Distinguished Service / Robert Herman '51
Urban Adventurer

By Pauline A. Nash

As he expounds on the beauty and optimism of an art deco façade, Professor Emeritus Robert Herman ’51 offers an alternative to the gritty and dodgy downtown L.A., revealing a city that is vibrant and inclusive. “The center of the city has life—enchantment,” he says.

Herman began offering tours of downtown Los Angeles in 1986. He hopes people come away from his tours wanting more—shedding their pre-conceptions and the congestion of freeways to explore the city by foot. Leaving the frustration and fatigue of driving can be liberating, Herman says. “When you get out of your car and walk, you see the city within its context.”

For his tireless advocacy of a stronger connection between the people of Pomona College and the gems of L.A.’s urban core, Herman is the recipient of the College’s 2008 Distinguished Service Award for alumni.

Though Herman has an obvious passion for downtown L.A., this urban enthusiast and his wife, Carol B. Herman ’51, have called Claremont home for nearly 50 years. A sociology major at Pomona, Herman returned in 1960 to the College, where he taught until he retired in 1998. That same year, he wrote and self-published the first edition of Downtown Los Angeles: A Walking Guide, now in its fourth printing.

For Herman, urban sociology became not only an area of interest, but also a focus of intensive work. After a sabbatical year in 1984-85 focused on urban issues in Boston—known as one of America’s best “walking cities”—Herman returned to L.A. amid a construction boom of art and commerce buildings. He began leading student and faculty tour groups. The arrival of the Metrolink train system in the early 1990s offered a direct connection between the Claremont Depot and Union Station, enabling him to increase the frequency of the tours.

His trips to the city center yield a trove of arches and colors—a mix of art deco, Spanish colonial revival and minimalist modern structures. If pressed to pick a favorite Los Angeles destination, Herman says it’s hands down the Central Library. He appreciates the egalitarian nature of the library, calling it “truly cosmopolitan.”

Herman continues to offer tours of downtown L.A., The Claremont Colleges and Claremont, where he has been involved in historical preservation efforts for years. He is often seen walking under the canopy of Claremont trees to his Hahn Building office at Pomona. And two or three days a week he volunteers at The Huntington Library in San Marino, cataloging and researching another life-long love, streamline trains.

About the award, he modestly says, “It was easy to do the things that the College thinks of as service.” If his volunteer service is, as he calls it, “cherry picked,” maybe it is because Herman found his life’s calling.