Class Notes Archive 1931-2014
Class Notes are searchable back to our spring 2000 issue. You can browse the notes by decade (click on a decade to view its class notes):
Class notes from the 1950s
| 1956Martin Fineman, D.V.M. ’58, passed the Nevada State veterinary exam and believes he is the oldest person to do so. He is retired from 45 years in practice in Southern California, but continues to do veterinary relief work in the Lake Tahoe area. He also enjoys skiing, backpacking, hiking and tennis. (appeared in the Spring 2004 issue) • Harold Yee died in February 2004 at age 71 following heart surgery. Mr. Yee was a well-known civic leader in San Francisco, who, in 1971, founded Asian Inc. to assist Chinese Americans with small business planning and loans, entrepreneurship classes and technical help. He then went on to found more than 100 nonprofit corporations to deal with social, political and economic issues facing Asian Americans. Survivors include his wife, Wilma; and his children, Robert and Cathy. (appeared in the Spring 2004 issue) • Berl Koch, Ph.D., and his wife, Tina, recently celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary. They live in Meadowlark Hills Retirement Village in Manhattan, Kan., and are active in volunteer work. (appeared in the Winter 2008 issue) • Berl Koch, Ph.D., writes that he and his wife, Tina, are living in a cottage in a retirement village in Manhattan, Kan., and "enjoying each and every day." They are active in volunteer work and their church. The couple raised three children, and Berl retired in 1988 after more than three decades on the faculty of Kansas State University in the animal science and industries department (appeared in the Fall 2008 issue) • ADRIAN GEORGE GENTILE, M.S. ’56, Ph.D. ’66, died at a Davis convalescent home in April. He was 83. A native of Italy, he was a greenhouse floriculture entomologist for the University of Massachusetts’ Waltham Suburban Experiment Station in Waltham, Mass., until the late 1970s. Survivors include his brother, Dario, of Italy and a brother-in-law, Robert Sobel, of Bloomfield, Mich. (appeared in the Summer 2009 issue) • Riena (Weidman) Kondo died in September 2011 in Villavicencio, Colombia, of complications of Parkinson’s disease. She wrote a number of scholarly articles on the native Guahibo language and with her husband, Vic, D.V.M. ’59, was translating the Bible into the Guayabero dialect. (appeared in the Fall 2012 issue) • James Draper Jr., a longtime resident of Shasta Lake, died of lung cancer in July. He was a U.S. Army veteran and enjoyed wood working. (appeared in the Winter 2013 issue) • Leo Stringfellow, D.V.M ’58, of St. George, Utah, died at age 82 on September 25. He was a retired veterinarian in New Zealand and Southern California clinics. (appeared in the Spring 2014 issue) • Kenneth Tucker, Ph.D., a retired entomologist/apiculturist, died in October 2014 in Santa Barbara at age 90. After working as a University of Minnesota Extension entomologist, he joined the federal Honey Bee Laboratory in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where part of his research was on Africanized bees in Venezuela. (appeared in the Spring 2015 issue) |
| 1957Jim Kissler, B.S., M.S. '57, received an award of merit from the Lodi-Woodbridge Winegrape Commission in October. Kissler was honored for his many pioneering contributions to the Lodi wine and grape industry, such as his introduction of mechanical harvesting. After graduating from UC Davis, Kissler worked as the San Joaquin County viticulture farm advisor until 1986. (appeared in the Spring 2000 issue) • Edward Loftus, vice president and director of engineering at Mission Clay Products in Corona, received an Award of Merit and the title of fellow from the American Society for Testing and Materials. The honor is given for service to the society. (appeared in the Winter 2002 issue) • Howard Shellhammer, Ph.D. '61, just retired after 40 years with the Department of Biological Sciences at San Jose State University. He is best known for his work on the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse endemic to San Francisco Bay and his research on the fire ecology of giant sequoias. (appeared in the Winter 2002 issue) • Jere Wade, M.A. '66, writes that he is happily retired after 33 years as a professor of theatre at California State University, Stanislaus. He lives in Walnut Creek and travels extensively with his wife of 45 years, Penny. They have three sons and six grandchildren. (appeared in the Winter 2003 issue) • Werner Lipton, Ph.D., has published a memoir of his childhood during the Holocaust, titled Luck, Loss and the Kindness of Strangers--Fragments from My Life as a Child and Youth. Lipton has been a writer, editor and, with his wife, Joan, a civic activist in Fresno County since retiring from the USDA. (appeared in the Summer 2003 issue) • Ralph Boyd and his wife, Georgene, recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. He worked in commercial real estate for 40 years before his retirement in 1996. They have five children and eight grandchildren. (appeared in the Winter 2004 issue) • Harry Colvin Jr., Ph.D., retired from UC Davis after serving as a professor of physiology for 25 years. He and his wife, Marie, a teacher in the Davis school district, raised a daughter, Sally, who now works for UC Davis’ Department of Pediatrics, and a son, Bill, who works for the Heavenly Valley ski resort. (appeared in the Spring 2005 issue) • Jan Wilson Kaufman died in December 2004 of cancer and pneumonia. She was 69 years old. Ms. Kaufman was the first graduate of UC Davis’ art program and enjoyed a career in which her work was showcased in Germany, Emeryville, Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco. An award-winning painter and photographer, Ms. Kaufman studied at Oxford University in England and traveled in Europe, Central America and the Far East. Survivors include her two sisters. (appeared in the Spring 2005 issue) • Jim Kissler, M.S. ’57, died in October 2005 at the age of 79. Mr. Kissler served in the U.S. Navy for two years during World War II before finishing school and joining UC Cooperative Extension as a grape farm advisor. He went on to help establish the Lodi area as a major producer of fine wines. Mr. Kissler was a member of the San Joaquin County Agricultural Hall of Fame and a 1999 recipient of the Lodi-Woodbridge Winegrape Commission’s Award of Merit. Survivors include his wife, Audrey Scott Kissler; his children and their spouses, Linda Diane and Scott Rhodes, and Brad and Melinda Kissler; and three grandchildren. (appeared in the Winter 2006 issue) • Casimir Zyss, who attended the Davis and Berkeley campuses in 1950–57, died in February 2005 in Sarasota, Fla., at age 72. Dr. Zyss served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War before receiving M.S. and Ed.D. degrees from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He went on to a career in food technology, acquiring many meat-processing patents, and worked as a teacher, principal and guidance counselor. Survivors include his wife, Janette, four children and four grandchildren. (appeared in the Fall 2006 issue) • John “Bill” Vaccaro, M.S. ’62, a Korean War veteran, died in Florence, Ore., in June at 78 after battling Alzheimer’s for the past 10 years. He enjoyed science, music and sports. While doing postgraduate work in genetics at UC Davis, Vaccaro was a part of the team that developed the first photographs of chromosomes, and during his career as a plant breeder, he discovered a way to hybridize castor beans to increase productivity. In 1982, he and his sons founded Vaccaro Seed/California, specializing in hybrid sunflower seeds. He retired in 1996. He played the violin, guitar and ukulele, and he learned the saxophone after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. He was active in sports and coached skiing, swimming and baseball. He was a life member of Yolo Sportsmen. He is survived by his wife, Linda; brother Gary; children, William, Victor and Lindsay; and eight grandchildren. (appeared in the Fall 2010 issue) |