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 1970s
| 1975Syrie James, a screenwriter for the past 20 years, has written her first work of historical fiction, The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen (Avon Books), which was named an “Editor’s Pick” by The Library Journal. (appeared in the Winter 2008 issue) • Ahmad Faruqui, M.A., Ph.D. ’79, has co-edited the book Pakistan: Unresolved Issues in State and Society (Vanguard Books, 2008). The work is a compilation of essays by Pakistan’s leading social scientists on the challenges facing the nation. Another collection, Musharraf’s Pakistan, Bush’s America and The Greater Middle East, which features Faruqui’s columns, articles and papers from over the past five years, will be coming out later this year. His day job is with the Brattle Group in San Francisco, where he consults with clients in the energy industry on electricity pricing and demand issues that are designed to prevent a recurrence of crises such as those that beset California in 2001. (appeared in the Summer 2008 issue) • Barbara Mutti worked for 20 years in San Francisco as an art consultant to architects and interior designers for residential and corporate clientele. More recently she has been serving as a board member in a mobile home park in Capitola-by-the-Sea, helping with efforts to subdivide the park so individuals can purchase their own lots. (appeared in the Summer 2008 issue) • After holding various positions in the electronic design automation industry over the past 20 years, Bob Smith co-founded a boutique winery, Jazz Cellars, in 2007 in Foster City. In addition, he continues to provide marketing and business development consulting services. (appeared in the Summer 2008 issue) • William E. Rosen, M.A., Ph.D. '78, died at his home in Brooktondale, N.Y., after a 14-month battle with brain cancer. He died in May 2008; he was 57. Since 1996, he had been a lecturer at Cornell University's College of Human Ecology, where he taught economics and statistics courses and won awards for excellence in teaching and advising. He also directed a Cornell undergraduate internship program at the state capitol in Albany, N.Y., and the New York State Assembly passed a resolution in 2005 honoring his contributions. He is survived by his father, Saul, and two sisters, Joanne and Barbara. (appeared in the Winter 2009 issue) • MARY (FOLEY) CLARK retired from federal service in January after 34 years with the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. She began her career as a forest firefighter during her junior year at UC Davis. She has two children and two grandchildren, and lives in Boise, Idaho, with her husband of 22 years, Henry. (appeared in the Summer 2009 issue) • Richard Campbell was appointed last summer as vice president of engineering technology for CH2M HILL. He previously managed the technical and engineering services division for The Industrial Co. Campbell is also a director and past president of the Geothermal Resources Council. (appeared in the Fall 2009 issue) • Ahmad Faruqui, M.A., Ph.D. ’79, Stephen George, M.A. ’76, Ph. D. ’79, and Gregory Wikler ’82 recently wrote a report for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to submit to Congress. “The National Assessment of Demand Response Potential” explores ways to reduce peak electricity demand. Their report can be downloaded from http://www.ferc.gov/ (appeared in the Fall 2009 issue) • Douglas Dodge became the Santa Barbara District ranger in Los Padres National Forest in August, after five years as the Harlowton District ranger of the Lewis and Clark National Forest in Montana. He previously worked 22 years for the Bureau of Land Management, holding the positions of archaeologist, assistant field manager and outdoor recreation planner. (appeared in the Fall 2009 issue) • Steven Holmes and Sherri Reese ’80 have been married since 2005. Holmes is a math and computers teacher at Hiram Johnson High School in Sacramento, and he recently published the workbooks Learn Algebra Through Graphing Vol. 1 & 2 (Lulu Press). Reese is a critical care epidemiologist in the epidemiology and infection prevention department at the UC Davis Medical Center. (appeared in the Fall 2009 issue) • Michael Norman, M.S., Ph.D. ’80, UC San Diego computational astrophysicist, has been appointed interim director of the university’s San Diego Supercomputer Center. He became senior fellow at the center in 2000 and its chief scientific officer in June 2008. Norman is a fellow of both the American Physical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a past recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize from Germany, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Sidney Fernbach Award and other honors. (appeared in the Fall 2009 issue) • Jim Stimson was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Silver Circle, an honor for individuals who have made significant contributions to Northern California TV for 25 years or more. Stimson, who began his broadcasting career at KDVS, is assistant news director at KCRA-TV in Sacramento. (appeared in the Fall 2009 issue) • Harvey Schwartz, Ph.D., recently wrote Solidarity Stories: An Oral History of the ILWU (University of Washington Press), about the International Longshore and Warehouse Union’s formation on the West Coast and in Hawaii. He is curator of the Oral History Collection at the ILWU Library and is an oral historian at the Labor Archives and Research Center at San Francisco State University. (appeared in the Spring 2010 issue) • Barbara Frankel ’75 died of brain cancer in April in her Davis home at age 68. She had worked as an aide at West Davis Elementary School and a teacher at Davis Parent Nursery School and Valley Oak Elementary School for a total of 20 years. She retired in 1999, but volunteered in classrooms and for Sutter Davis Auxiliary, Jewish Fellowship of Davis/Congregation Bet Haverim, Yolo Hospice and other organizations. She was also was one of the founders and co-chair of Yolo Compassionate Friends, a nonprofit support group for parents whose children had died. Survivors include her husband of 48 years, Tom; son, David, daughter, Valerie and grandchildren, Aaron, Noah, Nathan, Simon and Abby. Her daughter, Loren, died in 2004. (appeared in the Summer 2010 issue) • Christine Dickey ’75 by Nadine Elsibai Occupation: Color and materials manger in the product planning department of Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. Inc. Color forecasting: Responsible for helping choose the color schemes and materials for the interior and exterior of the 28 Toyota, Lexus and Scion models for American consumers, Dickey forecasts color trends up to four years in advance of each car’s debut. She does so by collaborating with a variety of people and organizations to predict trends. Design studios in Southern California as well as in Japan, international trade shows, decorating magazines, the industry association’s Color Marketing Group and daily observations all inspire Dickey’s choices. Then, 24 months before a vehicle is built, the final decisions are made by a small group of people including Dickey. Eye candy: Only five of the approximately 300 colors Dickey helped select in the past 15 years were failures—like an orange she chose for a Corolla in 1996 that didn’t sell. Orange is one of those colors, like yellow and purple, that go out of style more quickly. Greens, light blues and light browns have more staying power. But, Dickey notes, “We have to take risks in some areas. We will purposely launch colors because they’re eye-catching, because they pop. Maybe that’s going to draw a customer into a dealership.” More than picking a color: When Dickey was hired by Toyota in 1989, she was the first in the position to have a design background. She relies on that training and her combination of analytic and creative skills to help sell more than 2 million vehicles a year. “The average life of a car is 12-15 years… so the color on a vehicle tends to be a more conservative choice for the majority of the population.” (appeared in the Winter 2006 issue) • Ahmad Faruqui assisted the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission over the past year in creating the National Action Plan for Demand Response. The plan, submitted to Congress in June, seeks to foster utility programs that encourage people to lower electric usage during peak hours. Faruqui works for the economics consultancy, The Brattle Group in San Francisco. (appeared in the Fall 2010 issue) • Hans Ostrom, M.A. ’78, Ph.D. ’82, had his second book released in March, Honoring Juanita (Congruent Angle Press), about a woman haunted by a woman’s lynching during the Gold Rush. Ostrom is a professor of African American studies and English at the University of Puget Sound. (appeared in the Fall 2010 issue) • Jennifer (Flores) Tasto is the 2010 president of the San Mateo County Association of Realtors, which is the largest trade association in San Mateo County with nearly 3,000 members. (appeared in the Fall 2010 issue) • Keith Richman, a physician and three-term Republican state assemblyman who fought for public pension reform, died in July of brain cancer at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center at 56. He represented the 38th District, which included his hometown of San Fernando Valley. He was a founder and board member of the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility, which works to highlight public pension costs. At UC Davis, he was an All-Conference pitcher and a member of the 1972 Aggie Baseball Hall of Fame team. He earned his medical degree and master’s degree in public health from UCLA. He was chairman and founder of the medical group Lakeside Community Healthcare in Glendale. He is survived by his wife, Suzan; daughters, Dina and Rachel; siblings, Craig, David and Marla; and parents, Esther and Monroe. (appeared in the Fall 2010 issue) • Jim Stimson, assistant news director at KCRA-TV in Sacramento, worked with representatives from UC Davis, The Sacramento Bee and Capital Public Radio to bring the Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman gubernatorial debate to the UC Davis campus in September. He produced the statewide television broadcast of the debate, which was seen by over 2 million Californians. The broadcast came almost exactly 39 years after Stimson began his broadcasting career at campus radio station KDVS. (appeared in the Spring 2011 issue) |