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
| 1978Steven Koike, M.S. ’80, received the 2013 Excellence in Extension Award from the American Phytopathological Society for his applied research and education in plant pathology. His work focuses on diseases and other problems that affect cool season vegetables, strawberries, ornamental plants and other coastal crops, as well as food safety. Koike has been the plant pathology farm advisor for the UC Cooperative Extension Monterey County since 1989.
(appeared in the Spring 2014 issue) • Mark Pierson, an associate professor of mechanical engineering in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, has been named the first director of its nuclear engineering program. (appeared in the Fall 2014 issue) |
| 1979Ahmad Faruqui, Ph.D., works at EPRI, a Palo Alto research and development firm that assists companies in the energy industry. He has also co-edited two books: Customer Choice: Finding Value in Retail Electric Markets (PUR Press, 1998), which discusses how the deregulation of the nation's $200 billion electric industry affects customers' choices, and Pricing in Competitive Electric Markets (Kluwer Academic Publishing, 2000). A native Pakistani, Faruqui has written two papers on that country's changing political and economic climate, analyzing the negative impact of Pakistan's military on democratic institutions, the national budget and relations with neighboring India. (appeared in the Spring 2000 issue) • Marty Smilkstein, M.D., his wife, Angela Kalisiak, also a physician, and their two daughters, Beth and Sarah, spent the final week of 1999 and the New Year's holiday volunteering on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. The family helped residents of Rosebud transform a trailer into a Lakota youth center--the "Children First" recreation center--to offer youth positive alternatives to underage drinking and vandalism. Smilkstein, who practices at Oregon Health Sciences University, and his wife also offered free medical consultation. Their work was coordinated by Global Volunteers, a nonprofit, nonsectarian international development organization based in St. Paul, Minn. (appeared in the Summer 2000 issue) • David Huwiler, Ph.D., is serving as president of the American University of Kyrgyzstan, a country in Central Asia, taking a leave of absence from his job as vice president for academic affairs at Champlain College in Burlington, Vt. The American University of Kyrgyzstan is a private university with an enrollment of 1,000. (appeared in the Fall 2000 issue) • Steven Tanksley, Ph.D., a professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., is studying the genetic factors of tomatoes that control size. He led a team of scientists in identifying a particular gene that accounts for 30 percent of a tomato's mass, which was reported in July 7 issue of the journal Science. (appeared in the Fall 2000 issue) • Wesley Young started a new job as director of global and executive education at Dominican University of California in San Rafael. Young has taught at the school since 1991, after receiving a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley. He and his wife, Margie Ratto '82, celebrated their 18th wedding anniversary this summer. The couple has two sons. (appeared in the Fall 2000 issue) • David Dodd co-edited The Grateful Dead Reader (Oxford University Press, 2000) with his wife, Diana Spaulding. (appeared in the Winter 2001 issue) • Bill Gardner, working for Wycliffe Bible Translators, trains Bible translators at the Pan African Christian College in Nairobi, Kenya, with his wife, Lori. He and his family recently completed administrative and teaching assignments in the Republic of Mozambique. The Gardners have two sons, Jonathan, 16, and Michael, 13. (appeared in the Winter 2001 issue) • Ron Gilbert, a business consultant living in Des Moines, Iowa, writes that a Picnic Day reunion of the class of 1979 led to his reacquaintance with Yountville resident Denise (Ratterman) Jackson and his decision to help promote a cause for which she has been a strong advocate: raising awareness of and funds for alopecia areata, an autoimmune skin disease that causes hair loss. Jackson has the condition and has written and spoken extensively about the disease in the media and has helped organize fund-raisers. Gilbert organized a fund-raiser of his own in conjunction with his appearance as a bald Daddy Warbucks in his local community production of Annie. For more information about alopecia areata or the "Sponsor Ron's Head" campaign, visit Web site www.alopeciaareata.com. (appeared in the Fall 2001 issue) • Robyn Parnell's collection of short fiction, This Here and Now, was published this spring. Parnell has published numerous short stories, essays, children's poems and a theatrical play; her works have appeared in more than 50 books, magazines and literary journals. She has lived in Hillsboro, Ore., for more than 10 years with her husband and two children. (appeared in the Fall 2001 issue) • Attorney Laurie Heinz joined the Seattle office of Foster Pepper & Shefelman PLLC in February. Before joining the firm, Heinz managed her own law practice. She also serves on the board of directors for the Seattle Forum of Women Entrepreneurs. (appeared in the Summer 2001 issue) • Jeff Brown, former entertainment director for Paramount's Great America, has turned his love of Halloween into a year-round business. He and his wife, Tracey, run Time Passages Productions, which creates haunted house attractions. (appeared in the Winter 2002 issue) • Joan Deady, M.S., clinical pharmacist for Sutter Health in Northern California, has published a cookbook, Low Fat Cooking in the Cultural Blur of California, which includes more than 170 recipes that help promote weight loss and lower cholesterol. The book, which received honorable mention in the Writer's Digest 2000 Self-Published Book Awards competition, is available at www.cookbooks4u.net. (appeared in the Winter 2002 issue) • John Micheaels, J.D., a partner in the firm of Beale & Micheaels in Phoenix, Ariz., was named a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, an organization dedicated to recognizing excellence in trial lawyers and improving the standards and ethics of trial practice. (appeared in the Spring 2002 issue) • Rob Bateman was named vice president of training and organizational development for Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, working out of the company's Winston-Salem, N.C., headquarters. Before joining Krispy Kreme, Bateman was California region director of category management and business analysis for Earthgrains. He and his wife, Brenda, have three children: Kristi, Kari and Kelsey. (appeared in the Summer 2002 issue) • Rob Hixson received a commendation from Gov. Gray Davis for his organization of the Baja Challenge. Under the program, commercial real estate firms build houses for the homeless in Tijuana. Hixson is a first vice president in the San Diego office of CB Richard Ellis, a commercial real estate services company. (appeared in the Summer 2002 issue) • Mark Smith, general manager of South American operations for Vector Engineering Inc., has had his service area expanded to include the firm's new joint-venture office in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. His company has joined with Canadian rock mechanic specialists Piteau Associates and Brazilian mining and hydroelectric consultant Sergio Brito to form the joint venture company. Vector also has offices in Chile, Peru and Argentina. (appeared in the Summer 2002 issue) • Naida West, Ph.D., an author who lives on a ranch near the Cosumnes River, has written a series of historical novels about California that have been used as texts in a number of university classes on state history, literature, anthropology and geology. She is now also publishing other people's books about the West. (appeared in the Summer 2002 issue) • Susan Aberg is the college and undergraduate programs administrator with the Center for Science & Engineering Education at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The program brings hundreds of top undergraduates in a variety of educational disciplines to the lab each year from across the United States. Aberg is also a founding member of The Attenders, a three-member folk band that performs original songs and old ballads. (appeared in the Fall 2002 issue) |