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
| 1954Claire (Rominger) Stark, of Winters, died at age 81 on Jan. 14. She was a retired teacher. Survivors include her brothers Richard Rominger ’49 and Donald Rominger, Cred. ’49. (appeared in the Spring 2014 issue) • Donald Bath, M.S. ’56, Ph.D. ’64, of St. Helena, died at age 81 in October. He was an Extension dairy nutrition specialist from 1964 to 2003. He authored 350 publications, including the widely used textbook Dairy Cattle: Principles, Practices, Problems, Profits. As an undergraduate, he quarterbacked the Aggie football team and served as president of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, then known as the IOTA Chapter. (appeared in the Spring 2014 issue) |
| 1955John Patrick Jordan, Ph.D. ’63, was recognized by the Federal Laboratory Consortium as Federal Laboratory Director of the Year. Jordan is director of the USDA’s Agriculture Research Service Southern Regional Research Center in New Orleans, a center that conducts research on commodities important in the southern region, such as cotton, rice, peanuts, corn and sugar. (appeared in the Fall 2001 issue) • George Rendell, retired UC Cooperative Extension 4-H farm advisor and administrator, received an Award of Distinction from the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. In 1979, Rendell conceived the UC Master Gardener Program, now a model for programs nationwide. (appeared in the Winter 2002 issue) • Ann Herrmann lives with her husband on five acres in the Sierra foothills where she trains horses, teaches English riding and piano and plays tympani in her local college/community concert band. (appeared in the Winter 2003 issue) • Harry Agamalian, weed science advisor emeritus for UC Cooperative Extension in Monterey County, was given the Lifetime Achievement Award for 2004 from the American Society of Agronomy. Agamalian, a Salinas resident, retired after working for Cooperative Extension for 40 years and now spends his time traveling and gardening. (appeared in the Summer 2004 issue) • Ann Herrmann teaches piano and equitation and plays timpani for a community concert band in the Central Valley. She says maybe she’ll retire, someday. (appeared in the Fall 2004 issue) • Jim Coelho, Cred., was named 2005 Livestock Man of the Year at the Grand National Rodeo, Horse and Stock Show in San Francisco in April. Coelho has over 40 years of experience raising livestock and also has taught agricultural science and business management at Livermore High School and Chabot College for 25 years. He lives with his wife, Virginia, in Fremont. (appeared in the Summer 2006 issue) • Norman Klein, Ph.D. ’60, of Storrs-Mansfield, Conn., died in October after a long illness at 78. He was a professor of nutritional sciences and molecular and cell biology at the University of Connecticut in Storrs for 33 years, during which he published 50 scientific papers and many chapters in scientific books. He retired in 1997. Professor Klein was remembered for standing up for what he believed was right, including criticizing pharmaceutical companies who he thought were manipulating data. His partner of 24 years, Sandy Schulte, died in 2000. He is survived by his sons, Ronald and David; sister, June; Schulte’s children, Carin and Dirk Van Gelder. (appeared in the Spring issue) • Jean Barton of Red Bluff was among six Northern California women to receive a 2010 Common Threads Award in March for contributions to agriculture and their communities. She is a fourth-generation cattle rancher who owns a commercial cow/calf operation with her husband, William. She has been active in local, state and national cattle organizations, writes a weekly agricultural column for the Red Bluff Daily News and helps youth in agriculture through 4-H and other groups. Common Threads awards are sponsored by the California Agricultural Leadership Foundation, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, California Women for Agriculture and various county farm bureaus. (appeared in the Summer 2010 issue) • Marilyn Slater Mccapes, a farmer and lifelong campus supporter with family ties going back to the early days of the University Farm, died in her Davis home in January. She was 78. Her father was Aggie Hall of Fame athlete and Olympic gold medal rugby player Colby “Babe” Slater ’17. Her aunt, Marguerite Slater, a UC Berkeley student, in 1914 was one of the first three women to enroll in courses on the new Davis campus. As an undergraduate, Marilyn Slater met her future husband, fellow student Richard “Dick” McCapes ’56, D.V.M. ’58, who joined the School of Veterinary Medicine faculty in 1970. She later managed the Clarksburg farm where she had grown up. She was a supporter of the UC Davis Arboretum and the men’s rugby club. In 2003, she donated her father’s 1920 and 1924 Olympic medals and other sports and personal memorabilia to the library. She was a past president of the University Farm Circle and the Prytanean Women’s Honor Society, among other activities. In addition to her husband of 57 years, survivors include her children Patricia Bahrijczuk, Jeffrey McCapes, Elizabeth McCapes ’84, John McCapes and Carolyn Jensen; and nine grandchildren. (appeared in the Spring 2012 issue) • Eugene “Gene” Carroll, D.V.M. ’59, a retired equine veterinarian, died of cancer in May 2011 in Colorado Springs, Colo., at age 77. His wife of 55 years, Barbara (Lee) Carroll ’59, died four weeks later. She was 74. The couple were high school sweethearts who met at a 4-H camp. Gene Caroll joined Valley Large Animal Hospital in San José after graduating from veterinary school, moved the equine practice to Morgan Hill in 1972 and retired in 1984. Barbara kept the books for the animal hospital. Beginning in 1977, the couple also developed land near Anchorage, Alaska. They had lived in Colorado Springs since 1997. (appeared in the Fall 2012 issue) • Gary Frame, M.S. ’56, is a retired consulting animal nutritionist. Recently widowed, he lives in Green Valley, Ariz. (appeared in the Winter 2013 issue) • Robert Ball, who as a longtime UC Davis employee worked to ensure that growers receive best quality seeds and other agricultural products, died in March. An U.S. Air Force veteran, he was 82. He was the manager of the California Crop Improvement Association and assistant director of Foundation Seed and Plant Materials Service. He played a major role in planning UC Davis’ seed research center. In 1985, he received the Academic Federation’s James H. Meyer Distinguished Achievement Award. He is survived by a sister; six children, including daughter Jan ’77, M.D. ’88; and 11 grandchildren. (appeared in the Summer 2013 issue) |
| 1956Ruth Rockefeller, Cred., recently retired from the North Coast Railroad Authority board, having served since its inception 10 years ago. After retiring from a 25-year career teaching high school, Rockefeller devoted her time, as an editorial in the Eureka Times-Standard put it, to "saving the Northwestern Pacific Railroad." She was instrumental in forming the public agency that took over the bankrupt line and even served as its director for a time. (appeared in the Spring 2000 issue) • Robert Washino, M.S., Ph.D. '67, professor emeritus of entomology at UC Davis, received an Award of Distinction from the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences for his contributions to public health and pest management at national and international levels. (appeared in the Winter 2002 issue) • Edward Bergtholdt retired after 29 years as an administrative law judge for the Social Security Administration's Office of Hearings and Appeals in Spokane, Wash., and moved to Springville. After graduating from UC Davis, Bergtholdt served as an officer in the U.S. Coast Guard for three years and then obtained a law degree from Boalt Hall in 1963. He was in private practice in the Sacramento Valley for four years and was a deputy attorney general for the California Attorney General's office for five years before moving to Spokane. (appeared in the Fall 2002 issue) • Charlie Barnes, D.V.M. '58, has treated over 20,000 pets in his 42 years practicing veterinary medicine. Barnes recently celebrated his 70th birthday with his friends and wife Patricia '58. Barnes lives in Vacaville and says he has no present plans to retire. (appeared in the Summer 2003 issue) • Louis Locke, D.V.M., worked as a wildlife pathologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for 31 years before retiring in 1989. For his services, Locke was awarded the U.S. Department of Interior Meritorious Service Medal. (appeared in the Summer 2003 issue) • Donald Dahlsten died in September 2003 at age 69 from skin cancer. An insect biologist, he taught at UC Berkeley for three decades and researched the biological control of insects, helping fight California's pest problems with predatory insects as an alternative to chemical pesticides. Survivors include his wife, Janet, two daughters, two stepchildren and 10 grandchildren. (appeared in the Winter 2004 issue) |