Volume 27 · Number 4 · Summer 2010
Letters
Aggie Spirit 1939 —’a Thing to Behold’
It has been 68 years since I left the Davis campus to join the Army at Fort Benning, Ga., and there has been a world of change since then. Reading your magazine over the years leaves me with the impression that the only thing we share in common with the present Aggies is the name. In fact, I find some of your principals have little knowledge of the old Aggie campus of my day. Then along came the spring issue with the article [“14-12”] abut the 1939 Aggie football team. My, that brought back a flood of memories. That was a great group of men who made history in Berkeley. I was a freshman and had the honor and pleasure of serving as a yell leader with head leader Jim Leathers and his friend Jack Manders. As always, the student body was out in force as they avidly supported the Aggie athletes. The Aggie spirit was a thing to behold. Thank you for a marvelous trip down memory lane.
Robert Herrick ’43
Bakersfield
Mitsuo Nitta
Your engaging Spring 2010 article about the 1939 Aggies vs. Bears football game described Aggie Mitsuo Nitta as the “hero of the game.” Obviously, Nitta is of Japanese ancestry, yet your article says not a thing about his fate after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and subsequent Japanese internment order. How could you possibly overlook such a transcendent detail about this talented UC Davis student?
Lawrence Haun ’71, J.D. ’79
Sonora
Editor’s note: Other readers also asked what became of Nitta, and about a photo caption that said he served as Aggie captain in 1942. In fact, he was captain in fall 1941 and graduated that December. During World War II, his family was interned in Poston, Ariz., and Nitta served in the Army at Camp Shelby, Miss., Fort McClellan, Ala., and as the war wound down, with the 442nd Infantry in occupation duty in Europe. After the war, he returned to his family farm in Santa Ana and became a successful strawberry grower. He served on the California Strawberry Advisory Board for 20 years, including two years as chair, and was a 1989–92 UC Davis Foundation trustee. He received a 1989 achievement award from the Agricultural Society of Japan and a 1991 Award of Distinction from the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. He died in November 1996 at age 76.
Isao Fujimoto
I so enjoyed reading about my former applied behavior sciences instructor, Isao Fujimoto, in the spring 2010 edition. “Better Late than Never” reminded me how courageous and committed Isao was to his students in the years I attended UC Davis, 1978–81. And here he is at age 76 still punching away at academia and taking his Ph.D. after a 50-year absence from the process. What a wonderful man this Isao Fuimjoto is. I was one of those students blessed to be in his classroom when he gave full voice to his brand of social justice and ethnic studies and motivated all those privileged to be in his presence. He informed my outlook forever. I was especially taken by his firm defense of American Indian rights in 1978. I can only guess that his sensitivity was influenced by living as a child on the Yakima Indian reservation in Washington state. He understood the full American Indian experience in that his parents and siblings were removed from their home and placed in internment camps during the second World War much like the original people of America who had been rounded up previously and placed on reservations. I’d like to salute Isao Fujimoto for his ambition, character and stick-to-it energy. He’s still a wonderful role model today.
Richard Matt ’81
Elk Grove
Darrell Steinberg
Your blind, sickening tribute [spring 2010] to Darrell Steinberg, the state Senate leader of the party that has spent California into near-bankruptcy, was truly disgusting. We are supposed to laud a man who considers his greatest accomplishment to be yet another tax increase?
David Miller ’69, Ph.D. ’74
San José
Paul Dempsey and Margaret Mead
I was saddened to read [spring 2010] of the passing of psychology professor Paul Dempsey. He was a witty and enthusiastic teacher who gave students guidance and support. In 1963–64 the eminent anthropologist Margaret Mead came to UC Davis to speak to the student body. Dr. Dempsey had arranged to also have her speak to our clinical psychology class, consisting of probably all the undergraduate psychology majors, which was then about 20 or 30. It was my job to escort Dr. Mead from her speech at Freeborn Hall to our classroom, giving me about 15 minutes to ask her all my rehearsed, utterly profound questions. I don’t remember her answers, but I remember her as a polite, unpretentious person. She was diminutive in size but had a 6-foot-long walking stick. Her pithy, direct answers to our questions made the class appearance a success but Dr. Dempsey was typically calm and nonchalant about it all. He was a fine man and teacher and he will be missed.
Vincent Brede Westby ’64
Petaluma
Dairy Barn Living
Editor’s note: An Aggies Remember essay by Ian Coster ’54, D.V.M. ’58, “Life in the Old Hog Barn,” in the winter 2010 issue prompted a number of readers to share memories of their experiences working and living in campus animal barns. Another former city boy writes about life in the old dairy barn, now home to the Bike Barn and Outdoor Adventures:
My first year at UC Davis, I lived in Becket Hall where I met Ian Coster. His creative enterprise was selling sandwiches to fellow dorm residents — and I often partook. The next year, 1955–56, I lived in the second story of the dairy barn over herdsman Orval Borland’s office. Rounding up numerous young dairy animals after they broke out of their corrals developed my skills avoiding injury. It was also my job to fill up a truck with odiferous silage. And each winter morning, I had to trek over to the artificial insemination barn. One perk of living in the dairy barn was the inexhaustible supply of cream for the many cups of coffee I drank while studying to get accepted into the veterinary school. My experiences at the dairy barn helped me get in — and gave me insights into the many species I have treated in my 45 years of practice.
Morton La Pittus ’59, D.V.M. ’61
Huntington Beach
Women’s Rowing
As a parent and supporter of the university, I strongly object to cutting the women’s rowing program from NCAA-sanctioned Division 1 athletics at UC Davis. This 30-year-plus program exemplifies UC Davis academics and athletic excellence. The team exhibited exceptional teamwork and diversity in practice and competition. A major portion of the funding for the team and equipment is provided by parents, alumni and commercial sponsors.
Rowing is an Olympic event and is a well-established NCAA sport. Rowing draws athletes from a diversity of high school sports and is a recognized motivator for businesses and professionals worldwide. Our daughter chose UC Davis over other established universities because of the excellent Aggie academic and athletic history. The team is as unique and exceptional as the university itself. To quote Vice Chancellor Fred Wood in 2007: “I feel we’re all in the same boat, rowing in unison.” Keep the UC Davis women’s rowing team afloat.
Robin Bryson
Sacramento
Editor’s note: For more about the budget-related decision to cut women's rowing and three other sports, see page 42.
Seeking Alumnus who Raised Campus Awareness of Learning Disabilities
An undergraduate, on the eve of his graduation in about 1985, ventured to the Chancellor’s Office to tell us of a concern. Though he was graduating, this student was dyslexic and getting his degree hadn’t come easily. At that time learning disabilities were not recognized or accommodated in university disabilities offices, including ours. He knew that there were studies afoot that were verifying the validity of learning disabilities and he thought we should be accommodating students who suffered from them. Long story short, after initial resistance, then two long committed studies, our office began to collaborate with faculty and students to work out appropriate accommodations for the learning disabled. It was a big accomplishment for an undergraduate student, but . . . we’ve lost his name! Was that you? Or do you know him? Let us know at lnvanderhoef@ucdavis.edu.
Larry Vanderhoef
Chancellor Emeritus
Gerald Hallee
Former Assistant Executive Vice Chancellor