa Felicia Earth Dam and interpreted its recorded seismic and dynamic response.
A meticulous writer with an eye for detail, he was a gifted and dedicated teacher whose lecture notes continue to be used today by his students, many of whom are professors at academic institutions worldwide.
A native of Egypt, Abdel-Ghaffar graduated in 1970 from Cairo University with a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering. He was the class valedictorian, earning a “first class honors” distinction.
After working for two years as an instructor in structural engineering at Cairo University, he attended the California Institute of Technology, where he earned a master’s degree in civil engineering in 1973 and a Ph.D. with an emphasis on structural dynamics and earthquake engineering in 1976.
His reputation at Cairo University as one of the most intelligent and attentive young lecturers led other aspiring Egyptian researchers to follow him to the United States.
Abdel-Ghaffar’s pioneering research at Caltech as a doctoral student under professor George Housner brought him international recognition in the then-emerging field of sensor-based monitoring of long span flexible bridges.
In 1978, Abdel-Ghaffar joined the Materials Engineering Department at the University of Illinois at Chicago-Circle, and he moved to the Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics Department at Princeton University as an assistant professor the following year.
He came to USC in 1987 as a full professor in the Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, part of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.
He served as a consultant to government agencies in the United States, Japan, Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere.
Among Abdel-Ghaffar’s many notable projects was one to monitor vibration of the Golden Gate Bridge. He hung a breathtaking photograph in his office showing him and his students standing near the top of the bridge while collecting sensor data.
During his long illness, he continued to interact from his bed with a number of international contacts and provide valuable advice on many projects, such as the long span bridge across the Gulf of Suez.
Abdel-Ghaffar, a resident of Rolling Hills Estate, is survived by his former wife and three children, all of whom are former or current USC students.
In Memoriam
- Herbert E. Alexander, 80Herbert E. Alexander, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Political Science at USC, who during his long career was known as the dean of political finance and election reform studies, died of cancer in Rockville, Md., on April 3. He was 80.
Alexander authored 20 books and more than 375 monographs and articles in which he described and critiqued how politics, in the United States and elsewhere, is financed.
Every four years, beginning in 1960, he published a study of how the presidential and other federal election campaigns were financed, describing in detail how candidates and committees raised and spent money in search of electoral victory.
The series started with Financing the 1960 Election and concluded with Financing the 1992 Election, published before Alexander had retired from his university teaching position in 1998.
For 40 years, was the director of the Citizens' Research Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan national foundation that studied the role of money in the political process. He spent 20 years in this role in Princeton, N.J., and 20 years at USC.
In the early years of his career, before effective federal campaign finance disclosure laws were enacted, Alexander had to rely on the extensive list of contacts he developed as well as on his own persistence to uncover the information he needed to generate his studies.
Alexander was born in Waterbury, Conn. He earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of North Carolina, a master’s degree from the University of Connecticut and a doctorate in political science from Yale University in 1958.
He taught at Princeton University and at USC and also served briefly as a visiting faculty member at Yale and the University of Pennsylvania.
He was predeceased by his wife Nancy G. Alexander and granddaughter Victoria Alexander. He is survived by three sons, Michael (Sandra) of East Windsor, N.J.; Andrew (Lisa) of Toronto, Canada; and Kenneth (Susan) of Olney, Md.; five grandchildren; and his companion, Barbara B. Seidel.
In Memoriam: John Peter Stein, 45
The renowned Keck School professor and surgeon touched the lives of thousands, says Dean Puliafito.John Peter Stein, an internationally recognized authority on the management of urologic cancers, died April 11 while attending the annual meeting of the American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons in Florida. He was 45.
Stein was a professor of urology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center.
“Dr. Stein was a superb surgeon, a gifted clinician scientist, a role model for peers, residents and students,” said Keck School Dean Carmen Puliafito. “He touched the lives of thousands of patients and saved the lives of many using his extraordinary clinical talents.”
Stein’s work has included research that identified a molecular marker that predicts which bladder cancer patients likely would face remission and which would have relapses.
He served on the editorial board of four major urologic journals, including Urology and the Journal of Urology. Stein was co-director of the Genitourinary Program at the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and was known for his compassion with patients.
“Receiving my diagnosis was the hardest moment of my life,” said Paul Scott, a former patient of Stein’s. “He not only saved my life but gave me full assurance that I would live a long and healthy life. It's now been more than six years.”
Stein’s reputation led to his inclusion on the list of “America’s Top Doctors” for every year since 2005. In 2003, he was the recipient of the Young Investigator Award given by the Society of Urology Oncology.
“Dr. Stein was a brilliant surgeon and dedicated leader in the Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center,” said Peter A. Jones, director of the USC/Norris Cancer Center. “He was one of the most compassionate and skilled physicians I have ever met.”
Born in San Francisco in 1962, Stein grew up in Walnut Creek, Calif., and was a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine.
He completed his urology residency under the direction of Donald Skinner at USC and spent his entire clinical career at the Keck School of Medicine, where he rose to the rank of professor of urology.
“I consider John Stein one of the best surgeons I have ever trained, an extension of my own hands, someone very special, a son and member of my family,” Skinner said.
A nationally known urologic oncologist, Stein was appointed to committees of the American Urology Association, the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network and was secretary-elect of the American Urologic Association, Western Section.
A prominent researcher, he also received several grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute for his bladder cancer research.
He was a passionate basketball player who, despite employment at USC, continued to root for Notre Dame. But first and foremost in his mind was family.
“He was our rock, the foundation of our family, our devoted and loyal support for all of our endeavors and our own biggest fan. His presence lifted any situation, from ordinary to extraordinary or from special to extra special,” said Randi Stein, his wife of 18 years.
“He brought us peace and contentment knowing he was always with us, regardless of where he happened to physically be on any given day. We knew he was always thinking of us first.”
A resident of Pasadena, Stein was a dedicated husband and father. He leaves behind his wife Randi Goress Stein and their four children, John, Joseph, Eleanor and Louisa May.
He is survived by his parents, Robert and Helen Mary Stein of Walnut Creek, by his two brothers, and family of Riverside, Conn., as well as many members of the Goress family.
The Keck School of Medicine of USC will be holding a memorial service in the near future.
Donations can be made to either the John Stein Children’s Trust Fund c/o UBS Financial Services Inc. – Operations Dept. 2000 Avenue of the Stars, 7th Floor North, Los Angeles, CA 90067, or the John P. Stein Chair in Urology c/o USC Department of Urology, 1441 Eastlake Ave, Los Angeles 90033.
In Memoriam: Herbert E. Alexander, 80
The Distinguished Professor Emeritus at USC was an expert in political finance and election reform whose work ‘set the standard.’Herbert E. Alexander, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Political Science at USC, who during his long career was known as the dean of political finance and election reform studies, died of cancer in Rockville, Md., on April 3. He was 80.
Alexander authored 20 books and more than 375 monographs and articles in which he described and critiqued how politics, in the United States and elsewhere, is financed.
Every four years, beginning in 1960, he published a study of how the presidential and other federal election campaigns were financed, describing in detail how candidates and committees raised and spent money in search of electoral victory.
The series started with Financing the 1960 Election and concluded with Financing the 1992 Election, published before Alexander had retired from his university teaching position in 1998.
In the early years of his career, before effective federal campaign finance disclosure laws were enacted, Alexander had to rely on the extensive list of contacts he developed as well as on his own persistence to uncover the information he needed to generate his studies.
He attended every Democratic and Republican National Convention from 1960 to 1992, where he met with political party officials and campaign operatives as well as political fund-raisers and donors, from whom he drew the information that informed his narratives.
For 40 years, Alexander directed the work of the Citizens’ Research Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted exclusively to studying and informing the public about political finance.
The foundation, which was founded in 1958 by William H. Vanderbilt and his family, received major financial support through the years from a number of prominent foundations, including the Ford Foundation, the Carnegie Corp., the Joyce Foundation, the Stern Family Fund and the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Alexander presided over the foundation first in Princeton, N.J., and subsequently at USC.
On the occasion of Alexander’s 80th birthday in 2007, Michael Malbin, a political science professor at the State University of New York, Albany, and executive director of the Campaign Finance Institute, wrote a personal note to his colleague.
“For 40 years, your work set the standard,” Malbin wrote. “That you were able to keep your organization and the integrity of its work going for so long is a monument to the importance and quality of what you were doing.”
Alexander was born in Waterbury, Conn. He earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of North Carolina, a master’s degree from the University of Connecticut and a doctorate in political science from Yale University in 1958.
He taught at Princeton University and at USC and also served briefly as a visiting faculty member at Yale and the University of Pennsylvania.
In 1961-62, Alexander served as executive director of the President’s Commission on Campaign Costs under President John F. Kennedy and subsequently as consultant to President Kennedy on legislation based on the President’s Commission report. The commission’s work initiated the modern era of political finance reform.
Alexander advised numerous federal, state and local election agencies. He was a consultant to the Senate Watergate investigations and to the U. S. Comptroller General, who in 1974 and 1975 headed the Office of Federal Elections, the precursor to the Federal Election Commission.
He also served as a consultant to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission and later as a consultant in the process of founding of the New York City Campaign Finance Board.
In 1996, Alexander received the Samuel J. Eldersveld Career Achievement Award from the American Political Science Association, honoring a lifetime of outstanding scholarly and professional contributions. In 2004, he received an award from the Council of Government Ethics Laws for noteworthy work in the field.
For 20 years, Alexander served as chairman of the International Political Science Association’s Research Committee on Political Finance and Political Corruption.
In that capacity, he edited two pioneering books comparing the American system of political finance with those of other countries. As a testament to his life’s work as a scholar of international reputation, in 2001, 23 academics collaborated on the publication of Foundations for Democracy: Approaches to Comparative Political Finance (Nomos, 2001), a series of essays written in his honor.
In 1998, Alexander relocated to Silver Spring, Md.
Although retired from USC, he remained active in the field he helped to create. He acted as a consultant to the International Foundation for Election Systems, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, the International Republican Institute and the Organization of American States.
Offering congratulations on the occasion of Alexander’s 80th birthday, Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, wrote, “You are America’s foremost authority on campaign finance, and your body of work will forever guide those in the field.”
Prior to his death, Alexander donated his personal library, including all of his own writings, to the Campaign Finance Institute, a non-partisan, nonprofit organization affiliated with the George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
The Alexander Collection will be available to scholars to carry on the work of political campaign finance research and reporting.
He was predeceased by his wife Nancy G. Alexander and granddaughter Victoria Alexander. He is survived by three sons, Michael (Sandra) of East Windsor, N.J.; Andrew (Lisa) of Toronto, Canada; and Kenneth (Susan) of Olney, Md.; five grandchildren; and his companion, Barbara B. Seidel.
Services will be held on Sunday at the Danzansky-Goldberg Memorial Chapel in Rockville, Md.
Memorial donations may be made to the National Jewish Fund.
In Memoriam: Houston ‘Hugh’ Flournoy
The SPPD professor emeritus was a statesman and scholar dedicated to public service, says Dean Knott.Houston “Hugh” Flournoy, professor emeritus of the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development, died Jan. 7. He was 78.
In his lifetime, Flournoy had a long history of service with California’s state government and USC. He made a name for himself by serving as a member of the California State Assembly and as California State Controller in the 1960s and early 1970s.
“He was a fine statesman and a scholar dedicated to public service,” said Jack H. Knott, the C. Erwin and Ione L. Piper Dean and Professor at SPPD.
Recalling Flournoy’s political career, Kristen Soares, associate vice president for external and state government relations at USC, said: “He was a moderate Republican. As a young Republican assemblyman, he voted for the Fair Housing Act, which was really about equal opportunity – not an easy vote for a young Republican. His politics embody a lot of integrity. And I think he would tell you that the difference between the partisanship we read about today and when he was a member is that, at that time, they were friends. He had good friends across both aisles.”
After running as a candidate for California governor in 1974 and losing to Democrat Jerry Brown, Flournoy returned to his first love: teaching. For nearly two decades, he served as a professor in Los Angeles and Sacramento at USC’s School of Public Administration, which is now part of SPPD.
“Teaching undergraduates about the opportunities and pitfalls of getting things done in the State of California was the most enjoyable thing Flournoy felt he had done in his career,” said Robert Biller, professor emeritus and former dean of SPPD.
Flournoy’s involvement with the university continued with his appointment to the positions of vice president for government relations and special assistant to the president. In this capacity, he was a mentor to Soares in many ways and a close friend.
In 2007, Flournoy made a $500,000 gift to the USC State Capital Center in Sacramento to provide seed funding for an endowed professorship in state government. It is the largest gift a tenured member of SPPD’s faculty has ever made to the school.
“His endowment will help continue his legacy of educating USC students about state government in Sacramento,” Soares said.
Founded in 1971, the State Capital Center offers USC students a unique opportunity to study in the epicenter of policymaking in California. The School of Policy, Planning, and Development offers classes there in connection with the Master in Public Administration, the Master in Health Administration, the Executive Master of Health Administration and the Master of Public Policy programs.
Flournoy earned his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and his Ph.D. in political science from Princeton in 1956. Born in New York, he relocated to the West Coast in 1957 to teach and eventually earn tenure at Pomona College.
In Memoriam: Peter Staudhammer
A noted administrator and USC professor, Staudhammer was the chief engineer of the lunar descent engine for NASA’s Apollo missions to the moon.Peter Staudhammer, who led a breathtaking variety of interdisciplinary scientific and engineering projects in both commercial and academic realms, died Jan. 14 after losing his battle with cancer. He was 73.
Staudhammer was the former vice president and chief technical officer of TRW, the former director and chief operating officer of the Alfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering at USC, a member of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering’s board of councilors and a research professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering.
“Pete Staudhammer was an extraordinary engineer and a wonderful colleague and friend,” said Yannis C. Yortsos, dean of the USC Viterbi School. “His experience and leadership helped speed the process of technology transfer from the lab to the marketplace. More importantly, he helped catalyze new technology development in the school and in the biomedical engineering area.”
At TRW, Staudhammer was the chief engineer and one of the principal architects of the lunar descent engine for NASA’s historic Apollo missions to the moon, including the successful rescue of Apollo 13, which was accomplished with the lunar lander.
“Pete Staudhammer was an engineer’s engineer – a broadly competent engineer both highly analytical and innovative,” said Simon Ramo, co-founder of TRW. “He was such a nice man. Everyone – young engineers and senior experts – would come to consult him, as did all of the top executives. He will be greatly missed.”
In 42 years at TRW, Staudhammer performed original research and development on rocket engine combustion, space-borne instrumentation, solid state electronics, thermonuclear fusion, high energy lasers and automotive systems.
He managed development of classified systems used today in national defense and was responsible for TRW corporate technology transfer that led to successful product lines. Among these was automotive electric steering with sales of more than $1 billion per year.
He pioneered hydrazine-fueled rocket engines, now a standard of spacecraft propulsion and developed space instruments for the exploration of Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The most notable of these was the Viking Biology Experiment, the first such instrument to search for life on Mars.
Under his leadership, TRW’s Central Research Laboratories created an ionized plasma-based isotope separation process to separate palladium isotopes for prostate cancer therapy; applied gallium arsenide technology for GHz communications; and developed megawatt-class continuous-wave chemical lasers.
When he retired as TRW’s chief technical officer and vice president for science and technology in 2002, he had been overseeing the efforts of 17,000 engineers and scientists worldwide.
He next served as director and chief operating officer of the USC’s Mann Institute from 2003 until 2007 when ill health forced him to resign.
“Peter was a very competent and very human person whose last years were devoted in large part to trying to make a difference in this world,” Mann said. “He was an effective leader at the Al Mann Institute and a great friend to all of us.”
Staudhammer continued to act as an industry consultant for Northrop Grumman, the U.S. Department of Energy and was a member of the General Motors Corporate Technical Advisory Committee. Early in his career, before going to TRW, he performed fundamental research on the combustion characteristics of rocket fuels at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Staudhammer was a member of the National Academy of Engineering where he was cited for “fundamental contributions to space systems, plasma and microwave processes, instrumentation and its application to commercial systems.” He chaired or served on several of that organization’s committees.
He was a member of the President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee, the Magnetic Fusion Advisory Committee to the Secretary of Energy and served on numerous National Research Council committees. He was a member and/or chair of industrial advisory committees to engineering schools at UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Riverside, the University of Michigan, Case Western Reserve University and USC.
Staudhammer earned his Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering in 1955, a master’s in 1956 and his Ph.D. in chemical engineering in 1957, all at UCLA. UCLA’s engineering school honored him as Alumnus of the Year in 1992, and UC Riverside named him Industrialist of the Year in 2004. Among many honors from NASA, he received the Distinguished Public Service Medal in 2002.
He was a devoted follower of opera who served on the board of the Palm Springs Opera Guild.
A resident of La Quinta, he is survived by his wife Marie, three daughters, three stepchildren and six grandchildren.
In Memoriam: Carol Baker Tharp
The deputy director of USC’s Civic Engagement Initiative was “one of a kind,” says SPPD Dean Jack Knott.Carol Baker Tharp, longtime faculty member and deputy director of the Civic Engagement Initiative at the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development, died of breast cancer on Nov. 25 at her home. She was 55.
Tharp, who served as executive director of CORO Southern California prior to joining SPPD, brought her expertise as a teacher, administrator and civic activist to the school.
“It will be impossible to replace her since she is truly one of a kind,” said Jack H. Knott, the C. Erwin and Ione L. Piper Dean and Professor at USC. “She was a wonderful person and highly respected colleague whose passion for moving us toward a more democratic society was an example and inspiration to us all. She cared deeply about her students and worked unsparingly for the advancement of CEI.”
Professor Terry Cooper, director of the Civic Engagement Initiative at USC, said, “Carol was a central contributor to advancing the work of CEI through her many contacts throughout L.A., her help with research grant advancement and her creative ideas about how to advance democratic governance in American society.”
Tharp also taught citizenship and public ethics to undergraduates.
A letter Tharp sent to Knott in December 2005 included this passage: “I have discovered that teaching ethics to undergraduates brings together many aspects of my professional, scholarly and spiritual journeys. It is both challenging and deeply satisfying. It is a privilege to be in a partnership with professors Cooper and Diane Yoder making a meaningful and long-lasting part of our students’ learning experience.”
During her time at SPPD, Tharp also worked with Associate Dean Rich Callahan to develop executive education and leadership programs, believing SPPD has the capacity to become the most respected and sought-after executive education program for public administrators and elected and appointed officials on the Pacific Rim.
Tharp is credited with naming the SPPD Alumni Guardian Awards and defining the meaning behind it in partnership with the school’s Alumni Association.
Since March, Tharp had served the City of Los Angeles as general manager of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE).
“Her transition to be the general manager of DONE was an extension of her strong commitment to democratic values and processes,” Cooper said.
In a statement, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said: “Carol Baker Tharp loved the city of Los Angeles and spent the past year working to strengthen its neighborhoods as the general manager of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment.
“Through her entire professional career and decades of community involvement as leader of Coro, the acclaimed nonprofit civic affairs leadership training institution, and during her service to USC, Carol maintained the belief that civic engagement is the cornerstone of democracy. She committed her life to expanding power of the people.
“Her integrity, intelligence, compassion and humor will be missed. Though we mourn her passing today, we take comfort in the fact that her work and ideas will continue to yield positive benefits for the people of Los Angeles.”
Tharp earned her Ph.D. in public policy and ethics from Claremont Graduate University in 2003. She was deputy director of CEI from January 2004 to March 2007.In Memoriam: Louis J. Galen
Th noted philanthropist and longtime USC supporter endowed the Galen Center.Los Angeles businessman, philanthropist, community leader and USC trustee Louis J. Galen died Nov. 12 at his home in Rancho Mirage after a long illness. He was 82.
Galen and his wife Helene have been staunch supporters of USC, with their generosity most prominently marked by the construction of the 10,258-seat USC sports arena and events center that opened in 2006.
The Galen Center, which was made possible by a gift of $50 million from the Galens, now graces the Figueroa Street Corridor across the street from the USC University Park campus. With a towering brick façade marked by athletic images and a skylight view of downtown Los Angeles, the Galen Center has become one of the premier event venues in the city.
“Lou Galen and his wife, Helene, have always been devoted members of the Trojan Family,” said USC President Steven B. Sample. “Lou’s legacy will live on through the many buildings and programs that bear the Galen name. I speak for many when I say I will miss him deeply.”
In addition to providing a landmark gift to create the new structure, Galen and his wife were tireless in their support of USC, also endowing the Helene and Louis Galen Ceramics Studio in the USC School of Fine Arts.
In 2005, the couple also endowed the Helene V. Galen Intermedia Lab at the school, and Helene Galen was named an honorary alumna of the USC School of Fine Arts. The couple also gave funds toward establishment of a sports-themed dining facility at USC’s Heritage Hall, which opened in 1999.
Trojan athletics have played a major role in the Galens’ life, and vice versa. Louis Galen began his love affair with Trojan athletics as a boy selling hot dogs during football games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
He proposed to his London-born wife in front of 3,000 people at a USC-Notre Dame football rally and presented her with a Trojan Marching Band helmet on their wedding day. Galen was also a member of the USC Athletic Hall of Fame.
USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett said, “Lou Galen was the heart and soul of the USC athletic department. But for him, we wouldn’t have the Galen Center arena or dining facility. We accomplished things with his support that have never been done in the history of USC athletics, both on and off the field. We’ll deeply miss this great man. The thoughts of the entire Trojan Family go out to Lou's family.”
Tim Floyd, the head coach of USC’s men’s basketball team, said to the Los Angeles Times: “In all my years as a college coach, I’ve never seen anybody who gave more, who lived for their school more, who was more interested in the future after he left this Earth than Lou."
Galen, who graduated from the USC Law School in 1951, made his fortune in the banking industry. In 1960, he became president of Lynwood Savings and Loan, a company he founded, and changed its name to World Savings.
Galen then formed Transworld Financial, a holding company for World Savings, which merged with Golden West Financial and grew into a multi-state institution.
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