| 1953Dale Covey, a longtime Hemet educator and a World War II veteran, died in October in Idyllwild at age 80. After working as an agronomist, he spent 33 years as a teacher and principal with the Hemet Unified School District. In retirement, he mentored new teachers through the California State University, San Bernardino, student-teacher program. He was also a charter member of the Hemet Harmonizers barbershop chorus, and enjoyed gardening and the outdoors. His wife of 30 years, Marjorie, died in 1980. Survivors include his second wife, Phyllis, eight children and two stepchildren, 21 grandchildren and four great grandchildren. |
| 1964John Osborn of Sacramento received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Cal Aggie Alumni Association in February. A clinical professor of plastic surgery with the UC Davis Health System, he periodically visits Peru to teach and perform corrective and reconstructive plastic surgery on children with cleft lip and palate deformities. He also has a successful practice with the Plastic Surgery Center in Sacramento. Osborn serves on the board of directors of the School of Medicine Alumni Association. • Sandy (Holloway) Kogl, a former park ranger, dogsledder and author who was recently nominated for induction into the Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame, died of Lou Gehrig’s disease in September in Talkeetna, Alaska. She was 67. After graduating, she moved to Alaska to pursue a master’s degree in wildlife management in Fairbanks. She and then-husband, Dennis, opened a dog freighting operation. In 1975 she joined Denali National Park to renovate its kennels, restore backcountry dogsled patrols and improve the breeding program. This led her to write Sled Dogs of Denali. After retiring in 1995, she moved to Talkeetna, where she co-founded the Bear Necessities Coalition to help keep bears and people safe, and co-authored The Ballad of the Wild Bear to educate children about living safely in bear country. She is survived by her partner of 23 years, George Wagner; children Renge’ and Leif, J.D. ’09; and grandchildren, Juno and Ron. |
| 1965Bob Riggle, D.V.M., ’67, knew firsthand the dangers of sailing through “Pirate’s Alley” off the coast of Oman. The retired Seattle veterinarian and his companion, Phyllis Macay, safely navigated those seas on Riggle’s yacht, Gaia, in 2009—two years into a journey to sail around the world. Their attempt to cross those waters again this February ended tragically when the couple and two other Americans were taken hostage by Somali pirates and shot to death. He and Macay, after a break from sailing, had joined the Quest, a yacht owned by Scott and Jean Adam of Marina del Rey, as crew. Dr. Riggle, 67, had worked as an equine veterinarian at racetracks in the Pacific Northwest. After retiring he filled in when needed at the Seattle Animal Shelter’s spay and neuter clinic. |
| 1970Russell Bishop, M.A. ’75, a senior editor at The Huffington Post, wrote Workarounds That Work (McGraw-Hill), a self-help book released this spring. |
| 1972Author David Carle’s first novel, Mono, was released last November by Phalarope Press. The book tells the story of a biologist who surveys the Mono Lake basin in the eastern Sierra in the 1930s and falls in love with a woman whose family lost its farm after construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct. A retired California state parks ranger, Carle has written several nonfiction books exploring relationships between people and California’s environment. • Nancy Seyden, M.S. ’75, who helped transform UC Davis attitudes regarding people with disabilities, died in January from respiratory failure at age 63. Ms. Seyden, who had dealt with the Guillian-Barré neuromuscular condition since she was 12, worked after graduating as a staff member at the campus Services to Handicapped Students (now the Disability Resource Center). In 1993, she was recruited by Professor Emeritus William Fowler to be a research associate with the Research and Training Center in Neuromuscular Diseases, where she supervised interns and helped research neuromuscular medicine. She and three other UC Davis staff and disability activists, Buz Dreyer, Diane Adams and Connie Burton, created the Forum on Disabilities Issues. They helped start Disability Awareness Week in the early 1990s. Ms. Seyden also created the library of disability resources in the Women’s Resources and Research Center library. She retired in 2008, and enjoyed knitting and submitting her creations to the Yolo County Fair. She also volunteered for Yolo Reads and was an education docent for Yolo Basin Foundation, which teaches school children about wildlife and conservation. She is survived by her husband, Peter Thy, a project scientist in the Department of Geology. |
| 1975Jim 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. • Linda Whitney was appointed executive director of the Medical Board of California. She previously worked for a variety of Department of Consumer Affairs’ boards and bureaus, including serving as the chief of legislation for the Medical Board for 11 years. She lives in midtown Sacramento with her husband, Allan Owen ’74. |
| 1976Bret Hewitt, M.A. ’83, of Arlington, Va., was presented with the Cal Aggie Alumni Association’s highest honor—the Jerry W. Fielder Memorial Award—in February. A managing director of the global investment consulting firm Cambridge Associates, Hewitt is serving his fourth term as a trustee of the UC Davis Foundation and is chair of its development committee. A life member of the alumni association, he is a former member of its board of directors and served as chair of its membership and marketing committees. Hewitt is also chair of the College of Letters and Science Deans’ Advisory Council and a generous donor. He and his wife, Deb Pinkerton ’77, have also donated money to support graduate and undergraduate students, the arboretum and the Department of Music’s free noon concerts. • Mark Steiner is an intellectual property attorney as a partner at Duane Morris in San Francisco. He joined the firm in January after eight years as the head of Townsend and Townsend and Crew trademark and copyright practice. In March, he was scheduled to speak at a wineries best practices conference in Santa Rosa about strategies for creating and protecting brand identity. He previously served as a San Francisco deputy city attorney, and taught at the University of Paris X-Nanterre School of Law and UC Hastings College of the Law. |
| 1977Todd Strumwasser is the vice president of medical affairs for Swedish Health Services in Seattle. He graduated from the University of Southern California’s medical school in 1981. |
| 1978Richard Moreno has written his 10th nonfiction book, Illinois Curiosities: Quirky characters, Roadside Oddities and Other Offbeat Stuff (Globe Pequot). He is the director of student publications and a journalism instructor at Western Illinois University. He lives in Macomb, Ill., with his wife, Pam, and their two children, Hank and Julia. • Joan Vreeburg was named 2010 Outstanding Biology Teacher for California by the National Association of Biology Teachers. She has taught at El Molino High School in Forestville for 29 years. |
| 1980Yvonne Lee joined the U.S. Small Business Administration as the new regional advocate for small business owners, state and local government agencies, state legislators and trade associations in Arizona, California, Nevada, Hawaii and Guam. She has been a public affairs consultant in San Francisco since 1994, organizing and leading strategic planning campaigns in public policy and programming. She served on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from 1995 to 2001, appointed by then-President Bill Clinton. |
| 1981Michael V. Nelson, M.A., of Denver died last July. A retired Air Force major, he was 61. Burial was at the Air Force Academy Cemetery in Colorado Springs, Colo. Survivors include his wife, Charlene. |
| 1982Helena Chari is the managing director of TNS ICAP Greece, a leading market information and insight company in Greece, which provides market measurement and analysis. She recently spoke at the European Senior Leadership meeting in Amsterdam, Netherlands. • Jeff Lakritz, D.V.M. ’87, Ph.D. ’96, was named the inaugural Vernon L. Tharp Professor in Food Animal Medicine at Ohio State University in December. He has served as an associate professor at the Ohio State Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences since 2003, after five years on the faculty at the University of Missouri. |
| 1984John Bloom wrote There You Have It: The Life, Legacy, and Legend of Howard Cosell (University of Massachusetts Press), a biography of lawyer-turned-sports journalist Howard Cosell. Bloom is an associate professor of history at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania. • Sundeep Dugar, Ph.D., received the Outstanding Alumnus Award from the Cal Aggie Association in February. The president and chief executive officer of the pharmaceutical research company Sphaera Pharma, Dugar is a co-inventor of two anticholesterol drugs. He also is a trustee of the UC Davis Foundation and a founding member of the College of Letters and Science Deans’ Advisory Council. He helped establish and fund the chemistry department’s R. Bryan Miller Symposium. He is one of three people to hold the UC Davis title of senior fellow of mathematical and physical science. He lives in San José. |
