Fall — 2004
cover stories
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Jim FugleSMC Student 1942,
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“I was at the College in December of 1941 when Pearl Harbor happened. Then I graduated and went to UCLA, both before and after the war. SMC was the beginning of a long path in life.” “I was at the College in December of 1941 when Pearl Harbor happened. Then I graduated and went to UCLA, both before and after the war. SMC was the beginning of a long path in life.” It was his plan, during those ‘interesting’ years of WWII, to charge straight through academia and then become a teacher. But Uncle Sam had different plans for Jim Fugle and where he’d lead the charge. “I joined one of those Navy plans where, presumably, you could stay in school until you graduated. But I got called into active duty in ’43 and went to midshipman’s school.” The war years found him “leading waves of amphibious boats on beaches in the Philippines and Okinawa, that sort of thing,” Jim recalls dryly. “But when I got out in ’46, I went right back to UCLA and graduated.” After a stint teaching junior high school, Jim came back to the school where it all started for him. “I came to SMC as a math instructor, and then became Dean of Admissions & Records. That was a time when—if you wanted a copy of anything—you just sat down with a typewriter and copied it!” he recalls with a laugh. But technology was burgeoning at the time, and Jim saw to it that it found a good home at SMC. “I got to be instrumental in bringing the first computers into recordkeeping and registration. And we eventually got computers involved in all kinds of processes.” Wearing his many hats at SMC and UCLA, Jim reports, “I still go to every UCLA match I can.” But beyond joining up with sports and activities at SMC, Jim advises today’s students to look for one thing above all: clarity of expression. “Learn to write and express your thoughts in writing,” he counsels. “Eventually those short papers will evolve into dissertations.” Back |
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