Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow!

Someone said that a man never has to worry about hair styles. He gets one early and it’s good for life…till it’s all gone. Women, on the other hand spend a lifetime following the styles and worrying about how it looks, the color and roots, etc. until in many cases it thins out and calls for a wig.

Of course, men do change styles over time, as we think back to ducktails, mohawks, the flat top, the mullet, and shoulder length, a la 1960s when rebellion was in style.

As a case in point, following are some photos of Rodolfo Alvarez, or Rudy, as we knew him back in the day.

Digressing briefly, one of the pleasures of keeping our classmates connected is that I hear from so many of you. A joy over recent years has been emailing and exchanging photos with Rodolfo. I noted at one point his shaved head and that led to comparing photos over his career.

Here are photos at stops along the way, with some biographical notes. The comments in blue are from Rudy, in black from me.

1954 Monticello photo. Rudy says, “Well in the class photo I had GREY hair.”

Timeline:    Lorenzo De Zavala Public School #40, first through sixth grades; started age 7. (Rudy noted that Ruth Hernandez Stewart was a classmate there.)

Sidney Lanier Junior High School, 7th&9th grades, based on IQ double promoted skipped 8th grade.

Thomas Jefferson High School, 10th-12th grades, summer school at San Antonio Tech High School, thus graduated with TJHS Class of 1954, age 17, immediately enlisted US Marine Corps.

I mentioned Jaime Ornelas to Rudy, who said, “Jaime and I joined Marines at same time, without knowing in advance about each other’s intentions.  Upon arrival at US Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, we discovered each other in the same boot camp platoon.  Purely coincidental.”

Following the Marines,

San Francisco State University

Institute for American Universities, Aix-en-Provence France

University of Washington Seattle Washington, MA & PhD

Assistant Professor Yale University, 1966-72

Professor University of California, 1972-2002.  

In this photo, grey was already starting show up some time around 1970 at my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. But I certainly had hair then.  🤪

“My older daughter and I had a good laugh as I related to her your comparison of two “hair” photos (1954 TJHS yearbook & class reunion) as well as a third “hair” photo taken at my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. Where upon she produced yet a fourth “hair” photo, herewith.  I do not recall when nor where this 4th was taken. However, I’m wearing “The Tie” gifted to me by Wooster School Danbury Connecticut, where I voluntarily assisted while on Yale faculty.  Evidently, hair was a bit more trimmed!”

Photo submitted with our class history published in 2015. I will reprint his submission at the end of this blog.

At dinner in Thailand in September 2018. This is the photo that kicked off this discussion of hair.

Photo 2019

The objective was to get out in front of, and beat to the punch, mother nature. [& cancel weekly trip to barber shop].  So, every morning when I would otherwise do a normal “shave,” I simply went further up and shaved everything topside as well.  Hmmmm! But it is there. Most folks have no idea that if I wouldn’t shave (top & bottom) for a couple of months I would look like a very hairy cave dwelling Neanderthal!

Professor ~ Emeritus Professor of Sociol ogy, University of California, Los Angeles, California, 1972 – present.
President, Pacific Sociological Association, 1996-97.

President’s Management Fellow, Office of the President, University of California, 1994-95.

President, Society for the Study of Social Problems, 1985-86.
President, American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, 1980 & 1981.
President, AKD International Academic

Honor Society in Sociology, 1976-79.
Founder & Director, Spanish Speaking Mental Health Research Center, UCLA, 1973-75.
Director, Chicano Studies Research Center, UCLA, l972-74.
Visiting Lecturer, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 1970.
Trustee, Institute for American Universities, 1967- present.
Assistant Professor & Resident Fellow, Morse College, Yale University, 1966-72.

University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, MA 1964, PhD 1966.

San Francisco State University, BA 1961.

Institute for American Universities, Aix-en-Provence France, European Studies, 1960.

United States Marine Corps, 1954 – 1957 active duty; to 1962 USMC Reserve.
Texas National Guard, 1953 – 1954.