THERESE TRUITT WHITCOMB ’53 (BA), who was professor emerita of art and the first graduate of the San Diego College for Women, passed away on August 11, 2018 at the age of 87. She was born in Illinois and came in San Diego as a transfer student when the College for Women opened in February 1952, earning her bache-lor’s degree in art in one year. The mother of six children, Whitcomb began teaching in 1961 as a part-time art instructor in the College for Women and became a full-time professor in the Department of Fine Arts in 1969. She chaired the department for a decade and taught in the College of Arts and Sciences for 35 years. Whitcomb — who founded USD’s art history program, established Founders Gallery (now Hoehn Family Galleries) and served as the university’s first-ever director of institutional design — was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters by then-President Mary E. Lyons, PhD in 2015. “The loss of Terry Whitcomb will be felt by generations of alumni, friends and former colleagues at the University of San Diego for years to come,” said President James T. Harris III, DEd.
R.I.P. Therese Truitt Whitcomb ’53
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