“A lot of things that happened in my life I owe directly to being a graduate of UC Berkeley,” says Phil Litts (B.A. ’66, Anthropology), who was head yell leader and president of the Rally and Games Council. His time at Cal gave him “an awful lot of self-confidence at a fairly young age.” Shortly after graduation, he joined the Air Force and served as a pilot in the Vietnam War.

Litts retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1989 and now lives in Elk Grove. He visits campus several times a month to work with the rally committee and attend meetings of the Order of the Golden Bear. “I think that connection is unusual,” he says. “There aren’t too many board members with a lot of eyeball-to-eyeball contact with the students on a regular basis.”

Being on the CAA board is clearly important to him: He has applied three times, starting in 2007. “Third and a half time’s the charm!” he jokes.