main content Members of the L&C Family Remembered
Between 1991 and 2013, Neff proposed, created, and shepherded the federal Megatons to Megawatts Program, a $17 billion deal under which Russia destroyed more than 20,000 nuclear weapons, recycling the bomb-grade uranium into fuel for U.S. nuclear power plants. The deal eliminated a third of the global nuclear arsenal and prevented proliferation from a dangerously bankrupt Soviet weapons program.
According to his New York Times obituary, Neff “engineered an East-West deal that reduced nuclear threats and produced one of the greatest peace dividends of all time.”
After receiving his BA in mathematics from Lewis & Clark, Neff earned his PhD in physics from Stanford University in 1973. He worked for many years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he managed its International Energy Studies Program.
Surviving family members include wife Beth Harris, daughter Catherine Harris, son Chris Neff, brother William “Bill” Neff BA ’67, and two grandchildren.
Pomeroy, a self-taught chef, was known in Portland for her innovative cooking at restaurants like her communal dining hotspot Beast, which was named the Oregonian’s 2008 Co–Restaurant of the Year. In 2009, she was named one of Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs, and in 2014, she received the James Beard Award for Best Chef Pacific Northwest after being nominated three times prior. She also competed on the Top Chef Masters TV show.
Beast lasted until the pandemic, after which she started a new restaurant/market hybrid called Ripe Cooperative. She also became involved in advocating for her industry as a cofounder of the national Independent Restaurant Coalition. Recently, Pomeroy had opened Cornet Custard and was planning a new bistro on Southeast Division Street.
Pomeroy, a history major, received Lewis & Clark’s Outstanding Young Alumna Award in 2010. Survivors include her husband, Kyle Linden Webster, and her daughter, August.
Former Board Member and Alumnus Mourned
John Wright BS ’83, a former member of the Board of Trustees and the recipient of the 2009 Donald G. Balmer Citation for service to Lewis & Clark, died April 18, 2024, at age 63.
Wright was founder and CEO of Global Sage, a specialist financial-services search practice with operations in New York, London, Hong Kong, and Tokyo. He began his career as a financial journalist with the Wall Street Journal, where he served as news editor for Asia-Pacific. Wright earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology and anthropology from Lewis & Clark and a master’s degree in journalism from the Missouri School of Journalism.
Family members include his two sons, Gabriel and Samuel, as well as three grandchildren.
