Claremont Mckenna College

He aimed to be a doctor Atul Vyas was on the Metrolink train on his way home to Simi Valley from Claremont McKenna College, where he was preparing for a career as a medical doctor. Only 20, he was interviewing for a graduate program next year at MIT and Harvard that combined science and math. "He was a thoroughly brilliant kid, flying high," said his father, Vijay Vyas, an engineer. "Ask his professors." Atul and his brother, who graduated from Claremont McKenna last year, took the train home every two or three weeks to enjoy the comforts of family.

Claremont McKenna College has received a $75-million gift from the foundation established by investor Henry R. Kravis and his wife, economist Marie-Josee Kravis, the liberal arts college said Tuesday. Henry Kravis is a Claremont McKenna alumnus and trustee who co-founded the private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. Marie-Josee Kravis, a senior fellow with the Washington-based Hudson Institute, is president of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

William Barron Hilton, the 80-year-old grandfather of Paris Hilton, made a $1.2-billion charitable pledge last year, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reported Monday, putting him at the head of its annual list of America's top 50 charitable donors. The co-chair of Beverly Hills-based Hilton Hotels Corp. will do his giving through the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, named for his father and dedicated to combating blindness, funding water projects in developing countries, housing America's homeless and reducing drug abuse among the young.

Donald R. Wheeler, 85, the former chairman of the board of Claremont Men's College and a life trustee of the school now known as Claremont McKenna College, died Jan. 9 at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach after a heart attack, the college announced. Wheeler, a prominent local real estate developer and investor, was born June 16, 1922, in Pomona to a family of Claremont pioneers. After graduating from Claremont High School, he attended Pomona College, but his education was interrupted by World War II. He served in the Army Air Forces in the South Pacific.

In what is being described as the single largest donation to an American liberal arts college, Claremont McKenna College is announcing today a $200-million gift to establish a new master's degree in finance and to fund scholarships for undergraduates who show leadership potential. The donation is from Robert Day, a college alumnus and trustee who is founder and chairman of the Trust Co. of the West, an investment management firm headquartered in downtown Los Angeles.

Claremont McKenna College has received a $20-million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to fund about 13 full scholarships a year for students who double major in a science and a non-science to tackle societal issues, officials announced Tuesday. Using the Interdisciplinary Science Scholarships, students could combine, for example, biology and economics for a concentration in healthcare policy.

Leon Hollerman, 90, a professor emeritus at Claremont McKenna College and an expert on Japan's economy, died Dec. 6 in Claremont of an aneurysm. A native of Rochester, N.Y., Hollerman graduated from the University of Rochester in 1939 and served in the Army during World War II. After the war, he served with the Allied Powers Supreme Command in Tokyo as an international trade economist, Claremont McKenna said in announcing his death. He returned to Japan in the '60s as a Fulbright Scholar.

FOR those of us whose bright college years are a distant memory, a visit to a university campus is tinged with mourning for our lost youth and envy for those fresh-faced things preoccupied with final exams and whether the cute boy down the hall is interested. Alumni of certain local schools may beg to differ, but there is arguably no better place in the Los Angeles area to step into that universe of remembrance and regret than the Claremont Colleges.

A former psychology professor at Claremont McKenna College was sentenced Wednesday to a year in state prison for spray-painting her car with racist and anti-Semitic slurs and claiming that unknown vandals had done it. Kerri Dunn, 40, of Redlands had faced up to three years' imprisonment. Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Martin Bean said he was satisfied with the punishment handed down by Superior Court Judge Charles Horan in Pomona.

As a pre-lecture warmup clip from "The West Wing" TV show winds down, drawing laughs from students, professor Jack Pitney heads toward the front of his classroom at Claremont McKenna College. "It's the moment you've all been waiting for," Pitney jokingly says as he hands out an essay assignment to the two dozen students in his "American Presidency" class.