Class Notes

’69 JOHN HOPPIN and his wife, Vicki, are retired. In June of 2012, they left San Jose and traveled for five years in an RV. Over the last four years of the trip, the Hoppins went to 160 minor league stadiums in the United States and Canada and wrote two books about the ballparks — and people — in minor league baseball. Recently, the Hoppins have been going on book signing tours and visiting their children and grandchildren. They now live in beautiful Apache Junction, Arizona.

’70 JOHN MOORE has three grandsons and one just learned to walk. This past year, John’s father passed away at age 94. John’s father entered the Marines at 17 years old and at the end of WWII was found fighting on the sands of Iwo Jima. His father was an amazing man and father.

CHRISTOPHER NEWMAN

published his 14th crime-suspense novel, “Pillage,” featuring new protagonist Sean Malloy in 2019. A second novel, “Plunder,” will be out this summer, so be on the lookout Monarchs!

’71 TONY LUPINA retired in 2018. He recently moved to Nolensville, which is 20 miles south of Nashville, Tennessee. Tony enjoys golfing, hunting, and attending music events.

JAMES FOWLER is a retired scout leader and naval officer. ’72 FRED VERNACCHIA is finishing up his 34th year as a diagnostic radiologist in San Luis Obispo. He has been the medical director at the San Luis Diagnostic Center for 25 years. Fred has been married to Anne Liebler Vernacchia for 37 years, and they have three children. Their daughter, Giovonne, is an attorney for Nike in Beaverton, Oregon. Their daughter, Cara, is a physician in her first year of residency at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. Finally, their daughter, Maia, is a food scientist for Beach Body in El Segundo, California.

JAMES COOKE and his wife, Sandy, are celebrating 38 years of marriage. A year ago, their daughter, Larissa, gave birth to their third grandchild, Corbin. James and Sandy could not be prouder of their kids and grandkids. Their son, Troy, is building his handyman business. Their granddaughter, Issabella, is now 8 years old and doing an awesome job in gymnastics. Their grandson, Austin, just turned 6 years old and entered kindergarten. After retiring from the corporate world, James has been driving school buses of high school students for the past 12 years. This year marks the couple’s 31st year in their home in El Dorado Hills, California. They feel very grateful for the Lord’s blessings.

’73 MARC REYNOLDS saw the expansion of Capitol City Stucco, Inc. into the state of Nevada in 2019.

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’77 AILEEN CASANAVE joined a new start-up as vice president and is head of legal at MemSQL, Inc.

’79 STEVE RAMONA took a new position as expansion director for Dollar Stores.

’84 JILL LACARA VARVELL has been married for 34 years and is the mother of three young adults. She is also a licensed real estate agent in Walla Walla, Washington.

’85 CHRISTINE PRESTABEARDEN is raising three boys and lives in Livermore, California. Her oldest son just graduated from the University of San Francisco with a master’s degree in data analytics and landed a job at a startup in San Francisco. Christine’s other two sons are in high school. Christine is currently working to get her real estate license and is preparing to be a substitute teacher. In her free time, she enjoys running, doing yoga or pilates, and traveling.

ROSE (CESENA) OLIVAS is in her second year of a master’s program in agriculture at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, where she will be doing research on food safety and soil health. Rose has been accepted into her first teaching assignment for the College of Agriculture. She plans to eventually build a nonprofit farm that grows organic produce. She says it is never too late to pursue what you love.

HEATHER HALE published her second book, “Story Selling: How to Develop, Market & Pitch Your Film & TV Projects.” She continues to produce the television health talk show “Lifestyle Magazine.”

ANDREW VANYO retired from teaching high school English after 24 years. He recently began working as a life coach for adults with intellectual disabilities. Andrew still buys and sells antique sports memorabilia. In the future, he plans to open a small vintage shop in Conneaut Lake, Pennsylvania.

’86 RINO QUE just celebrated his 25th wedding anniversary.

CLASS NOTES (CONTINUED)

’87 SYLVIA GUEL RUIZ celebrated her 50th birthday with her twin sister, SOPHIA GUEL-VALENZUELA ’87, in May.

’88 TIM CONNOLLY works as a principal software test engineer at Smiths Detection. He has been with the company for 17 years. Tim has been married to his wife, Susan, for seven years and has two children: Liam, 6, and Lira, 4.

’94 TOMÁS JIMÉNEZ was promoted to full professor of sociology at Stanford University, where he has been part of the faculty for 10 years. His wife, NOVA (DAGUE ’93) JIMÉNEZ, is a lecturer in the music department at Stanford University.

’96 KATHERINE (RENDLER) ROXBOROUGH and her husband, Ben, welcomed their daughter, Charlotte Elizabeth Roxborough, in October.

MAUREEN (HOLT) NIBECKER had her third baby, Mark Issac, in January. Their family is thrilled with the new addition.

’98 KYLE MADEJ married Monica Chavira, and they have two kids: Kevin and Trenton. Kyle is an entrepreneur, who has started and owned businesses with different focuses, including security, consulting, remote monitoring, and professional baseball.

’99 MICHAEL DOUGLASS -HARRIS resolved the two largest cases in firm history with settlements of $20 million and $26 million, which generated a lot of publicity — and more work. Michael and his wife live in Denver, Colorado. They just purchased their second home and spent the holidays in Paris, France! Overall, life is good. Michael is looking forward to a successful 2020.

’00 PAUL GIGUERE is working at Asana, and living in Oakland, California. Paul is getting married in August. ’01 ANGIE DEWITT-MOORE and her husband, Fred, welcomed their second child, Amari, in June. Amari is a little sibling to Maya, who is 3 years old. ’03 have a son, August Manuel McClenahen, who was born last March. ’03 STEPHEN CHANG wrote, illustrated, and published a children’s book called “The Basketball.” The story follows a basketball that reflects on all the game has to offer on and off the court. As a former Mitty basketball player, Stephen wrote the book to share his passion for the game with younger generations. For more information, check out thebballbook.com or follow @thebballbook on Instagram. SOPHIE (COLVIN) HANLON married Richard Hanlon in July. Her high school friends MIRNA GARCIA ’03 and KARYNA (MAYORA ’03) LINZER traveled all the way to Scotland to attend the ceremony. joined the San Jose Mayor’s Office as the chief advancement and impact officer.

JILL (WARNE ’04) WALSH

welcomed her second child, Brigid Penelope, into the world in July in Gaithersburg, Maryland! ’05 JASON TRIGGAS is a senior general ledger accountant at Okta, Inc.

MEGAN (PITZEN) KING

welcomed a beautiful baby girl into the world in October. Caroline Alena King was born with a smile on her face and a full head of hair in Spokane,

’02 SEAN MCCLENAHEN and JANNA BETTENCOURT

’04 KENDRA (FUJINO ’04) O’DONOGHUE recently

Washington. ’06 ALEXANDER PANG was promoted to corporate senior tax manager. He also purchased a home.

’07 ANDREW DELA CRUZ currently owns and operates his own strength and conditioning facility. Andrew has been running XIOS Strength & Conditioning for the past two years in Gilroy, California. He has coached multiple high school athletes to college scholarships and Olympic weightlifters to USA Weightlifting Nationals. Andrew was recently hired as the head coach of the wrestling team at Archbishop Mitty High School.

ANDREA TRAN has been living and working as a lawyer in Melbourne, Australia, for the last several years. Andrea and her partner, Michael, welcomed a baby girl named Elin in October. Elin is happy, healthy, and looking forward to becoming a Monarch one day!

CLASS NOTES (CONTINUED)

JENNIFER (ARMANN)

VILLARREAL and her husband, Andy, bought their first home in August. They welcomed their first child, Mia, in October.

’08 MICHAEL KIRKILEVICH relocated for work to Dallas, Texas. He is currently an account executive at McAfee.

’09 LIKHITA (KOMMIDI) REDDY RONNING

made it officially official with Steve Ronning on their 10-year anniversary in New York City. There to celebrate was her best friend and fellow Monarch, KATE HELLAND ’09, who got better shots than the wedding photographer.

JACQUELINE (FAYLOR) GREGORY

and COLIN GREGORY ’07 got married in October at the Gardener Ranch in Carmel Valley, California. KATIE ATWELL ’08 was the maid of honor and DAVID DULLY ’09 was the best man. They celebrated with lots of family and friends, mostly Monarchs! ’10 EDRINA NAZARADEH passed the California Bar Exam and started working as an honors deputy attorney general for the California Attorney General’s Office in the Criminal Appeals, Writs and Trials Division.

STEPHANIE (PHIPPS) SCHLOSS

graduated from Stanford University, and got her master’s degree at Vanderbilt University. Stephanie married her best friend, Erich Schloss, and they moved into their first home in San Jose. Stephanie continues to enjoy working as a speech language pathologist at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, where she helps people with cognitive and communication disorders recover after illness or injury. KELLY (VANE) DARROCK and her husband, Troy, welcomed their first son, Wesley Daniel, in November in San Diego, California. ’11 RACHEL GACEREZ works as a teacher for Rocketship Public Schools.

’12 CHRISTIE TRAN attends medical school at Des Moines University, College of Osteopathic Medicine. Christie is the vice president of the university’s chapter of the Asian Pacific American Medical

Student Association.

ANDREW DZURKO dives and spearfishes around the world. He works as a divemaster for Diver Dan’s, a company that offers scuba diving classes and trips.

’13 PRATYUSHA JAVANGULA graduated from Stanford University in June with a master’s degree in symbolic systems. Pratyusha recently started a new job as a software engineer at Oracle, where she works on artificial intelligence powered solutions to business problems.

’14 JOSHUA ALBIN was promoted to program coordinator of student engagement and recruitment at Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University. Joshua started his master’s degree in higher and postsecondary education. MARQUEL LOVE recently started working as a digital and social reporter on a new team within New York’s local NBC station. Marquel pitches, writes, and shoots her own stories. She has been working on a mini series that highlights New York City marathon runners who qualified for the Olympic trials. KELLI HAYES graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2018. Upon graduating, she had the opportunity to continue her basketball career and compete on the Philippines’ national basketball team. This past December, they won the women’s basketball team’s first ever gold medal in the Southeast Asian Games. Also, at the start of 2019, Hayes started a business called IsaaKookie. To learn more about IsaaKookie, follow the company’s Instagram account: @IsaaKookieLA.

’15 LUCERO DENISSE VALDERRAMA graduated with bachelor’s degrees in sociology and ethnic studies from Azusa Pacific University in December of 2018. After that, Denisse moved to Kansas City, Missouri, to begin her first year as a sixth grade English language arts teacher at Ewing Marion Kauffman School. Denisse looks forward to continuing her teaching career and the many triumphs and trials it will bring.

KATIE MCKIM welcomed a baby, Declan Joseph Langdon McKim, in July. He was baptized by Father James in the Archbishop

Mitty Chapel in November. ’18 KELLAND GOODIN became vice president of communications for the Theta Delta chapter of Beta Theta Pi at The Ohio State University.

CLARE NECAS is part of the lacrosse team for the University of Washington, which went to nationals in Virginia Beach.