Occidental College

Gymnast Bill Tom '51 won the elite vault title at the 1949 AAU Championships and became, at age 33, the oldest member of the 1956 U.S. Olympic team that competed in Melbourne. Nicknamed "Dragon," Tom became friends with the Taiwanese Olympians and found himself dealing with deep-seated personal issues of cultural identity. That led to his moving to Taiwan for a while—using a Fulbright award—and establishing the country's first gymnastic team. He served as an instructor at Normal University in Taiwan before accepting a position at Los Angeles Trade-Tech, where he was a physical education instructor and gymnastics coach for more than 30 years. Tom was inducted into the U.S. Gymnastics Hall of Fame as an athlete and coach in 1992. He died in 2012.