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Class Notes Archive 1931-2014: Summer 2008

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1933Martin Luther Williams Jr. died a few months shy of 100 in November 2007. Mr. Williams began his career in the dairy industry in Los Angeles at Edgemar Farms/Santa Monica Dairy and was manager of the creamery for Ralphs Grocery Co. from 1941 to 1968. He completed his career with Ralphs in 1971 as the director of manufacturing. He is survived by his wife of 71 years, Elvira, his sister, Lenora Rupe, his daughter, Sharon Wurth, three grandchildren and three great grandchildren.
1940Janet Lovelace Allen, who attended UC Davis in the early 1940s before the campus closed due to World War II, died in Sutter Creek in February 2008 at age 86. After Mrs. Allen’s first husband was killed in action in France in 1944, she joined the U.S. Marine Corps Women’s Reserve. After the war, Mrs. Allen was married to John Allen, joining him in his ranching and other businesses. From 1958 to 1960, she served on the Citizen’s Advisory Commission, appointed by the California Legislature to investigate the decline of the public school system. She is survived by her husband of 61 years, her six children and their spouses and 14 grandchildren.
1949After battling cancer, Ben Goehring died in March 2008 at age 76 in his hometown of Lodi. He had served in the U.S. Air Force in Germany and was a recipient of the Air Force Commendation Medal, the German Occupation Medal and the National Defense Service Medal. Mr. Goehring was the president and CEO of Goehring Meats Inc., a family business, and also served as president of Pacific Coast Meat Association. Mr. Goehring was involved in many community organizations in Lodi including serving as the founding director and chair of the board of the Bank of Lodi. His survivors include his wife of 46 years, Shirley, their two sons and four grandchildren.
1964John Osborn completed his yearlong term as president of the California Society of Plastic Surgeons. He still enjoys participating as a clinical professor in the Department of Surgery at the UC Davis School of Medicine and has a private practice at the Plastic Surgery Center in Sacramento, specializing in cosmetic procedures. • David Martin, D.V.M. ’66, died of massive trauma received during a shark attack in Solana Beach in April 2008. He was 66. Dr. Martin was a retired veterinarian who had lived in Solana Beach since 1970. He was a well-liked figure in the community and was known for his veterinary skill, broad smile and sunburned nose. Always an active man, Dr. Martin was a member of the Triathlon Club of San Diego. His survivors include his children, Andy, Kevin, Ben and Hannah, as well as four grandchildren and his girlfriend, Jan Rhoades.
1967John Vernon, M.A., Ph.D. ’69, is a distinguished professor of English at Binghamton University in upstate New York and a novelist, with his sixth novel, Lucky Billy (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), set to be published this November. In addition to his six novels, he has also published a memoir, a book of poems and three critical studies. • Robert Denno, Ph.D. ’73, died of a heart attack in March 2008 while conducting field work on Sapelo Island, Georgia. After graduating from UC Davis, Dr. Denno was a postdoctoral student, then an assistant professor at Rutgers University until 1976 before joining the entomology department at the University of Maryland. Dr. Denno was one of the world’s leading insect ecologists, noted especially for his studies of salt marsh arthropods. At the University of Maryland, he twice won research excellence awards and in 2000 was named a campus Distinguished Scholar-Teacher. He is survived by his wife of 42 years, Barbara Denno ’67, Cred. ’68, their sons, Erik and Alex, and their grandchildren, Noa and Ella.
1968Edward Hart Gruger, Ph.D., died in January from cancer at age 78. Dr. Gruger served with the federal government for 30 years before his retirement in 1983. He began his career as a chemist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Seattle and also held a position at the Agricultural Experiment Station at UC Davis. Later in his career Dr. Gruger worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Seattle, finally serving as a research adviser and coordinator at its Fisheries Center. He was also a research professor of chemistry at Seattle University from 1977 to 1982. He is survived by his wife, Audrey, and their three children, Sherri, Lawrence and Linda, and two grandsons.
1970Nancy Felts and fellow UC Davis student Bill “Ag” Robinson, who attended in the late ’60s before graduating from California State University, Sacramento, had a chance meeting in the Sacramento International Airport 29 years after their last meeting. Felts has since retired from 35 years of teaching in California and joined Robinson in Florida. Robinson spent 30 years overseas in the Peace Corps and building embassies for the United Nations and the U.S. State Department, and now works as a general contractor. • Allen Marr, president and CEO of Geocomp Corp. in Boxborough, Mass., was elected to the National Academy of Engineers, in addition to being awarded the UC Davis Distinguished Engineering Alumni Medal in June 2007. • William Gray recently returned from serving as chief of party on a USAID-funded project in Afghanistan, where he assisted the leadership of the four universities in Kabul and the ministry of higher education in planning to enhance the quality of instruction and research at their institutions. Gray has been a faculty member at Washington State University since 1972. He can be contacted at gray@wsu.edu. • Tory Hoff is a psychologist in Toronto, and he operates an Internet-based used book business on the side. He has lived in Canada since 1972.
1974John Nesbitt, M.A., Ph.D. ’80, has had his most recent western novel, Death at Dark Water, published by Leisure Books. It follows Raven Springs (Leisure Books), which was recognized as a finalist in the annual Western Writers of America Spur Awards.
1975Ahmad 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. • 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. • 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.
1976Susan Edmiston is chief of the Worker Health and Safety Branch, California Department of Pesticide Regulation, a department of the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA). Edmiston joined the department after graduation from UC Davis and has worked to develop the pesticide worker health and safety program that is used as a model by Cal/EPA and other programs throughout the world.
1977Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Donald Koch as director of the California Department of Fish and Game. Koch has worked for the department for 30 years. Most recently, he was adviser to the directorate, representing the department in Klamath River negotiations. • Paul Mariuzza, Cred. ’78, is retiring after 26 years of federal service as a teacher for the Department of Defense Dependents Schools. For the past 17 years, he has taught health and physical education while coaching varsity girls’ volleyball and tennis as well as serving as the football quarterback coach at the Yokota High School in Japan. Mariuzza, his wife and 15-year-old son are relocating to Pinole this August.
1978Joseph DiTomaso, Ph.D. ’87, cooperative extension specialist in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis, received the prestigious Outstanding Extension Award from the Weed Science Society of America (WSSA).

1933Martin Luther Williams Jr. died a few months shy of 100 in November 2007. Mr. Williams began his career in the dairy industry in Los Angeles at Edgemar Farms/Santa Monica Dairy and was manager of the creamery for Ralphs Grocery Co. from 1941 to 1968. He completed his career with Ralphs in 1971 as the director of manufacturing. He is survived by his wife of 71 years, Elvira, his sister, Lenora Rupe, his daughter, Sharon Wurth, three grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

1940Janet Lovelace Allen, who attended UC Davis in the early 1940s before the campus closed due to World War II, died in Sutter Creek in February 2008 at age 86. After Mrs. Allen’s first husband was killed in action in France in 1944, she joined the U.S. Marine Corps Women’s Reserve. After the war, Mrs. Allen was married to John Allen, joining him in his ranching and other businesses. From 1958 to 1960, she served on the Citizen’s Advisory Commission, appointed by the California Legislature to investigate the decline of the public school system. She is survived by her husband of 61 years, her six children and their spouses and 14 grandchildren.

1949After battling cancer, Ben Goehring died in March 2008 at age 76 in his hometown of Lodi. He had served in the U.S. Air Force in Germany and was a recipient of the Air Force Commendation Medal, the German Occupation Medal and the National Defense Service Medal. Mr. Goehring was the president and CEO of Goehring Meats Inc., a family business, and also served as president of Pacific Coast Meat Association. Mr. Goehring was involved in many community organizations in Lodi including serving as the founding director and chair of the board of the Bank of Lodi. His survivors include his wife of 46 years, Shirley, their two sons and four grandchildren.

1964John Osborn completed his yearlong term as president of the California Society of Plastic Surgeons. He still enjoys participating as a clinical professor in the Department of Surgery at the UC Davis School of Medicine and has a private practice at the Plastic Surgery Center in Sacramento, specializing in cosmetic procedures. • David Martin, D.V.M. ’66, died of massive trauma received during a shark attack in Solana Beach in April 2008. He was 66. Dr. Martin was a retired veterinarian who had lived in Solana Beach since 1970. He was a well-liked figure in the community and was known for his veterinary skill, broad smile and sunburned nose. Always an active man, Dr. Martin was a member of the Triathlon Club of San Diego. His survivors include his children, Andy, Kevin, Ben and Hannah, as well as four grandchildren and his girlfriend, Jan Rhoades.

1967John Vernon, M.A., Ph.D. ’69, is a distinguished professor of English at Binghamton University in upstate New York and a novelist, with his sixth novel, Lucky Billy (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), set to be published this November. In addition to his six novels, he has also published a memoir, a book of poems and three critical studies. • Robert Denno, Ph.D. ’73, died of a heart attack in March 2008 while conducting field work on Sapelo Island, Georgia. After graduating from UC Davis, Dr. Denno was a postdoctoral student, then an assistant professor at Rutgers University until 1976 before joining the entomology department at the University of Maryland. Dr. Denno was one of the world’s leading insect ecologists, noted especially for his studies of salt marsh arthropods. At the University of Maryland, he twice won research excellence awards and in 2000 was named a campus Distinguished Scholar-Teacher. He is survived by his wife of 42 years, Barbara Denno ’67, Cred. ’68, their sons, Erik and Alex, and their grandchildren, Noa and Ella.

1968Edward Hart Gruger, Ph.D., died in January from cancer at age 78. Dr. Gruger served with the federal government for 30 years before his retirement in 1983. He began his career as a chemist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Seattle and also held a position at the Agricultural Experiment Station at UC Davis. Later in his career Dr. Gruger worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Seattle, finally serving as a research adviser and coordinator at its Fisheries Center. He was also a research professor of chemistry at Seattle University from 1977 to 1982. He is survived by his wife, Audrey, and their three children, Sherri, Lawrence and Linda, and two grandsons.

1970Nancy Felts and fellow UC Davis student Bill “Ag” Robinson, who attended in the late ’60s before graduating from California State University, Sacramento, had a chance meeting in the Sacramento International Airport 29 years after their last meeting. Felts has since retired from 35 years of teaching in California and joined Robinson in Florida. Robinson spent 30 years overseas in the Peace Corps and building embassies for the United Nations and the U.S. State Department, and now works as a general contractor. • Allen Marr, president and CEO of Geocomp Corp. in Boxborough, Mass., was elected to the National Academy of Engineers, in addition to being awarded the UC Davis Distinguished Engineering Alumni Medal in June 2007. • William Gray recently returned from serving as chief of party on a USAID-funded project in Afghanistan, where he assisted the leadership of the four universities in Kabul and the ministry of higher education in planning to enhance the quality of instruction and research at their institutions. Gray has been a faculty member at Washington State University since 1972. He can be contacted at gray@wsu.edu. • Tory Hoff is a psychologist in Toronto, and he operates an Internet-based used book business on the side. He has lived in Canada since 1972.

1974John Nesbitt, M.A., Ph.D. ’80, has had his most recent western novel, Death at Dark Water, published by Leisure Books. It follows Raven Springs (Leisure Books), which was recognized as a finalist in the annual Western Writers of America Spur Awards.

1975Ahmad 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. • 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. • 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.

1976Susan Edmiston is chief of the Worker Health and Safety Branch, California Department of Pesticide Regulation, a department of the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA). Edmiston joined the department after graduation from UC Davis and has worked to develop the pesticide worker health and safety program that is used as a model by Cal/EPA and other programs throughout the world.

1977Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Donald Koch as director of the California Department of Fish and Game. Koch has worked for the department for 30 years. Most recently, he was adviser to the directorate, representing the department in Klamath River negotiations. • Paul Mariuzza, Cred. ’78, is retiring after 26 years of federal service as a teacher for the Department of Defense Dependents Schools. For the past 17 years, he has taught health and physical education while coaching varsity girls’ volleyball and tennis as well as serving as the football quarterback coach at the Yokota High School in Japan. Mariuzza, his wife and 15-year-old son are relocating to Pinole this August.

1978Joseph DiTomaso, Ph.D. ’87, cooperative extension specialist in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis, received the prestigious Outstanding Extension Award from the Weed Science Society of America (WSSA).

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