CAA Announcements

Cal lost one of its most loyal—and nicest—alumni when Howard “Howdy” Brownson ’48 passed away on April 19, just a few weeks short of his 89th birthday.

The death notice in the San Francisco Chronicle said it all: “Howdy Brownson—song leader, barbershopper, safety engineer, community volunteer, and Cal alum extraordinaire—has sung his last tune.”

In today’s resource-challenged climate, it seems all too often strategic planning and programmatic reality live in separate dimensions. It’s sometimes tempting to define the “new normal” as a state of difficult compromise. But what if organizations viewed this as an opportunity to reinvent, reinvigorate, repurpose, and propel their organizations forward? CAA is beginning to implement a dynamic new five-year strategic plan with this perspective guiding us. The focus of CAA’s new plan is—focus.

This photo was taken during the Axe Rally held Monday, November 22, 1982, two days after “The Play”. Mariet Ford (most left) was one of the players who lateraled their way to the endzone. Go Bears! Photo courtesy of Ken Raust.

The photograph shows University of California President Benjamin Ide Wheeler and 28th President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, at the Greek Theatre in September 1919. Wheeler, then emeritus, had invited Wilson to visit during a tour he was making on behalf of the newly formed League of Nations.

As one of the crown jewels of the Cal Alumni Association, The Lair of the Golden Bear has enjoyed an incredibly long and rich history and is the oldest and the largest of any alumni association camp in North America. Read more »

The photograph above was taken at the 1946 Charter Banquet, also held at the Palace. That night the poet Robert Frost was awarded an honorary degree by the University and then-Governor and future Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Earl Warren ’12 was honored as Alumnus of the Year.

Here in the offices of California magazine, we have file cabinets filled with all manner of old photos from campus, even pre-dating the move to Berkeley. Many of the images are somewhat random and lacking anything much in the way of identifying information. Still, it’s fascinating stuff to look through (a bit like rummaging around in your grandparents’ attic), and we thought it only right to share some of it with readers. So here’s the first installment: The baseball team in 1879.