Alumni in the News

August 2005

The Front Man for Proposition 75
Sacramento Bee, Sacramento, California (8/15/05)

He is an unapologetic McCarthyite and a former member of the John Birch Society whose hard-right ideology has taken him to the fringes of American conservatism.

But Lewis K. Uhler '58 also has remained very much planted in mainstream Republican orthodoxy over the past half-century, landing key positions in the gubernatorial administration of Ronald Reagan, co-writing the state's term-limits initiative and staying at the national forefront of the movement to lower taxes and balance the federal budget.

Now, the 71-year-old Uhler is working as the front man - at the urging of a close contact to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger - for Proposition 75, the ballot initiative aimed at reducing the influence of the state's public employee unions.

It is the latest cause in a life's work dedicated, in Uhler's words, to expanding "human individual freedoms."

"So this has been a battle of ideas," Uhler said, of his 50 years in the political trenches. "This has been a battle of institutions. We recognize that there are certain fundamental things that you have to do collectively through government. But it is through the free market that the ingenuity of individual creators and enterprises flourishes...."

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Still Judging ... At 71, Henderson continues to add to distinguished legacy
The Recorder (8/9/05)

Senior U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson '62 walks with a cane these days, the result of an autoimmune disease that's attacking his muscles.

The judge doesn't expect it to force him off the bench anytime soon. That's good, because he has a lot of work to do. He just ordered a federal receiver to take over California's state prison medical system, and he's determined to see it through.

Henderson, 71, could use the disease as an excuse to finally do what he's been threatening: leave the bench to fully devote himself to his beloved hobby, fishing. Having maxed out his pension, Henderson is essentially working for free.

But even with the cane, the judge is hardly slowing down.

"He has taken to being a senior judge the way [Jimmy] Carter took to being an ex-president," said criminal defense attorney Edward Swanson, who clerked for Henderson in 1992 and 1993. "He's as engaged as he was before, and he continues to do great work..."

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