Pomona's Oldest Graduate (?) Passed Away; She Was 107

Claremont woman dies one month shy of 108

Claudia S. Palma, Staff Writer

Created: 07/07/2009 09:25:04 PM PDT

CLAREMONT - After 107 years, Geneva McHann Shaver's life - filled with stories about growing up in the early 20th century in eastern Los Angeles County - has come to an end.

"She was a wonderful storyteller and always had great, funny stories," said granddaughter Laura Shaver Allen, 54.

Shaver died June 26 at the Mt. San Antonio Gardens senior community just a month shy of her 108th birthday.

Shaver moved to Covina from Missouri when she was a young girl.

"One of my greatest regrets is not hearing her tell the story of when her family moved here from Missouri traveling by car and how her brothers fell out of the car when they were playing around, and the boys had to run behind the car to keep up," recalled grandson Greg Decker, 52.

"I heard the last time she told that story she was laughing so hard she couldn't finish it."

Shaver was part of the graduating class of 1914 at Charter Oak Grammar School, graduated from Covina High School in 1919 and Pomona College in 1923.

She married high school sweetheart Stanley B. Shaver in 1925, and the pair were inseparable until his death in 1987.

"(Stanley and Geneva) were very important in Covina for many years," said Bob Ihsen of the Covina Historical Society. "Anyone that has been in Covina for more than 30 or 40 years or connected to the Covina Woman's Club would know her at least by name."

Shaver taught at Charter Oak for a short while, but she was mainly

Dean Gregory D. Hess on Governor Palin's Resignation?

You've got to hand it to Dean Gregory D. Hess. He sure can turn a phrase, but what he's doing commenting on Politico? Here's the obligatory and odd mention. He's an econ. professor, not a policy wonk! Still his paragraph sized commentary for Politico on the issues du jour have been all worth reading. The econ. department would do well to follow his lead and start blogging themselves, if only to raise the profile of the CMC econ. department. Better watch out, Professor Pitney, look like someone's moving in on your turf.

“The irony is that Gov. Palin now sees the beauty of being a community organizer, a profession she once denigrated. More seriously, it’s not clear where her future lies. She is a charismatic speaker, can give a great stump speech and knows how to rally the party faithful. But she is taking a risk by leaving the governor’s office early. Expect to see her a lot on Fox News, and expect to see a lot less of her extended family in the news (the latter, in part, is the reason she played her hand the way she did).”

Still More Reasons Why CMC Freshmen Should Have Cars

The Facebook group I started last night has swelled to nearly 100 people less than an 18 hours after I created it. You can join it here. Be sure to invite more people. The discussion board has more topics, including emails from CMC alumni who needed their cars as freshmen for one reason or another. Two of those letters are reproduced below. It has been suggested in the comment section that we should ban the other colleges, especially Scripps with its massive parking facility, from attending our parties unless they allow us to park in their lots. I wouldn't say I'm opposed to the idea. There's got to be some give and take. So where is the ASCMC representative that's willing to lead on this?

Anyways, another friend sent this link from CMC's orientation FAQ. Some of us believe that the measure to ban freshmen was only temporary, but it looks to be due to misguided social engineering of the freshmen class. Here's what the authors of FAQ write. (I have italicized the sections of concern. The bolding is theirs.)

Are there parking fees? Is a bike a good option? Freshmen are not permitted to bring cars to campus. We believe that new students should spend more time on-campus, developing their friendships and settling in at the College. Although about half of returning sophomores, juniors, and seniors do bring cars to campus, it is not a necessary part of the CMC experience. Plenty of students ride bicycles or skateboards to get food or run small errands nearby, or even to get to class, but none of these things are necessary. All classes are within easy walking distance, except in rare instances when two classes on different campuses are scheduled too closely together.

. . .

Having a car "is not a necessary part of the CMC experience"? It seems that they have left out all of the reasons I alluded to in my blog post yesterday. What about students that go to church off campus? How about those that volunteer off campus? What about those that work off campus? How is denying all freshmen a car a good idea?

Some alums have already weighed in on this stupid policy. Here's what Kevin Vance CMC '08 has to say.

"If I were starting at CMC next year, I would be outraged. My freshman year experience would have been very different without a car. Certainly, there were personal reasons. My wife/then-girlfriend went to school in West LA, and we tried to see each other about once a week. But, it was also incredibly important as a way to build friendships and bond with other freshman. Not the fact that I, personally, had a car, but that we could share experiences together off-campus--like the beach, mountains, or even places like in-and-out, bowling alleys, movies... not to mention hiking/camping. I think the thing that's really off-putting is that CMC only provides one primary form of on-campus entertainment, and it's not one that provides much enjoyment for freshmen who choose to obey the laws of the state of California.

As you say, it's not like it's in the middle of an urban center. I don't understand how a college out in the suburbs can't MAKE room somewhere for freshmen cars. Maybe the school could rent a nearby vacant lot for parking until the new parking facilities are built? Or maybe an enterprising homeowner or small business owner in Claremont should consider selling parking spots to new students for the year?"

Here's what another student had to say. He requested anonymity.

I woke up at 6:30AM and was reeling in pain. Luckily, I was with my girlfriend (neither of us have cars) and she called an RA to ask to take me to the hospital. Every RA that picked up their phone made up an excuse about why they couldn't take me. Some probably had legitimate reasons, but some simply wanted to sleep in. Eventually, we got a mutual friend to drive me to the hospital... but if I were a freshman, my friends wouldn't have a car to take me. It's true that I could have "asked an upperclassman" - but why put me in that precarious situation in the first place?

The problem with banning cars is that it automatically makes medical emergencies a greater risk for freshman. (Freshman are probably automatically at a greater risk anyway: I guarantee that at least one will suffer alcohol poisoning at some time during the year.) Someone on your blog will argue that if there is a true medical emergency, the person should simply ask an RA or upperclassman. They are correct to assert that someone could ask an RA or upperclassman, but they neglect the fact that (1) RA's don't always do their job and (2) freshmen might not know or might not feel comfortable asking an upperclassman. I wasn't good enough friends with an upperclassman to the point where I could ask to borrow their car until December. Would I have been screwed if a medical emergency happened to me before December of my freshman year?

Institutional Investor Profiles Pomona Student's Hedge Fund

In the July/August 2009 issue of Institutional Investor there's a profile of Merritt Graves PO '11, a Pomona student who has more than $4 million under management in his hedge fund, based in downtown Claremont.

I know very, very little about finance -- my plan is to learn more in my final years at Claremont McKenna -- but I do know enough to think that these numbers are well, very impressive.

...the numbers put up by Caelum Capital, as Graves’s five-person firm is known, are impressive. For a fund piloted by a kid who has no professional investment training and who only recently moved out of the dorms, they are uncanny. Last year, when the average equity hedge fund manager was down 26.4 percent, according to Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research, Graves was up 40.6 percent. In 2007 he returned 174.1 percent, after more than tripling his money the previous year — and nearly doubling it the year before that. . . .

. . . After taking a year off from trading to study the markets, the then-teen summoned the courage to borrow another $7,000 from the same individual [whose money he initially lost], who agreed to give him a shot at making up the prior loss in exchange for half of any additional trading profits.

It proved to be a smart bet. Within a year Graves had turned the $7,000 into $340,000, netting a personal profit of $100,000 after taxes. His winning streak continued as he began studies at the University of Iowa, spent a year abroad at Australian National University and took 12 months off to live in Berkeley, California, to focus on his trading before continuing his education at Pomona. During that three-and-a-half-year period, he turned the $100,000 into $2.8 million, which he used to seed Caelum Capital in October 2007.

I imagine that there are a lot of CMC finance guys who wish that this was their life story, instead of some Pomona student. Still, hats off to Mr. Graves, whose middle class origins and tenacity is downright impressive.