| 1977Arturo Fallico IV is a teacher, special educator and mail-artist living in Santa Clara County. Mail art is a variety of artwork that involves the postal system as a medium and form of transmission. • Larry Halstead was an unsuccessful candidate for Barstow City Council in the November election. Halstead has spent decades as a community activist and is founder of Earth Haven Foundation for Kids, a nonprofit organization that represents children who are victims of substance abuse. He and his wife are foster parents who have adopted eight such children. • Stephen Meyers has been president of the Merchants National Bank of Sacramento for nearly 30 years. He and his bank were profiled in a Sacramento Business Journal article in October that noted the bank still offers such “old-time service” as no-fee checking accounts and phones answered by people and that Meyers sits at a desk in the lobby and knows many customers by name. • Todd Strumwasser was named chief of staff, elect, for the Swedish Hospital Medical Center in Seattle, Wash. Strumwasser is an anesthesiologist with Physicians Anesthesia Service Inc. He met his wife of 28 years, Kim Armstrong, at UC Davis in 1974. They are the parents of two children, Aaron and Valerie, both of whom attend college on the East Coast. • Christopher Waddell has taken a position as general counsel for the San Diego City Employee’s Retirement System, a $3.6 billion trust fund. Waddell had been general counsel for the California State Teachers’ Retirement System. • Joan Zerkovich is senior vice president of information technology at International Catastrophe Insurance Managers in Boulder, Colo. After graduating from UC Davis, she spent 19 years working for the campus’s medical center, medical school and information technology unit, and also served as technical director for the California Digital Library. |
| 1978Kristen Foskett Gilley was promoted to deputy staff director of the House of Representatives’ International Relations Committee. She has spent the past 27 years in various public sector jobs in Washington, D.C., specializing in the legislative process and international relations. • Steven Koike, M.S. ’80, plant pathology farm advisor for UC Cooperative Extension, Monterey County, has written Vegetable Diseases: A Color Handbook (Academic Press), which includes over 600 color photographs to help farmers and researchers identify and understand crop problems. Koike’s research on the diseases that affect coastal crops, such as cool season vegetables, strawberries and ornamental plants, has been recognized with a number of industry, county and university honors, including the 2002 UC Agriculture and Natural Resources Distinguished Service Award for Outstanding Research. • David Long, general counsel for Pizza Hut of Fort Wayne, Ind., and a member of the Indiana Senate since 1996, was named Senate president pro tempore after the November election. |
| 1979Ray Aragon, J.D., has been appointed to the California Judicial Council, the policymaking body of the California courts, and will serve a three-year term. Aragon, a public defender, has served as vice president of the State Bar Board of Governors and the San Diego County Bar Association board of directors, and is a past president of San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association. • Steven Lanum retired as chief regulatory compliance counsel at Charles Schwab & Co. in San Francisco. He writes that, having asked himself the same question “What do I want to be when I grow up?” for 40 years, he now has more time to ponder the answer. • Mark Smith is founder and president of Vector Engineering Inc. in Grass Valley. This year the company was recognized by ENR magazine as one of the top 200 environmental consulting firms in the U.S. and by the Zweig-White newsletter as one of the 100 fastest growing architectural/engineering/construction companies. Smith divides his time between Grass Valley and Lima, Peru—one of the firm’s many international offices. • Charles Rominger died of cancer in October 2006 at age 52. Having graduated with two bachelor’s degrees in agriculture, he worked on the 3,500-acre Rominger Brothers Farms in Yolo County and was a devoted advocate of land preservation and wildlife habitat restoration. He is a past president of the California Association of Wheat Growers and also served on the Yolo County Farm Bureau board and Yolo County Ag Futures Alliance. Mr. Rominger was the recipient of a number of awards for his environmental work and was named Yolo County’s Outstanding Young Farmer of the Year. Survivors include his wife, Cairn; children, Cienna and Aldo; siblings, Rick ’76, Bruce ’80 and Ruth; and parents, Richard ’49 and Evelyne ’51. • William Fayette Taylor, J.D., died in Berkeley in October 2006 at age 54. During his studies at the University of Oregon, he was a member of a group of students who founded the first public interest research group in Oregon, which was the model for UC Berkeley’s CALPIRG. After obtaining his law degree, Mr. Taylor practiced in the Bay Area for 26 years and was a champion of the rights of the elderly and a pioneer in nursing home abuse litigation. He supported such community groups as the Berkeley Historical Society and Berkeley Methodist United Church, and is remembered for his love of politics, jazz, conversation, the natural world and history. Survivors include his wife, Pamela, and his daughter, Adriana. |
| 1980Paul Seligman, M.D., a senior officer of the Food and Drug Association, was promoted to Rear Admiral, Lower Half, as a member of the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service. Seligman is associate director for safety policy and communication in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. He directs the program responsible for the FDA’s Drug Safety Board and the MedWatch Program, and is involved in safety and communications initiatives affecting regulated drugs. |
| 1981Robert Hodges, an intellectual property attorney with Needle & Rosenberg in Atlanta, was included in The Best Lawyers in America, 2007 edition. Hodges, who leads the firm’s biotechnology practice, also has a Ph.D. in biochemistry. • Steven Medley, J.D., died in a car crash in October 2006 at age 57. After four years of practicing law, he returned to Yosemite National Park, where he had been a seasonal ranger, and become president of the Yosemite Association. Dedicating himself to educating the general public about the park, Mr. Medley edited and produced more than 50 publications for the association. Survivors include his wife, Jane, and sons, Charlie, Joe and Andy. |
| 1982Loretta Giorgi was selected by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to serve as a Superior Court judge in San Francisco. Giorgi had worked with the San Francisco city attorney’s office for more than 20 years. |
| 1983Brian Crisp was promoted to colonel in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. He returned from Iraq, where he served with the 10th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad. He is currently chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Evans Army Hospital in Fort Carson, Colo. He has been married to Tracey (Nakano) Crisp ’83 for 22 years. They have two children and live in Colorado Springs, Colo. • Kym Fabel was named program manager for the North Lake Tahoe Chamber of Commerce. In her new position, Fabel will oversee chamber events and communications. |
