VOICES OF CALIFORNIA | OBJECTS OF HER DESIRE | PARADISE FOUND | AN IMPROBABLE JOURNEY SUMMER 2019 T H E C A L I F O R N I A I S S U E THE MAGAZINE OF WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY FEATURES 6 VOICES OF CALIFORNIA By Carol L. Hanner, Maria Henson (’82) and Kerry M. King (’85) What’s it like these days to be a Demon Deacon on the other coast? Wake Foresters tell us about their lives in The Golden State. ROBBY McCULLOUGH 2 60 AN IMPROBABLE JOURNEY THE OBJECTS OF HER DESIRE By John Meroney (’94) By Carol L. Hanner A native North Carolinian comes to understand For Susan Harlan, native Californian, author the spell cast by California — and its magic. and associate professor of English, every kitschy, cherished, poignant item in her eclectic collection has a story. 42 104 PARADISE FOUND CONSTANT & TRUE By Kerry M. King (’85) By Pidge Meade (’89) Woody Faircloth (’90) didn’t feel right about Here to say that moving and shaking leads to sending only thoughts and prayers to victims growth (and “Jeopardy!” championships). of the Camp Fire in California. Instead, he started with one RV, and a host of his “angels” have helped continue the giving. 58 DEPARTMENTS STARTUP 70 Commencement 77 Philanthropy By Maria Henson (’82) 72 Distinguished Alumni Awards 78 Class Notes Wake Forest has planted its flag in the San Francisco Bay Area with the Silicon Valley 74 Around the Quad Practicum. WAKEFOREST FROM theh PRESIDENT MAGAZINE the summer issue celebrates california, with its growing SUMMER 2019 | VOLUME 66 | NUMBER 3 alumni base and new opportunities for our students. ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT AND EDITOR-AT-LARGE If you look at the history of modern times, there probably has been no greater Maria Henson (’82) center of change than Silicon Valley. Think of the advent of computers and miniaturization, what Apple did and then Google — a whole raft of compa- MANAGING EDITOR Carol L. Hanner nies. The work of Silicon Valley companies is transforming the economy so that the digital world — in wonderful ways and in some cases terrible ways SENIOR EDITOR — impinges upon our life as screens become a dominant means of commerce Kerry M. King (’85) and social connection. DEPUTY EDITOR Michael Breedlove Silicon Valley is distinct CREATIVE DIRECTOR in forming our economy Hayes Henderson as is the financing DESIGNER behind it. Particularly at Julie Helsabeck a school that largely, not PHOTOGRAPHER exclusively, has students Ken Bennett from the eastern side of PRINTING the United States, it is The Lane Press, Inc. valuable to give students the opportunity to expe- rience life in California. Wake Forest University Magazine (ISSN 0279-3946) In the same way we are is published three times a year in the Spring, Summer better preparing stu- and Fall by Wake Forest University, P.O. Box 7227, dents to go into a variety of fields, whether in Washington or New York, we Winston-Salem, NC 27109-7227. It is sent to alumni, donors and friends of the University. The magazine can look to Silicon Valley. With a great set of parents, an emerging alumni is part of University Advancement, led by Vice base and young alumni in San Francisco working in tech startups, we have a President Mark A. Petersen. foundation on which we can build. [email protected] magazine.wfu.edu You will read about some of those enterprising Californians in this issue, and twitter.com/wfumagazine facebook.com/wakeforestmagazine they are not just from Northern California. instagram.com/wakeforestmagazine wakeforestmagazine.tumblr.com It is always a pleasure to recognize our Distinguished Alumni Award win- Send address changes or cancellation requests to: ners. This year they are Anil Gupta (MBA ’92, LL.D. ’17), who oversees a Wake Forest Magazine Alumni Records company in India and through his charitable efforts feeds thousands of peo- P.O. Box 7227 ple. Donna Edwards (’80) has been an amazing public servant and nonprofit Winston-Salem, NC 27109-7227 [email protected] leader, and it’s been tremendous to have her serve as a trustee at Wake Forest. 1.800.752.8568 Buck Cochran (’82), through his leadership at Peacehaven Community Farm, was influenced by the humanitarian and theologian Jean Vanier and the © 2019 work of L’Arche, a network of communities Vanier founded for people with and without intellectual abilities to live and work together as peers. My wife, Julie, and I heard Vanier speak, and it was like being in the presence of a saint. It was a singular experience of grace. At Wake Forest, our Call to Conversation movement continues as do our efforts to work across differences. We seek to build community based on deep respect and valuing each person. Sincerely, ON THE COVER Image by George Byrne AN ImprobableImprobable A native North Carolinian comes to understand the spell cast by California — and its magic. BY JOHN MERONEY (’94) ILLUSTRATION BY JAKOB HENRICHS California isn’t a place, it’s a way of life. hood years, I thought I had a good sense That’s what Ronald Reagan told me just of the state and what Reagan meant. after my sophomore year at Wake Forest. As a 14-year-old who’d become a I had moved to Los Angeles for two jobs renowned expert on “The Andy Griffith — to work for the former president as an Show,” I came to Los Angeles to meet intern, and for writer Benjamin J. Stein as one of the show’s principal writers, a researcher. Everett Greenbaum, a TV veteran who When Reagan said that, we were also worked on “M*A*S*H.” He regaled standing in his personal office in Century me with secrets of writing in Hollywood City, in the very building made famous as and planted the earliest seeds of my own Nakatomi Plaza in “Die Hard.” Listening dream of working in the industry. to Reagan, who moved here from Iowa As my mid-teens turned into my late when he was 26, talk about the state where teens, I grew obsessed with politics and he forged his destiny was powerful. From was fascinated by its relationship with the 34th floor of his office I could see Hollywood. I read “Dreemz,” a diary the entire L.A. basin, with its cluster of by my future employer Ben Stein that skyscrapers downtown, and edges that memorialized his first year in California, touched the Pacific Ocean and receded and it became something of a primer for into desert mountain ranges. Having me. Here was a guy who graduated from traveled from my home state of North Yale Law School and served as a trial Carolina to California often in my boy- attorney at the Federal Trade Commission, 2 WAKE FOREST MAGAZINE FEATURES a speechwriter in the Nixon and Ford White Houses, and a columnist for No one would The Wall Street Journal. But then Ben moved to L.A., went to work for Nor- have blamed us man Lear, bought a Mercedes 450 SLC for packing up WHAT I’VE DISCOVERED FROM LIVING and became a sitcom and film writer, and moving to a here is that everything you’ve heard actor and game show host. (Only to tranquil life on is true. Odds are your server is an become most famous for his single aspiring actor-slash-model. The crime the Outer Banks, scene in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”) can be as bad as “L.A. Story” portrayed During the summer when I where a commute with its “I’ll be your robber” and “open interned for Reagan, Ben took me to doesn’t involve (gun) season on the freeway” scenes. I my first sushi restaurant, introduced a helicopter and recognize Elliot Gould’s hippy-dippy me to Malibu (where he still has a news team. But neighbors in “The Long Goodbye” house), and showed me one of the first because all of us have those kinds that didn’t even 24-hour gyms in the country. of neighbors here. And when I get Yes, I thought I had a pretty good occur to us. frustrated at the city I even acknowl- sense of Hollywood. When I was a edge that what Don Draper said on sophomore, I moderated Ted Turner’s “Mad Men” rings true: “Los Angeles is tribute to the 30th anniversary of “The reminisced about their salad days in not what you see in the movies. It’s like Andy Griffith Show” on TBS and got to the industry. In the years after college I Detroit with palm trees.” visit with star Don Knotts. On a trip to continued exploring. I even spent two After a few years, I could recognize L.A. after my junior year, I introduced days on the Warner Bros. lot interview- the truth of composer Oscar Levant’s Greenbaum and Knotts to Reagan and ing Clint Eastwood. He’s a native San line, “Strip away the phony tinsel of watched in awe as the three of them Franciscan who was also elected mayor Hollywood and you’ll find the real of Carmel in 1986. tinsel underneath.” (His first official Yes, there’s something surreal about act was terminating California, but there’s magic, too. Part of the planning board the reason it exists is because out here, that had supported you’re allowed to make it up. In fact, a ban on selling the name of the state is the invention ice cream.) But of a fiction writer. In 1510, Ordóñez de interviews, books Montalvo wrote about “an island called and vacations in California very near to the region of the postcard desti- Terrestrial Paradise.” Hundreds of years nations weren’t later, poet William Irwin Thompson enough to reveal wrote, “California became the first to the pull that Reagan discover that it was fantasy that led described.