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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 1960s

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1967Cristy Jensen, a professor of public policy and administration at California State University, Sacramento, received the 2007 John C. Livingston Award from the Livingston Lecture Committee. The award is given to professors at the university who show commitment to students while remaining active in scholarly work. (appeared in the Winter 2008 issue) • John Vernon, M.A., Ph.D. ’69, is a distinguished professor of English at Binghamton University in upstate New York and a novelist, with his sixth novel, Lucky Billy (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), set to be published this November. In addition to his six novels, he has also published a memoir, a book of poems and three critical studies. (appeared in the Summer 2008 issue) • Robert Denno, Ph.D. ’73, died of a heart attack in March 2008 while conducting field work on Sapelo Island, Georgia. After graduating from UC Davis, Dr. Denno was a postdoctoral student, then an assistant professor at Rutgers University until 1976 before joining the entomology department at the University of Maryland. Dr. Denno was one of the world’s leading insect ecologists, noted especially for his studies of salt marsh arthropods. At the University of Maryland, he twice won research excellence awards and in 2000 was named a campus Distinguished Scholar-Teacher. He is survived by his wife of 42 years, Barbara Denno ’67, Cred. ’68, their sons, Erik and Alex, and their grandchildren, Noa and Ella. (appeared in the Summer 2008 issue) • George Miller Brown III retired in July after 21 years with the San Luis Obispo County Office of Emergency Services. Before taking that job, he taught agricultural mechanics at Sonoma State, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Michigan State universities. He and his wife, Pat, currently live in Baywood Park and say they plan to spend most of their time goofing off. (appeared in the Winter 2009 issue) • Barbara Rice, a noted plant ecology researcher in Australia, died at age 64 from ovarian cancer in June in Sydney. Rice, who grew up on a farm in the San Joaquin Valley, began her career with plants as a UC Davis student working for the herbarium. She later earned her masters and doctorate degrees from Utah State University, where she met her husband, Mark Westoby. In 1975, the couple moved to Australia, where she became an honorary associate of biological sciences at Macquarie University. She published research papers on vegetation diversity in Australia, how ants disperse seeds and about Australian grasses—and one of those grass species is named after her, Hibiscus riceae. She is survived by her husband and her siblings, Dick and Bette. (appeared in the Fall 2009 issue) • Joanne (Simonds) Powell retired in June after 30 years of being the curator of education at the North Carolina Maritime Museum, where she conducted and supervised school and public programs on the state’s coastal ecology and maritime history. In 2008, she was named the Marine Educator of the Year by the National Marine Educators Association. When Powell retired, North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue awarded her The Order of the Long Leaf Pine certificate with the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary. She lives with her husband, Allyn, in Gloucester, N.C. (appeared in the Winter 2010 issue) • J. Norman Grim, Ph.D., a biology professor emeritus at Northern Arizona University, wrote the book, To Fly the Gentle Giants: The Training of U.S. World War II Glider Pilots, (AuthorHouse) released last summer. He learned to fly in 1961 with the Cal Aggie Flying Farmers, later becoming club president and a member of its board of directors. His flying is now solely in sailplanes. He joined the Northern Arizona University faculty in 1967 and developed and directed the campus’s electron microscopy facility. He continues to study protozoa, his research focus for more than four decades. (appeared in the Spring 2010 issue) • Eric Grissell, M.S. ’69, Ph.D., ’73, had his book, Bees, Wasps, and Ants, The Indispensable Role of Hymenoptera in Gardens published in June (Timber Press). It was his fourth book related to gardens. He retired in 2006, after working for 26 years as a research entomologist for the USDA at the National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C. He is currently a Smithsonian research associate and spends much of his time gardening, collecting and observing insects, and writing. He lives in Sonoita, Ariz. (appeared in the Summer 2010 issue) • John Wedemeyer Jr. ’67, a San Diego social worker who co-founded one of the country’s first shelters for homeless teens and helped draft federal legislation to aid runaways, died in February at his home after a three-year battle with prostate cancer. He was 64. Born in Olympia, Wash., he grew up in Sacramento, where his father was director of the California Department of Social Welfare. After earning his bachelor’s degree in political science from UC Davis, he got a master’s degree in social work from San Diego State University in 1969. In the 1970s he was the founding director of San Diego Youth Services, which created the homeless teen center. He testified before a U.S. Senate subcommittee about the need for services for troubled teens and helped draft the 1974 Runaway Youth Act. He also served as a San Diego State social work field instructor, and received the university’s 1974 distinguished alumni award. In 1976, he became the founding chair of the National Network for Runaway and Youth Services. After directing a youth counseling program in Santa Cruz, he returned to San Diego and in 1985 became director of the June Burnett Institute for Children, Youth and Families. He retired in 2009 and became an adjunct faculty member in the San Diego State School of Social Work. Survivors include his wife of 40 years, Marianne, ’67, whom he met in a Shakespeare class at UC Davis; daughter, Anne of San Diego; mother, Helen of San José; sister, Karen DeLong of San José; and niece, Kandy of San José. (appeared in the Summer 2010 issue) • Mary Catherine Swanson, Cred., received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Cal Aggie Alumni Association for creating AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination), a student support program, which has grown to serve 300,000 students in 45 states and 15 countries since its start in San Diego 20 years ago. She was the past executive director and is a member of AVID’s board of directors. She currently serves on the UC Davis School of Education’s board of advisers. (appeared in the Fall 2010 issue) • Hannah Biberstein, M.A. ’67, a Davis social justice activist and former university labor relations analyst, died in April of congestive heart failure at age 82. Born the daughter of a rabbi in Essen, Germany, she immigrated to the U.S. with her family in 1939 to escape Nazi persecution. She moved to Davis in 1956, when her husband, Ernst, joined the veterinary medicine faculty. She was a founding member of Congregation Bet Haverim, Davis Community Meals program and Community Mediation Services in Davis and Yolo County, among other organizations. She chaired the city’s Social Services Commission and served on the Affordable Housing Task Force. After completing her master’s degree in political science, she taught at community colleges and worked for UC Davis Extension and university labor relations. She retired in 1991. She and her husband received community awards for their service. In 2002, Congregation Bet Haverim established the Biberstein Social Action Fund, which provides grants to fight poverty, discrimination, abuse and neglect. She is survived by her husband of 61 years; son, Michael of San Diego; daughters, Helen Swanagon of San Luis Obispo, Anne Gieseke of Benicia, and Julie of San Francisco; and eight grandchildren. (appeared in the Summer 2011 issue) • Stephen Barthold, D.V.M. ’69, veterinary professor and director of the UC Davis Center for Comparative Medicine, received the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges’ inaugural Merial-AAVMC Excellence in Research Award in August at the Merial-NIH National Veterinary Scholars Symposium in Florida. A veterinary pathologist who helped develop the first vaccine for Lyme Disease, Barthold has received research funding from the National Institutes of Health for more than 30 years and has authored nearly 300 scholary articles, chapters and books. (appeared in the Fall 2011 issue) • Caroline Turner, M.A. ’70, is president-elect of the Association for the Study of Higher Education. She is a professor and graduate coordinator for the Doctorate in Educational Leadership Program at California State University, Sacramento. (appeared in the Winter 2013 issue) • Jerome Wilcox, of Lincoln, died in his home at age 67 after a long battle with liver disease and diabetes. He worked in information systems at UC Davis and as manager of payroll systems for the UC Office of the President. He retired in 2005. (appeared in the Spring 2013 issue) • Yosemite’s Songster: One Coyote’s Story, a picture book by Ginger (Evarts) Wadsworth with illustrations by Daniel San Souci, was released by Yosemite Conservancy in March 2013. It is her 26th book for young readers. Visit her website. (appeared in the Spring 2014 issue) • Jack Lovell Jr., of Sacramento, died at age 68 on September 14. He was a civil trial attorney. (appeared in the Spring 2014 issue) • Wayne Gardner, Ph.D., Woodland, died April 19 at age 94. He was a World War II veteran and retired plant sciences professor at South Dakota State University. Among survivors are daughter Susan Gardner Larock ’68 and granddaughter Mary Lee ’17. (appeared in the Fall 2014 issue)
1968Harry Erwin defended his doctoral thesis, "A Computational Sensorimotor Model of Bat Biosonar," in November at George Mason University. (appeared in the Summer 2000 issue) • Bob Morrison, J.D. '71, has been named treasurer of the Alumni Associations of the University of California. By virtue of that position, he will serve as one of the two alumni regents-designate beginning July 1, becoming a voting regent for a one-year term July 1, 2001. Morrison, who is an attorney at Neumiller & Beardslee P.C. in Stockton, just completed his term as president of the Cal Aggie Alumni Association and is a member of the Davis Chancellor's Club. He is married to Janet (Buffington) '69 and has two children, Laurie '99, who is pursuing a teaching credential at UC Davis, and Kevin, a UC Davis undergraduate. (appeared in the Summer 2000 issue) • Jay Bedell was selected for inclusion in the 2000 and 2001 editions of Marquis' Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World. Bedell taught elementary school in Antioch for 15 years and appeared in Who's Who in American Education after he shared a list of teaching materials and ideas with First Lady Barbara Bush in the late 1980s. (appeared in the Fall 2000 issue)

1967Cristy Jensen, a professor of public policy and administration at California State University, Sacramento, received the 2007 John C. Livingston Award from the Livingston Lecture Committee. The award is given to professors at the university who show commitment to students while remaining active in scholarly work. (appeared in the Winter 2008 issue) • John Vernon, M.A., Ph.D. ’69, is a distinguished professor of English at Binghamton University in upstate New York and a novelist, with his sixth novel, Lucky Billy (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), set to be published this November. In addition to his six novels, he has also published a memoir, a book of poems and three critical studies. (appeared in the Summer 2008 issue) • Robert Denno, Ph.D. ’73, died of a heart attack in March 2008 while conducting field work on Sapelo Island, Georgia. After graduating from UC Davis, Dr. Denno was a postdoctoral student, then an assistant professor at Rutgers University until 1976 before joining the entomology department at the University of Maryland. Dr. Denno was one of the world’s leading insect ecologists, noted especially for his studies of salt marsh arthropods. At the University of Maryland, he twice won research excellence awards and in 2000 was named a campus Distinguished Scholar-Teacher. He is survived by his wife of 42 years, Barbara Denno ’67, Cred. ’68, their sons, Erik and Alex, and their grandchildren, Noa and Ella. (appeared in the Summer 2008 issue) • George Miller Brown III retired in July after 21 years with the San Luis Obispo County Office of Emergency Services. Before taking that job, he taught agricultural mechanics at Sonoma State, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Michigan State universities. He and his wife, Pat, currently live in Baywood Park and say they plan to spend most of their time goofing off. (appeared in the Winter 2009 issue) • Barbara Rice, a noted plant ecology researcher in Australia, died at age 64 from ovarian cancer in June in Sydney. Rice, who grew up on a farm in the San Joaquin Valley, began her career with plants as a UC Davis student working for the herbarium. She later earned her masters and doctorate degrees from Utah State University, where she met her husband, Mark Westoby. In 1975, the couple moved to Australia, where she became an honorary associate of biological sciences at Macquarie University. She published research papers on vegetation diversity in Australia, how ants disperse seeds and about Australian grasses—and one of those grass species is named after her, Hibiscus riceae. She is survived by her husband and her siblings, Dick and Bette. (appeared in the Fall 2009 issue) • Joanne (Simonds) Powell retired in June after 30 years of being the curator of education at the North Carolina Maritime Museum, where she conducted and supervised school and public programs on the state’s coastal ecology and maritime history. In 2008, she was named the Marine Educator of the Year by the National Marine Educators Association. When Powell retired, North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue awarded her The Order of the Long Leaf Pine certificate with the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary. She lives with her husband, Allyn, in Gloucester, N.C. (appeared in the Winter 2010 issue) • J. Norman Grim, Ph.D., a biology professor emeritus at Northern Arizona University, wrote the book, To Fly the Gentle Giants: The Training of U.S. World War II Glider Pilots, (AuthorHouse) released last summer. He learned to fly in 1961 with the Cal Aggie Flying Farmers, later becoming club president and a member of its board of directors. His flying is now solely in sailplanes. He joined the Northern Arizona University faculty in 1967 and developed and directed the campus’s electron microscopy facility. He continues to study protozoa, his research focus for more than four decades. (appeared in the Spring 2010 issue) • Eric Grissell, M.S. ’69, Ph.D., ’73, had his book, Bees, Wasps, and Ants, The Indispensable Role of Hymenoptera in Gardens published in June (Timber Press). It was his fourth book related to gardens. He retired in 2006, after working for 26 years as a research entomologist for the USDA at the National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C. He is currently a Smithsonian research associate and spends much of his time gardening, collecting and observing insects, and writing. He lives in Sonoita, Ariz. (appeared in the Summer 2010 issue) • John Wedemeyer Jr. ’67, a San Diego social worker who co-founded one of the country’s first shelters for homeless teens and helped draft federal legislation to aid runaways, died in February at his home after a three-year battle with prostate cancer. He was 64. Born in Olympia, Wash., he grew up in Sacramento, where his father was director of the California Department of Social Welfare. After earning his bachelor’s degree in political science from UC Davis, he got a master’s degree in social work from San Diego State University in 1969. In the 1970s he was the founding director of San Diego Youth Services, which created the homeless teen center. He testified before a U.S. Senate subcommittee about the need for services for troubled teens and helped draft the 1974 Runaway Youth Act. He also served as a San Diego State social work field instructor, and received the university’s 1974 distinguished alumni award. In 1976, he became the founding chair of the National Network for Runaway and Youth Services. After directing a youth counseling program in Santa Cruz, he returned to San Diego and in 1985 became director of the June Burnett Institute for Children, Youth and Families. He retired in 2009 and became an adjunct faculty member in the San Diego State School of Social Work. Survivors include his wife of 40 years, Marianne, ’67, whom he met in a Shakespeare class at UC Davis; daughter, Anne of San Diego; mother, Helen of San José; sister, Karen DeLong of San José; and niece, Kandy of San José. (appeared in the Summer 2010 issue) • Mary Catherine Swanson, Cred., received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Cal Aggie Alumni Association for creating AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination), a student support program, which has grown to serve 300,000 students in 45 states and 15 countries since its start in San Diego 20 years ago. She was the past executive director and is a member of AVID’s board of directors. She currently serves on the UC Davis School of Education’s board of advisers. (appeared in the Fall 2010 issue) • Hannah Biberstein, M.A. ’67, a Davis social justice activist and former university labor relations analyst, died in April of congestive heart failure at age 82. Born the daughter of a rabbi in Essen, Germany, she immigrated to the U.S. with her family in 1939 to escape Nazi persecution. She moved to Davis in 1956, when her husband, Ernst, joined the veterinary medicine faculty. She was a founding member of Congregation Bet Haverim, Davis Community Meals program and Community Mediation Services in Davis and Yolo County, among other organizations. She chaired the city’s Social Services Commission and served on the Affordable Housing Task Force. After completing her master’s degree in political science, she taught at community colleges and worked for UC Davis Extension and university labor relations. She retired in 1991. She and her husband received community awards for their service. In 2002, Congregation Bet Haverim established the Biberstein Social Action Fund, which provides grants to fight poverty, discrimination, abuse and neglect. She is survived by her husband of 61 years; son, Michael of San Diego; daughters, Helen Swanagon of San Luis Obispo, Anne Gieseke of Benicia, and Julie of San Francisco; and eight grandchildren. (appeared in the Summer 2011 issue) • Stephen Barthold, D.V.M. ’69, veterinary professor and director of the UC Davis Center for Comparative Medicine, received the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges’ inaugural Merial-AAVMC Excellence in Research Award in August at the Merial-NIH National Veterinary Scholars Symposium in Florida. A veterinary pathologist who helped develop the first vaccine for Lyme Disease, Barthold has received research funding from the National Institutes of Health for more than 30 years and has authored nearly 300 scholary articles, chapters and books. (appeared in the Fall 2011 issue) • Caroline Turner, M.A. ’70, is president-elect of the Association for the Study of Higher Education. She is a professor and graduate coordinator for the Doctorate in Educational Leadership Program at California State University, Sacramento. (appeared in the Winter 2013 issue) • Jerome Wilcox, of Lincoln, died in his home at age 67 after a long battle with liver disease and diabetes. He worked in information systems at UC Davis and as manager of payroll systems for the UC Office of the President. He retired in 2005. (appeared in the Spring 2013 issue) • Yosemite’s Songster: One Coyote’s Story, a picture book by Ginger (Evarts) Wadsworth with illustrations by Daniel San Souci, was released by Yosemite Conservancy in March 2013. It is her 26th book for young readers. Visit her website.
(appeared in the Spring 2014 issue) • Jack Lovell Jr., of Sacramento, died at age 68 on September 14. He was a civil trial attorney. (appeared in the Spring 2014 issue) • Wayne Gardner, Ph.D., Woodland, died April 19 at age 94. He was a World War II veteran and retired plant sciences professor at South Dakota State University. Among survivors are daughter Susan Gardner Larock ’68 and granddaughter Mary Lee ’17.
(appeared in the Fall 2014 issue)

1968Harry Erwin defended his doctoral thesis, "A Computational Sensorimotor Model of Bat Biosonar," in November at George Mason University. (appeared in the Summer 2000 issue) • Bob Morrison, J.D. '71, has been named treasurer of the Alumni Associations of the University of California. By virtue of that position, he will serve as one of the two alumni regents-designate beginning July 1, becoming a voting regent for a one-year term July 1, 2001. Morrison, who is an attorney at Neumiller & Beardslee P.C. in Stockton, just completed his term as president of the Cal Aggie Alumni Association and is a member of the Davis Chancellor's Club. He is married to Janet (Buffington) '69 and has two children, Laurie '99, who is pursuing a teaching credential at UC Davis, and Kevin, a UC Davis undergraduate. (appeared in the Summer 2000 issue) • Jay Bedell was selected for inclusion in the 2000 and 2001 editions of Marquis' Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World. Bedell taught elementary school in Antioch for 15 years and appeared in Who's Who in American Education after he shared a list of teaching materials and ideas with First Lady Barbara Bush in the late 1980s. (appeared in the Fall 2000 issue)

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