Whittier College

Eric Cejudo's 26-yard field goal in the sixth overtime gave Whittier College a 42-39 victory over Puget Sound on Saturday in a nonconference Division III football game in Tacoma, Wash. Whittier overcame seven turnovers, including six interceptions — three each by quarterback Alesana Sausau and Collin Wigley — to even its record at 1-1. Puget Sound (1-2) had five turnovers, including four interceptions. Sophomore running back Kimble Tillman was star of Whittier's late, late, late, late, late, late show, rushing for 238 yards and three touchdowns in 23 carries.

Choose any significant soccer event in Southern California over the last 38 years, and chances are Ralph Perez was there. The 1984 Olympic Games? He worked as a statistician "just so I could get to the games. " The World Cup a decade later? He was a technical advisor. Major League Soccer? He was with the league from the start and even helped coach the Galaxy to two MLS Cup wins. He also founded programs at Cal State Los Angeles and Cal State San Bernardino, ran teams at Cal State Fullerton and Whittier College and might be the only man in history to coach teams in all three divisions of NCAA play, the MLS, the Olympics and the World Cup. All of that won him a lifetime achievement award last month at the National Soccer Coaches Assn.

Whittier College will bestow honorary degrees upon five educators and cultural leaders during the college's 85th commencement Sunday. The ceremony will begin at 5 p.m. in the college's Harris Amphitheatre. About 200 undergraduates, 30 master's degree candidates and 104 students from Whittier College of Law will receive academic degrees at the ceremony. Francis Dale, president of the Music Center of Los Angeles County, will be keynote speaker.

Easy to call what Joe Price is doing some sort of quixotic quest, to attach religious significance to a pilgrimage bursting with symbolism and ritual. But really all he hopes to do is follow his passion for the sport of baseball while penning his own unique love story. O, say can you see ... Price is a religious studies professor at Whittier College with an interest in sports, an ear for song and an astounding wife who has agreed to accompany him this summer to 100 minor league ballparks in 40 states — just so Joe can lead the crowd in "The Star-Spangled Banner.

The 12th president of Whittier College, which has been named among the best private liberal arts colleges in the nation, was inaugurated in a weekend ceremony attended by about 130 officials from colleges and universities nationwide. James L. Ash Jr., described by colleagues as one of the most creative administrators in higher education, praised the educational achievements of Whittier College in his inaugural address.

W. Roy Newsom, 82, who served as president of Whittier College from 1975 to 1979. Brought up on a citrus ranch in Rivera, Calif., Newsom was educated at Whittier High School and Whittier College. His friendship with a classmate, Richard Nixon, ultimately led to the establishment of the Richard M. Nixon Collection for the college's Bonnie Bell Wardman Library. Newsom earned his master's and doctorate at USC and in 1949 began his 40-year career at Whittier as a chemistry professor.

Eugene S. Mills announced Friday that he will resign next June as president of Whittier College and the Whittier College School of Law to write a book about Elderhostel Inc., an academic organization for senior citizens. Mills, president of the private liberal arts college since 1979, said he announced his plans so trustees will have a year in which to hire a successor. Before becoming president of Whittier, Mills spent five years as president of the University of New Hampshire.

Whittier College was named one of the best small, comprehensive colleges in the country in the current issue of U.S. News & World Report. The national news weekly polled college presidents around the country for its third biennial survey of American higher education, and based on the responses, ranked colleges in nine different categories.

Harry W. Nerhood, 87, a former Whittier College professor and expert on Quaker history. Nerhood taught history at the school from 1936 to 1975 and later taught special classes during the 1980s. Childless, the educator once told a college historian that his thousands of students were his sons and daughters. He described a teacher's job as "to move a student out of a rut and get him thinking about things. If you take a student and don't stir him up one way or another, you're not doing your job."

Harold Spencer, 89, former Whittier College dean and Cal State Northridge vice president. Spencer earned his bachelor's degree in biology from Whittier, his master's degree in botany from USC and a doctorate in cytology from Cornell University. He taught biology at Whittier and co-wrote the book "The Trees of Whittier." He served as a Whittier dean from 1940 to 1963 and from 1943 to 1944 was the college's acting president.

Wayne Grisham, a two-term Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from La Mirada who later served in the state Assembly, has died. He was 88. Grisham died Wednesday at Dove House, a hospice in Whittier, of respiratory failure stemming from complications from pneumonia, said his daughter, Kellie Campbell. Grisham had been a La Mirada city councilman and mayor when he was elected in 1978 to represent the 33rd Congressional District. "I think of myself as an average guy, and I think it was the average guy who elected me," he told The Times after defeating Democrat Dennis Kazarian.

Eric Cejudo's 26-yard field goal in the sixth overtime gave Whittier College a 42-39 victory over Puget Sound on Saturday in a nonconference Division III football game in Tacoma, Wash. Whittier overcame seven turnovers, including six interceptions — three each by quarterback Alesana Sausau and Collin Wigley — to even its record at 1-1. Puget Sound (1-2) had five turnovers, including four interceptions. Sophomore running back Kimble Tillman was star of Whittier's late, late, late, late, late, late show, rushing for 238 yards and three touchdowns in 23 carries.

Tony Strickland Party: Republican Occupation: State senator Age: 40, born at Ft. Ord, Calif. City of residence: Moorpark Personal: Married, two children Education: Bachelor's degree in political science, Whittier College Career highlights: Aide to then-Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R- Thousand Oaks), 1996-98. Assemblyman, 1998 to 2004. State senator, 2008 to present. Platform: Focus on auditing state spending, "maximize dollars" the state collects in taxes, support offshore oil drilling project near Santa Barbara.

Martin Ortiz, who inspired thousands of Latino students to reach for college and earn degrees as the founding director of Whittier College's Center of Mexican American Affairs, has died. He was 89. Ortiz, who had Parkinson's disease and pneumonia, died Monday at an assisted living facility in Whittier, according to Alex Tenorio, a longtime friend.

Whittier: An article in Saturday's Section A about Whittier becoming a magnet for upscale Latinos said that Whittier College has a student body that is nearly one-third Latino, the highest proportion of Latino students at any private liberal arts college in the United States. At Mount St. Mary's College, with campuses in downtown Los Angeles and Brentwood, about 44% of the student body is Latino, according to 2006 numbers.

At her desk at Hollywood High School, counselor Judy Campbell has a motto for all the procrastinators, miscalculators, confused and unlucky in the college application process. Her message, proclaimed on posters in her office, is: Try Plan B. Even as most high school seniors and their parents are nervously awaiting admission decisions over the next few weeks, a lesser-known movement is at work in many offices like Campbell's.

For the first time in its 112-year history, Whittier College on Thursday named a woman to the position of college president. Katherine Haley Will, currently provost and a professor of English at Kenyon College in Ohio, was selected by the Whittier College Board of Trustees to be the 13th president of the school, which has about 1,500 students. She will replace James L. Ash Jr. starting in July.

A granite memorial to former President Richard M. Nixon was unveiled Thursday by the fraternity he helped form at Whittier College nearly 70 years ago. Nixon's longtime friend, Clinton O. Harris, a fellow member of the campus Orthogonian Society, joined school officials and other fraternity members to honor the late president during Thursday's ceremony.

Sharon D. Herzberger, a psychology professor and administrator at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., has been chosen as president of Whittier College. Herzberger will join the 2,500-student campus in July after finishing the school year at Trinity, where she is vice president for institutional planning and administration. She will replace Katherine Haley Will, who left to become president of Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania.

Frederick Moore Binder, who served as president of Whittier College in the early 1970s when the institution added its law school, has died. He was 83. Binder, who headed the Whittier school from 1970 to 1975, died Jan. 28 in a medical facility in Hershey, Pa., after having pneumonia. He left Whittier to take the presidency of Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pa., from 1975 until his retirement in 1986.