Alumni Spotlight / Wilfred Taylor '28
Life Secrets 101

Wilfred Taylor ’28, who graduated from Pomona before Big Bridges was built, led the parade of classes during Alumni Weekend in May. He has attended the past three reunions and this year, for his 80th reunion, was grand marshal, riding in a 1915 Ford Model T Runabout. After the parade, Taylor was surrounded by alums who wanted to snap a picture or ask a question.

He’s used to the attention. As soon as people learn he’s 101, they want to know his secrets for living a long and active life. He says he can’t really point to any magic formula—his daily regimen includes an orange each morning and bourbon and water every night at 6. He also reads a book a week, takes his vitamins and eats “everything.”

A Nebraska native, Taylor moved to California as a teenager and attended Santa Ana High School. During his first two years at Pomona, he lived in a rented room and in a corrugated building off campus, before moving into Smiley Hall. “The quadrangle in front of Smiley was partly an alfalfa field,” says Taylor, who marvels at the size of the oaks outside the residence hall today. “There were no dining halls on campus, so we would line up to go eat at the Claremont Inn on College Avenue.”

Taylor, who was a triple major at Pomona and graduated Phi Beta Kappa, attended Stanford University business school for a year. After serving in the Navy, stationed at Pearl Harbor in 1945, he became treasurer of TreeSweet, a citrus juice company.

The father of three, including Douglas Taylor ’61, and grandfather and great grandfather of 12, Taylor stays physically and mentally active. He lives in the house on a hill in Tustin that he bought 50 years ago with his late wife, Lora, and spends his days entertaining visitors, tanning his legs by the pool—which he also takes care of—and following the stock market. An admirer of Warren Buffet, he reads The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and Forbes, talks to his stockbroker frequently and gives investment advice to his children and grandchildren. Taylor, who water skied at 85 and shot his second hole in one at 90, says he’s moving more slowly these days, but his friends describe him as a social butterfly who is always up for a trip to Newport Beach and a cocktail at sunset.