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In Memoriam
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Fall 1999 and Spring 2000 Pomona Magazine reports the following deaths:
Henry V. Cobb ‘30 #81 Lee H. Clearman ‘33 #123 Harry C. Hargreaves ‘34 #129 Earle B. “Bev” Blakeslee ‘36 #154 Roy M. Smith ‘36 #160 Robert Ringle ‘38 #169 Arthur C. Bliss ‘41 #207 Thomas E. Winchester ‘43 #250 W. Frank Baum ‘49 #330 Charlotte L. Andersen ‘90 #1002 And from the realm of Friends of Nu Alpha Phi:
Rollin Eckis ‘27 #71Retired Pomona College trustee Rollin P. Eckis, a pioneering geologist and former oil company executive who helped discover oil fields from Kern County to Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay, died November 12, 1999, at age 94. On a flat, treeless tundra about 250 miles north of the Arctic Circle, Rollin Eckis had a hand in the biggest oil strike in the Western Hemisphere. Mr. Eckis was head of exploration for Atlantic Richfield Co., which joined Exxon in a 1968 project that produced an oil field of dreams: more than 10 billion barrels. “Rollin sent a chief geologist to Prudhoe Bay on Alaska’s North Slope each summer for three or four years because there was a naval oil reserve,” recalled Kenneth Hill, a retired petroleum engineer and long-time friend of Mr. Eckis. “He was a brilliant geologist and the most down-to-earth, straightforward and intelligent man I ever knew.” Mr. Eckis, who retired from ARCO as vice chairman in 1974, died Friday of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. He was 94. A La Jolla resident in recent years, he died at Pacific Regent La Jolla health care center. In 1977, the oil at Prudhoe Bay that Mr. Eckis helped discover was sent via the 800-mile Trans-Alaska Pipeline to the western United States. “It has produced as much as 1.5 million barrels per day,” Hill said. Mr. Eckis was responsible for discovering major oil fields in the San Joaquin Valley during a career as a geologist that spanned 40 years. His first discovery was in 1938 in Kern County as a field geologist for Richfield Oil Col., which became on of the West Coast’s leading gasoline marketers before merging in 1966 with East Coast-based Atlantic Refining Co. “Rollin was one of the great geologists of modern history, but was awfully quiet about it,” Hill said. “There was just no pretense about him at all.” In 1981, Mr. Eckis was honored as an alumnus of the year by San Diego State University, which he had attended in 1923 and 1924 when it was San Diego Normal School in University Heights. SDSU founded an academic chair in seismology in 1986 in the name of Mr. Eckis and his first wife, Caroline. It was described at the time as the first chair to be established by the school under a joint venture involving funds from campus, corporate, and private sources. Born in Oakland, Mr. Eckis moved with his family throughout the state’s gold country as a child before settling in San Diego. “In his later years he remembered every detail of his childhood, when his father was a gold miner,” said daughter Nancy Eckis. Mr. Eckis graduated from San Diego High School and the two-year San Diego Normal School, then enrolled at Pomona College. “When he arrived at Pomona, he met a professor of geology in the dean’s office who talked him into majoring in geology,” his daughter said. One of Mr. Eckis’ classmates was Roger Revelle, who later abandoned geology for oceanography and became a driving force in creating the University of California San Diego in 1959. Mr. Eckis earned a Bachelor of Science degree at Pomona in 1927, then became a teaching fellow and graduate student at the California Institute of Technology, where he earned a master’s degree in 1929. After a few years with the Texas Oil Co., Mr. Eckis was hired by Richfield in 1934 as a field geologist. His early discoveries of oil accelerated his promotion to chief geologist. Eventually, he rose to company president. While living during the 1950s in Los Angeles County, he was instrumental in founding the city of Duarte, which he served at one time as mayor. In 1958, he was appointed a trustee of Pomona College. Mr. Eckis was among the founders in the late 1960s of Pauma Valley Country Club in north San Diego County. “Utah Construction Co. had been operating it, and dad and some local pioneers got together to form the country club,” Nancy Eckis said. After retiring from ARCO, Mr. Eckis made Pauma Valley his home for many years. He grew citrus and avocado crops there, an extension of an interest in ranching that he cultivated in the 1950s as a partner in a cattle ranch near Bridgeport. In retirement, Mr. Eckis discovered a talent for watercolor painting. Studying under North County artist, Bill Bowman, he primarily painted rural landscapes and ocean scenes. Mr. Eckis’ first wife, whom he married in 1937, died in February 1993. Two years later, he married longtime friend Ellen Revelle, the widow of Roger Revelle, who died in 1991. “Painting was a great release for Rollin, very satisfying for him,” his wife said. “As a geologist, he already knew how to sketch. He sold some of his paintings, and others are hanging in the homes of his children and grandchildren.” He is survived by his wife; daughters, Nancy Eckis of San Diego and Ellen Schmitt of Phoenix; a son, Rollin Jr. of Yakima, Wash.; stepchildren, Anne Shumway and Mary Paci of Cambridge, Mass., Carolyn Hufbauer of Chevy Chase, Md., and William Revelle of Evanston, Ill; five grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren. A memorial service was held in January. Donations are suggested to the geology department, SDSU, Pomona College, or to the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, UCSD. [Taken mostly from the San Diego Union-Tribune, Tuesday, November 16, 1999. –Eds.]
Robert Ringle ‘38 #169Robert Era Ringle, a member of the Pomona College Class of 1938, died November 2, 1999 at Mt. San Antonio Gardens following complications of Parkinson’s disease. Mr. Ringle was 83 years of age. A native of Cleveland, Ohio where he was born on November 12, 1915, Mr. Ringle moved with his family to California in 1927 and attended schools in Pasadena. During his early years in Claremont at Pomona College, Mr. Ringle sang in the glee club and was elected to Nu Alpha Phi. Claremont attorney Stephen Zetterberg remembers that during the “Great Flood” of 1938, Mr. Ringle took extensive and extraordinary photographs of the damage to the college and surrounding areas that were subsequently used by a number of newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times. Mr. Ringle went on to earn a master’s degree in business administration, with a concentration in marketing, from Harvard Business School. During the World War II years he worked in the industrial relations department at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Following the war, Mr. Ringle joined R.A. Rowan and Company in Los Angeles. He subsequently owned several businesses. He joined the Northrop Corporation in 1958 and spent 20 years in marketing in the aerospace electronics field, with both national and international assignments. Following his early retirement, he spent a number of years with Tell Steel in Long Beach. Mr. Ringle was married in 1941 to the former Nancy Barrett of Santa Rosa, also a Pomona College graduate, and now a trustee of the college. They lived for 36 years in Palos Verdes before moving to Mt. San Antonio Gardens in 1996. Mr. Ringle was a fan of music, tennis, backpacking, and climbing. He reached the summits of the Matterhorn in 1969 and Mt. Fuji in 1970. He also did antique furniture restoration and traveled extensively for both business and pleasure. Mr. Ringle did volunteer work with the Seamen’s Church Institute, Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles and Pomona College. Mr. Ringle is survived by his wife of 58 years, Nancy Ringle of Mt. San Antonio Gardens, by his daughter and son-in-law, Sallie and Michael Mirra of Singapore; by his son and daughter-in-law, Stephen and Louise Kemp Ringle of Dover, Marina; by his sister, Arline Ringle Croker of Irvine; and by his 5 grandchildren, Donald, Stephanie and Natalie Mirra, and Thomas and Mathias Ringle. A memorial service for Mr. Ringle was held in December 1999, at Saint Francis Episcopal Church, Palos Verdes Estates, California. Memorial contributions may be made to the scholarship fund of Pomona College or to Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles, 4650 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90027. http://www.chla.org/howyoucanhelp.cfm
Charlotte Andersen ‘90 #1002While preparing this issue, I discovered, in my Oak Leaf mailbox, an e-mail Charlotte had submitted in early 1999. I plan to print it in the next issue along with letters from her contemporary NAP brothers and sisters. Meanwhile, I have made a donation to the Nu Alpha Phi Memorial Scholarship in her name and I encourage all of you who knew her to do the same.
Martha AdamsMost of you will not know Martha and, in fact, I believe I only met her once or, at most, twice. However, for years and years, Martha provided Nu Alpha Phi with the mailing labels used to address the Oak Leaf and any other Nu Alph missives originating from Pomona College’s various support systems. Lately, she provided Chris and me with mailing labels (selected by telephone area code) so we could publicize local Alumni Washes. Nu Alpha Phi salutes her fifteen years of service to the Pomona College Office of Alumni Affairs. Martha suffered from Sarcoidosis, a disease that can appear in almost any body organ, but most often starts in the lungs. The cause of this disease is unknown, and there is no known prevention or cure. She is survived by her husband, Carlyle, their children, Shon, Jennifer, and Steven, and her grandson, Austin. Contributions in her name can be made to: American Lung Association Or National Sarcoidosis Resource Center |
