Norma Jenkyn Simon lets her fingers do the walking to find lost alumni

Once a week, for more than a year, Norma Jenkyn Simon made the 80-mile plus roundtrip from her home in Rancho Palos Verdes to Woodbury to pore over some very large books. And when she wasn't on the Burbank campus, she intently studies other similar tomes.

It's not exactly the stuff of bestseller lists or nightstands, Simon knows. But phone books are the best way for this Class of 1956 graduate to keep her fellow Woodbury alumni connected with their alma mater.

For her nearly 40 years of volunteer efforts, Simon was the 2002 Outstanding Alum of the Year.

"Norma invests her personal time in a way that is truly remarkable," says Claudia Campos, Woodbury's alumni affairs officer and the person who has met weekly with Simon. "She wants to keep alumni connected to the Woodbury community. We are grateful for her dedication and her generosity."

Former Woodbury president Dora Kirby was the first to turn to Simon for aid when the university developed its inaugural alumni directory. The interior design major was an alumni association officer at the time and readily agreed to help — never dreaming that she'd still be involved in this kind of methodical detective work today.

"It's a very long, tedious job, but I think it's important for the university to keep track of their alumni," she explains. "Almost every time I say, ‘I'm not going to do this again.' But here I am yet again."

Simon's Woodbury connections run far and deep. Her husband Martin, who passed away, was a 1957 accounting graduate who went on to a career as a CPA. And she still talks daily to her former college roommate and regularly with a host of other Woodbury graduates.

"We had a lot of friends through Woodbury and they were very special people. So, we've kept in touch through the years. That's a nice thing," she says.

The former Eta Upsilon Gamma member also was one of the organizers of a "Gamma Girls" reunion on the Woodbury campus. Simon keeps the Gamma roster of more than 200 names current for Woodbury and also volunteers in a similar capacity for Zeta Tau Alpha, the national sorority that took over the Gamma sorority.

Marveling that some recent graduates may move four times in a single year, Simon is adept at using phone books to track down alumni or their parents. She looks at hundreds of phone books, both old and new.

While she worked for many years as a furniture buyer for Bullock's department store and then as a freelance interior designer, Simon has always found time for the lists and the phone books. She laughingly recalls her husband's discomfort when she would "borrow" phone books from the hotels they stayed at when traveling to his dismay over seeing the back of the couple's moving van stacked with phone books.

Simon, who keeps busy with knitting when she's not searching for alumni, urges other Woodbury graduates to look for school connections. Simon also encourages Woodbury alumni and friends to donate phone books, which can be quite expensive to purchase.

"I'll be you money that everyone, I mean everyone, knows one or two Woodburyites," she declares. "Most people don't pass along the information because they assume that we already. But, often, that's just not the case and I think it's sad that so many alumni are missing So join in!"

To pass along information about Woodbury alumni, donate phone books or volunteer time, please contact Claudia Campos, Office of University Advancement, at 818.767.0888, ext. 213 or claudia.campos@woodbury.edu.