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Class Notes Archive 1931-2014: Spring 2010

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1958John “Jack” Switzer, D.V.M. ’62, of Sonoma died of cancer at age 79. During the Korean War, he served in the Navy as a medical corpsman. He had a small-animal practice in Sonoma for 40 years. In 1963, he married Judy Sullivan. He is survived by his children, Thomas, Brenda Haase, Peggy and Kate; his brother, Bud; and seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Douglas Young ’58 of Woodland died in January of leukemia at age 74. He owned a real estate development and consultant business and was a former state and regional director of the Farmers Home Administration. He was active in local politics, serving on the Yolo County Republican Central Committee and co-founding the Woodland Republican Club. He was also a member of the Yolo County Fair board of directors. He is survived by his wife, Diane; brothers Russell and Don; and children Gail Ransdall, Douglas and Michael.
1960Bill Hollingshead was featured in The Rotarian for his efforts in helping fellow polio survivors live better lives and for raising tens of thousands of dollars to help eradicate the disease. He is the PolioPlus chairman and a member of the Davis Rotary Club. Hollingshead spent his career as a concert producer, representing acts like Frankie Avalon, Ricky Nelson and The Kingsmen. He lives in Yolo County with his wife, Sharon Dianne.
1967J. 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.
1971Daniel D’Agostini, Cred. ’72, is the author and photographer of Into the Earth: A Wine Cave Renaissance (Panache Partners), released last October. It documents the story of modern wine caves. After more than 30 years teaching middle school in Dixon, Somerset and Yuba City, he retired in 2008 to devote more time to photography, writing and gardening in Amador County’s Shenandoah Valley. He was a leader in the “Garden in Every School” initiative for more than two decades.
1972Robert August Gorse Jr., Ph.D., died suddenly at his Saline, Mich., home last September. He was 67. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from San Diego State University. In 1975 he completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Texas at Austin and then worked at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, Ill. He worked 1978–2002 for Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn, Mich., where he contributed to the success of the Auto-Oil Air Quality Improvement Research Program in the early 1990s. He was a fourth-degree member of the Knights of Columbus and a volunteer at the St. Louis Center and Boysville. Surivors include his wife of 32 years, Shirley, stepson, Rob, daughter, Sandee, grandchildren, brothers, John, Mike and Pat, and his first wife, Mary ’68. A brother, Jim, preceded him in death.
1975Harvey 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.
1976David Ang runs a dentistry practice in Yuba City, and Kathy Go Ang ’78, his wife, is a renal dietician for the dialysis center Davita. Their children Brian Ang ’08 and Christine Ang are both students at UC Davis. Brian is in the Creative Writing Program and is expected to receive his master’s degree in 2010. He is a teacher’s assistant in English classes, writes poetry and has a show on campus radio station KDVS. Christine is expected to earn her degree in textiles and clothing in 2011 and can be found walking backwards on campus as a tour guide.
1978Tim Dutra recently joined the applied biomechanics faculty at the California School of Podiatric Medicine at Samuel Merritt University in Oakland. He was previously in private practice for 20 years in San Leandro. He serves as a team podiatrist for UC Berkeley, volunteers as medical staff for the Northern California Special Olympics and lectures nationally on sports medicine. He recently completed a master’s degree in healthcare administration at California State University, East Bay. His wife of 28 years, Diane Baird Dutra ’78, is a dental hygienist. They have two children, Kirsten and Derek.
1981Donald Dacany By Elizabeth Stitt Occupation: Retired associate warden of San Quentin Prison life: Twenty-nine years is a long to time to spend in jail for anyone. What got Donald Dacanay ’81 out was retirement. This past December, he turned in his badge as associate warden of the death row inmates after working his way up from officer. “Everyday was not the same,” Dacanay said. “Anything could happen.” The hook: As a fresh college graduate, Dacanay didn’t plan on working at one of the United States’ most well known prisons. His friend told him of a job as an officer at San Quentin after Dacanay wasn’t able to find work with his applied behavioral science degree. “I said, ‘You gotta be crazy. I ain’t working for no prison.’” However, seeing the bills pile up in his mailbox that afternoon, he caught a ride out to San Quentin the next morning to take the written and oral exams and was offered a job that week. “My plan was to pay some bills and get the heck out of there,” he said. On his first day as an officer, he walked the gun rails, looking down into the prison’s upper yard and saw a sea of hundreds of prisoners dressed in denim, yelling up at him and the other 20 new hires. “I thought this is going to be an interesting place, so I guess I was hooked.” The job: Dacanay had to learn quickly on how to work at the prison. “You’re always on your guard, because you don’t know what’s going to happen to you. You have to learn the environment.” He did everything from feeding inmates in their cells to chairing classification committees which determined inmates’ programs, transfers and parole credits. “It’s a good place to work,” he said. “If I ever said that to people, they’re going to think I’m off my rocker.” Dacanay met his wife Rachelle on the job in prison. They attended the academy together, and in 2007 she retired as a counselor II specialist at the prison. They live in Fairfield. “It’s a historical and interesting place. I guess that’s what kept me here so long—to be tied into the history of the place.”
1982Deborah Tellier, J.D., was appointed to a leadership position with the American Bar Association’s Waste and Resource Recovery Committee in September. She is a partner at Farella Braun + Martel’s environmental law department. • Patricia (Howe) Habel died of lung cancer in January at age 49. She spent more than 20 years working in the state Capitol for Democratic lawmakers, including serving as consultant to the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee under Assembly member Johan Klehs, legislative assistant to Assemblyman Tom Umberg, chief of staff to Assembly members Betty Karnette and Kerry Mazzoni ’71 and director of the Women’s Caucus under Assembly member Patti Berg, as well as assistant secretary of education for legislative affairs under Mazzoni. She is survived by her husband since 1985, Timothy; son, John, 14; stepchildren, Robert Howe and Julie Starbird; mother, Elizabeth; and siblings, Robert, Laurie and Janet Botula.
1983Deeana Jang, J.D., was honored at the 30th National Immigration Law Center dinner in December for her work with low-income immigrants. As the Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum policy director, Jang works to improve health care for Asian Americans, native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. She helped secure federal legislation to protect immigrant rights to benefits, status and independence from abusers. • Ted Litty was appointed senior policy advisor to the assistant administrator for recovery for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. • Lori Rothman, M.S., edited “Just About Right” Scales (ASTM International), a book on a sensory evaluation technique. She conducts consumer research for Kraft Foods in Glenview, Ill. She and her husband, Mark Knickelbein, ’79, Ph.D. ’83, live with their two sons in Oak Park, Ill.
1984Gary Kachanoski, Ph.D., has been selected to become president and vice chancellor of Memorial University of Newfoundland in July. An internationally known soils scientist, he is currently a professor and former vice president of research at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.
1985Germaine Noel Burke has been an optometrist for 20 years, the past 18 with Lodi Optometry Group. She is current president of Soroptimist International of Lodi, www.lodisoroptimist.org , which has been raising money for a local shelter for women and children. She lives with her husband and fellow optometrist, Jerry Burke, and his two children.
1986David Pascualy is the president, CEO and founder of Pacific Solar Energy construction and development company in Pleasanton. He lives in Pleasanton with his wife Julie (Barsten) Pascualy ’87 and two daughters. • Stacie Strong won an Outstanding Professional Article award from the International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution. Her article, “The Sounds of Silence: Are U.S. Arbitrators Creating International Enforceable Awards When Ordering Class Arbitration in Cases of Contractual Silence or Ambiguity?” was also cited in a class-action arbitration case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in December, Stolt-Nielsen, S.A. v. AnimalFeeds International Corp. She is a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Dispute Resolution and associate professor of law at the University of Missouri.
1989Mark Epstein became partner at Wendel, Rosen, Black & Dean in the firm’s real estate litigation practice group in Oakland. He was previously a partner with Alborg, Veiluva & Epstein, and has been involved in real estate, business and insurance coverage law for more than 15 years.
1990Julia Couzens, M.F.A., had a one-person exhibition, Maidement, at California State University, Stanislaus, last November and December, displaying new drawings and sculptures. An exhibition catalogue with essays by curator and UC Davis Nelson Gallery director Renny Pritikin will be published this year. In October, Couzens’ work was featured in the group show, Geo-Morph, in Davis at the Pence Gallery.

1958John “Jack” Switzer, D.V.M. ’62, of Sonoma died of cancer at age 79. During the Korean War, he served in the Navy as a medical corpsman. He had a small-animal practice in Sonoma for 40 years. In 1963, he married Judy Sullivan. He is survived by his children, Thomas, Brenda Haase, Peggy and Kate; his brother, Bud; and seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Douglas Young ’58 of Woodland died in January of leukemia at age 74. He owned a real estate development and consultant business and was a former state and regional director of the Farmers Home Administration. He was active in local politics, serving on the Yolo County Republican Central Committee and co-founding the Woodland Republican Club. He was also a member of the Yolo County Fair board of directors. He is survived by his wife, Diane; brothers Russell and Don; and children Gail Ransdall, Douglas and Michael.

1960Bill Hollingshead was featured in The Rotarian for his efforts in helping fellow polio survivors live better lives and for raising tens of thousands of dollars to help eradicate the disease. He is the PolioPlus chairman and a member of the Davis Rotary Club. Hollingshead spent his career as a concert producer, representing acts like Frankie Avalon, Ricky Nelson and The Kingsmen. He lives in Yolo County with his wife, Sharon Dianne.

1967J. 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.

1971Daniel D’Agostini, Cred. ’72, is the author and photographer of Into the Earth: A Wine Cave Renaissance (Panache Partners), released last October. It documents the story of modern wine caves. After more than 30 years teaching middle school in Dixon, Somerset and Yuba City, he retired in 2008 to devote more time to photography, writing and gardening in Amador County’s Shenandoah Valley. He was a leader in the “Garden in Every School” initiative for more than two decades.

1972Robert August Gorse Jr., Ph.D., died suddenly at his Saline, Mich., home last September. He was 67. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from San Diego State University. In 1975 he completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Texas at Austin and then worked at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, Ill. He worked 1978–2002 for Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn, Mich., where he contributed to the success of the Auto-Oil Air Quality Improvement Research Program in the early 1990s. He was a fourth-degree member of the Knights of Columbus and a volunteer at the St. Louis Center and Boysville. Surivors include his wife of 32 years, Shirley, stepson, Rob, daughter, Sandee, grandchildren, brothers, John, Mike and Pat, and his first wife, Mary ’68. A brother, Jim, preceded him in death.

1975Harvey 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.

1976David Ang runs a dentistry practice in Yuba City, and Kathy Go Ang ’78, his wife, is a renal dietician for the dialysis center Davita. Their children Brian Ang ’08 and Christine Ang are both students at UC Davis. Brian is in the Creative Writing Program and is expected to receive his master’s degree in 2010. He is a teacher’s assistant in English classes, writes poetry and has a show on campus radio station KDVS. Christine is expected to earn her degree in textiles and clothing in 2011 and can be found walking backwards on campus as a tour guide.

1978Tim Dutra recently joined the applied biomechanics faculty at the California School of Podiatric Medicine at Samuel Merritt University in Oakland. He was previously in private practice for 20 years in San Leandro. He serves as a team podiatrist for UC Berkeley, volunteers as medical staff for the Northern California Special Olympics and lectures nationally on sports medicine. He recently completed a master’s degree in healthcare administration at California State University, East Bay. His wife of 28 years, Diane Baird Dutra ’78, is a dental hygienist. They have two children, Kirsten and Derek.

1981Donald Dacany By Elizabeth Stitt Occupation: Retired associate warden of San Quentin Prison life: Twenty-nine years is a long to time to spend in jail for anyone. What got Donald Dacanay ’81 out was retirement. This past December, he turned in his badge as associate warden of the death row inmates after working his way up from officer. “Everyday was not the same,” Dacanay said. “Anything could happen.” The hook: As a fresh college graduate, Dacanay didn’t plan on working at one of the United States’ most well known prisons. His friend told him of a job as an officer at San Quentin after Dacanay wasn’t able to find work with his applied behavioral science degree. “I said, ‘You gotta be crazy. I ain’t working for no prison.’” However, seeing the bills pile up in his mailbox that afternoon, he caught a ride out to San Quentin the next morning to take the written and oral exams and was offered a job that week. “My plan was to pay some bills and get the heck out of there,” he said. On his first day as an officer, he walked the gun rails, looking down into the prison’s upper yard and saw a sea of hundreds of prisoners dressed in denim, yelling up at him and the other 20 new hires. “I thought this is going to be an interesting place, so I guess I was hooked.” The job: Dacanay had to learn quickly on how to work at the prison. “You’re always on your guard, because you don’t know what’s going to happen to you. You have to learn the environment.” He did everything from feeding inmates in their cells to chairing classification committees which determined inmates’ programs, transfers and parole credits. “It’s a good place to work,” he said. “If I ever said that to people, they’re going to think I’m off my rocker.” Dacanay met his wife Rachelle on the job in prison. They attended the academy together, and in 2007 she retired as a counselor II specialist at the prison. They live in Fairfield. “It’s a historical and interesting place. I guess that’s what kept me here so long—to be tied into the history of the place.”

1982Deborah Tellier, J.D., was appointed to a leadership position with the American Bar Association’s Waste and Resource Recovery Committee in September. She is a partner at Farella Braun + Martel’s environmental law department. • Patricia (Howe) Habel died of lung cancer in January at age 49. She spent more than 20 years working in the state Capitol for Democratic lawmakers, including serving as consultant to the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee under Assembly member Johan Klehs, legislative assistant to Assemblyman Tom Umberg, chief of staff to Assembly members Betty Karnette and Kerry Mazzoni ’71 and director of the Women’s Caucus under Assembly member Patti Berg, as well as assistant secretary of education for legislative affairs under Mazzoni. She is survived by her husband since 1985, Timothy; son, John, 14; stepchildren, Robert Howe and Julie Starbird; mother, Elizabeth; and siblings, Robert, Laurie and Janet Botula.

1983Deeana Jang, J.D., was honored at the 30th National Immigration Law Center dinner in December for her work with low-income immigrants. As the Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum policy director, Jang works to improve health care for Asian Americans, native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. She helped secure federal legislation to protect immigrant rights to benefits, status and independence from abusers. • Ted Litty was appointed senior policy advisor to the assistant administrator for recovery for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. • Lori Rothman, M.S., edited “Just About Right” Scales (ASTM International), a book on a sensory evaluation technique. She conducts consumer research for Kraft Foods in Glenview, Ill. She and her husband, Mark Knickelbein, ’79, Ph.D. ’83, live with their two sons in Oak Park, Ill.

1984Gary Kachanoski, Ph.D., has been selected to become president and vice chancellor of Memorial University of Newfoundland in July. An internationally known soils scientist, he is currently a professor and former vice president of research at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

1985Germaine Noel Burke has been an optometrist for 20 years, the past 18 with Lodi Optometry Group. She is current president of Soroptimist International of Lodi, www.lodisoroptimist.org , which has been raising money for a local shelter for women and children. She lives with her husband and fellow optometrist, Jerry Burke, and his two children.

1986David Pascualy is the president, CEO and founder of Pacific Solar Energy construction and development company in Pleasanton. He lives in Pleasanton with his wife Julie (Barsten) Pascualy ’87 and two daughters. • Stacie Strong won an Outstanding Professional Article award from the International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution. Her article, “The Sounds of Silence: Are U.S. Arbitrators Creating International Enforceable Awards When Ordering Class Arbitration in Cases of Contractual Silence or Ambiguity?” was also cited in a class-action arbitration case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in December, Stolt-Nielsen, S.A. v. AnimalFeeds International Corp. She is a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Dispute Resolution and associate professor of law at the University of Missouri.

1989Mark Epstein became partner at Wendel, Rosen, Black & Dean in the firm’s real estate litigation practice group in Oakland. He was previously a partner with Alborg, Veiluva & Epstein, and has been involved in real estate, business and insurance coverage law for more than 15 years.

1990Julia Couzens, M.F.A., had a one-person exhibition, Maidement, at California State University, Stanislaus, last November and December, displaying new drawings and sculptures. An exhibition catalogue with essays by curator and UC Davis Nelson Gallery director Renny Pritikin will be published this year. In October, Couzens’ work was featured in the group show, Geo-Morph, in Davis at the Pence Gallery.

Showing 1 to 20 of 47 Next >