Alumni Profiles
In Memoriam
29
MARTHE BARNETT MA ’35 of Tacoma, Wash., is deeply involved in writing a book focusing on the year 1757 and The Honorable William Pitt, the First Earl of Chatham, who “contributed crucially toward planting the ‘seeds of rebellion’ in the brains and hearts of the British subjects of that year.” She also writes for the local senior newspaper and uses some of her remaining time for volunteer work with the State Library for the Blind.
38
WILLIAM W. CLARK was honored for four decades of service in the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) industry at the National Propane Gas Association’s annual convention. Clark, owner of Butane-Propane News Inc. in Arcadia, Calif., the LPG’s largest publishing organization with subscribers worldwide, received the industry’s highest honor, NPGA’s Distinguished Service Award.
48
JEROL M. SONOSKY MS ’49 was presented with the Society of Petroleum Engineers’ annual Economics and Evaluation Award for distinguished contributions to petroleum engineering in those specialties. He still “does a little consulting” and is on several boards of small oil companies.
49
MILTON FENTON JD has retired from the active practice of law to become an attorney emeritus with Bet Tzedek Legal Services. He practiced law for almost 49 years in downtown Los Angeles, most recently with the firm of Fenton and Fenton. He is also now writing short stories and has “received only two rejection slips so far.”
50
C. NEIL ASH LLB was elected chairman of the Concordia University Board of Regents in Irvine, Calif. In 1990, Ash became a member of the board for the private Christian university that was recently ranked by U.S. News and World Report as one of the top 10 liberal arts colleges in the West. He is a member of the USC Associates, the board of councilors of the USC Law School and Cardinal and Gold.
ROBERT AVAKIAN DDS ’54 finished his term as president of the USC Dental Alumni Association. The school celebrated its centennial year during his term. Avakian is past president of the Century Club, a Presidential Associate and a life member of the General Alumni Association and of Cardinal and Gold.
DON L. GEVIRTZ has been named to the board of directors of Cost-U-Less, a Bellevue, Wash.-based retail warehouse store company. In addition to having a distinguished career in business, he was chairman of Senator Diane Feinstein’s two winning senate races and national co-chair of Jimmy Carter’s and Michael Dukakis’ presidential campaigns. Gevirtz recently served for almost two years as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Fiji. In 1980 he received the Alumni Award for Business Excellence from USC’s Marshall School of Business.
ROBERT W. SMITH MA ’51 is retired after a 37-year teaching career, seven years at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and the last 30 years at Alma College in Michigan. He recently privately published A Dictionary of French Rhetoric, a 715-page description in typescript of rhetorical books and their authors, speakers and related matter in French rhetoric from 1470 to the present. It is available in hard cover through Rwangliker@Juno.com.
51
VAUGHN W. CURTISS and his wife Wilma celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary on Sept. 21, 1997, with a party at their Capistrano Beach home attended by family and friends. Curtiss continues in his accounting practice of 30 years. Their daughter, Julie Voss ’82, resides in Santa Rosa, Calif.
53
RAFAEL L. BOWEN DDS became the 20th inductee to the USC School of Dentistry’s Hall of Fame. He was the developer of the first composite resin restorative material and the dentin bonding resin that have revolutionized modern dentistry. The Hall of Fame, established in 1975, recognizes those affiliated with the school who have made significant and lasting contributions to the art and science of dentistry.
55
J.B. “BEN” CROWELL has retired as chairman and chief executive offer of Eldorado Bank in Tustin, Calif. The 25-year-old bank has 12 branches and $430 million in assets. Crowell is a USC Associate and a life member of the General Alumni Association. His sons, David ’82 and John ’85, are also lifetime GAA members.
56
DENNIS HOPPER is president of Hopper Hand-crafted Specialty Finishes in Phoenix, which provided the Hopper Venetian wall finish for 11 galleries showcasing the permanent collection in the new Getty Center in Los Angeles.
BEAUFORD H. PHELPS is a retired Los Angeles Superior Court judge living in Dana Point, Calif.
57
CARL R. TERZIAN was honored by Shaare Zedek Medical Center Jerusalem with the Raoul Wallenberg “Save the Children” Award. He is the founder of Carl Terzian Associates, a Los Angeles public relations firm.
60
ROBERT BASSLER MFA retired as professor of art at California State University, Northridge, after 30 years of service, and is looking forward to the active continuation of his career as an artist. Any alumni friends who are interested in receiving Changing Light, the illustrated catalog of Bassler’s recent retrospective survey of sculpture, paintings, photos, etc., can contact him at 8329 Melvin Avenue, Northridge, CA 91324-4132, (818) 349-7710, robert.c.bassler@csun.edu
RICHARD L. BYYNY MD ’64 was appointed chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder on May 9, 1997, after serving briefly as interim chancellor. He is also a professor of medicine at the university’s Health Sciences Center. Byyny came to the center in 1977 as head of internal medicine.
61
KA fraternity members CHUCK BITTICK and MICHAEL PAULIN ’63 reached the summit of Mount Rainier in Washington last summer. Bittick was an NCAA swimming champion at USC and a member of the 1960 Olympic water polo team. With them on the climb was another KA member, STEVE MOSELEY ’61, and Chuldum Sherpa from Nepal, who was recently featured in the book and television movie Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, the story of the ill-fated Mount Everest climb.
KURT HAHN was awarded the Silver Beaver Award by the Redwood Empire Council of the Boy Scouts for his 35 years of volunteer service. He is the financial/economic services director of the city of Healdsburg, Calif.
LYNNE (HUNSUCKER) HAILE MEd ’65 is director of Pierce College’s Adaptive Ski School, which provides ski instruction to the blind, amputees, stroke victims, paraplegics and other disabled persons. She is also director of the Learning Center at Pierce.
MICHAEL ANGELO PONTRELLI received the Los Angeles Italian American Golf Association’s Man of the Year Award for his accomplishments in the legal profession and for fostering Italian heritage. He has been an attorney for 36 years, currently practicing family law and estate planning in Camarillo, Calif.
62
H. STANLEY JONES MBA recently spent five weeks in Ukraine as an executive volunteer on behalf of the Citizen’s Democracy Corps, a non-profit organization that is part of the U.S. Agency for International Development. An educator, consultant and author, Jones is a professor in the School of Business and Public Administration at California State University, Bakersfield.
TERRY T. TANAKA DDS received the Academy of Dentistry International’s Humanitarian Award given “ . . . in honor of his concern for mankind and his worthy contributions to the advancement of dentistry worldwide.” Tanaka is one of the founders of the Thousand Smiles Foundation, a craniofacial surgery and dental care Rotary International project for underprivileged children in Mexico and Puerto Rico. His dental practice is in Chula Vista, Calif.
JAMES C. WILLIAMS III PhD recently retired after 35 years of teaching Aerospace Engineering; 18 years at North Carolina University and 17 years at Auburn University. He served as the head of the department at Auburn for 12 years. He makes his home at 1164 Terrace Acres Drive, Auburn, AL 36830.
63
SALLY TALLMAN DAVIES, second grade teacher at President Avenue School, Harbor City, in the Los Angeles Unified School District, was named Teacher of the Year by the Harbor City/Harbor Gateway Chamber of Commerce.
64
BRIAN L. ALMQUIST MPA ’68 retired after a record 27 years as city manager of Ashland, Ore., and 40 years of public service. He was a vice president of the International City/County Management Assn., president of the Northwest Public Power Assn., and received the Herman Kehrli Award from the League of Oregon Cities in recognition of contributions to city government in Oregon.
66
VICTOR SAUCEDO has released a compact disc, Music for Reading the Tao Te Ching (Erika Brigitte Publishing), which comes with a booklet containing 16 translations of the Tao Te Ching by Henry Quan, edited by Ming. The music is intended to be heard while reading, meditating or simply relaxing.
CHARLES S. TERRELL, JR. EdD, president of Edu-Vision, Inc., an educational consulting company, was installed as president of the San Bernardino Chamber of Commerce. He is a member of the USC School of Education’s board of councilors.
67
GERALD C. TUSTIN has been appointed senior research associate at Eastman Chemical Company in Kingsport, Tenn., where he and his wife, Claudia, reside. He is president of the Kingsport Community Concerts Association and a member of the American Chemical Society.
68
RONALD A. ALTOON, a founding partner of Los Angeles-based Altoon + Porter Architects, was inaugurated as president of the 60,000-member American Institute of Architects. He is an adjunct lecturer for USC’s School of Urban Planning and Development and conducts seminars for USC’s Marshall School of Business. Altoon is a member of USC Associates and established an endowed scholarship for the USC School of Architecture.
RICK SPARKS, senior vice president of CB Commercial’s central San Diego office, was recognized by the San Diego County Commercial Association of Realtors as the county’s Land Broker of the Year for 1997.
69
PHILIP J. RAPA is the newly appointed chief executive officer of the Institute for Health Care Advancement (formerly the Friendly Hills Health Care Foundation) in Whittier, Calif. For the past 27 years, Rapa has worked at USC, most recently as executive director of the Center for Excellence in Health Care Management in the School of Pharmacy.
CLAUDE MARK REED MM, MPA ’81, was selected to host the contingent of distinguished scholars visiting America from Jesus College, Cambridge University, England. He has also been selected as an executive consultant for the International Management Conference in the Cayman Islands.
71
GEORGETTA BANKS recently received a master’s degree in liberal studies from Harvard University. She is a playwright and director living in Los Angeles who for the past four summers has produced and directed original plays in London at the New Plays Theatre Festival.
SALVATORE S. LANZILOTTI MS has been director of the Department of Health for the city and county of Honolulu, Hawaii, for the past year. He is currently establishing a medical strike team in the event of a terrorist incident involving weapons of mass destruction. He lives in Honolulu with his wife and two daughters.
72
GARY LANE MA is dean of California Pacific School of Law in Bakersfield, Calif. Previously, he taught at Delaware Law School and at Coburn Law School in Tulsa, Okla., along with both Pepperdine University’s law school and business school. He is married to Rebecca Lane and has two boys, ages 11 and 4.
JOHN LINK MD, an oncologist at the Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, has written Breast Cancer Survival Manual. He is medical director of the Long Beach Memorial Breast Center.
AVTAR S. MANN MS has been named a Fellow of The American Society of Mechanical Engineers International. Mann is technical director at Fluor Daniel, Inc., and lives in Huntington Beach, Calif.
73
C.K. LENDT MBA ’75 is the author of Kiss and Sell: The Making of a Supergroup (Billboard Books), an insider’s account of the music industry based on his 12 years as one of the business managers for the rock group Kiss. The book has been reviewed in several national publications and Lendt has been interviewed on CNN’s “Showbiz Today” and CNN “Radio.”
LARRY UDY created www.hollywudy.com, his own Web site, to assist his acting career. He recently did a commercial for Snicker’s and promos for ABC and Fox TV.
74
GEORGE L. PLA MPA was recently appointed to the California Tourism Commission by California Assembly Speaker Cruz Bustamante. Pla is founder, president and chief executive officer of the Cordoba Corporation, a Los Angeles-based engineering and construction consulting firm.
75
BENJAMIN F. CAFFEY has been promoted to senior associate at the architecture firm Anshen+Allen Los Angeles.
STEVEN F. DILLON has retired from the U.S. Navy after 22 years and is now a technical instructor for United Space Alliance. He teaches space shuttle guidance and propulsion systems and flight procedures to astronauts and mission controllers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
76
MICHAEL B. ABELL has formed MBA Media Group, a Laguna Hills, Calif.-buying company that provides clients with a new way of planning and purchasing air time in broadcast television, radio and cable. He most recently was a partner in M&M Media Services.
CARL C. DREIZLER is president of P.R. Prose, a firm which provides custom freelance writing services and special event planning for corporations and non-profit organizations. He is the author or co-author of five books, including 52 Simple Ways to Say “I Love You,” with more than 150,000 copies in print.
RICK RICE has joined Eagle Wireless International, Inc., as vice president of sales. He oversees the company’s Houston and Arlington, Texas, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, sales operations and is directly responsible for all domestic and international sales activities.
BLAIR WESTLAKE has been named chairman of Universal Television and Networks Group. The appointment follows Universal Studios’ recent television agreement with USA Networks, Inc., and the reorganization of its existing television businesses to manage all of its television assets and distribution activities.
ROBERT M.A. WILSON MPA earned inclusion in the third edition of Who’s Who in Entertainment 1998-1999. The former member of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is a writer whose first novel, a sci-fi thriller titled Bad Wimpfen, was published last year by Commonwealth Publications Inc. He lives in Moreno Valley, Calif.
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