UC Santa Barbara Alumni Association | Summer 2015
Gauchos Cover News and Make News Fox Anchor Harris Faulkner ’87
More than 5,000 new alumni were welcomed to the Gaucho family in a series of eight commencement ceremonies June714 at UC Santa Barbara. Chancellor Henry Yang personally congratulated each of the graduates. The Class of 2015 enjoyed a barbecue in and around the Mosher Alumni House the night before graduation in the traditional “Zero Year Reunion� event. Pictured on her happy day: Alyssa Martin, an honors graduate in Political Science and Spanish who was a member of the Gaucho Tour Association Hall of Fame. She led more than 100 tours for visitors and prospective students at UC Santa Barbara. Photo: Matt Perko.
UC SANTA BARBARA ALUMNI ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS Travis Wilson ’02, Santa Barbara President Justin Morgan ’07, Irvine Vice-President Teresa Carranza ’09, Simi Valley Secretary-Treasurer Cuca Acosta ’02, Santa Barbara Shanna Bright ’93, El Cajon Jorge Cabrera ’02, Chicago, IL Ron Chiarello ’83, Lafayette Carl Clapp ’81, Honolulu, HI Eugene Covington, ’96, Kirkland,WA Mark French ’73, Santa Barbara Ralph Garcia ’83, San Mateo Debi Kinney ’97, Henderson NV Francesco Mancia ’80, Cool Mary Moslander ’88, San Francisco Kristen Nesbit ’02, Los Angeles Gary Rhodes ’83, Hermosa Beach Joel Raznick ’81,Los Angeles Niki Sandoval Ph.D. ’07, Lompoc Michele Schneider ’91, Los Altos Rich St. Clair ’66, Santa Barbara Wenonah Valentine ’77, Pasadena Sue Wilcox ’70, Ph.D. ’74, Santa Barbara Marie Williams ’89, Ashburn, VA Marisa Yeager ’95, Riverside Ex Officio James Villarreal ‘16 President, Associated Students Beverly Colgate Executive Director, The UCSB Foundation Aaron Jones President, Graduate Student Association Hua Lee, M.A. ’78, Ph.D. ’80 Faculty Representative Ed Birch, H’95 UCSB Foundation Board of Trustees COASTLINES STAFF George Thurlow ’73, Publisher Natalie Wong ’79, Art Director Renee Lowe, ’16, Editor Bill Norrington, Copy Editor ALUMNI STAFF Lesli Brodbeck ’85, Business Manager, Family Vacation Center Sheri Fruhwirth, Director, Family Vacation Center Hattie Husbands, Programs Coordinator Hazra Abdool Kamal, Chief Financial Officer John Lofthus ’00, Associate Director Mary MacRae ’94, Office Manager George Thurlow ’73, Executive Director Rocio Torres ’05, Programs Director Shane Greene, Webmaster Natalie Wong ’79, Senior Artist
FPO for FSC logo
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THE FEATURES 10 REZA ASLAN, PHD ’09
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Author, TV interview star, and now producer of three different network shows.
15 ALUMNI IN MEDIA Dozens of UC Santa Barbara alumni have landed in the media world, from network anchors to local police reporters.
20 ROBERT DUGGAN, ’66 Persistence and patience leads to a big pharmaceutical payday.
THE DEPARTMENTS ON THE COVER Harris Faulkner ’87 is a promising star on Fox News Channel. Photo: Courtesy of Fox News.
4 AROUND STORKE TOWER
22 THE ALMOST FORGOTTEN
7 RESEARCH
HISTORY OF GAUCHO FOOTBALL
8 SPORTS
26 ALL GAUCHO REUNION RECAP
25 ISLA VISTA ROUNDUP
9 ARTS 28 MILESTONES
COASTLINES ONLINE ucsbalum.com/Coastlines COASTLINES Magazine | Summer2015 Vol. 45, No. 4 Coastlines is published quarterly, printed three times a year, and with one online issue by the UCSB Alumni Association, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-1120. Inclusion of advertising in Coastlines is not meant to imply endorsement by the UCSB Alumni Association of any company, product, or service being advertised. Information about graduates of the University of California, Santa Barbara and its predecessor institutions, Santa Barbara State College and Santa Barbara State Teachers College, may be addressed to Editor, Coastlines, UCSB Alumni Association, Santa Barbara, CA 931061120. To comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the publisher provides this publication in alternative formats. Persons with special needs and who require an alternative format may contact the UCSB Alumni Association at the address given above for assistance. The telephone number is (805) 893-4391, Fax (805) 893-4918. Offices of the Alumni Association are in the Mosher Alumni House.
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Around Storke Tower — Campus Community Newsbits
Editorial contributions from the staff of the Office of Public Affairs.
$5 Million Gift for Library and Liberal Arts
Snowy Plover at Coal Oil Point. Photo: George Foulsham.
Spill Oil Hits UC Beaches A 21,000-gallon oil spill at Refugio State Beach is impacting UC Santa Barbara’s natural reserve at Coal Oil Point. According to Cristina Sandoval, Reserve director, the federally protected snowy plovers are is picking up oil on their feet and wings that appears to be coming from the spill. The spill occurred in late May after a 20-inch oil pipeline corroded through and spilled oil that eventually flowed over a cliff and into the Pacific Ocean. The operator of the pipeline, Plains All American Pipeline, has a number of safety citations from various agencies across the country. The pipeline, Line 901, was installed in 1987 but did not have an automatic shutoff valve. In the weeks following the May 19 spill, tar balls have washed up as far away as Long Beach but state inspectors do not know if they are related to the Refugio spill. The Coal Oil Point Reserve is considered one of the best nesting areas for the snowy plover and is one of 39 reserves in the University of California Natural Reserve System. Meanwhile, UC Santa Barbara professor of earth science David Valentine has been tracking the spill as it disperses in the ocean as well as taking samples of the oil. Valentine was one of the lead researchers on the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. A number of professors from mechanical engineering, marine science and geography at UCSB are studying various aspects of the spill, from tidal movements to impacts on ocean wildlife.
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Coastlines | Summer 2015
Prominent Santa Barbara philanthropist Sara Miller McCune has made a gift of $5 million to UC Santa Barbara, with half slated for the UCSB Library and half for programs in the social sciences and humanities. Miller-McCune has made a number of gifts to UCSB, including a major gift for the construction of the Mosher Alumni House. Both Miller-McCune and her husband have made gifts of rare books to the library’s Special Collections section. The latest gift will create the Sara Miller McCune University Library Innovation Fund which will be used to create new programs to meet the demands of students and faculty. The gift comes as the finishing touches are being put on a major expansion of the library, with the next sections of the library slated to open in late 2015. Among the gifts from Miller McCune is an endowment to support the Sage Center for the Study of the Mind, the McCune Conference Room in the Humanities building, the Sage Miller McCune Dean of Social Science, and generous gifts for ongoing support for the campus Arts & Lectures program. Miller McCune served for many years as a trustee of the UC Santa Barbara Foundation and was named an Honorary Alumna in 2005.
Large Latino Print Collection Purchased The UC Santa Barbara Library has purchased two major collections of historical silkscreen posters produced by Chicano/Latino artists over the last four decades. The Mission Grafica and La Raza Graphics collections were collected by the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts (MCCLA) in San Francisco. The acquisitions will nearly double the number of Latino prints in the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives (CEMA) at UC Santa Barbara.
UCSB’s Koegel Autism Center Receives National Award from Society for the Advantage of Behavior Analysis The Koegel Autism Center in UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz Graduate School of Education was selected as the recipient of the Enduring Programmatic Contributions in Behavior Analysis Award by the Society for the Advantage of Behavior Analysis. The annual award is for an agency, department or facility of an organization that contributes to the ongoing and enduring development of behavior analysis. The Koegel Autism Center is recognized for its influence on interventions for children on the autism spectrum as well as the training and research in applied behavior analysis. The center is recognized by the National Research Council as one of the 10 model programs for autism. Photo: Tony Mastres.
UCSB Physicist Joseph Incandela Elected to National Academy of Sciences Joseph Incandela, professor of Physics at UC Santa Barbara and the scientist who announced to the world the discovery of the elusive Higgs boson particle, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. He was selected for membership in recognition of distinguished and continuing achievements in original research, especially for his contributions to particle physics, the discovery of the Higgs boson at the European Organization for Nuclear Research’s (CERN) Large Hadron Collider. Membership is considered one of the highest honors a scientist can receive. The NAS membership totals approximately 2,250 members, of whom approximately 200 have received Nobel prizes. Four of UCSB’s six Nobel laureates are academy members.
New Student Affairs VC Appointed Margaret Klawunn, who currently is vice president of campus life at Brown University, has been named the new UC Santa Barbara Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs. She fills the position that was held by Michael Young for more than two decades.
Whether I’m talking to students about their educational goals and picking courses, or seeing students when they’re doing something they love — whatever they are passionate about — I enjoy the whole range —Margaret Klawunn
Photo: Courtesy photo.
A graduate of Colby College, Klawunn received her PhD in English from Rutgers University. She joined Brown University in 1996 and has held a number of positions there, including teaching as an adjunct professor in women’s literature. In her position as vice president of campus life she had responsibility for the Department of Athletics and Physical Education, housing, health and counselling services and the office of student life. She already has a number of connections to the University of California. Her daughter is a student at UC Santa Cruz and her husband is a graduate of UC Berkeley.
Songi Han Receives Bessel Prize Songi Han, professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UC Santa Barbara has received the Fredrich Wilhelm Bessel Prize from the Humboldt Foundation. Han is internationally known for her pioneering work in developing a novel technique for exploring surface water dynamics at biomolecular surfaces in solution. The award is for scientists and scholars who are expected to continue producing cutting-edge achievements that will have a seminal influence on their disciplines beyond their immediate fields of work. Each winner receives a stipend of approximately 50,000 dollars.
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Around Storke Tower — Campus Community Newsbits
Editorial contributions from the staff of the Office of Public Affairs.
UCSB Again In Top 10 in Leiden Rankings UC Santa Barbara is ranked No. 7 in the world among research universities in the latest Leiden University, Netherlands rankings. The Leiden rankings are based on publications and citations in the scholarly research published by university faculty. It is considered one of the best indicators of the level of a university’s reach in terms of
knowledge and research in the sciences. According to Leiden, UCSB research papers are cited an average of 11.6 times and 20 percent of UCSB publications are in the top 10 percent of the most frequently cited scientific papers. The Leiden survey does not use reputational data or information provided by the universities themselves.
Javier Read de Alaniz. Photo: Sonia Fernandez.
Javier Read de Alaniz is Named UCSB’s 2015-16 Plous Award Winner
Bob Lansdorp, Netz Arroyo, Daniel Imberman & Evan Strenk; Not pictured: Co-founder & former team member - Allie Pedersen
Tech Competitors Invent Blood-Alcohol Sensor The annual May competition among budding UC Santa Barbara entrepreneurs produced exciting new products and a fistful of cash for the top inventors. The runaway winner in the competition was Milo, a partnership of three students and their advisor who have invented a Fitbit-type wearable sensor that measures a person’s blood alcohol content. The group won the People’s Choice Prize of $2,500 and the Technology Management Program’s top prize of $7,500. The group was composed of students Evan Strenk, Daniel Imberman, Bob Lansdorp and advisor and post-doc student Netzahvalcoyotl Arroyo. Chemoguard Diagnostics came in second in the competition with their product which offers personalized toxicity screening of chemotherapy treatments. The Chemoguard team raked in $8,500 from their second place award and as the winner of the Elings Prize. The biggest audience response went to the team for Slightly Nutty, which aims to use sustainable “cricket powder” as a protein and flour ingredient.
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Coastlines | Summer 2015
Javier Read de Alaniz, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UC Santa Barbara, has received the 2015-16 Harold J. Plous Award. This award is presented by the College of Letters and Science to an assistant professor for exceptional achievement in research, teaching, and service to the university. Read de Alaniz joined the UCSB faculty in 2009. His current research focuses on developing more efficient chemical reactions for new materials and applications in synthesis. He wants to make these materials in a way that is economically and environmentally efficient. He has also served as the main faculty mentor for UC’s Leadership Excellence through Advanced Degree program from 2009-2014. The program is designed to encourage undergraduates to pursue graduate training in STEM fields.
Research
The Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory’s New Center Opens The Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory, also known as SNARL, opened a new Page Center. The Page Center is an innovative, net-zero energy classroom and lecture hall. The Center is named after donors Paul and Kate Page in honor of their donation to fund it and bequest in their estate plan to maintain it, as well as their many years as volunteers at the
Valentine Eastern Sierra Reserve and SNARL. To achieve net-zero energy, meaning the building cannot use energy from the grid nor any propane for heating, the Page Center uses a combination of ground source heating and cooling, with two photovoltaic panel arrays on the roof to cover the building’s energy needs.
The Kate and Paul Page Research and Learning Center at UCSB’s Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory, part of the campus-run Valentine Eastern Sierra Reserve. Kate and Paul Page are longtime volunteers and benefactors at Valentine Eastern Sierra Reserve. The new net-zero energy facility at SNARL was named for them in recognition of their lifetime philanthropy to the reserve. Photos: Susan Morning Photography.
UCSB Gets A Charge Out of Patents The University of California is credited with having the largest number of utility-related patents in the United States last year, with UC Santa Barbara professors providing more than a quarter of the total. UC has a total of 4,448 active U.S. patents with UCSB claiming 593 of those. UC led both MIT and Stanford in utility patents. Among the patents are those filed by Nobel Prize winner Professor Shuji Nakamura for work in the blue light LED field.
Diseased and dying trees. Photo: The Fresno Bee.
Predicting Tree Mortality A combination of drought, heat and insects is responsible for the death of more than 12 million trees in California, according to a new study from UC Santa Barbara’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. The study is the first of its kind to examine the wide spectrum of interactions between drought and insects. This study is the framework, the first step toward developing the tools that resource managers need to better predict the impacts of climate change on forests.
www.ucsbalum.com
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Sports Editorial contributions from ucsbgauchos.com
New Women’s Basketball Coach Hired UC Santa Barbara Athletic Director John McCutcheon announced he has hired University of Kansas head basketball coach Bonnie Henrickson to lead the Gauchos Left to right: AD John McCutcheon, Bonnie Henrickson, Chancellor Henry Yang. women’s program. The Photo: ucsbgauchos.com hiring came after the firing of third-year coach Carlene Mitchell, who posted a 2-27 record during the 2014-15 season. Henrickson was herself fired by Kansas after a 15-17 season in which her team was 6-12 in the Big Twelve Conference. Henrickson coached at Kansas for 11 years and took the team to the Sweet 16 on two occasions. She previously was head coach at Virginia Tech and during her seven years there the team went 158-62. She was a star player at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota and went on to receive her master’s degree at Western Illinois University while serving as a graduate assistant coach. She was an assistant and later associate head coach at Iowa and Virginia Tech.
Gaucho Basketball Stars Honored Willie Wilton ’36 and Lowell Steward ’42, were honored by the Santa Barbara Basketball Court of Champions May 31. They were among six coaches and players from UC Santa Barbara that were Willie Wilton. Daily Nexus. recognized for their achievements on the basketball court. Wilton was hired as a head coach in 1937 and coached for 20 years at UCSB, compiling an overall record of 205-163. Steward, who later gained national fame as one of the Tuskegee Airman during World War II, was the teams first African-American captain and helped lead the team to the semifinals in the NAIA tournament. Because he was black and the tournament was played in the South, he was not allowed to compete, but when his team wanted to boycott the tournament, he urged them to play. 8
Coastlines | Summer 2015
Also honored were Cori Close ’92 and her contemporary, Barb Beainy, ’92. Close was the first Gaucho to amass 1,000 points and 500 assists. She is currently head coach of the UCLA Bruins, who won the WNIT tournament this year. Beainy led the team to its first Big West championship and is now the director of UCSB’s Wellness and Fitness program. Also honored were Gene Snyder, who played for Wilton and went on to become one of the most successful coaches in Santa Barbara High School history, and Jim Eyen, ’79, an assistant coach at UCSB from 1984-88 who then went on to a 26-year coaching career in the NBA. He is currently an assistant on the Los Angeles Lakers staff.
Dillon Tate pitching. Photo: UCSBgauchos.com
UC Santa Barbara pitcher drafted fourth in MLB Amateur UC Santa Barbara baseball pitcher Dillon Tate has been drafted fourth overall in the Major League Baseball amateur draft, the highest a Gaucho has ever been selected. Tate was drafted by the Texas Rangers after a year in which he struck out 111 batters in 103 innings and posted an 8-5 record. He joins a star studded list of Gauchos that have gone on to the major leagues, including Skip Schumacher, Michael Young and Derek Holland. Prior to Tate’s selection the highest a Gaucho had ever been selected was 77th, back in 1980. Tate was the ace of a Gaucho team that ended up ranked 13th in the nation with an overall record of 40-17-1. They hosted the NCAA regional, though the game was played in Lake Elsinore, and lost both games. UCSB pitcher Justin Jacombe was drafted in the fifth round by the Florida Marlins as the 146 player selected in the amateur draft. The junior, who went 7-5 with an ERA of 2.70 in 2015, indicated he would sign a contract with the Marlins and be available for assignment.
Arts Hot Type—Alumni Authors
Michael S. Foster PhD ’72, The Biology and Ecology of Giant Kelp Forests Schiel and Foster’s scholarly review and synthesis take the reader from Darwin’s early observations to contemporary research, providing a historical perspective for the modern understanding of giant kelp evolution, biogeography, biology, and physiology.
Joseph Moris ’77 Answers: Heaven Speaks A basic foundation of where we came from and where we can expect to go. Joe, the author, ask the questions and his daughter, Marisa, who is a clear channel clairvoyant answers the questions about the heavenly realms.
Marlene Zuk ’77 Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us About Sex, Diet and How We Live Are our bodies and brains truly at odds with modern life? Although it may seem as though we have barely had time to shed our huntergatherer legacy, biologist Marlene Zuk reveals that the story is not so simple. Popular theories about how our ancestors lived—and why we should emulate them—are often based on speculation, not scientific evidence.
Nicole Starosielski M.A. ’07, Ph.D ’10 The Undersea Network Nicole Starosielski follows these undersea cables from ocean depths to their landing zones on the beaches of the South Pacific. Supplementing the book is an interactive digital mapping project. Starosielski is a recipient of the 2010 Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award.
Robert Dicks Ph.D. ’80 Lost Children. Written under a pen name, Hank Richards Lost Children is a historical fantasy of adventure, romance, suspense, and tragedy. Action, love, and unrequited love are among the characteristics of common people, kings, queens, and noble lords whose morals ultimately triumph over evil influences set in the ancient Middle East.
John Boyd ’81 2048 Humanity’s Agreement to Live Together 2048 is about humanity reaching an agreement to a set of fundamental rights through a Global Bill of Rights enforceable in the courts of all countries. Boyd and the 2048 Project aim to have this agreement, the International Convention on Human Rights, in place by the 100th anniversary of the Universal Declaration.
Manuel G. Gonzales B.A. ’65, Ph.D. ’72 Mendota. Life and Times of an Emerging Latino Community, 1891-2012 As a native son of the area, Gonzales documents a narrative of the social, political, and cultural forces that have shaped the Hispanic communities in California’s San Joaquin Valley and their contribution to the economic growth to California and the nation.
Walter Benn Michaels ’70 Ph.D. ’75 The Beauty of a Social Problem: Photography, Autonomy, Economy. Michaels examines depictions by artists born after 1965, to show the connection between the aesthetic and political conditions that have taken U.S. economic inequality from its lowest level, in 1968, to its highest level today. www.ucsbalum.com
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Reza Aslan ’09 Interview
Slammed By Fox News, Embraced By Hollywood
The Rise of the Reza Aslan Religious Study Enterprise
By George Thurlow ’73
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Coastlines | Summer 2015
In American politics and culture, discussions of religion are like a subway’s third rail. A single touch can be deadly. Even around the American holiday dinner table, religion is like a drunk uncle. Everybody hopes he never shows up and if he does, things can get messy in a hurry. So that is why Reza Aslan PhD. ’09 has become a media sensation. He has touched the third rail on Fox News and survived. Soon, he will show up in living rooms around the world talking about religion and nobody will want him to go away.
Aslan has quite quickly become a media sensation and the go-to expert on Christianity and Islam, two religions struggling to find their way in a modern sectarian world. Aslan became a TV celebrity in 2013 with a bruising 10-minute verbal slugfest on Fox News with anchor Lauren Green. The topic was Aslan’s just released controversial book “Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth.” Instead of focusing on Aslan’s book, Green went after Aslan’s Muslim faith questioning how he could write about Christianity’s most powerful icon. What happened next was all new media. The interview went viral. “Zealot” was soon at the top of the New York Times best seller list and Aslan was in demand on talk shows all over the world. What truly launched Aslan’s media career was not his transitory 10 minutes of Fox Fame, it was his charismatic and knowledgeable critique of the American media’s portrayal of Islam.
A MEDIA WHIRLWIND Today, Aslan finds himself in the middle of a media whirlwind. One day a week he teaches at UC Riverside, where he is a professor in the Department of Creative Writing. The rest of the week he is the star of a new CNN program called “Believer” that Aslan describes as a religious version of Anthony Bourdain’s travels around the world to experience exotic foods. He is also working as executive producer on an ABC dramatic series pilot called “Of Kings and Prophets” a fictional take on King David. In his last few hours of the week, he is also a consulting producer on the HBO series, “The Leftovers.” This spring, Aslan took a break from his frenetic schedule on the TV and film lots of Sunset Gower studios in Hollywood to talk with Coastlines about his time at UC Santa Barbara, his new found fame
and America’s difficult road to understanding Islam. “Oh, things have changed,” he sighed, sitting on a bench outside the studio’s cafeteria, which has closed just as he desperately searches for a cup of coffee. He pointed out that “Zealot” was selling well before the Fox interview, but his life as a celebrity had begun. The interview went viral and stirred an at times vitriolic debate online about the clash between defenders of Islam and nationalistic Americans. “People now know my name,” he said with a smile. “Everything I say, everywhere I go I’m being scrutinized. Even to this day at airports, or on airplanes, people stop me.” It is not a totally comfortable feeling for Aslan but he has not shied away from the exposure or the pulpit that he has suddenly been thrust behind. At the age of 7 Aslan came to the United States with his parents from Iran during the revolution. His mother practiced Islam, his father was an atheist. As a young boy, Aslan was so sensitive about his Iranian roots that he pretended to be from Mexico. “This says something about how deeply in trouble your ethnic community is when you assume Americans will treat you better if you say you’re a Mexican,” he told Playboy in a recent interview. Aslan adopted fundamentalist Christian values but later said that as he deeply studied the philosophical roots and history of Christianity, he was appalled by the hypocrisy of modern fundamentalism. He converted to Islam.
www.ucsbalum.com
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…at UCSB there was “the idea you could make an impact on the world with your scholarship. It does not have to be contained within its walls.”
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In interviews he is very clear that almost all religions in the world today draw from the same spiritual well: adherents all drink the same water. The divisions of the world over religion are often manufactured for political, economic or social reasons. He is also quick to point out that while the U.S. media dwells on atrocities by Islamic jihadists, there are slaughters in the name of Christianity going on the Central African Republic and massacres of Muslims going on in Mynamar by Buddhists. He is particularly appalled by America’s deep antipathy towards modern Islam and likens it to the same animosity that waves of religious immigrants faced over America’s history, from Catholics to Jews. Aslan has a stellar academic background, receiving his bachelor’s degree from Santa Clara University, his masters in theology from Harvard Divinity School, a master’s in fine arts from the University of Iowa’s Writers’ Workshop and a doctorate in sociology from UC Santa Barbara. He is enthusiastic in his appreciation of his time at UC Santa Barbara, in particular, of his mentor, Dr. Mark Juergensmeyer, who recently retired as professor of Global Studies. “He taught me a lot about how to be a scholar in this world. I didn’t want to be a scholar who stays inside the ivory tower. He taught me you could translate scholarly work to a popular audience and make an impact on the world.” At the time he enrolled at UCSB, Aslan had to choose between UC Berkeley and Santa Barbara. “What tipped the scales was the interdisciplinary culture.” He observed, “Every university pretends to be interdisciplinary. They are not. UCSB demonstrates it.” As an example, he noted that doctoral students at UCSB 12
Coastlines | Summer 2015
are required to take anthropology, sociology, history and philosophy courses. This is “unique” among doctoral programs, he asserted. His fellow doctoral students at other institutions called this course work “crazy,” but Aslan said “this was the most important part of my education.” He added, at UCSB there was “the idea you could make an impact on the world with your scholarship. It does not have to be contained within its walls.” He spent three years at UC Santa Barbara then moved to Los Angeles to work on his dissertation. In 2005, he published “No god but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam.” He published “Zealot” in 2013 and is now working on a new book on the sociology of religion. Aslan lives in Hollywood, a short walk from the Sunset Bower studios, where he has an office in a nondescript, almost shabby studio complex. He is passionate about the misunderstanding of the current state of Islam that permeates the American media and American politics.
CREATING ENEMIES Our policy in the Middle East, he asserted, is a “catastrophe. We have created enemies where there were none.” By siding with some of the most brutal and repressive regimes in the region, like Saudi Arabia and the new Egyptian dictatorship, the U.S. has sent a message to the Muslim world that we value power over principals. “We are still in a place in time where we do not recognize the footprint we leave behind in parts of the world,” he explained. “We do not understand the relationship between that footprint and the anger and violence that has arisen toward us in that part of the world.” While the American public does not care about the double standard, where slaughter in Syria is condemned but slaughter in Bahrain, home of the Fifth Fleet, is not, Aslan said: “But it is foolish to think the rest of the world doesn’t care about our double standard.” In his interview in Playboy, Aslan also dismissed the mythology that has been created to explain away the Islamic jihhdist suicide bombers, as though their only
and Al Qaeda into one uniform enemy. The important difference that the U.S. desperately needs to understand is that Hezbollah and Hamas are political groups that want to build modern states. ISIS and Al Qaeda don’t care about nation states, borders or politics. They are interested in a jihad that creates a new religious world order. Our response to each has to be far more sophisticated and nuanced. “For more than a decade I have been trying to tell people the importance of religious literacy,” Aslan explained. “Not just that you understand other religions, but idea of how religion evolves and adapts.” Faith is individual, he asserted. Religion is how that faith is translated. We all have some piece of faith inside, and that is what is lost in our battles over religion.
thoughts are of 72 virgins in heaven. Interviews with them actually show they are more focused on either nationalistic ideology or practical concerns like the idea that their relatives will all be paid handsomely if they become martyrs.
RELIGIOUS LITERACY At the same time, he is dismayed by the lack of understanding that lumps all Muslim groups, from the Brotherhood in Egypt, to Hezbollah and Hamas, to ISIS
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We are still in a place in time where we do not recognize the footprint we leave behind in parts of the world.
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Hope and I are investing in the future of California!
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Harvey Schechter ’47 and his wife Hope have been strong advocates of UC Santa Barbara for many years. Harvey attended the Riviera campus and has been closely involved with the campus, including serving as a board member of the Alumni Association and also as a trustee of the UC Santa Barbara Foundation. He passed away in Los Angeles on May 23, 2015.
A GIFT OF GRATITUDE As Harvey told it, “There was no tuition in those days, and the registration fee was only $17 per semester. In short, the people of California gave me a free four-year college education!” Harvey and Hope sought to create a lasting legacy to show their appreciation for the education he received. Through discussions with the Development Office, Harvey and Hope decided upon one of the most common forms of planned giving – a bequest in their wills. Their generosity will provide UC Santa Barbara with a gift totaling 80% of their estate upon their deaths. Upon receipt of their gift, the money will be used to help needy students enjoy and benefit from a UC Santa Barbara education that they might not otherwise have been able to afford. Harvey explained the motivation for their gift this way: “Because that [UCSB] diploma served me so well since 1947, I vowed decades ago to pay back what I owe by doing for the young people of today and tomorrow what was done for me so long ago. If I lived to be 120, I would not be able to repay UC Santa Barbara and the people of California for what was done for me decades ago. Hope and I are investing in the future of California!” Harvey Schechter, BA ’47, and Hope Schechter
If you have similar ideas and are interested in a gift plan to meet your financial planning and charitable giving objectives, please call: Chris Pizzinat, Deputy Director, Office of Development at (805) 893-5126, toll-free (800) 641-1204 or email plannedgiving@ia.ucsb.edu. For more gift ideas and examples, please visit www.plannedgiving.ucsb.edu
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Coastlines | Summer 2015
Gauchos in Media IT SHOULD BE NO SURPRISE THAT ALUMNI OF UC SANTA BARBARA HAVE EASILY MADE CAREERS IN THE MEDIA, from the nation’s largest newspapers to the anchor desks of the nation’s biggest networks. After all, Gauchos are known for talking, socializing and thinking on their feet. There are of course the famous Gauchos, including Josh Elliott ’93 at NBC Sports, Jim Rome ‘86 on CBS Sports Radio, Harris Faulkner ’87 and Jenna Lee ’02 on Fox News, and Harvey Levin ‘72 of TMZ. But there are also the local media stars, from Paula Lopez ’88 the legendary Santa Barbara TV anchor to Matt Kettman ’99 at the Santa Barbara Independent and Los Angeles TV reporter Kirk Hawkins ’04. The web masters include MySpace co-founder Josh Berman ’91. It is not all young generation media. Marcia McQuern ’64 is the former publisher of the Riverside Press Enterprise and award winning editor, Bob Sipchen ’76 won the Pulitizer Prize at the Los Angeles Times, and Mary Moslander ’88 was a vice-president who was part of the team that launched the Washington Post’s online news product before starting her own web company. If Gauchos aren’t making news, they are always the first to be covering it.
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Read more Alumni in Media at ucsbalum.com/Coastlines
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Gauchos in Media Steve Aoki, ’00, is an electro house
Angela Laprete, ’86, works in
musician, record producer and founder
Hawaii’s television/film industry
of Dim Mak Records known for his
as Production Coordinator to
DJ work and dance tours. Aoki was
Production Manager. Her work
nominated for aGrammy Award for
has ranged from national to
Best Dance/Electronica Album for
international commercials, Emmy
Wonderland at the 2013 55th Annual
award winning television shows
Grammy Awards.
to indie and major feature films. She is currently Production Supervisor on the CBS TV show,
Dante Di Loreto, ’84, is an American film and television producer most notable for producing Glee and American Horror Story. He is a two-time Primetime Emmy Award winner and has also won a Daytime Emmy Award for his work.
Hawaii Five-0. Oren Brimer, ’05, is a writer, producer, and director of various late-night television programs, having worked for the Onion News Network, CollegeHumor.com, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
Barbara Rush, ’48, is a stage, film and television actress who won a Golden
Joshua Braun, ’03, worked as a
Globe for her role in It Came from
Production Assistant for several
Outer Space. Rush appeared in over 40
Discovery and Discovery Health
movies from 1951 to 1996 and starred
Shows. He has also served as a
in numerous theatre productions, as
production intern at ABC News
well as regular and guest appearances
Nightline and as a producer for
on television.
NPR’s “Radio Lab.” Braun currently is an assistant professor of journalism studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Jim Rome, ’87, is a sports radio talk show host syndicated by CBS Sports Radio.
Jenna Lee ,’02, is a reporter,
Rome started his readio career at UCSB’s
segment producer and currently,
radio station KCSB-FM and also at news
anchor for Fox News Channel’s
station KTMS in Santa Barbara. In 2011,
Happening Now. Lee has covered
Rome was awarded the Distinguished
the protest in Cairo and the
Alumni Award by the UCSB Alumni
Zimmerman trial and has
Association.
interviewed numerous White House officials and members of Congress.
Photo credits: Laprete: filmandmedia.ucsb.edu; Braun: quinnipiac.edu; DiLoreto, Rush: wikipedia.com; Rome: jimrome.com; Brimer: twitte.com; Lee: foxnews.com; Aoki: Eva Rinaldi.
16
Coastlines | Summer 2015
“
ABOUT HARRIS FAULKNER’S DAYS AT UCSB: ON HER FAVORITE PART OF THE UCSB CAMPUS: “No doubt a lot has changed since 1987 but, I’m guessing my favorites on campus still draw students like me. San Nicolas Hall just might be my favorite part of the UCSB campus. That’s probably because it symbolized my freedom away from my parents’ home… their rules, their stuff, LOL! It’s beautiful there, too - right next to the lagoon. But, it was more than just housing. San Nic was a meeting place. I formed my closest college friendships. In fact, even after my freshman year, when we all moved off campus to
Photo: ailesapprentice.foxnews.com
A STAR AT FOX NEWS
Isla Vista, we stuck together.” “In second place for favorites on campus, and this probably won’t surprise anyone who knows me: Storke Tower and Plaza. Call me geeky but, I find it fascinating that it was
HARRIS FAULKNER’S FIRST WRITING JOB was for a left-leaning,
named after a journalist and when the Tower bells ring,
alternative paper in Los Angeles, where she was paid $50 per story to
historically it’s said they ring for freedom of the press.”
cover business. She has come a long way, both in terms of prestige and politics. Today, Faulkner is considered one of the rising stars of Fox News, anchoring the Fox Report Weekend and co-anchoring the talk show “Outnumbered.” A 1987 graduate of the Communications Department at UC Santa Barbara, she was the focus of a glowing piece in Variety magazine in March predicting that she was headed for bigger and greater roles at
ON HER FAVORITE MEMORY AT UCSB: “Among my favorite memories... sitting in Corinne Vause’s classroom... honing my skills at speaking extemporaneously. She was a hoot and a teacher who’s communications skills made a huge, impact on me. Also, my brief but, meaningful experience writing for the Daily Nexus gave me a first peek at a newsroom.”
Fox News. In fact, Roger Ailes, the legendary creator of Fox News, told Variety he picked Faulkner for her current anchor jobs “because she’s
ON THE TRAGIC NEWS SURROUNDING UCSB
an excellent journalist with a distinct ability to handle breaking news…”
LAST YEAR:
Faulkner often takes over as an anchor on Fox News when there is a
“The news became a bit raw for me when last May 23,
breaking news story.
2014 when what I was covering affected the community
An Army brat whose father was a pilot in Vietnam who rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel, Faulkner was nomadic as a child and as a television reporter. Her first taste of TV was as an intern on a station in Los Angeles. From there she got a job as a reporter for a station in Greenville, N.C. For eight years she worked in TV in Kansas City and then worked in Minneapolis. In 2005 she got a start at Fox as a fill-in host on the Nancy Grace Show. Today, she appears on a number of different Fox shows. Her Fox Report Weekend draws an audience of more than one million viewers. Faulkner has won six Emmys for her TV reporting. Variety named her
surrounding UCSB. It was the day 22-year-old student Elliot Rodger killed 6 people in Isla Vista. Looking back, I recall co-hosting Outnumbered and as I reported the breaking news, I disclosed the fact that it was my alma mater.” ON THE RECENT OIL SPILL: “Again, my heart broke with news about the community surrounding UCSB this year with the enormous oil spill. Plan to return to the campus for the first time since I
”
this year as one of 50 women who are making a positive impact in New
graduated all those years ago. I’ll have my husband and
York with their media clout.
two young daughters with me in late July. My soon-to-be third grader Bella, is very curious about the place where I fell in love with journalism-- most specifically the art of communication under pressure.”
www.ucsbalum.com
17
“
A top memory I have from UCSB is the Blue Horizons summer program. It is through this program that I met mentors and colleagues…(who) help prepare me to produce and direct a documentary on a girls soccer academy in Ghana.
”
Spencer Bruttig ’14, Producer Multimedia Communications,
UCSB.
“
Darlene Craviotto ’09 How has UCSB shaped my career? I originally started as a playwright, got side-tracked by a Hollywood career as a
Photo: Courtesy of Spencer Bruttig
professional screenwriter, and my experience at UCSB brought me back full circle to writing plays again. I went back to UCSB in 2005 (after a 36 year absence) because I had an idea for a play and the mentoring I received from Dr. Laury Oaks in the Feminist Studies Department enabled me to write that full-length play, FOOTPRINTS AT LAETOLI. That experience, along with the coursework at UCSB invigorated my imagination and focused me on the kind of writing I wanted to do in the future. Certainly, FOOTPRINTS is much deeper, richer, and more fulfilling
”
because of the professors and coursework that challenged me to dig deeper inside of myself and reach out further beyond my grasp.
18
Coastlines | Summer 2015
Writer/Director Darlene Craviotto (on the left) working with Dr. Juliet Williams on the set of Craviotto’s 2014 documentary, “No Girls Allowed. Photo: Courtesy of Darlene Craviotto.
Gauchos in Media Oscar Flores ’08, KEYT Digital Journalist How has going to UCSB shaped your career? I strongly believe that if it wasn’t for UCSB, I wouldn’t be here at KEYT-TV working in a career that I absolutely love. I received the opportunity to work at UCSB’s Digital Editing Lab, supervising and teaching students and professors about the world of filmmaking and editing. It was there that I took part in the making of a documentary that was picked up by KPMR, the Spanish-speaking local news affiliate. The news director at that time offered me a job, and that’s where my journey into the world of news began. The rest as they say, is history. UCSB provided me with the courage and a channel of connections with people that would be invaluable in the shaping my career.
Mamdooh Salih, ’04,
Dana Glauberman, ’90, is a film editor
is a television / film
known for Juno, Up in the Air and No
producer and director
Strings Attached. She has been nominated
currently working in the
for three Eddie Awards, and has won
Los Angeles, area. He was
two awards: the 2009 Hamilton Behind
president of the award
the Camera Awards’ Editor of the Year,
winning Multicultural
and the 2009 Hollywood Film Festival’s
Drama Company at UCSB.
Hollywood Editor Award.
Kayte Christensen, ’02, Josh Elliott, ’93, is a television
is a sports commentator and
journalist who currently works for
former professional WNBA
NBC Sports and NBC News. He
player. She has received
has previously worked as the news
the WNBA Offseason
anchor for ABC’s Good Morning
Community Assist Award
America and was a co-anchor
twice.
for the live telecast of ESPN’s SportsCenter.
Alumni on page 15 (from top): Tara Miele, ’99. Miele’s first independent feature as a writer/ director earned her a place on Raindance Film Festivals list of the Top Ten American Indie Filmmakers to Watch. She continues to work on indie features.
Doug Bressler, ’04, has directed various animated series and web shorts. He is a filmmaker, actor, animator, composer, and podcast personality, best known for founding the animation production studio Doogtoons. Photo: Ivan Valadez.
Lisa Bruce, ’83, is a producer creating features with independent and major studios. She is best known for being producer for The Theory of Everything.
Roko Bellić, ’94, is a film producer and director. His documentary Genghis Blues received a Academy Award Photo credits: Flores: courtesy; Glauberman: btlnews.com; Miele: filmandmedia.ucsb.edu; Elliott: wikipedia.com; Christensen: AgentZwei; Bressler: Ivan Valadez; Bruce: ImDb.com; Bellić: youtube.com.; Salih:elsegundotvblog.wordpress.com
nomination in 1999 for best documentary feature and won the Sundance Audience Award. www.ucsbalum.com
19
“Ever ybody’s A Genius” Bob Duggan ‘66 Really Is One By George Thurlow ‘73 ON BOB DUGGAN’S SIMPLE OFFICE DESK, A LONG PINE WORK SPACE, IS A DOG EARED, MUCH BOOKMARKED WEBSTER’S DICTIONARY. Over the course of an hour’s conversation Duggan will make more than a dozen references to the dictionary. It becomes clear that Duggan, a serial entrepreneur who just sold his Pharmacyclics drug company for $21 billion, is as passionate about understanding language and how we use it as he is about making money. He dives deep into the entymology of words, starting with the dictionary and then drilling down to the roots of the words that mean the most in business and culture. His favorite word by far: genius. He argues fervently that there is genius in every single one of us and that is found in the entymology of the word. Its original meaning was of a guardian spirit that watches over all people through all their life. In Duggan’s explanation, genius resides in every one of us and it is the purpose of a great University to bring it out of everyone.
Duggan is brutally candid about his experience at UC
but incredibly successful group of Kay’s economics
performed. He called it quits with all but three years of a
students have gone on to become incredibly successful
foreign language to get his degree.
entrepreneurs and many cite Kay’s lectures as their
Yet he is also very quick to point out that had it not been for one UCSB lecturer and his ongoing experience
20
The lecturer: Herbert Kay. Duggan noted that a small
Santa Barbara. He got little out of his classes, just barely
starting point. For Duggan it was the start. “Students went through his
in recreational sports, he would not be the successful
class and were taught about the real world of economics. He
billionaire he is today.
stuck to the basis of all business: how do you raise capital.”
Coastlines | Summer 2015
Looking back, Duggan said that though he wanted to
to $4 and eventually $1 a share. Duggan kept buying and
succeed he did not take his classes seriously, with the
buying. He ultimately paid upwards of $50 million for control
exception of Kay and a class in eastern philosophy. So he
of the company.
left UCSB without a degree and went to work for Kay,
During his tenure running the company Duggan did not
who was investing in turnarounds and small businesses.
take a salary, did not take stock options and bought all his
He asked for no salary, just the chance to learn how
own office furniture. The company ultimately developed
to invest and run businesses. He worked with Kay for
IMBRUVICA, a once a day medication that slows the course
three years in Los Angeles.
of several cancers.
He got involved in an Internet company in the early days
In March, Abbvie, a spinoff from Abbott Labs with sales
of the Internet and sold that company to Rockwell. He
of $19 billion, bought Pharmacyclics in a deal that earns
then turned to robotics and worked with Yulan Wang, ’82,
Duggan $3.5 billion, a payday USA Today calls one of the
’88 Ph.D., at Computer Motion. The company developed
biggest ever from the sale of a publicly traded company.
some of the first robotic surgical equipment in the world. It eventually merged with its chief competitor, Intuitive
Taking a page from Duggan’s book, I pull down my desk dictionary to look up genius and there in the 8th definition it reads: “a person who strongly influences for good or ill the character, conduct or destiny of a person, place or thing.” That too, is a Duggan theme in genius. As good as he is at making money, he has been very unique in giving it away. He is reported to be one of the largest contributors to the Scientology church in the world. He has two endowed chairs at UC Santa Barbara with his wife Patricia, in Mathematical, Life and Physical Sciences. He and his wife are also founding contributors to the XIV Dalai Lama Chair in Tibetan Buddhism and Cultural Studies. He has made
Bob Duggan ’66
Surgical. At the time of the merger the stock was trading at $7 per share. It eventually reached more than $500 per share.
major gifts to drug rehabilitation programs and human rights programs. UC Santa Barbara Chancellor Henry Yang remarked, “Bob is a visionary in the field of biopharmaceuticals, bringing
Duggan’s most successful investment, and the one
forth the next generation of medicine that is shaping the
for which he took the most criticism, was in the drug
future of healthcare—for us, our children, our children’s
development company Pharmacyclics. The company was
children and beyond. Bob’s repeated generous support
developing a drug for treating cancer patients and for
of our campus, from academics to athletics, is helping to
Duggan its mission was very personal. His grandfather,
mold the next generation of scholars and innovators and to
with whom he was very close, had died an agonizing death
further strengthen the stature of our preeminent research
from cancer. Then he lost his son Damian to brain cancer.
university.”
When he started buying into Pharmacyclics it “had one foot in the grave,” Duggan recalled. According to press accounts, when Duggan began buying shares in
“Innate in every person,” explained Duggan, “is the desire to make everybody better.” That’s Bob Duggan’s brand of genius.
Pharmacyclics it traded at $10 a share. Then it dropped www.ucsbalum.com
21
UCSB’s Forgotten Football History By John Zant ’68
The 1921 Santa Barbara State Teachers College Team was known as the Roadrunners and played at Pershing Park
This year’s 9th annual All Gaucho Reunion set the stage for a silveranniversary gathering of the 1965 UCSB football team, which achieved a high-water mark in the history of the program by playing in the Camellia Bowl, the college-division championship game. Players from the 1950s to last Gaucho gridiron team in 1991 also joined the reunion. Donn Bernstein, UCSB’s inimitable sports information director from 1964-71, composed a 14-stanza poem to memorialize the occasion. It began: Who would ever have thought back then That 50 years later we would meet again? Gimpier, limpier, and partially blind But nothing has changed our presence of mind.
and ended: To our lost and departed, let each of them hear it A rousing GO GAUCHOS, filled with Blue and Gold spirit. 22
Coastlines | Summer 2015
A LOOK BACK AT 55 SEASONS OF UCSB FOOTBALL. 1921-41: THE BIRTH OF THE GAUCHOS Santa Barbara State Teachers College fielded its first football team in 1921. The Roadrunners, as they were called, played their home games on a dirt field at Pershing Park. The program gained some stature in 1934 when Theodore “Spud” Harder, who had played for the legendary Glenn “Pop” Warner at Stanford, became head coach. In 1936, Harder urged the adoption of a new mascot, declaring the spindly-legged roadrunner was unsuitable. Gauchos won out in a student vote, led by coeds who were enamored of the Douglas Fairbanks movie The Gaucho. The freshly minted Gauchos put together the best football record in school history, 9-1, in the 1936 season. Their standouts included running backs Bob Morelli and Howard Yeager, and linemen Don Hart and Doug Oldershaw. In 1937, Yeager was caught speeding on State Street. Rather than impose a fine, the judge ordered him to score two touchdowns in the upcoming game against Redlands. He scored three. Yeager and Oldershaw later played for the New York Giants. La Playa Stadium, now home of the SBCC Vaqueros, was originally built for the State College by the Works Progress Administration. The Gauchos made their debut in the seaside stadium on October 15, 1938. It was a scenic success, but they lost by a score of 6-3 to Willamette University from Oregon. The third home of the Gauchos would become the stadium built on the campus in 1966. It is named Harder Stadium in honor of their first winning football coach.
1946-62: POST-WAR BOOMLET Veterans filled the roster of the Gaucho football team when it resumed playing after the war. Among them was 1949 graduate Sam Cathcart, a rugged halfback who later played for the San Francisco 49ers. Cathcart returned to coach the Santa Barbara High Dons, and many other UCSB football standouts in the ’50s and ’60s became first-rate coaches: Dave Gorrie (UCSB), Mike Moropoulos (SBHS), Sut Puailoa (San Marcos) Ray Schaack (Dos Pueblos and SBCC), Jim St. Clair (Dos Pueblos), John Stoney (San Marcos), and Dick Mires (Dos Pueblos). Stan Williamson, an All-America center on USC’s 1931 national championship team, coached the Gauchos for eight seasons after the war. He was followed by Ed Cody, a former fullback for the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears, who spent four seasons at UCSB before leaving to coach in the NFL. Fidenzio “Bruno” Brunello set a single-game rushing record (217 yards) during the Cody era in 1956. Johnny Morris, a 5’10” speedster who was recruited to run track, emerged as an outstanding flanker. In those days, the Gauchos played UC Davis at the L.A. Coliseum as a prelude to the UCLA-Cal game. Morris made such an impression in UCSB’s 39-0 victory over the Aggies that the Chicago Bears drafted him in 1958. He played 10 years for the Bears and is still their career leader in receiving yardage (5,059).
Royal Cathcart takes a straight arm in the Hoomecoming Game against San Diego, as wide-eyed John Daniels moves up for a try.
www.ucsbalum.com
23
1963-71: CAMELLIA BOWL TO BIG TIME
Small College Coach of the Year, Jack Cutrice, and his assistant, Coach Pete Riehlman, send halfback Bob Cordero onto the field with a play.
“Cactus Jack” Curtice, who had a storied career as head football coach at West Texas A&M, UTEP, Utah (where he earned the title “Mr. Forward Pass”), and Stanford, took over as coach of the Gauchos in 1963. He led the Gauchos to their finest season in the modern era in 1965. Their 8-1 regular season included thrilling victories over Santa Clara (14-13) and Hawai‘i (3-0 on a field soaked by a monsoon). They advanced to the Camellia Bowl in Sacramento, where L.A. State claimed the college division championship in a hard-fought 18-10 victory over the Gauchos. The entire Camellia Bowl team is in the UCSB Athletic Hall of Fame: Jim Barber, Corky Barrett, Gary Bianchini, Bob Blindbury, Dick Booth, John Boyle, Dick Burrill, Gary Cline, Bob Cordero, Jim Coward, Steve Ford, Jason Franci, Tony Goehring, Mel Gregory, Doug Hayes, Greg Heer, Preston Hensley, Bob Heys, Bruce Hitchcock, Mike Hitchman, George Jenkins, John Keever, Dick Kezirian, Allan LaRoche, Ted Maneki, Al Martens, Ron Moser, Fred Oppezzo, Jim Orear, Mike Patitucci, Jack Smith, Larry Swarbrick, Mike Thomas, Paul Vallerga, Jim Wankum, Bart Weitzenberg, Scott Williams, and Ernie Zomalt. Harder Stadium opened with a 64-3 Gaucho victory over Cal Western in November of 1966. At Curtice’s invitation, Vince Lombardi brought the Green Bay Packers to practice on the field before their Super Bowl I victory in 1967. Curtice hoped the stadium would become a home of big-time football when he retired as coach in 1970 and turned the Gauchos over to his capable assistant, Andy Everest. But social currents and the economics of the sport dictated otherwise. UCSB suffered lopsided road defeats to Washington (65-7) and Tennessee (48-7) at the start of the 1971 season, and flagging home attendance signaled the death knell of the program.
1983-91: REVIVAL AND REPEAL
Brian Fleming and Amahl Thomas. Photo: Chris Fitz.
24
UCSB students Brad Tisdale and Gary Rhodes spearheaded a movement to bring intercollegiate football back to the school. They got a club team going, and in the 1985 student election, a referendum was passed to fund a non-scholarship, Division III football program. Former Gaucho linebacker Mike Warren, a successful coach at Lompoc High, took over as head coach. From 1987 to 1991, the Gauchos went 33-15 under Warren and his successor, Rick Candaele. They beat Cal Lutheran five times. They were 3-1 against San Diego and 4-1 against Azusa Pacific, a top NAIA school. But in 1992, the NCAA legislated that Division I colleges (as UCSB was in other sports) must play at the Division I level in all sports. That leap would have required a huge increase in the expense of the program, and once again UCSB dropped football. John Barnes, the Gauchos’ last quarterback, provided a glorious epilogue. He walked on at UCLA, and an improbable spate of injuries made him the starting QB in the Bruins’ 1992 game against USC. Barnes passed for 385 yards and three touchdowns, rallying UCLA to a legendary 38-37 upset of the Trojans.
Coastlines | Summer 2015
S
ht: Isla Vi tlig sta o p
I.V. Roundup Update The continuing series in Coastlines providing updates on community progress towards solving Isla Vista.Photo: lifeoftheparty.sa.ucsb.edu/isla-vista
Isla Vista problems.
AB3 Passes State Assembly
The new Community Center. Photo: Google Earth.
Supervisors Approve Grant for Isla Vista Center The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors on June 10 approved a $480,000 grant that will be used to rehabilitate the former Isla Vista Orthodox church into a community center. The church had been purchased by the Isla Vista Redevelopment Agency but when it was dissolved with other redevelopment agencies in California the property was in limbo. The Board of Supervisors last year agreed to maintain ownership of the building while allowing local community groups to manage it. The grant was supported by a number of community groups and UC Santa Barbara. The Supervisors also approved a grant to allow the Sheriff’s Department to hire a community services officer to work in Isla Vista.
Legislation sponsored by Assemblymember Das Williams ’99, that creates a Community Services District in Isla Vista, has passed the state Assembly on a 41-23 party line vote. The legislation now moves on to the state Senate where it will be heard by the Senate Government and Finance Committee. As currently written the legislation would allow a CSD in Isla Vista to levy a utility users tax to pay for community programs, tenant relations, parking enforcement and planning. It would consist of a 7 member board with five being elected and two each being appointed by the county of Santa Barbara and UC Santa Barbara. Voters would have to approve the utility users tax in a special election. The CSD district boundaries currently include both student housing along El Colegio road and the main UCSB campus. Representatives of the UC Office of the President are currently discussing removing the campus from the CSD. The legislation has run into stiff opposition from the Santa Barbara Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) and the special districts association of California. Both decry the end run around LAFCO, which traditionally has the power to create special districts but does not have the power to set the size of an elected board or empower CSD’s to levy utility users’ taxes. In the past LAFCO has repeatedly denied efforts at self-government for Isla Vista and voted against including Isla Vista in the formation of the city of Goleta. The legislation must pass the Senate prior to Sept. 11, according to Williams’ office.
www.ucsbalum.com
25
2015 All Gaucho Reunion Recap Kim ’97 and Jack ’97 Johnson Honored
$5,000
from the Johnson Ohana Charitable Foundation
+
more than
$9,000
from the Kim and Jack Johnson event and reception
=
more than
$14,000 raised for the Edible Campus Project
Kim and Jack Johnson Receive Distinguished Alumni Awards Jack and Kim Johnson were the recipients of the 2015 Distinguished Alumni Award during the All Gaucho Reunion. Jack Johnson has received international fame for his music and songwriting. Kim is credited with being the manager of his efforts and the inspiration for their environmental foundations. To bring attention to their goal of food sustainability, the Johnsons planted two orange trees in Storke Plaza. Their goal is to help UC Santa Barbara build a student farm that would provide fresh produce to the many students who face financial hardships in paying for food and housing. During the awards presentation, Jack was joined by fellow alumnus Zach Gill for a music concert featuring many of the songs inspired by their time at UCSB.
26
Coastlines | Summer 2015
For more photos from the 2015 All Gaucho Reunion, go to flickr.com/photos/ ucsantabarbara/ albums
You raised more than
$100,000 from AGR related events to benefit our students and alumni
over
9,000
$532
raised for the AS Food Bank over the weekend
52
bottles of wine won by the winner of the Wine Raffle
520
registrants for the Gaucho Gallop (all time high)
$2,030 Kick Off Bash raised for Alumni Scholarship Fund
2,000 pancakes consumed at Senior Breakfast
6
Greek groups participated in the Giving competition
Alumni, students and friends participated
$8,500
Gaucho Gallop raised for Student Scholarships
507
items collected for the A.S. Food Bank
13
departments and student groups showcased at the Taste of UCSB
$64,000
Greek Groups raised for UC Santa Barbara
81%
of the waste at the Taste of UCSB was diverted from the landfill
1,300
participants, vendors and volunteers at the Taste of UCSB
www.ucsbalum.com
27
Milestones
— Connecting thru the Alumni Association
1960s The San Diego Business Journal honored Emmett Lee Rice, ‘67 for his pioneering work in wellness medicine. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Corporate Wellness, presented at San Diego’s Healthiest Companies 2015 event, sponsored by Hub International. Rice’s contributions span decades including integrating wellness medicine into one of the first sports medicine fellowship training programs in the country and serving as appointed Medical Chairman by Gov. Pete Wilson for the California State Governor’s Physical Fitness program. Rice opened a wellness clinic so that he could be the Chief Wellness Officer for individuals, families and corporations. Rice’s community activities include serving as Chairman for San Diego Senior Olympics, medical director of the San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon, past board member of the San Diego and Point Loma YMCAs and serving as a facilitator for groups building homes for the poor in Mexico with Youth with a Mission.
[
Robert Gunnarson, ‘68, retired as a Senior Vice President with Merrill Lynch after 42 years. He managed some of Merrill’s largest offices including Salt Lake, Cleveland and Dallas. He has spent the last 25 years in San Antonio and will be moving to Flagstaff, Arizona to hike the mountains.
1970s Sally Willson Weimer, ‘71, retired as a sociology and global & international studies librarian from UCSB Library after serving over 37 years, in Dec. 2014. She had also served as Sections Council Chair of the Association of College & Research Libraries division (ACRL) of the American Library Association (ALA). She also provided service to students and faculty as a women’s studies, 28
Coastlines | Summer 2015
…his career (Alvarez) is most inspired “by the stories of survival that I gathered doing research for my book project and by the resiliency of my students, who teach me something new every day.”
Eddy Francisco Alvarez Jr., M.A. ’09, Ph.D. ’14 NerdWallet’s 40 Under 40: Professors Who Inspire
]
Eddy Francisco Alvarez Jr. received his Ph.D and M.A. from UC Santa Barbara. He is now a professor at the State University of New York at Oneonta in the Africana & Latino Studies. Into his first year, he has already made a lasting impression. He organized the first celebration for Latino History Month.
education and psychology collections librarian. Both her Master of Library Science and California Standard Teaching Credential from San Jose State University provided excellent preparation for her professional library and instructional duties. She values the continuous learning opportunities and collaboration on campus. Ann Haley, ‘76, wrapped up a 33-year stint as an editor at the Orange County Register in June 2014 and now is the web editor for the Los Angeles Times Community News South trio of websites. Michael Mortensen, ’77, was named Caltrans “Resident Engineer of the Year” for the Central Coast. He is currently the resident engineer on a major drainage project in Goleta along Highway 101.
1980s Jeffrey Prieto, ’83, has been nominated by President Barack Obama as the General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He has previously served in the Department of Justice. During his time at DOJ he received numerous awards, including the EPA Gold Medal for Exceptional Service and two DOJ Special Achievement awards. He received his law degree from UCLA. David Raun, ’85, was the CEO at PLX Technology, recently acquired by Avago Technology after nice growth and record profitability of PLX. He is now looking for his next CEO challenge and board in the High Tech Space in the Bay Area. Julianne Polanco, ’86, has been appointed state historic preservation officer for the California Department of Parks and Recreation. The appointment was made June 12 by Gov. Jerry Brown. Polanco had been director of cultural resources at Lend Lease since 2006 and served as a member of the California State Historical
[
Resources Commission since 2005. She previously worked at the Presidio Trust, World Monuments Fund and Townscape Institute. She is a trustee emeritus of the California Preservation Foundation and a member of the San Francisco Architectural Heritage Board of Directors. She received her masters of science degree in historic preservation from Columbia University. Melinda Roper, ’89, has been promoted from director of student life to vice president for student affairs and dean of students at California Lutheran University.
1990s Salud Carbajal, ’90, announced he will be a candidate for the South Coast Congressional seat being vacated by Lois Capps, MA ’90. Carbajal currently is a county supervisor in Santa Barbara County. Alexa Claybon, ’92, has joined Ernst & Young LLP. Previously, Claybon worked for the U.S. Treasury Office of Tax Policy where she was an AttorneyAdvisor and a lead reviewer on recent guidance. Enterprise Holdings has appointed Khaled Shahbo, ’92, as managing director for the UK and Ireland. He was one of the first pioneers for Enterprise in Europe, coming over to the UK in
]
Luke Matjas’s, ’02, work investigated the ways natural and unnatural histories
have become intertwined and entangled. He alternates between immense room-sized digital prints, site-specific installations, and intimate drawings. His work has been featured in exhibitions at the Pasadena Museum of California Art (2013), the UC Davis Design Museum (2012), and more. He is currently an Associate Professor and Chair of the Art Department at California State University Channel Islands. His next exhibition will be a solo show at the Ventura County’s Carnegie Museum in March of 2016. He enjoys being Chair at CSUCI because he has the opportunity to shed light on the work of fellow UCSB graduates. CSUCI has recently started a new series of exhibitions in the campus gallery that will feature UCSB MFA students each semesters.
1994 to help open and develop the car rental company. In 1996, Shahbo was appointed vice president for Scotland. A few years later, his responsibility was expanded to include Northern Ireland. In 2008, he was appointed to his current role as vice president for South East England.
Angeles rating service that tracks 70 different practice areas. The selection of a Rising Star is based on peer nominations, third party research and an evaluation of each candidate. Nesbit is a partner in the Los Angeles law office of Fisher & Phillips and is a member of the UC Santa Barbara Alumni Association Board of Directors. She was recognized in 2013 as a member of the “Hot List” of minority attorneys under 40 in the Western United States. She specializes in employment law.
Martin Boer, ’94, Martin has joined the Institute of International Finance (IIF) in Washington DC as the new Director of the Regulatory Affairs department. He previously was Secretary General of the European Financial Services Round Table (EFR) in Brussels and also worked for ING Group in Amsterdam and Brussels.
Steve Ortiz, ’04, has been named vice president of the United Way of Santa Barbara County. He holds an MBA from Cal Lutheran University.
2000s Mia M. Arias, ’02, daughter of Phyllis Ortega Arias ‘71, gave birth to a son, Diego Mitchell Miller, on February 25, 2015. Mia, her son, and her husband, David S. Miller, reside in southern California.
William London, ’05, and Josh Kimura, ’05, opened the law firm of Kimura London LLP in Irvine, CA. They focus on business litigation, trusts & estates, and personal injury. Barlon Melendez, ‘06, has completed the prerequisites for Communications Disorders and Sciences in four years, and has been admitted Master program at CSUN for Speech Language Pathology.
Kristen Nesbit, ’02, has been named a Rising Star by Super Lawyers, a Los www.ucsbalum.com
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— Connecting thru the Alumni Association
2010s
Mia Fisher, ’05
Assistant coach, UC Santa Barbara women’s basketball team. Fischer previously had been an assistant coach for the San Jose State women’s basketball team and worked as a recruiting assistant at Stanford. During her career as a Mia Fisher. Gaucho Fisher she was a leader on the team Photo: ucsbgauchos.com that made it to the Sweet Sixteen and ultimately fell to the University of Connecticut. She finished her career as the 11th leading scorer in school history. She is in the top ten in field goal percentage, assists and free throws made. She played professionally in Belgium, Bosnia, France and Turkey.
Barbara Nwaba, ’12 Santa Barbara’s Barbara Nwaba ’12 clinched a national title in the Heptathalon on Sunday at the USA Track & Field Championships in Eugene, Ore., earning a trip to the IAAF World Championships later this summer in Beijing, China. Barbara Nwaba. Photo: Presidio Sports Nwaba’s score of 6,500 points is the 6th U.S. all-time Heptathlon mark and is ranked 5th in the world in 2015. Since 2012, Nwaba has been the runner-up at the 2012 NCAA Division I Championships, 2014 USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships and the 2015 USA Indoor Track & Field Championships.
Alan Williams, ’15 Standout star of the UC Santa Barbara men’s basketball team has signed a summer contract with the Charlotte Hornets of the NBA. Williams will play in a 10-team tournament that runs from July 4-10. Williams was not drafted in the NBA draft, a surprise on Alan Williams. local and national sports circles. He led Photo: Nate Barrett. the Gauchos in scoring and led the nation in rebounding during his career at UC Santa Barbara.
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Briget Arndell, ’11, graduated from New York University with a Master’s degree in Higher Education and Student Affairs on May 18, 2015. Cody Walker, ’11, is being considered for a major role in “Furious 8” after stepping in for his late brother, Paul Walker, in “Furious 7.” Walker, who graduated with a degree in anthropology, had been a practicing EMT. He joined his brother’s non-profit Reach Out World Wide, an organization that helps first responders get into disaster areas around the world. Hollywood sources say “Furious 8” will be released in early 2017. Lisa Murphy, ’11, has received the 2015 Public Safety Civilian Employee of the Year from the UC Santa Barbara police department. Murphy works as a civilian analyst for the department.
IN MEMORIAM Edythe Yvonne (Whipple) Micko, ’47, died May 17, 2015 in San Jose, California. She taught elementary school for 20 years. She supported animal rights and wildlife conservation organizations. Virginia Nash Houtz, ’51, died on December 12, 2014 in Ventura, California. She majored in Home Economics at the Riviera Campus and was an active member of Kappa Omicron Nu and Alpha Delta Pi. She married Walter Houtz (UCSB 1951) and the couple raised a family in Orange County. Virginia worked at the Rehabilitation Institute of Orange and was involved in leadership development with 4-H Clubs of America. John D. Ehrenborg, ’53, died Feb. 27, 2015 in Nipomo, California. He served in the U.S. Army from 1945-47 and received his doctorate in education from UCLA. He taught in Santa Barbara elementary schools
Harvey Schechter '47 Longtime UC Santa Barbara Foundation Trustee and Alumni Award winner Harvey Schechter died May 23, 2015 in Reseda, California. A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Schechter attended the Riviera campus and regaled generations of alumni with his stories of riding a horse to school. He graduated in 1947 and went on to attain a master’s degree in sociology from UCLA in 1950. He worked in a number of jobs including building radios for fighter planes during World War II. In 1952 he joined the Anti Defamation League of Los Angeles and rose through the ranks to ultimately become the League’s Western States director. Schechter became a leader in the Los Angeles Jewish community and was a fierce advocate for the state of Israel and human rights. In 1996 he became a trustee of the UC Santa Barbara Foundation and served on numerous committees. In 1991 he received the Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumni Award for his humanitarian work and in 2009 he received the Graver Alumni Service Award for his service to the University.
for many years and was the inaugural principal at Monte Vista elementary school. In retirement he devoted many hours to building computers for underprivileged families. Warren Paul “Doc” Berry, ’57 MA ’59, died March 15, 2015 in Kaneohe, Hawaii. In 1962 Berry began an illustrious career as a teacher at Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii. He also coached at the school. In 2013 his work in civic, environmental and sustainability causes was honored by Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie who proclaimed January 10, 2013 as Paul “Doc” Berry Day in the state of Hawaii. Dr. Robert E. Steele, MS ’74, Ph.D. ’77, passed away. He received his Masters and Ph.D. in Physics from UCSB and had a professional career for 40 years. He worked for LASP in Colorado on NASA funded projects, at General Research in Santa Barbara on projects ranging from robotic wafer handling systems to linear accelerator controls. Bernard Joseph MacElhenny Jr., ’63, died April 27, 2015 in Santa Barbara. Macelhenny began in the real estate business before graduating and eventually built one of Santa Barbara largest real estate firms, MacElhenny and Levy. In 1981, with 30 offices and 1,000 salespeople the firm was sold to Merrill Lynch. MacElhenny continued to work on development projects throughout the United States.
W. Newell Hendricks, MA ’69, died in his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on April 3, 2015, after a long struggle with cancer. He received a Master’s degree from UCSB where he studied composition under Peter Fricker. He stayed on as faculty at UCSB’s College of Creative Studies in a position he had designed for himself.
2015 in Montecito. Crowell came to UC Santa Barbara in 1967 and helped found the Environmental Studies program. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and received both Fulbright and Guggenheim scholarships. In 2013 he received a lifetime achievement award from the Society for Sedimentary Geology.
Robert H. Carr, Sr. ‘75 of Pioneer, Calif. died at his home on Monday, September 1, 2014. He worked on the Third Stage of the Saturn 5 Rocket, which eventually led to the landing of a man on the moon.In 1967, he was offered a job with StellarMetrics Corp. developing advanced missile telemetry and moved his family to Santa Barbara, CA. In June, 1975 he was awarded a Degree in Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara. In 1977, he moved to Jackson, CA., where based on his background in electronics, he opened a Radio Shack Dealership (Sierra Pacific Sound, Inc.) which he ran with his wife Blanche for 37 years . Kathryn Faye Blaine, ’98, died May 14, 2015 in Santa Barbara. Since 2001 she was an book seller at Chaucer’s Books in Santa Barbara.
Robert Lee Puddicombe, died in Santa Barbara on May 18, 2014. He majored in “surfing” and would periodically return to UCSB working towards a biology degree but ended up getting an associate degree in Diving from the Santa Barbara City College. He surfed the entire CA coast and parts of Mexico. Puddicombe made a living as an abalone diver in Santa Barbara with his own boat and as a deep sea diver in the North Sea and the Caribbean. He also drove SB city buses and the SB Air Bus. He is remembered for starting the Channel Island Preservation Society and his desire to save the indigenous animals, including rats and mice from a poisoning program by the Park Service.
Charyl Diana Benton died March 31, 2015 in Santa Barbara. She was a human resources professional at UCSB her entire career. Longtime environmental studies professor John J. Chambers Crowell died May 13,
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