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Rod Van Hook, 61, brother of former DB staffer Perry van Hook and a veteran sports broadcaster for Los Angeles radio stations KFWB, KMPC and KSPN, died of heart failure Saturday November 7 at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center, his family said. His obituary appeared in the LA Times Nov. 10.

A Santa Monica resident, he previously had battled pancreatic cancer.

Van Hook had worked as a studio host for National Football League and college football games on Sports USA Radio network from 2007 until earlier this year.

Besides providing sports scores and updates on local radio, he covered major sporting events such as the Rose Bowl, Super Bowl, World Series and other pro and college games.

Born July 31, 1948, in Vermillion, S.D., Van Hook earned his bachelor's degree at UCLA.

He won three Los Angeles Press Club awards over a three-decade career.

George Garrigues has informed us of a video showing a recent gathering at Santa Rosa of 50s era DB alumni in Northern California.

Occasionally the embedded video times out and does not load. If this occurs, follow the link below to watch it at YouTube. The link also leads indirectly to several other DB-related videos.

If you have an alumni video to share, please write the editor.

Watch the video

Walter T. Shatford, who was Sports Editor on the Daily Bruin in 1936 (and possibly earlier) died on May 5, 2009. His passing was reported by his daughter, Sara Shatford Layne.

During a long career in law and service to education in his adopted home, Pasadena, In those years, he emerged as a pivotal local figure in the struggle for racial integration and equal access to education.

Shatford operated a successful law practice in Temple City, co-founded with his brother Henry in 1947 after service in WWII.

Follow the link below to an biography in the Pasadena Star News.

Pasadena Star News.

We've added a couple of ad venues in Daily Bruin Alumni News to help defray costs. You can advertise your alumni owned or related business with us. Contact the Editor for more information.

Rob Prince of the UK asks... Many moons ago, back in the summer of 1970, I stayed at a UCLA fraternity house, known simply as 'the TEP house', near Westwood Village. Those were crazy times, and the house had been opened up as a crash pad, which is how myself and my companion Vin - both of us UK students hitch-hiking around the US - ended up there.

Architecturally, it looked as if it had been designed by Fred Flintstone. We stayed for about a week, until the theft of Vin's passport, money and all his clothes (apart from his denim shorts) obliged us to move on.

I'm curious to know - does the Tep House still exist?

Any lawyers out there? Dianne (Smith) Glei writes: "A friend had a husband put in jail because he molested his children and got out of jail after 6 years of a 12-year sentence because he pleaded guilty to one count of twelve. His former wife who put him in jail moved to San Diego to protect her children., He got out after 6 years. She has never filed for divorce because she is afraid he will find them. She knows where he is because of Megan’s Law. He is in Lodi. She and her children are in the San Diego area. They want her to file for divorce. It’s been 17 years. She is really afraid if she does that he will find them.

"Can she file without him finding out where they are? What are her options. I told her the DB NETWORK COUILD OFFER HER A SOLLUTION. Please give me a name. Mahalo nui loa.

Aloha, Dianne"

Registered users may write to Dianne via her member profile (sign in first). Others may reply to the editor via the Contacts page. Messages germane to the point will be forwarded. -Ed.

We've posted Chapter 8 of George Garrigues' Loud Bark and Curious Eyes: A History of the Daily Bruin 1919-1955.

Chapter 8

Brian Weiss reports that Ken Reich, former Westside et al. reporter for the L.A. Times has died. Brian notes "Many of you will remember Ken Reich from when he was on the Westside bureau and covered UCLA happenings." Here is the Times' obituary.


Kenneth Reich, 70; Times reporter covered effort to win '84 Olympics for L.A.

By Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

July 1, 2008

Kenneth Reich, a retired Los Angeles Times reporter who, in his 39 years at the paper, covered politics, earthquakes and preparations for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, has died. He was 70.

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Campus Update: UCLA News from May 19 – 23 - Anderson to launch joint financial program in India UCLA Anderson School of Management and the Indian School of Business have partnered up to launch a financial engineering program, which will begin in July. The joint venture is a six-month program that will take place at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, India. The program will help professionals trying to meet the demand for financial engineering skills.

Campus testing new alert system
An outdoor warning system, consisting of several speaker units placed at Drake Stadium and the IM field, Rieber Terrace and the Humanities Building, was tested intermittently last Tuesday as part of the Emergency Management Office's effort to start the new BruinAlert system. This is the latest addition to available campus safety services. In the event of an emergency, the system will alert the UCLA campus to safety instructions and information.

Traveling in search of a miracle
Thabit Al-Alousi has searched his entire life in countries all over the world for treatment for an enlarged prostate, a spinal injury, and small lungs that have limited him to periods of immobility. Starting from the age of 6, he’s tried a healer in Baghdad, local hospitals, Iragi and Egyptian doctors, British and French physicians, and even Swedish and Italian ones. However, in 2005, doctors in London recommended the UCLA Medical Center, where Al-Alousi has found something he could not find anywhere else. He’s found a hospital that has performed six surgeries on him that allow him to breathe, walk, and urinate once more. At the age of 64, Al-Alousi believes that UCLA has provided him with another chance at life and is thankful to the fantastic doctors and fantastic care this institution has given to him.

Tennis claims first national title
Just a year ago, the UCLA women’s tennis team was devastated after a loss to Georgia Tech in the NCAA Championships. However, that all turned around on May 20 when they won their first NCAA title in team history in Tulsa, Okla. with a win against Cal. The final score read 4-0, giving UCLA their 102nd national championship.

Stephen Marley, Roots to hit JazzReggae
The 22nd Annual JazzReggae Festival was held Memorial Day weekend, on Sunday and Monday on the Intramural Field. Jam Day on Sunday featured The Roots, Immortal Technique, John Densmore’s Tribal Jazz, Goapele, Dr. Lonnie Smith and Amos Lee. Monday’s Reggae Day featured Stephen Marley as the headliner, Capleton, Mr. Vegas, Alaine, Selena Serrano and Pangea Collective.

UCLA brand name draws attention in Asian nations
Many students from across the globe, especially from Asia, are drawn to UCLA because of the educational prospects, top sports teams and the Southern California lifestyle. However, UCLA is actually a brand name for a clothing line in Asia. The acronym is so popular that it goes into all sorts of clothing, not just the usual sportswear sold in Ackerman Union.

Compiled by Megan Smith, Tiffany Hsia, Carolina Chau, and Aleen Bedrosian.

As recently reported in the Daily Bruin, the paper received a $275,000 grant to create a new, innovative Web platform that will allow both students and journalists to interact more freely with content on the paper’s Web site. Read the entire story by Julia Erlandson at the following link.

DB Article

Campus Update
UCLA News from May 12 – 16

Anderson endowed with $10 million
UCLA Anderson School of Management alumnus Lawrence Fink and his wife Lori made a donation of $10 million to the Anderson School on May 8. This contribution is the largest since John Anderson’s naming donation in 1987. The gift will fund the UCLA Center for Finance, which will be renamed the Laurence D. and Lori W. Fink Center for Finance and Investments. About $3 million of the sum will go toward a new endowed chair, while the remainder will be used to pay for speaker events, fund research, and supplement salaries, as well as for activities, conferences, scholarships, and for a quarterly bulletin.

Student parking poses problems
Nearby UCLA residential neighborhoods are noticing an increase in long-term student parking in their streets, leading to complaints from residents who claim the cars take up parking spaces for days or weeks. The Brentwood Glen Homeowners Association has begun to contact officials about ways to prevent students from parking in the neighborhoods long-term.

Ads give face to UCLA
Recent full-page advertisements printed in the Los Angeles and New York Times featured prominent UCLA alumni in an effort to garner attention and support for the university. The ads explain why alumni believe UCLA is a pre-eminent university. The campaign costs approximately $670,000 and took a year and a half to put together. The ads are meant to coincide with the time during which incoming freshmen are deciding which university to enroll in.

Chancellor Block officially inaugurated
Chancellor Gene Block was finally inaugurated after almost 10 months of taking over the position from Acting Chancellor Norman Abrams. He addressed the challenges that lay ahead for UCLA, such as continuous declining government funding, and keeping diversity consistent in the institution. Despite the challenges, Block says he is excited about the future of UCLA and its role in the community.

Making the city his campus
Newly inaugurated UCLA chancellor Gene Block hopes to broaden UCLA’s horizons by increasing its involvement in the greater Los Angeles community. One of Block’s new initiatives is to establish a new institute that will identify and offer solutions to social problems in L.A. The group would select an issue and faculty members from different areas would work together to find new approaches to dealing with the problem.

Enrollment slightly more diverse
Preliminary enrollment data shows the incoming freshman class will have the highest number of underrepresented minorities in recent years. Collectively, the number of Native Americans, blacks, and Chicanos and Latinos has risen 2.2 percent from last year. Also, one-fourth of incoming freshman come from low-income families, and one-third of them are the first in their families to go to college. However, UCLA continues to struggle with diversity, as the UCLA African American Student Enrollment Task Force was only able to produce an increase of 23 African Americans enrolled this year.

Influential tobacco researcher, 84, dies
Dr. Murray Jarvik, a pioneer in nicotine research, passed away May 8 at the age of 84 due to congestive heart failure. He had received his master’s degree at UCLA and then went on to become a professor here. Jarvik and his fellow researchers had discovered that nicotine was behind the addictiveness of cigarettes and created the nicotine patch, which helps many people quit smoking. His son Jerry Jarvik credits his father for having saved millions of lives because of his work with nicotine addictions and the nicotine patch.

LSU releases Morgan from commitment
Trent Johnson, Louisiana State men’s basketball coach, has confirmed that star recruit J’Mison Morgan will be released from his commitment to the school. This will allow for Morgan to attend UCLA and fill the void that big men Kevin Love and Lorenzo Mata-Real will leave. Though Morgan has not officially committed to play for UCLA, his brother and mother have told multiple media outlets that he will.

Fee hike leads to protests
On May 14, more than 100 students from UCLA and other UC campuses joined together to fight the recent 7.4 percent increase in student fees that UC Board of Regents recently passed to overcome the heavy state budget cuts. Students chained their arms together, chanting about how fees would hit minority and low-income families the hardest, and 16 students were arrested when they refused to leave peacefully from the demonstration.

Dentist resigns from post
Orthodontics resident Kent Ochiai wrote a resignation letter from the UCLA School of Dentistry after he revealed the scandal behind the admissions process in the dental school last year. Ochiai stated that the orthodontics chair took away his patients, limited his study materials, discredited him among colleagues, and greatly slowed down his progress in the three-year program. Ochiai resigned after he helped expose to the Daily Bruin last year that students who gave six-figure monetary gifts were automatically accepted over students with higher grades and test scores.
Read the original Daily Bruin story here: http://www.dailybruin.com/news/2007/nov/13/donations-influence-admissions/

A host of experiences with Jerry Springer
This past week, Jerry Springer came to UCLA to share his thoughts on politics, news, television, and pop culture in Ackerman Grand Ballroom. In a Daily Bruin interview, Springer cited his show as the “silliest on television” and found his greatest audience in college students who accept the outrageous far more than any other age group. He also believes it is “educational” to come to a college campus because it helps him escape the television world and connect to people on a different level

Compiled by Megan Smith, Tiffany Hsia, Carolina Chau, and Aleen Bedrosian.

...it must be time for another installment of George Garrigues' history of the DB. This time, Garrigues addresses the ongoing administration concern about just how much freedom of the press is too much.

Chapter 7

UCLA NEWS FROM May 5 – May 9

UCLA Pow Wow offers glimpse of native culture
The American Indian Student Association held the 23rd Annual UCLA Pow Wow near the Intramural Field on Sat. May 3 and Sun. May 4. Students and members gathered together in the circular arena in celebration of their culture. With music, costumes, and dances, the event celebrated Native American culture; a tradition dating back to the 1970s, when the Pow Wow was first organized in response to a sense of cultural dilution among many Native Americans.

Birth control prices increase
A recent increase in the prices of birth control has made protection from unwanted pregnancies more expensive. The Deficit Reduction Act of 2000 was enacted to help low-income and college-age women afford birth control, but an unintentional glitch in the bill has resulted in college health centers not being able to purchase pharmaceuticals at the discounted price. The price of birth control has increased from between $5 and $10 per month to $40 or $50 per month on many campuses.

Undefeated Bruins take home No. 1 at tournament
The Bruin’s women’s water polo team captured the national title this weekend in Palo, their fourth straight NCAA championship title. They went 30-0 during the regular season as the top seed and defeated USC 6-3 in the deciding match.

Krav Maga teaches Panhellenic
The Panhellenic Council is sponsoring self-defense sessions for the Greek community for the first time in years. The event will help sorority women with attack-prevention skills and defense techniques throughout college and beyond. Trainers from the Krav Maga Association of America will be teaching three sessions at difference houses, restricted to sorority girls. Krav Maga is a group that promotes and teaches an Israeli self-defense system, which does not require years of training and is not based on strength, characteristics especially suitable for women.

Students held at gunpoint
Three students walking down Hilgard Avenue were robbed at gunpoint Tuesday morning at 12:55. The gun was pressed onto one of the victim’s torso and all three victims’ property was stolen. The suspect had a vehicle waiting and was able to leave once he retrieved the victims’ belongings. The suspect is described as a black male, approximately 25 years old, 5 feet, 11 inches, and around 175 pounds. The weapon he carried was a blue steel automatic handgun. The vehicle his accomplice drove had no license plates and was described as a newer-model, coupe Lexus or Infiniti.

Parking debt persists despite ticket revenues
Even though UCLA transportation grossed over $3 million from parking tickets, they are still $1 million in debt for the current year. The revenue they receive goes to debt repayment on the services of parking structures, alternative transportation, and staff payments. The deficit has many blaming inefficiency and inflexibility, especially since UCLA has more parking spaces than any other UC campus.

Bill would set legal age for salvia
A bill is currently pending in the California Senate that would punish any selling of the drug salvia divinorum to minors as a misdemeanor. The drug is becoming popular with high school and college students and is known for its hallucinogenic effects that can be dangerous in a concentrated form. The extent of salvia’s effects are still not very well understood, but doctors claim that these “out-of-body experiences” could actually lead to teens losing control of their own bodies and harming themselves or someone else.

Frats condemn crimes at SDSU
After numerous students at San Diego State University—including several members of the Greek system—were arrested for possession of cocaine, ecstasy, marijuana, and weapons, many Greek members at UCLA have been speaking out as advocates against drug abuse. The Greek system at UCLA doubts that the same extent of drug activity exists in Westwood and believes the reputation of fraternities will not be damaged from the crimes at SDSU.

Universities test coed housing as UCLA looks into options
Many universities currently allow students to choose to live with anyone, regardless of sex, when it comes to on-campus housing. The UCLA Office of Residential Life said it would strongly consider coed housing in on-campus rooms if demand or interest was high enough in the future. Those who already live with members of the opposite sex in apartment housing cite benefits and challenges such as an extended circle of friends or possible embarrassing moments.

Students First! Captures 7 Seats
Students First! won a majority of the council seats in the undergraduate student government elections for 2008, including the presidency. Currently occupying only one seat, Students First! looks forward to a revamped government, especially considering that the Bruins United slate has held majority rule for the past three years.

The Green Initiative Fund
The Green Initiative Fund won by a 3-1 majority in the student elections, which will raise student fees by $4 per quarter to create a fund for student-led projects that reduce UCLA’s negative impact on the environment. Future projects could include a community garden to feed the dorms, a student-run recycling program, or an off-campus wind farm to offset UCLA’s energy.

On an International Scale
The Spring Festival of World Music continued this weekend with the Music of the Balkans Ensemble and Music of Korea Ensemble, continuing a tradition that has been part of UCLA for the past 40 years. Established in the early 1960s along with the creation of the Ethnomusicology department by Mantle Hood, these performances have become "especially relevant, considering the cultural and ethnical diversity of Los Angeles." Also in conjunction with the festival, students will be putting on Worldstock, a free and completely student-run world music festival that features other groups outside of UCLA.

Compiled by Megan Smith, Tiffany Hsia, Carolina Chau, Jenna Kieselbach and Aleen Bedrosian.

UCLA news from April 28 – May 2

Panel discusses possible harms of nanomaterials
A panel of lawyers, scientists, and other professionals gathered at a nanotechnology summit at UCLA to discuss concerns regarding nanomaterials used in a variety of products. These tiny particles can exert harmful effects on the body as they react with tissues in the body, causing increased stress, or even cell death. Panelists did not reach agreement over whether the nanotechnology industry should be immediately regulated by safety guidelines, although they all reached the conclusion that the dangers of nanomaterials are not fully understood.

Gymnastics edged out of Super Six Team Finals
A mistake on the balance beam tipped the Bruins off-balance and out of the NCAA Super Six Team Finals last weekend. Missing the cut by 0.175 points, the Bruins were edged out by Georgia, Utah, and Stanford, which placed first, second, and third (respectively) in the Finals.

Three Bruins chosen in NFL Draft
This year only three Bruins were selected during the NFL Draft; Bruce Davis was chosen for the Pittsburg Steelers with the No. 88 overall pick, Matthew Slater was chosen by the New England Patriots at No. 153, and Chris Horton selected for Washington with the 249th overall pick. The players were content with the results, but it was another poor showing for UCLA in the NFL Draft, especially compared to USC’s 10 players chosen. UCLA was not selected until the third round, and other top Pac-10 schools had more players drafted, including California with six and five Arizona State players.

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