UNIVERSITY MIXUP

With usual pleasure, I received the latest issue [summer ‘06] of UC Davis Magazine. The article about Carl Gorman on page 11 got my special attention. It was a nice read until I got to the seventh paragraph dealing with the bust of Gorman. Here “we” have an oops, because I am in Flagstaff, Ariz., at Northern Arizona University (NAU) and can stand at that exact bust after a five-minute walk from my retirement office! Unless there are two busts of “dad” done by the fine artist and son, R.C. Gorman, your article is in error at identifying its location at the University of Arizona.

By the way, the son, R.C. Gorman, attended NAU (then a state teacher’s college) in 1950–51 and 1955–56, and in 1990 received an honorary “Doctor of Human Letters” from NAU.

You may receive other letters like this, because there are quite a few faculty here at NAU who received their Ph.D.s at Davis. In fact, there are four such faculty in the biology department alone!

John Norman Grim,
Cred. ’56, Ph.D. ’67
Professor of Biology, Emeritus
Northern Arizona University

FOUNDING FATHERS

My two sisters and I enjoyed seeing the article about the June 1906 sale of 730 acres by Martin Sparks to the state for the creation of the University Farm and ultimately UC Davis [“A ‘Fearfully Tough’ Sale,” summer ’06]. The three of us are all UC Davis alumni, and Martin Sparks was our great-great-grandfather.

Martin Sparks was born in Surry County, N.C., in 1833 and first arrived in California in 1850. Soon thereafter he returned to Cooper County, Missouri, to marry Sarah J. Judy. They then made their way back to California driving a herd of cattle. Through hard work and intelligent purchases, Martin Sparks acquired large land holdings in Placer, Solano and Yolo counties. Though his sale of land for the University Farm was profitable, he didn’t get to enjoy the proceeds of his sale for very long. He died in 1909 in a large home he had built in what is now downtown Oakland. He is buried in Manzanita Cemetery, north of Lincoln in Placer County.

We have a dual tie to the founding of the Davis campus. Henry Hamel, who also sold his 32 acres to the state, making up the balance of the University Farm land, was also our great-great-grandfather. Our grandmother, Marie Hamel, was born and raised on a farm just west of Davisville, and there are Hamels living and farming in Davis to this day.

I recently retired as an Air Force lieutenant colonel after 25 years in aircraft maintenance and have settled in Dixon. Sandy works as a manager for Stations Casinos in Las Vegas. Teresa is the senior assistant dean at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.

Nelson Sparks ’77
Sandy (Sparks) Brown ’79
Teresa (Sparks) Costantinidis ’85

MILITARY ON CAMPUS

I was saddened and embarrassed to read in the spring 2006 issue that the Associated Students of UC Davis senators voted 8-4 to denounce military recruitment on campus. I immediately removed my UC Davis bumper sticker from my car. I do not wish to support a school that does not honor our troops.

Patricia Lucker, M.S. ’96

Editor’s note: We had space to provide only the briefest account of the student decision in our spring issue, so we weren’t able to report on the reasons behind the action, but it was not a reflection of the students’ lack of support for the troops. The students were voicing their objection to the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy regarding sexual orientation.

ON AIDS

I would like to offer a few comments about the article “Epidemics on the Horizon” by Pat Bailey in the summer 2006 issue of the UC Davis Magazine. In the listing of the “Top 10: Epidemic Hall of Infamy,” Pat states in the section on AIDS and its impact, “Worldwide, AIDS is [the] leading cause of death of 15- to 49-year-olds with cases totaling 45 million in 2005.” Did 45 million people die of AIDS in 2005? A better way to state the facts would be: In 2005, the WHO has estimated that 36 million–45 million people were infected with HIV/AIDS and of these approximately 2.8 million people died.

The best prevention for HIV transmission is not avoiding unprotected sex and needle-sharing, as Pat states. The best prevention is avoiding any kind of sex, protected or unprotected, except with a lifetime marriage partner. The No. 1 cause of the worldwide AIDS epidemic is sexual promiscuity! The contribution from shared needles and contaminated transfusions is minor at the world level. AIDS is a major killer, and all teaching institutions have a grave responsibility to tell the truth and stop pretending that sexual freedom is more important than the spread of AIDS and other STDs.

Donald R. Mull ’69

SPIRIT OF '56

Judy Mace Allen ’59 responded to our request for information about the Pajamarino participants shown in a 1956 photo that we included on page 34 of our summer ’06 issue. She pointed out that Natalie (Hudson) Mackenzie is seated in the back of the fire truck, looking over her left shoulder (1). Allen noted that Mackenzie is wife of retired UC Davis professor Malcolm MacKenzie; she still lives in Davis, and “participates in the Mondavi Gift Shop as a volunteer and weaver of lovely scarves.” Also shown in the photo is John Hardie ’58 (2), who retired after working at UC Davis for many years in positions that included assistant to the chancellor and director of special projects.

CREDIT DUE

Thanks for the short article about this past year’s Shields Library publicity campaign [“End Notes,” summer ’06]. Our department had a lot of fun working on it, and I feel it was an effective project. I wanted to let your readers know that the graphic design for the poster you included to illustrate the article was wholly designed and produced by Nicole Fogarty, a talented student designer who worked for us this past year and who just graduated in June. Nicole is just one of several artistic students who work in our department to help us get the word out about the library and its resources.

Lee Riggs
Shields Library Instruction Services