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LEADERSHIP

Dean Hans Palmer

Economics Professor Hans C. Palmer became the new vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college, succeeding Dean Laura Hoopes, who stepped down to join the faculty and return to her teaching and research.

Pomona Donates Herbarium to RSABG

The Board of Trustees approved the transfer of ownership of Pomona's herbarium specimens to Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Gardens in June 1998. The herbarium of Pomona College was established in 1909, based upon the near-100,000 specimen personal collection of Charles Fuller Baker, then a professor of botany at Pomona. It was later augmented with additions from Marcus E. Jones in 1923 and Philip A. Munz, a Pomona professor of botany from 1917 to 1944, and Lyman Benson, a professor of botany from 1944 to 1974. Integration of the two collections (Pomona and RSABG) began in 1965, but ownership was only transferred in 1998.

Goya Acquisition

Montgomery Gallery (now Pomona College Museum of Art) obtained a first-edition set of Goya's La Tauromaquia (Bullfight, 1816) etchings in 1998 with funds provided by the estate of Elise and Walter Mosher. This acquisition completed a first-edition set of all of Goya's four etching series (Los Caprichos, 1799; Desastres de la Guerra, 1810-14; Los Disparates, 1815-24). The first three series were obtained in 1974, and with this fourth acquisition, the Gallery joined such world-renowned institutions as the Louvre, Prado and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art in its ability to offer all four etching series under one roof. 

CAMPUS

Renovation of Carnegie Hall

In 1997-98, an extensive year-long renovation, led by architect Brian R. Bloom, both modernized Carnegie Hall and restored a number of its original details that had been lost in previous renovations, including the iron and oak staircase and glass skylight.

Business Office Facts

The spring 1998 issue of Pomona College Magazine listed the total disk space occupied by Business Office systems was 4.4 gigabytes, and the number of W2s issued in 1997 was 2,120.

STUDENT LIFE

Campus Tragedy

Tragedy struck campus on Feb. 23, when an 80-foot, 100-year-old eucalyptus fell on a car that was stopped at the corner of Fourth and College, instantly killing two Pomona students, Brian Cressner and Yuta “Peter” Kurahashi.

ALUMNI

Sylvain White

Sylvain White ’98 directed his first feature film, Stomp the Yard, which became a No.1 box office movie in 2007. His most recent project is Misere with Gérard Depardieu and Marthe Keller. (While at Pomona, White was also a two-time track All American in the triple jump.)

ELSEWHERE

• The first euro coins were minted in France but had to be melted and minted again a year later due to changes in the final specifications.

• The bombings of the United States embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, killed 224 people and were linked to terrorist Osama Bin Laden.

• Google was founded in Menlo Park, California.