John Rabold ’75, 2025 Alumni Distinguished Service Award recipient, is being honored for inspiring his classmates to stay connected with Pomona and each other.
A former member of the Pomona College Orchestra, Rabold still enjoys classical music.
Singing in the Pomona College Choir and Glee Club as a student holds fond memories for Rabold.
Some might call John Rabold ’75 a class whisperer.
That’s because he’s been mobilizing his fellow Class of 1975 members for alumni events, reunions and virtually all things Pomona College, for decades. From managing their alumni online community to encouraging classmates to participate in events, Rabold regularly "chirps" to classmates about staying connected with Pomona and each other.
Rabold has served as a 1975 Class Reunion Committee member for many years, helping them plan events, including this year’s 50th reunion. He has also been instrumental in fundraising for class gifts.
The longtime volunteer and Sagehen messenger, who is described as humble by classmates, is now being honored for his devotion to Pomona with the Alumni Distinguished Service Award from the Alumni Association Board this year. Given annually, this award recognizes alumni for their selfless commitment and ongoing volunteer service to the College.
“No other member of the Class of 1975 has had as much online presence and outreach to ensure awareness and attendance at upcoming alumni events and general Pomona membership,” says Doug Wilcoxen ’75, who nominated Rabold for the award. “John deserves a lot of credit for the degree of participation of our class in alumni activities.”
Former Alumni Association Board President Anne Thacher ’75 adds: “John honors his class with his determination to make our reunion years special.”
For his part, Rabold never anticipated public recognition for his efforts to strengthen his classmates’ bonds to one another and the College.
“I am surprised and flattered that my contributions to Pomona College and to the alumni experience, which have been small and largely behind the scenes, have been noticed and appreciated,” Rabold says.
At Pomona, Rabold found himself in a much wider world than he had known growing up with parents who did not attend college. He says he was influenced by the wisdom and enthusiasm of faculty, including James Armantage, former professor of religion, and the late Martha Andresen, emerita professor of English, with whom he fondly remembers discussing John Milton in class. He also says he admired his fellow students’ ambition and valued learning from their intelligence, experience and diverse backgrounds.
Outside of the classroom, Rabold played in the Pomona College Orchestra and sang in the Pomona College Choir and Glee Club. He also gave campus tours to prospective students.
After graduating from Pomona with a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts, Rabold earned his MBA in finance and accounting from UCLA. He worked in corporate finance in the Los Angeles area, eventually focusing on evaluating and monitoring retirement fund investments, and later provided business-to-business services in investment management.
In the late 1990s, Rabold left the finance industry and began volunteering with several nonprofit organizations. He also served on an advisory board of the Thacher School’s Summer Science Program, a small astrophysics program for high school students co-founded by Paul Routly, who was then a physics and astronomy professor at Pomona. Rabold later helped create Summer Science Program, Inc., a nonprofit which extended the life of the program. The science program now operates on multiple campuses and offers several different tracks.
Now retired, Rabold continues to find it rewarding to volunteer for nonprofit organizations, the College and his beloved Class of 1975.
“I’m motivated to stay involved with Pomona College,” he says, “because of its mission and the broad educational enrichment we received as students, which we are obligated to use to make the world a better place.”
Visit our website to read more about the 2025 Alumni Award honorees.