Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2000 12:49 PM Subject: Encina Update (fundraiser/homecoming/siblings/classes/betti sanford/susan hobson/curtis rankin/whats new) ENCINA ALUMNI, This week I received RSVPs for the Homecoming 2000 party from Encina staff members Bill Lee, Jim Aubert and John Eaton. FUNDRAISER Last Friday I received the following note from Encina varsity football coach Tom Durkee: My name is Tom Durkee and I'm currently a social science teacher/varsity football coach at Encina. The support you gave us last year at the Homecoming game made all the difference to our team and we would like to thank all the fans who came out to watch us play. It is the largest crowd our team has played in front of at home in years. I have discussed an idea with Coach Hibbard that I would like feedback on from the "Alumni". We are under pressure to raise funds for our program, and I have thought of offering the alumni a chance to order Encina football hats as a fund raiser. The cost of the hats is $10 dollars and my idea was to offer them to the alumni for $20, with the extra ten dollars becoming a donation to the program. Please let me know if you think this is something Encina's graduates would be interested in doing. Thanks for your time and we'll see you at the game vs. San Juan! Go Bulldogs! (I know, most of you are Apaches) Coach Durkee We haven't worked out the mechanics for Coach Durkee's fundraising proposal yet. More details later. If you have any suggestions please write. HOMECOMING 2000 PARTY All Encina alumni and staff and their families are invited to the Homecoming 2000 party. Date: Friday, October 20, 2000 Location: 707 Commons Dr, Sacramento, CA 95825 (corner of Commons and Campus Commons) Time: 5pm to 2am (game from 7-10pm at El Camino HS) The venue is an office building located in Campus Commons at the corner of Commons and Campus Commons Dr. Many thanks to Kathleen O'Neill Cabe 79 for offering to host the homecoming party. Her husband's law offices are located are the first floor. We will have access to a small indoor lobby area, bathrooms, a small kitchen and conference rooms where we could set up tables for the potluck. There is a large terrace in front of the building along with a large lawn area between the building and Commons Dr. In back of the building is a partly covered walkway which runs the length of the building and ends in a gazebo. A large parking lot is located behind the building. The entrance to the lot is from University Ave. There is also lots of street parking available on Commons Dr and Campus Commons Dr. The building is located in a beautiful wooded area of Campus Commons. There does not appear to be much street traffic so the lawn area is reasonably safe for children. The lobby is small so I would guess we'll spend the pregame party outside on the terrace, the lawn and in the back walkway. Hope for good weather as we'd probably have trouble squeezing more than 100 people indoors... I anticipate poor attendance for a night football game if the weather is bad in any case. Last year the homecoming game was just before Halloween and the weather was very pleasant. Keep your fingers crossed. As far as the post game party goes, we can stay late but the outside areas are not lighted plus it may get cold. If we have too many people we will have problems squeezing all of us indoors. It's about 10 minutes from Campus Commons to El Camino HS where the game will be played. There are pictures of the bulding here: Note that this party is free and being organized by volunteers. We're going to need lots of help to make this a successful party. There are about 30 folks on the homecoming party mailing list who have volunteered to help. If you wish to help or participate in the discussion on the mailing list let me know. HOMECOMING RSVPS We have about 225 RSVPs from Encina alumni and staff, not counting guests or family! Margie Hyland 73 wrote: I talked with Bill Lee this past weekend and he said to definitely put him down as he will be attending Homecoming this year. I spoke with Encina biology teacher Jim Aubert and he will attend. Jim taught biology from 1962-65. He does not have email. I spoke with John Eaton and he will attend. John taught driver ed and PE from 1958-63. John has email. The rsvps are distributed as follows: staff: 32 1961: 6 1962: 2 1963: 2 1964: 3 1965: 7 1966: 1 1967: 3 1968: 4 1969: 2 1970: 8 1971: 7 1972: 8 1973: 26 (first) 1974: 4 1975: 7 1976: 5 1977: 6 1978: 9 1979: 7 1980: 6 1981: 11 (fourth) 1982: 4 1983: 3 1984: 1 1985: 13 (third) 1986: 13 (second) 1987: 2 1988: 3 1989: 4 1990: 7 1991: 2 1992: - 1993: 1 1994: 2 1995: - 1996: - 1997: - 1998: - 1999: - 2000: - Staff RSVPs: Jim Aubert (new) Eleanor Brown Jack Bassett Shirley Bordisso Jack Carey Eric Dahlin Don Day Jack Dutton John Eaton (new) Evelyn Fedler Don Golden Laverne Gonzales Kathy Howser Bob Kirrene Christine Kojima Bill Lee (new) Rees Lee Vince Marelich Karen McClelland Lee Susan McGuire Joe Patitucci Marilyn Carlson Spartz Terry Reed John Sander JoAnne Smith Larry Stallings Bob Trathen Cornelia Whitaker Tom Wilde Judy Wilson Elise Wolz Stephanie Woo New alumni RSVPs: Lora Saunders 67 Mike Posehn 72 Todd Brownell 73 Gail Haynes Veri 73 Art Taylor 75 Aaron Valencia 78 Brian Boyle 81 Robin Fischer 82 Melinda Cope Wetzel 85 Paige Richter Cogovan 85 David Lawand 87 Please RSVP if you think you will be attending the homecoming alumni party this fall: http://www.encinahighschool.com/homecoming/homecoming_form.htm I'll keep the RSVP list on the Homecoming 2000 page up to date so you can check and see who's going: http://www.encinahighschool.com/homecoming/homecoming2000.htm SIBLINGS Debbie Burruss 73 wrote: Debbie Burruss 73 Ron Lane 73 (stepbrother) Larry Lane 89 (brother, not stepbrother as I wrote last week) Michele Campo 83 is in contact with Mike Saigeon 84 Kris Monday 87 is in contact with Dave Paulsen 87 Julie Fandrich 91 is in contact with Kim Smith 91 Cheryle Lees 70 wrote: Cheryle Lees 70 Lynelle Lees 72 Sherri Reitter 85 wrote: John Reitter Jr 81 Sherri Reitter 85 Sherri Reitter 85's parents John Reitter 62 and Linda Wingate 62 are both Encina alumni Sherri Reitter 85 is in contact with: Cheryl Kuhl 85 Derek Cabaniss 85 Lorri Spahn 85 CLASSES 1965 REUNION Chuck Long 65 asked me to include this note from the reunion committee: The 35th reunion of the Encina Class of 65, "Blast From The Past" on August 19th, is almost here. I you plan to attend, we really need your ticket payments by August 10th if at all possible. The Reunion Committee would greatly appreciate this favor in order to be able to pay required and necessary deposits. We have great entertainment lined up for the evening, including the Contenders/New Breed and others great local artists of the time. Many former teachers will be there, so no smoking in the bathrooms! Don't Miss out-- Send your money in NOW!!! Date: August 19, 2000 Place: Unitarian Church 2425 Sierra Blvd (between Howe and Fulton) Sacramento, CA 1970 REUNION Date: Saturday, October 21, 2000 Where: Doubletree Hotel 1973 The collection of grade school pictures is growing. This week I added Diane Schoenborn Kelly's Sierra Oaks pictures and Cathy Steinkoenig's St Ignatius pictures. So far we have a good collection of class pictures from Greer, Sierra Oaks, Cottage, Edison and St Ignatius. We need pictures from Dyer Kelly, Howe, Winterstein and Wyda Way. The grade school collection resides here: 1980 REUNION Date: October 14, 2000 Time: 6:00-10:00 pm Place: Del Paso Country Club Address: Marconi Ave Attire: semi-formal Cost: $65.00 1981 Melissa Tovar writes that the next reunion committee meeting will be October 10, 2000 to work on getting the first mailer out. Event: 20 year reunion Date: August 11, 2001 Place: Arden Hills Country Club 1984 REUNION Note that the first planning meeting is next Wednesday, August 2nd. First planning meeting for the 20th reunion: Date: Wednesday, August 2, 2000 Time: 730pm Place: Susan Hobson's home 160 Big Valley Road Folsom, CA 95630 916-983-6277 Below are the directions to Susan Hobson's house for our first 1984 - 20th Class Reunion planning party: Take Highway 50 Eastbound towards Lake Tahoe Exit Scott/East Bidwell Turn left at stop sign and go over freeway Drive approximately 1.5 miles and turn right on Oak Avenue Parkway Drive approximately 1 mile and turn right on Blue Ravine Take first left on Big Valley Road (subdivision sign says Larchmont Cimarron) Go all the way up Big Valley (through stop sign) Susan's house is on the left 1990 REUNION Date: Saturday, October 21, 2000 Place: TBD Denyce Bellinger wrote that classmates should plan to attend the Homecoming 2000 party on Friday, October 20th and the 10 year reunion on Saturday, October 21st. BETTI SANFORD Several alumni submitted stories about Greer School teacher Betti Sanford. Michael Babayco 72 submitted this story: I'm writing to tell you my story of Mrs. Sanford. One fond memory I have growing up was the posting of the classes at the end of each summer. All the kids in the neighborhood would wait (impatiently!) to have the Greer School secretary put up the lists of who was in which class. And we would ALWAYS talk about the teachers we were assigned to. I don't know when I became aware of her but since I had two older brothers I followed through Greer, I knew the teachers pretty well before I got them. When it was my turn to go into fourth grade, I DREADED thinking I would be stuck with Mrs. Sanford. The others kids had lots of negative things to say about her - "strict", "mean", and other not-nice words. So I was really hoping that I wouldn't have to have her. I had already had a few "moments" with her when she caught me doing things during recesses and had me ride the bench more than a few times! So it was quite a relief that I was put in Miss Cartwright's (tiny little woman!) class for 4th grade and was spared the wrath of Mrs. "Iron Hand" Sanford. I pretty much avoided her the rest of my stay at Greer. But that's not my best memory. It was years later when I was a junior at Encina that I got a part-time work experience job that landed me back at Greer as a "Noon Duty Aide"! It wasn't too bad.... making sure the kids didn't throw too much food in the cafeteria and then tried to stop them from killing themselves during lunch recess. I never really saw too many of the teachers because they would drop their kids off and then leave. But Mrs. Sanford was still teaching there..... One day, a boy in 4th or 5th grade became pretty angry about something. (He was one of those kids who didn't seem to have very good reasoning skills let alone good social skills - I often saw him alone or with other outcasts.) I tried to reason with him but it didn't work. I tried to order him to go sit on the bench and he refused. The other kids started to tease him and he came unglued and started to attack one of the boys. All I could think to do was to grab him and keep him off of the other boy. Then he turned on me! No matter what I said or how I held him, he was determined to kick, bite, scratch, or smack me. I finally had him in a big bear hug but I didn't know what else to do. So we stood there for what seemed a lifetime. Then the bell rang ending the recess but still the kid wouldn't cooperate. I tried easing my grip on him but he would attack me again. And then, I was saved! Out from the school came Mrs. Sanford, not running but firmly coming up to the two of us. The other kids quickly parted to let her in the circle that had formed around us. Without me saying a word about the situation, she said firmly, "John, you will stop fighting right now. And when Mr. Babayco (she remembered my name!) lets you go, you will then march to the principal's office and wait". Then she just stood there, towering over us all by at least 50 feet.... At first, I wasn't sure if I should let go. But the kid went limp in my arms so I let go. What did he do? Very obediently he began walking to the principal's office! And Mrs. Sanford turned and walked a few paces behind, not even touching the boy! It was a miracle! I was in awe.... How did she do that? Why didn't he follow my orders?? My respect for her went up tremedeously after that. She later pulled me aside and told me that the boy had problems and that she had dealt with him before. She didn't ask for thanks or for an explanation as to what had happened but she sure got my respect after that! After leaving the Noon Duty Aide position my senior year, that's the last I saw of her. Years later, as I worked as a special education teacher, I could see the value in her style and I will never forget it! Catherine Fenley Smith 82 wrote: Oh man--I have my memories of Mrs. Sanford--I'll never forget the day my mom let me wear make-up for the first time, (6th grade--way too soon) and Mrs. Sanford promptly sent me to the bathroom to wash it off! There was no if's and's or but's and it really didn't matter if my Mom said it was OK. Carol Rice Baker 89 wrote: My twin sister and I had just moved into the Arden area during 6th grade. Mrs. Sanford was known as a hard-nosed, tough teacher. I saw something very sweet and caring in her. On the last day of class, we had a class competition in that strange game with the tennis rackets (or maybe baseball bats) and a large ball with bases that seemed to be a mile apart. I hit a home run, giving me just the excuse I needed to go back into Mrs. Sanford's classroom to see her before school was out. I bragged about my home run, then started to cry, telling her how much I would miss her and how she was my favorite teacher. I gave her a big hug, which she uncomfortably returned. I knew she wasn't a very touchy-feely person, but when she straightened back up I saw a huge smile on her face and a teardrop shyly rolling down her cheek. I have always fondly remembered her as a grandmother type figure... very stern but caring. SUSAN HOBSON 84 Occupation: Attorney Bio: I graduated from UCLA with a BA in English Lit and then got my JD from McGeorge in 1991. I've practiced on the defense side of litigation for nine years and joined Zurich staff legal last October. I have a wonderful husband and nine year old step daughter and the two best golden retrievers in the world. Trivia: I spent a short nine months as a FBI special agent. Unfortunately, it was nothing like Silence of the Lambs or the X-Files. Friends: Laura Pelfanio, Lisa Wagner (Craney), Kari Reser, Tracy Clark. I had lost contact with all of them until this wonderful website! Hobbies: Photography, writing poetry, working out at the gym, skiing and scuba diving. Kids: My step-daughter, Melissa, is wonderful. She's already over five feet tall and we're hoping for a basketball star. Grade_school: Sierra Oaks. Grade_school_friends: Kari Reser, Vivan Monier, Amy Albright, Carrie Schenken, Lisa Wagner, Sondra Jarvis. Junior_high: Jonas Salk Junior_high_friends: I first met Suzie Benson while at Jonas--she used to come back for the dances even though she had already graduated. Other than that, same as above. Memorable_teachers: Senor Gonzales--I never had more fun than convincing Senor that the test wasn't until the following week. Lawrence--he made me laugh. Samuelson--the drool factor. Favorite_memory: Performing in Fiddler on the Roof with my sister as my mother and going to Mexico with the Spanish class. Alumni_in_contact: Because of this website: Laura Pelfanio, Kari Reser, Lisa Wagner, Angie Braio, Tracy Clark, Chris Stubbs. CURTIS RANKIN 65 Occupation: prosecutor Bio: Displaying very bad timing, I flunked calculus in my second semester at ARJC in the spring of 1966. The government responded with remarkable efficiency, reclassifying me from 2-S to 1-A within a couple weeks. Up to this point my only thought about the military was to avoid it. Now that it was inevitable, I chose to enlist in the air wing of the Marines, entering active duty in January 1967. I felt that I needed some time to grow up and figured that the Marines would be an interesting adventure along the way. The Marines trained me as an aviation ordinance man. At that point the growing anti-war efforts did not mean much to me. I accepted the traditionalist’s view that this was a time of national emergency and that my obligation was to serve. Expecting to live forever, I volunteered for a Vietnam tour, arriving at Da Nang on May 15, 1968. There I was assigned to Chu Lai, 50 miles south of Da Nang on the coast, where I was assigned to group supply. Expecting to get an exciting job on the flight line hanging ordinance on F-4 Phantoms, I asked for a transfer out of group supply after six months. Instead, I was transferred to the bomb dump where we assembled air dropped munitions. Mostly my job was to put high drag fins on 500 lb. bombs. I rotated out of Vietnam back to the States on June 9, 1969. When I was honorably discharged in January 1971 anti-war and anti-serviceman sentiment was pretty strong. My basic feeling toward the military had changed into one of anger at being used for something ugly. Anger was a great motivator. Determined to avoid being the equivalent of a Corporal the rest of my life, I graduated from ARJC with an AA in 1972 and then Sac State in 1974 with a BA. I met and married the sweetest woman, Cindy Chambers (Hiram Johnson HS, 1968; Sac State BA, 1973), in August 1973. While in Vietnam I decided that becoming a lawyer would empower me to avoid being on the short end of someone else’s bad decisions. We moved to San Diego where I graduated from The Unv of San Diego, School of Law, in December 1977. In June 1978 I learned that I had passed the CA bar exam, but I remained unemployed and it was my turn to have a job. Cindy had had a great experience growing up in a post-war Air Force family. With a good deal of trepidation, I was commissioned as an Air Force judge advocate in September 1978. We were first assigned to Wurtsmith AFB in northern Michigan where our son Jess was born in 1979. From 1980 – 1983 we were assigned to Aviano AB in northern Italy where we thoroughly enjoyed the people and their country. Our daughter Katherine was born in Vicenza, Italy in 1982. I was the Air Force’s defense counsel for the many bases in Italy. The job involved a lot of assignments from site to site defending airmen. Cindy was pretty tolerant of the travel before Kate was born. I couldn’t believe they were paying me to do this job as I also defended airmen in Turkey, Germany and England. Leaving active duty in 1983, I stayed in the Air Force Reserve where I remain today as a Lieutenant Colonel. After four years as an Air Force civilian attorney, I went to work for the San Luis Obispo District Attorney’s Office in 1987 where I remain today. Our babies are now on the verge of starting their adult lives. Katie is a rising senior at Paso Robles High School who hopes to go on to UC Davis. Jess is an Army ROTC history major student who will graduate from Furman Unv, So Carolina, in the spring of 2001 and be commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. Cindy is working to get her two books published. We live in sunny Paso Robles on the lovely central coast of CA. Kids: Jess Rankin, rising senior, Furman Unv, So Carolina, history major, Army ROTC. Katherine Rankin, rising senior, Paso Robles High School, CA. WHAT'S NEW 7/25/00: Sherri Reitter 85, John Reitter Jr 81, John Reitter 62, Cheryl Kuhl 85, Derek Cabaniss 85, Lorri Spahn 85 7/24/00: James Shearer 78 update 7/22/00: Mike Posehn 72, Carol Markell 78 update, Susan Hobson 84 bio, Mike Saigeon 84, Sandy McHenry 73/bio, Julie Fandrich 91, Kim Smith 91, Tammy Lee 72, Cheryle Lees 70/bio, Lynnelle Lees 72, Curtis Rankin 65 bio, Dave Paulsen 87 7/20/00: Randy Abbott 62, John Abbott 64, Kurt Pearsall 74, Traci Shull 70, Dana Shull 73, Steve Cowan 65, Andrea Heston 78 update 7/19/00: Debra McNevin 89 bio, Darrick Dong 70, Dawn Meckfessel 85 update, Debi Hobday 80/81 update, Therese Niederberger 83 bio, Janie Trulock 83, Jill Garner 83, Brian Porter 83, Michele Campo 83, Mary Campo 86, Tim Benzo 86 update, Gail Haynes 73/bio Don't forget to RSVP for the homecoming party: www.encinahighschool.com/homecoming/homecoming_form.htm and submit your contact information or bio: contact: www.encinahighschool.com/directory/submit_contact.htm bio: www.encinahighschool.com/submit_bio.htm Harlan Lau '73 Encina webmaster www.encinahighschool.com harlan@rambus.com