Clifton L. Boyle, Tau Delta Phi Co-Founder

Sonora Library, CA     Though I've had Clifton's obituary for nearly a year, I held off posting it because the Normal School [Teacher's College and later a State College] from which he graduated was unclear. But before I looked in the card file of the Genealogy Society of Fort Bragg, I did an on-line search -- and struck paydirt.

    A transcription of a Butte County biography by Gerald Iaquinta indicated that Clifton "took up his advanced studies at San Jose State College, from which he graduated in 1916....[He] also holds membership in the Tau Delta Phi collegiate fraternity."
[Mr. Iaquinta's complete transcription can be found via the first link below.]
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    Here's Clifton's obituary as it appeared in the Mendocino Beacon.
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Clifton Lloyd Boyle
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Obituary
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Thursday 11 October 1990 Mendocino Beacon
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    Clifton L[loyd] Boyle, 95, a Fort Bragg resident, passed away at the Mendocino Coast Hospital Wednesday, Oct. 3, following a long illness.
    He was born and raised in Mendocino, where he attended local schools, graduating from Mendocino High School in 1913. He attended college at Pacific College, UCLA, University of California at Berkeley, and graduated from the Teachers College in San Francisco in 1917. [He took summer courses at San Francisco State to increase his knowledge as well as his pay since he had already graduated from San Jose State in 1916.]
    He was a U.S. Army veteran of World War I, serving in the Signal Corps in France. In 1919 he became a school teacher in McCloud, Calif. He worked there for two years; then in 1929 he became a principal in Oroville, [Butte County,] Calif. In 1934 he became a school counselor in Taft, Calif., serving in that capacity for 11 years. In 1944 he moved to Sausalito, where he served as superintendent of schools until retiring in 1959.
    Clifton returned to the Mendocino Coast, near Little River, in 1960, where he resided until 1980, when he moved to Fort Bragg.
    He was a member of the California Teachers Association and the First Presbyterian Church.
    He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Lille M. Boyle of Fort Bragg; sister, Helen Harrigan of Ukiah; nephews, James Cummings of Fort Bragg, Robert Cummings of Ukiah; and niece, Patricia House of San Francisco.
    Funeral services were held Friday, Oct. 5, at Chapel By The Sea. Rev. Terry Cole of the First Presbyterian Church officiated the service. Private encryptment followed at Santa Rosa Memorial Park.
    Memorial contributions may be made to Mendocino Coast Hospice, 700 River Drive, Fort Bragg, Calif. 95437
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    And here's another obituary from the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.
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Obituary
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Friday 5 October 1990 Santa Rosa Press Democrat
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    FORT BRAGG - Clifton L. Boyle, 95, who was a school district superintendent in Sausalito for 15 years, died Wednesday at Mendocino Coast Hospital following a long illness.
    He was born and reared in Mendocino, where he attended local schools. He graduated from Mendocino High School in 1913. He attended Pacific College, the University of California, Berkeley, and UCLA, graduating from [a] Teachers College in 1917.
    Boyle entered the Army that same year and served in the Signal Corps in France. In 1919 he returned from the service and worked as a school teacher in McCloud.
    In 1921 he became the principal at Oroville Elementary School. Later he worked as a child evaluator for the [T]aft School District for more than 11 years. In 1944 he became the superintendent of schools for the Sausalito School District.
    He retired in 1959. In 1960 he moved back to the Mendocino Coast at Little River. In 1980 he moved to Fort Bragg.
    He was a member of the California Teachers Association.
    He is survived by his wife, Lillie M. Boyle of Fort Bragg; sister, Helen Harrigan of Ukiah; two nephews; and one niece.
    Funeral service will be at 11 a.m. today at Chapel by the Sea in Fort Bragg. Private encryptment will follow at Santa Rosa Memorial Park.
    Contributions may be made to the Medocino Coast Hospice, 700 River Drive, Fort Bragg.

    You'll find two other Tau Delta Phi Co-Founders in the posts to this blog on 3 Dec 2011, Raymond W. Miller, and 15 Dec 2011, Darrell J. Sedgwick.
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Links:

• Gerald Iaquinta transcription of a 1931 Butte County Biography
• On the Trail of Raymond W. Miller, Tau Delta Phi Co-Founder and first Grand Magistrate
• Darrell J. Sedgwick, Tau Delta Phi Co-Founder

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Su 12 Aug Actual Route: 2 mi E of Pickel Mdw Marine Camp bd - Sonora Pass - Iceberg Mdw - Arnot Crk Trailhead bd

M 13 Aug Actual Route: Arnot Crk Trailhead bd - Donnell Vista - Mi-Wuk Village Library - Long Barn - 1 mi E of N.F. Tuolumne Riv bd

T 14 Aug Actual Route: 1 mi E of N.F. Tuolumne Riv bd - Mi-Wuk Willage - Sonora - Mi-Wuk Village - 1 mi E of N.F. Tuolumne Riv bd

W 15 Aug Actual Route: 1 mi E of N.F. Tuolumne Riv bd - Mi-Wuk Willage - Sonora - Mi-Wuk Village - 1 mi E of N.F. Tuolumne Riv bd

Th 16 Aug Actual Route: 1 mi E of N.F. Tuolumne Riv bd - Mi-Wuk Willage - Sonora - Mi-Wuk Village - 1 mi E of N.F. Tuolumne Riv bd

F 16 Aug Route: 1 mi E of N.F. Tuolumne Riv bd - Mi-Wuk Willage - Sonora - Mi-Wuk Village - 1 mi E of N.F. Tuolumne Riv bd

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Finding Campgrounds:

• RV Campgrounds from TrailerLifeDirectory.com
• Family Camping Directories from Woodalls.com
• Free campsites website
• Info on finding BLM Campgrounds

N.B. I receive nothing from Trailer Life, Woodalls, or FreeCampsites.net for including links to their free campground lookups.

Obituary for Dr Richard Tansey, SJS Art Historian

Richard G. TANSEY
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Funeral Announcement
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Saturday 21 February 1998 San Jose Mercury News, p. 6B
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    Tansey, Richard G. -- At rest in San Jose on February 20, 1998. Richard G. Tansey came to San Jose with his wife, Luraine, in 1947 to teach at San Jose State College.

    While he had schooled at Harvard in the history of art, he early recognized the importance of interdisciplinary studies. With a group of professors in different departments, he established a faculty club with the aim of providing a collegial community. This group set up the Humanities program at San Jose Stage for talented college students, many of whom went on to earn their doctorates. Later Dr. Tansey and the group established the Tutorials program at San Jose State.

    As the college grew into a university, as San Jose exploded in population, and as the sixties brought political turmoil, many problems of a large urban university began to appear. Dr. Tansey organized a chapter of the American Federation of Teachers to provide a voice for the professors to preserve the quality of education at San Jose State College. He helped many people through administrative hurdles whether returnees from Vietnam, students who were in trouble, faculty who had been treated unfairly, or friends who were financially destitute. While some of his causes were not popular, he fought for them with integrity.

    In 1968 Dr. Tansey collaborated with Horst de la Croix in writing the art history book, Gardner's Art Through the Ages. This successful book lasted through five editions and at his death Dr. Tansey was writing yet another edition. By the time he retired in 1980, his perspective of art history reached twelve thousand students through his lectures at San Jose State College. Through his textbook he reached hundreds of thousands of students more. Perhaps the most privileged of those students were the ones who participated in one of the many tours to Europe which he and Marvin Jensen led.

    But Dr. Tansey was perhaps best known for the informal community who gathered around him in weekly discussions of world events and ideas. He embraced a diversity of members. The hallmark of his teaching and friendship was inclusion, not exclusion, excellence, not mediocrity.

    Richard Tansey was born on October 26, 1919 in Newark, New Jersey. He received all of his degrees in Art History from Harvard (B.A., 1942, M.A, and PhD). He is survived by his wife, Luraine, and his four sons, Michael, Mark, Charles, and Joel.

    Friends are invited to attend Graveside Services Sunday February 22, 1998 at 12:30 p.m. at Los Gatos Memorial Park, 2255 Los Gatos/Almaden Road, San Jose.

    Memorial contributions to the Hospice of the Valley, 1150 S. Bascom Ave., Suite 7A, San Jose, CA 95128 preferred.

    Darling-Fischer Garden Chapel, Directors.
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Pinto Lake, Watsonville, CA.
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    Dr. Tansey was the Tau Delta Phi adviser who preceded Dr. Edward Laurie. (Perhaps someone with access to the La Torre yearbooks can ascertain the dates of Dr. Tansey's service to the fraternity.)

    I got to know Dr. Tansey through his office-mate, Dr. Horst de la Croix, who was one of the four professors I had during my two years in the Humanities program. We had similar backgrounds in that he worked for the U.S. Forest Services during the summers while attending UC Berkeley and I while attending San Jose State. One day at Dr. de la Croix's office I met Dr Tansey.

    As is obvious from the above obituary, Dr. Tansey was interested in more than just art history. I recall talking for 15-20 minutes at the NW corner of Washington Square (4th and San Fernando) about a variety of subjects.

    His favorite story was about an experience he had in a bar in New Jersey shortly after he was hired to teach at SJS. When he told the fellow next to him about his new job, another fellow piped up with "You mean that football factory on the west coast?"

    Yes, sport fans, SJS had strong football teams in the late 30s, with the 1939 team going undefeated. And one of the key players on that year's team was Bob Tichenal, a Tau Delt -- and later a SJS football coach.

    The last time I talked with Dr. Tansey was shortly after I discovered that Dr. de la Croix, who lived in Santa Cruz after his retirement, had passed on. And since there was a Tau Delta Phi Alumni Reunion at the BBQ pits next to the Old Women's Gym, I invited him to attend as my guest. While he was using a cane when he walked, he was still very sharp mentally. And another former Tau Delt who was also a former SJS faculty member remarked after Dr Tansey left, "I wonder where Dick has been? I haven't seen him around lately."

    One answer may be that Dr. Tansey was working on the 6th edition of Gardner's Art Through the Ages.

Life in the San Jose State Tower

    No, I wasn't incarcerated in the tower 50 years ago for an undergraduate prank nor did I spend the bulk of my time there during my membership in Tau Delta Phi, the Men's Scholastic Honor Society. (Thanks to Title IX the society became co-ed circa 1974.) [For a brooding view of the tower taken by Steve Sloan click here.]

    As I understand it, former SJS President Thomas W. Macquarrie looked favorably upon Tau Delta Phi and allowed the organization to use the top three levels of the tower. Photos of exterior of the tower have usually appeared on virtually everything connected with SJS. (Indeed, the yearbook is titled La Torre.) Succeeding presidents allowed the fraternity to continue using the tower until it was declared sesmically unsafe in 1963. [Here's another colorful Flickr photo taken by Darshan Karia.]

    I was invited to join TDP during the spring semester of '59. The requirements back then, if memory serves, were a 3.20 (B+) or better GPA for at least two semesters. (Both my father and the uncle with whom I lived had similarly been invited to join, but both had to work part-time to remain at SJS during the 30s and 40s.)

    I joined the fraternity during the spring semester of '59 and was an active member until graduation in June 1961. Some of the newer members have asked what the tower was like back then. Here's my recollection of life in the tower.

Entrance/Bookshelves
    Dues were collected each semester and the key to the lock on the large red door at the base of the spiral, cast-iron stairs was also changed each semester. In my case, the bookshelves just inside the door to the left were extrememely beneficial since no one thought to use backpacks to carry books around back then. And when the aunt and uncle with whom I lived moved from South 5th Street about a block and a half from the Men's Gym to the corner of 16th and San Fernando, I had to carry a passel of books slightly more than 10 blocks to the bookshelves at the base of the stairs.

 

First Level: Rec Room
    The two principal features of the first-level were the ping-pong table and a couch to the right. While I became more proficient at ping-pong during my 3 years in the army (since I had more time) I don't recall playing more than once or twice on the TDP table. But those waiting to take on the winner of the game in progress could talk between the gNip-gNop sounds of the ping-pong ball.
Second Level: Kitchen
    While the appliances behind the partition which separated the kitchen itself from the benches and tables were 30s-vintage, they worked. (Don't recall seeing any beer in the fridge, but I'm certain that any cans or bottles which were smuggled in and left in the fridge did not last long; in all likelihood there was a prohibition again bringing alcholol into the tower.)

    The main feature of the kitchen was a pegboard with hooks where coffee-drinkers hung their cups. Since I didn't drink coffee, I soldered a small wire handle onto a thimble and put my initials on the thimble. It was generally in the upper left of the pegboard. I assume that coffee-drinkers kept a coffee pot going most of the day.

    Once when I received a warning slip at mid-term in a Projective Geometry class, a fellow Tau Delt who was also a member of a social fraternity brought in their file of past tests given by that particular professor. I don't remember my final grade in the class, but it was at least a C. (As a math major it would have been rather emnbarassing to flunk that class.)

The kitchen windows were the site of the pledge plank-walks. Of course, current members had you do a practice session inside of the kitchen, but, even though one was blindfolded, it was obvious you were inside. But once you got up on the window sill and had a harness connected around your middle, it was clear that you were headed outside. There, of course, was some trepidation since the salutes to the tower and plank prior to the initiation made it obvious that it was a long ways from the third-level windows to the lawn below.

    The trickiest part of walking the plank was putting your hands, while blindfolded, on the top of the small chair, and then turning so that you could sit facing back toward the window. While the plank was only 6-10 feet above the roof of the Morris Dailey Auditorium, the rope attached to the harness and over a roller above the window came very close to one's neck. Faculty Adviser Edward J. Laurie of the Business Department felt that the risk of an accident was too great and threaten to quit unless the plank-walk was excised from the initiation. (Since I was the 7th person in the 7th pledge group that spring, I may have been the last person to walk the plank; I did keep the ivy leaf I plucked after walking back to the window for some time and only recently discarded it while whittling down my possessions.)

Third Level: Meeting Room
    If you had some reading to do, the top or third floor was the place to do it. There were numerous chairs and sofas along with a desk up front near the windows. Or, if you simply wanted to look out of the windows, the "view from the top" was the best.

    Weekly meetings were held each Wednesday evening, usually with an attendance of 15-25 people. There was often a larger turnout for elections than for regular meetings. I recall one candidate for Master of Admissions was a psychology major; he pointed out that his speech had been written on toilet paper. When I asked him what psychological significance he would attach to his choice of writing paper, he thought for a few seconds and replied that it showed he could do his thinking anywhere. [He got my vote!]

    Many members felt membership would look good on their records or resumes and rarely attended meetings or otherwise take part in the activities of the fraternity after they pledged and perhaps attended the formal banquet. But some others often attended meetings. One notable, Stu Bartell, SJS's last NCAA Champion as a middleweight boxer, was one of those. I got to know Stu because my father had come to SJS to box on the first boxing team in 1937 under Coach DeWitt "Dee" Portal, who has previously run the Community Club in Fort Bragg, CA.

    In going through my father's 1938-1940 La Torres I noted that two other well-know SJS Coaches were members of Tau Delta Phi when they were undergraduates: Walt McPherson and Bob Titchenal. Walt, who played football, basketball, and baseball, went on to become a longtime SJS basketball coach while Bob, who played both football and basketball, played center for the Washington Redskins for two years before becoming a football coach at several colleges -- including his alma mater.
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    As Uncle Walter would say, "And that's the way it was in the tower during the late 50s and early 60s."
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    Finally, here's a photo of the tower taken at night by Ditus Alviar.