University Communications

Fall 2002
Coming Home
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AS THE TOUR BUS continues its passage through campus, Shaw, the tour guide, explains, "The pavilion we're passing on your right is named Bunche Hall, for Ralph Bunche."

Zada Pierce Folz-Evans '27

"He was a good basketball player," Grancell interjects.

"He was a great basketball player," Shaw says. "And then he was undersecretary general of the United Nations and won the Nobel Peace Prize."

"He was in my class," adds Zada Pierce Folz-Evans '27.

"Was he really? Wow," Shaw says, pausing for a moment to absorb the fact.

The day is loaded with similar name-dropping — names that in the minds of many generations of Bruins are more closely linked to buildings on campus than to the actual people behind them. Even a tour guide, who knows more about the campus' history than the average Bruin, can be surprised.

"I'm used to saying the names of buildings over and over again, but the Pioneers give me a picture of the faces that go with the names," Shaw says. "They're not just random things; they have a lot of meaning and personal history attached to them. When I mention Kinsey Hall, and one of them says, 'He was my physics professor' — that is amazing!"

For some Bruins, Rieber Hall harkens memories of dormitory life. But for the Pioneers, the name brings back the memory of Charles Henry Rieber, professor of philosophy and first dean of the College of Letters and Science (1921-'36).

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