In Memoriam
Gwendolyn Lohmann ’81
History
A former librarian at The Claremont Colleges’ Honnold Mudd Library, Gwendolyn Kathleen Lohmann passed away in April. She was 83.
A devoted mother and grandmother and a loving sister, she is remembered for her resilience, gentle spirit, and enduring love for her family. Her siblings lovingly referred to her as “Dolly.”
Born in 1940 in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Lohmann pursued a passion for aviation, securing her pilot’s license to fly small planes. After high school, she joined National Airlines as a flight attendant and met her future husband, Kaj Lohmann. They married soon after, settled in Claremont, and welcomed identical twin daughters, Denah and Ruth, in 1963. The couple divorced in 1975.
Lohmann worked as a librarian at Honnold Library while raising her daughters. She earned her bachelor’s degree in history from Pitzer and went on to earn a master’s degree in library science at California State University, Fullerton. She later finished her library career as a law librarian at Loyola Law Library.
Manuel Mercado ’96
Psychology
A marriage and family therapist who worked with children, adolescents, and families contending with emotional trauma, Manuel Mercado passed away in May. According to a Forest Lawn obituary, Mercado was involved in a motorcycle accident on his morning commute. He was 49.
Born in 1974 in Loma Linda, California, Mercado graduated from Pitzer College with a BA in psychology and earned an MA in psychology from Pepperdine University in 1999. As a marriage and family therapist, he was known for his grace and humor in helping countless patients. In addition to helping people with trauma, abandonment, loss, depression, victimization through local sex-trafficking, and other circumstances, Mercado also had four years supervising marriage and family therapist associates in a treatment center for children.
Justin Shapiro ’02
Economics
A bond trader and finance executive, Justin Philip-Vincent Shapiro passed away in May after being diagnosed with brain cancer. He was 43.
Born in 1980 in Chicago, Illinois, he grew up on the North Side of downtown Chicago and attended the Latin School of Chicago. Known for a curious and sharp intellect and a wry sense of humor, he played on the school’s baseball team and founded the school’s investment club.
At Pitzer, Shapiro majored in economics and entered the world of finance as a treasury bond trader at Trans Market Group LLC. He also earned an MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business with a concentration in finance.
Shapiro and wife Ashley welcomed the birth of a daughter, Penelope Annella. In recent years, Shapiro served as a finance executive for a corporate startup assembling, constructing, and packaging portfolios of single-family homes for rental. Shapiro was interred in June with his paternal grandparents at Westlawn Cemetery & Mausoleum in Illinois.
Lynne Spear
Administrative Staff
Office of Financial Aid
Independent, straight-talking, and always brimming with motherly love and advice for Pitzer students, longtime staff member Lynne Spear passed away in May 2023. She was 83.
Born in 1939, Spear grew up in the golden era of Los Angeles, riding the old railway Red Cars to the beach from her childhood home in Los Feliz. She married Gerald Sanders, and the couple had two sons, Eric and Eddie. After a divorce in 1979, she juggled raising her sons with full-time work and later relocated to Claremont.
In 1980, she met and married Bill Spear and later took on a new career at Pitzer College working in the Office of Financial Aid. Several times she was voted a favorite staff member of graduating seniors for her help in navigating complicated government aid programs, lending a supportive ear, and providing support to those on their own for the first time. She retired from Pitzer in 2000.
Loretta Warmbrunn ’84
Anthropology
Longtime Claremont resident and spouse of a Pitzer founding faculty member, Loretta Warmbrunn passed away in March. She was 90.
Born in Detroit to parents who immigrated to the U.S. from Italy, Warmbrunn was one of five siblings. At Pomona High School, she met Wesley Fretter. They married two years after her high school graduation in 1951. The couple had four children and settled in Claremont.
Warmbrunn took a job at Boy’s Market in Pomona, starting as a clerk and working up to office manager. After divorcing in the 1970s, she enrolled at Pitzer through the New Resources Program. She studied anthropology and met Werner Warmbrunn, a history professor and one of Pitzer’s first faculty members. They married in 1984.
She became a docent at the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles. An avid gardener, Warmbrunn also volunteered at the California Botanic Garden. She mixed her love of flowers and painting; for years, her watercolors of native wildflowers graced the garden’s annual wildflower show.
Warmbrunn was predeceased by Werner. She is survived by her children, brothers, grandchildren, and stepchildren, as well as eight great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.