| 1937John Hadley Pryor Jr. died in January 2007 at age 90 in his Salinas Valley home. Mr. Pryor served four years in the U.S. National Guard before founding the John Pryor Co. in 1946, a company specializing in the application of liquid fertilizers, a process that he pioneered. Mr. Pryor also operated Pryor Farms from 1964 to 2002. He was very active within his community, serving on school boards and as a member of the Rotary Club and the Salinas Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Pryor was also a longtime supporter of UC Davis who was generous with his volunteer time and financial contributions. He served as a director of the Cal Aggie Alumni Association and was a recipient of an Award of Distinction from the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences in 1997. In 2004, Mr. Pryor received the Grower-Shipper Association’s first E.E. “Gene” Harden Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the Central Coast agriculture industry. Survivors include his high school sweetheart and wife of 69 years, Jeanne; daughters, Joan and Janet; and three grandchildren. |
| 1948Robert “Bob” Harris, M.S. ’49, D.V.M. ’53, died at Vacaville home in February at age 85. He served in the Navy as an officer for two Pacific campaigns in World War II. While attending UC Davis, he was a competitive diver, a member of Beta Phi fraternity and a drummer with his own band. After graduating with the veterinary school’s second class, he established a veterinary practice in Torrance. Dr. Harris and his wife, Mary, raised three sons in Palos Verdes, where he was also an avid surfer and scuba diver. After his retirement in 1993, he and his wife moved to Vacaville where they owned a cattle ranch and Blue Ridge Vineyard. In addition to his wife of 43 years, he is survived by sons Clark, Robby and Nolan and their wives, Theresa, Jessica and Elly; daughter, Cynthia Totays; grandchildren Jack, Cole, Amelia, Daniel and Jeremy; and sister Lois Blizard of Dumphries, Va. |
| 1951Hugh Popenoe by Anna Hennings
Occupation: water buffalo rancher, professor emeritus in soil and water science at the University of Florida, Gainesville, and president of the American Water Buffalo Association.
The beginning of water buffalo: During his first job in Thailand after graduation, Hugh Popenoe ’51 became particularly impressed with the significant role water buffalo play in the country’s agricultural cultivation. In 1975, he started the first U.S. herd with just four cows. It grew to be the largest in the nation, with as many as 800 water buffalo at one point. Today he still maintains a herd of 500 and provides meat to local markets and animals to individuals running dairies in numerous states and other countries.
The healthy alternative: “Some people eat it for the health reasons, and some people just because they say it tastes better. It doesn’t leave a fatty taste in your mouth,” says Popenoe. Water buffalo has one-half the cholesterol and less than one-fourth the amount of fat found in beef. Water buffalo milk is often used to produce a mozzarella cheese much tastier than what you might find at your local supermarket, he says. Popenoe’s herd is range-fed and is not given antibiotics or hormones, and “organic [customers] look on that favorably,” he says.
Labor of love: Popenoe has been the president of the American Water Buffalo Association since its inception in 1986. The organization’s 70 members exchange information and work to educate others about the industry—an industry essentially launched by Popenoe. He long ago achieved his goal to bring the water buffalo business to the U.S. but has continued to raise the animals because he enjoys it. Popenoe also likes teaching, which he does full time at the University of Florida. “I’m officially retired, but I still keep my same teaching load because I enjoy teaching so much,” he says.
“My water buffalo almost become pets. I have had a few who have came up and eaten out of my hand, and I put my arm around them.”
|
| 1965Sethanne Howard, the first woman to receive a physics degree from UC Davis, has published The Hidden Giants (Lulu.com), a book about 4,000 years of women in science. The book has over 400 short biographies of women, detailing their technical contributions to the growth of civilization. • Robert Minto, Cred., died in September 2006 at age 82 in Chico. After teaching briefly at Princeton High School and Shasta College in Redding, Mr. Minto joined Durham High School. There he taught vocational agriculture for 12 years before retiring in 1977. Survivors include his wife of 62 years, Eldora, four sons and eight grandchildren. |
| 1966Steven Philip Galovich died from a heart attack in December 2006 at age 61. After spending 20 years at Carleton College in Minnesota as associate dean of faculty and as a mathematics instructor, he transferred to Lake Forest College in Illinois, where he served as provost and dean of the faculty until 2005. For the past two years, Dr. Galovich taught mathematics full time and was praised by students for his enthusiastic teaching and first-year advising. Survivors include his two daughters, Alexandra and Anna, and his grandson, Maxwell. |
| 1968Stephen Rae, M.S. ’70, Ph.D. ’06, received his Ph.D. from UC Davis in plant biology in September after completing a 34-year study of California mosses. Rae also recently joined UC Davis Professor Michael Barbour in founding the Institute for Environmental and Ecological Research, a nonprofit focusing on bringing environmental assessment tools used in academia to the land-use decision-maker. He can be reached at stephen.rae@ucdavis-alumni.com. |
| 1970John Madigan, M.S. ’72, D.V.M. ’75, was recently honored with a Distinguished Service Award during the American Association of Equine Practitioner’s 52nd annual convention in San Antonio, Texas. The award recognizes Madigan’s work as the co-presenter of the popular Kester News Hour session held each year during the convention. His witty delivery and ability to capture the meaningful news from equine veterinary medicine have helped to make the news hour a favorite among convention attendees. Madigan is currently a professor of medicine and epidemiology at UC Davis and heads its veterinary emergency response and helicopter rescue teams. |
| 1972Joan Holbrook Sodergren was elected in 2005 to the board of trustees for Westside Union School District, which serves over 9,000 students and 11 school sites. She also substitute teaches with the local high school district and volunteers in her community. Sodergren and her husband, Steven, live in Palmdale with their three daughters, Julianne, 16, Stephanie, 14, and Amy, 11. She remains friends with college roommates Sharman Stewart Reyes ’72, Catherine Hallahan Doran ’72 and Harriet Whitmyer Golson ’72. |
| 1973Dean Vogel, Cred., was recently elected vice president of the California Teachers Association. He currently serves as the secretary-treasurer of the 340,000-member association and will begin two years as vice president in June. Vogel is also a counselor in the Vacaville school system and was named Advocate of the Year by the California Association of School Counselors in 2006. A Vacaville Unified School District educator since 1973, he has taught every elementary grade. His wife, Nancy Hiestand ’69, Cred. ’70, ’79, M.A. ’81, teaches at Fairmont Elementary School. The two live in Davis and have three daughters and five grandchildren. |
| 1974Craig Machado is the English-as-a-second-language division director at Norwalk Community College in Connecticut. He was also editor for Perspectives on Community College ESL, a series published in December that covers current best practices in ESL teaching at the community college level. In 2005, Machado’s division received a program excellence award from the National Council of Teachers of English.
• Emily Vasquez, Sacramento’s first Latina judge, was profiled in January in the Sacramento Bee. The article described her path from her childhood in the labor camps of San Joaquin Valley, to attending UC Davis on a Regents Scholarship, to graduating from UC Berkeley’s law school in 1977 and her appointment to the Sacramento Superior Court bench in 2001. She is now married to Deputy Attorney General Ralph Lightstone, has a daughter in high school and a son in college, and mentors college and law school students in the area. |
| 1975Paulette Meyer recently received a Jefferson Award from the American Institute for Public Service. In 1988, Meyer founded San Francisco’s Women’s Initiative for Self Employment, a nonprofit organization that enables low-income women to start or expand a business. The organization received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Microenterprise Development in 2001. Meyer also serves on the board of the Center for Community Change in Washington, D.C. She lives in San Francisco with her husband of 32 years, David Friedman, a structural engineer. |
| 1977Frank Carber retired in October as a captain in the U.S. Navy after 23 years of service. After receiving his J.D. from Seattle University, Carber joined the Navy as a judge advocate. During his career, he received an M.A. in strategic studies from the Naval War College and an LL.M. in ocean and coastal law from the University of Miami School of Law. Living in Memphis, Tenn., he now plans to take a sabbatical from work and spend time with his wife and three children before starting his next career, possibly working in the field of adoption law. • Kathleen Low has published a new book, Casanova Was a Librarian: A Light-hearted Look at the Profession (McFarland). For more information, visit www.casanovawasalibrarian.com. • James Ward, M.S. ’81, was admitted last fall into the honors program at Roger Williams Law School in Bristol, R.I. After working in international agriculture for several years, then in finance, banking and technology, Ward is now in his second semester and says he is thoroughly enjoying fulfilling his long-held dream. |
| 1978Fred Crowe, Ph.D., recently married Genie Caudill, who works with the USDA-Farm Services Agency, and relocated to Redding. He has retired from his full-time position of professor of botany and plant pathology at Oregon State University, Central Oregon Agricultural Research Center in Madras, and now works there half time. • Scott Johnson, president and founder of the Myelin Repair Foundation, was recognized by Scientific American magazine for his leadership in encouraging innovation in multiple sclerosis research. He was one of 50 individuals honored worldwide for their role in advancing science and technology. Johnson, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at age 20, founded the Myelin Repair Foundation to discover and develop treatments for the disease. He also developed a collaboration model to more quickly deliver results. • Richard Nakashima, M.A., was named a partner at Faegre & Benson LLP, one of America’s 100-largest law firms. He practices in the area of biotechnology-related intellectual property in the Boulder, Colo., office. |
| 1979Oran Hesterman, M.S. ’81, is launching Fair Food Foundation, an organization dedicated to providing universal access to fresh, local and sustainable food. Hesterman currently serves as director of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Food and Society Initiative. A Kellogg National Fellow from 1987 to 1990, he has also served as a professor of agriculture at Michigan State University. His new foundation is scheduled to begin operation in January 2008. |
