Distinguished Alumni page

[tannerbwalters]

Would like to create a new page that can be in a dropdown under "About" called "Distinguished Alumni"

This page should have a short introduction, then be split into HTML links within the page (each name and year).

The Daily Bruin has recognized a select few of its thousands of alumni for their contributions to journalism and the world. From 2000 to 2005, former staffers were honored each year. The Daily Bruin Alumni Network brought the tradition back with its inaugural inductee in 2018. Read more about each honoree here.

William E. Forbes ’27 –– Class of 2000
Flora Lewis ’41 –– Class of 2001
Stanley Rubin ’36 –– Class of 2002
Frank Mankiewicz ’47 –– Class of 2003
Harry Shearer ’64 –– Class of 2004
Marty Sklar ’55 –– Class of 2005

Class of 2000
William E. Forbes ’27

This biography was written prior to his induction:_

Daily Bruin Alumni William E. Forbes's dedication to the University of California was deeply ingrained in him throughout his life, with his involvement in the UC system extending far past his 1928 graduation date to include a full-term as a University of California Regent.

Born in Asoka, Nebraska, in May of 1906, Forbes settled in the Los Angeles area, spending a great portion of his life off the coasts of the Pacific Ocean.

During his time at UCLA, Forbes studied political science and worked for the school newspaper, whose name was changed in 1926 from the Daily Grizzly to the Daily Bruin. Forbes was the Daily Bruin's first editor in chief, and gave a series of lectures in journalism courses, passing on his knowledge to younger students.

Forbes served as president of the UCLA Alumni Association from 1959 to 1961, and was awarded the organization's University Service award the first time it was given in 1962. The award honors UCLA alumni and friends whose time and volunteer commitment contributes significantly toward the enrichment of university.

As president of the UCLA Alumni Association, Forbes was an ex-officio UC regent. Beginning in 1962, Forbes served a sixteen-year term on the University of California Board of Regents, a term that saw the state under the watch of then-governor Ronald Reagan for about a decade.

It was a time of extensive development for the university, during which the Board of Regents oversaw a decentralization of the system's administration, giving each campus a greater opportunity to develop its own structure and identity. Forbes's also dealt with antiwar and civil rights movements that garnered the support of many of the university's students during his tenure as a regent. The Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley, in particular, often became a point of contention between then-UC president Clark Kerr and students, and Forbes led a committee that studied the students' dissatisfaction and unrest.

As a regent, Forbes spoke out against the creation of UC student fees in 1972, and helped several campuses develop their education abroad programs.

Prior to becoming a regent, Forbes went to work for Columbia Broadcasting System. He rose through the ranks of CBS and served as an executive from 1937 to 1944 for what was then a young network that broadcast on television for the first time in 1938. Upon leaving CBS, Forbes joined as an executive with Young and Rubicam, working with the advertising and marketing company until 1951, when he joined the Southern California Music Company. He left the company after serving as its president, one of the oldest instrument dealers in California, in 1962.

Forbes died in Pasadena in 1999.

Class of 2001
Flora Lewis ’41

This biography was written prior to her induction:

In the 60 years since graduating from UCLA, Flora Lewis has been one of America's most distinguished correspondents and commentators on international affairs. In recognition of a lifetime of contributions to journalism that began at the Daily Bruin, Flora Lewis will be inducted into the UCLA student newspaper's Hall of Fame on June 7, 2001, at its year-end banquet.

During the course of her long and illustrious career, Lewis has been the New York Times' Paris bureau chief, the author of several books on foreign affairs, and the Washington Post's first woman foreign correspondent.

She continues to write a weekly column for the New York Times Syndicate, "Foreign Focus," from her Paris home.

Lewis was born in Los Angeles in 1920 to Pauline and Benjamin Lewis, a prominent attorney. She finished high school early and graduated Summa Cum Laude from UCLA when she was just 18. She then went to Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and, where she earned her masters' degree in 1941.

Lewis then went to work for the Associated Press New York office, and soon afterward was transferred to Washington D.C. to cover the Navy and State Departments. In 1945, she was transferred to London.
She was married in London to Sydney Gruson, a New York Times foreign correspondent she had met while a student at Columbia. They would have three children.

She left the Associated Press in 1946 began freelancing for a number of publications, including Time Magazine, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, The Economist of London, the London Observer, and France-Soir of Paris.

After returning to New York City in 1955, Lewis worked as an editor at McGraw-Hill before joining The Washington Post to cover Eastern Europe. In 1965, she became the first chief of the Washington Post's newly opened New York City bureau.

Lewis moved back to Europe again in 1967 and began writing a syndicated column from Paris, with datelines from Vietnam, where she traveled five times during the war, the Middle East and the United States.

In 1972, she joined The New York Times in Paris as its bureau chief and, in 1976, she added the title of European diplomatic correspondent. She became a foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times in 1980 and held that position until 1990, when she began writing her current column.

Flora Lewis has been honored four times by the Overseas Press Club for best foreign- affairs reporting, best daily newspaper or wire interpretation of foreign affairs, and for best analysis of foreign affairs in Western Europe. In January 2000, she received the group's Lifetime Recognition Award. For career achievements, Lewis was awarded the National Press Club's Fourth Estate Award, Columbia Journalism School's 50th Anniversary Award and the International Women's Media Foundation Lifetime Award. She has also been awarded The Edward Weintal Award, The French Government's Cross of the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, the Matrix Award for Newspapers from New York Women in Communication and the Elmer Holmes Bobst Award in Arts and Letters from New York University.

She is the author of five books, including "Europe: Road To Unity" (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, 1992) and "Europe: A Tapestry of Nations" (Simon & Schuster, 1987).

–

Lewis died in Paris the next year, in 2002.

Class of 2002
Stanley Rubin ’36

This biography was written prior to his induction:

During his long lifetime, Stanley Rubin has written and produced for television, film and radio, won the very first Emmy award, worked under Ronald Reagan in the military and served as president of the Producers Guild of America. But his experiences at the Daily Bruin remain some of his fondest memories.

Rubin was a Bruin staffer during the mid-1930s, and served as editor in chief in 1936-37. He remembers his DB experience as an educational one, not only in journalism but also in loyalty. Rubin recalls a time when one of his editorials enraged a campus group so much that they invaded the newsroom and tried to attack him. But the staff stood up and protected their editor, an act that Rubin has never forgotten.

After leaving UCLA, Rubin worked as a publisher's assistant before landing his first job in the entertainment industry. Working in the mailroom of Paramount Pictures, Rubin learned how a studio works and found his career. He was soon elevated to the position of script reader.

Rubin's first foray into professional writing was the novel "Who Wants to Be Born These Days?," which CBS made into a radio play. The play received great reviews, but before Rubin could continue his writing career, World War II broke out.

In 1942, Rubin enlisted in the First Motion Picture Unit of the Army Air Corps. There, he helped produce morale and training films for the war and got to know a young, charismatic captain named Ronald Reagan.

For Rubin, the war provided an important education in filmmaking. "I learned a hell of a lot more about writing screenplays during the war than I had ever known before," he said. After leaving the army, Rubin recognized that television was beginning to grow as a medium. In 1948, Rubin jumpstarted the first nationally sponsored weekly television series, a program of short story dramatizations known as "Your Showtime." An episode of that program, titled "The Necklace," won the very first Emmy award in the category of best film made in Hollywood for television. Rubin subsequently produced "General Electric Theatre," which was hosted by Reagan, for several years.

Rubin went on to produce numerous TV movies, including the Golden Globe Award winning "Babe," about famed female athlete Babe Didrickson, and the NAACP Image Award winning "Don't Look Back," about the great African American baseball player Satchel Paige.

Rubin also made a name for himself as a motion picture producer. His first full-length feature, "Narrow Margin," was nominated for an Oscar in the best story category and was recognized as outstanding film noir. He also produced "The President's Analyst" and "River of No Return," starring Marilyn Monroe, whom Rubin had rejected for a role in "Your Showtime" when she was an unknown, out-of-work actress.

A member of the Writers Guild of America, Producers Guild of America (which he served as president during the 1970s), the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Rubin is married to actress Kathleen Hughes, star of the B-movie classic "It Came from Outer Space," and has four children. Although he has a long and distinguished career in the entertainment industry, Rubin still considers his time on the Daily Bruin staff one of the greatest experiences of his life. In fact, Rubin will commemorate that experience with a memoir in the upcoming compendium "1936," to be published in the spring of 2002.

"I appreciated my experience at the Daily Bruin and I still do to this day," Rubin said. "I loved every minute I spent on it."

–

Rubin died in Los Angeles in 2014.

Class of 2003
Frank Mankiewicz ’47

This biography was written prior to his induction:

Frank Mankiewicz is a vice chairman of Hill & Knowlton’s Washington D.C. office and a senior member of the media and public affairs practices. In this position, he counsels numerous national and international clients on media strategy and public affairs.

He entered UCLA in 1941 and, after a three-year absence for infantry service in World War II, graduated in 1947. Mankiewicz was sports editor of the Daily Bruin in 1946, co-editor in the summer semester of 1946, assistant editor in the fall semester, 1946, and editor, 1947. He also played outfield for the freshman baseball team in 1942, batting .260.

Prior to joining Hill & Knowlton's predecessor, Gray and Company, in 1983, Mr. Mankiewicz was president of National Public Radio. Under his leadership, the NPR audience increased from two to eight million listeners for a network of nearly 300 non-commercial stations.

Active in politics, Mankiewicz served as press secretary to the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy, as presidential campaign director for Senator George McGovern, and has been active in national and regional political campaigns as a senior advisor to political candidates. In the mid-1960s, he served as regional director of the Peace Corps for Latin America. He is fluent in Spanish and conversant in French.

A lawyer and member of the California, District of Columbia and Supreme Court bars, Mankiewicz also has broad experience as a print and electronic journalist, as a TV anchorman, as an analyst of American politics for American and foreign television and radio, and as a syndicated columnist.

Mankiewicz is the author of numerous articles in magazines and journals, and four books: Perfectly Clear: Nixon from Whittier to Watergate (1973); U.S. v. Richard M. Nixon: The Final Crisis (1974); With Fidel: A Portrait of Castro and Cuba (1975); and Remote Control: Television and the Manipulation of American Life (1977).

–

Mankiewicz died in Washington, D.C., in 2014.

Class of 2004
Harry Shearer ’64

This biography was written prior to his induction:

The many voices of Daily Bruin Alum Harry Shearer are probably some of the most well-known in the United States. Listeners may be familiar with his weekly hour-long radio program Le Show on the Santa Monica-based station KCRW, or more likely, with the evil scheming of Mr. Burns, the ponderings of Principal Skinner and the piety of Ned Flanders on the Fox television series The Simpsons, characters whose words are the product of Shearer's voice-acting.

A Los Angeles native, Shearer entered UCLA at the age of 17 and spent his college days working for the Daily Bruin, beginning as a reporter and moving on to become features editor, editorial editor, associate editor and city editor. He graduated with a degree in political science, and attended graduate school at Harvard. With Vietnam raging, Shearer interned for California's state legislature and taught school in Compton after graduation.

Shearer covered the Watts riots for Newsweek in 1965, but decided to direct his talents toward fields other than journalism, starring as bassist Derek Smalls in This is Spinal tap, a 1984 mockumentary detailing a British rock band's U.S. tour. The film, whose script he cowrote, made him a cult figure and recognized icon.

Shearer first entered the world of entertainment at the age of seven, landing his first role as a character on The Jack and Benny radio program after a piano teacher secured an audition for him. After starring in the 1953 television feature Abbott and Costello Go to Mars, Shearer played Eddie Haskell in the pilot episode of the acclaimed television series Leave it to Beaver.

With a talent for voices and satire, Shearer and friends began a radio show titled The Credibility Gap, a forum through which he captured the attention of an audience that included Cartoonist Matt Groening.

The two met in Los Angeles, and years later, Groening asked Shearer to work doing voice-overs for the Simpsons. Shearer accepted, and now the characters he gives life to filter daily onto the television screens in the homes of millions.

For over two decades, Shearer's voice has been a strong one on a number of issues, including the media. He is known to some as an outspoken intellectual, and loved by others as a slew of Simpsons characters.

Class of 2005
Marty Sklar ’55

This biography was written after his death in 2017:

Marty Sklar was a visionary leader for over half a century at Disney Enterprises, quickly working his way up to become Walt Disney’s right-hand man fresh out of college.

Sklar was a third-year student at UCLA and editor of the Daily Bruin when he was recruited to create The Disneyland News, a 10-cent tabloid newspaper to be sold at Disneyland’s Main Street. Sklar told the Daily Bruin in an interview in 2013 that he almost didn’t return the first call from Disney. After further pursuit from the company, he agreed to help.

He joined Disney full time after graduation in 1956 and served in a multitude of roles. He helped design many famous park attractions, including “It’s a Small World” and Space Mountain. He also oversaw international design and construction efforts across the world.

In addition to his parks work, Sklar also wrote speeches for Walt Disney and created marketing materials. Sklar served an instrumental role within the organization, serving as the vice chairman and principal creative executive at what is now known as Walt Disney Imagineering.

Before retiring in 2009, he finished his career as the International Ambassador for Walt Disney Imagineering. His job entailed lecturing at art and design colleges and architecture schools to attract talent. Sklar was named a Disney Legend in 2001.

Sklar was born on February 6, 1934, in New Jersey. He died in his Hollywood Hills home in July 2017.