GCCCD Grapevine

Volume 13, Number 1                                              Grapevine home                                                      March, 2003

                Ten More Retire from GCCCD   

Ten more employees retired from the Grossmont Cuyamaca Community College District effective December, 2002.  The ten include instructors from both Grossmont and Cuyamaca Colleges, a dean, a counselor, a business manager, a district public safety supervisor and two secretaries.  They will be honored, along with others who retired or will retire between  June, 2002 and August 31, 2003, at the
Barona Valley Ranch Resort & Casino on Friday, May 23 at 6:00 p.m.  (see map below)

The festivities will be held in the Lake Terrace Room at the Golf Events Center (see map below) and will include an outstanding Pacific Rim buffet dinner (see menu below),  music and dancing, and a lovely lake-side view.  Admission is $25 per person.  Please come in your favorite Hawaiian attire, enjoy the fun and help give the retirees a great retirement party.  For more information, contact Michelle Cuozzo at 619-644-7710.

Please RSVP to Michelle Cuozzo no later than April 11 because seating is limited.  Make checks payable to GCCCD and mail them to her attention at the Risk Management/Benefits Office, Grossmont College, 8800 Grossmont College Drive, El Cajon, CA 92020

    Nancy Blazovic            Linda Bunney               Sherry Chase               Stan Flandi                Dr. Jerry Humpert
    Grossmont 1976           Grossmont 1987              Grossmont 1978           Grossmont 1968               Cuyamaca 1978
Administrative Sec.      Sec./Scholarship Spec.       Administrative Sec.        Instructor, Business              Counselor 

 
  Dr. Lois Knowlton          Peter Larson       Dr. Annjennette McFarlin   Barry McClarty         Glyn Rowbotham
   Grossmont 1993              Cuyamaca 1974            Grossmont 1978                  District 1974                Cuyamaca 1980
Dean, Bus/Prof. Stds.     Instructor, Draft.Tech.      Instructor, Speech         Public Safety Supervisor      Business Manager

                                     
map showing location (red dot)           map of resort, facility circled upper right                mouthwatering menu
                                                       (click to enlarge any of the three images above)

Guest Editorial:
 
      by Sam Ciccati

The Charger Stadium Issue

At our recent Emeritus Club luncheon, some of us were discussing the Chargers proposal for a new stadium. Later, I was asked to write an article for the Grapevine on this topic. This matter can be expounded upon to great length so I will limit myself to nine points to emphasize my position.

First of all, I am a sports fan and advocate. I play sports several times weekly and attend numerous events as a spectator. That said, I am very much opposed to the City of San Diego building a new stadium for the Chargers, no matter how it is finessed, unless the Chargers pay 100% of the costs including infrastructure costs and without a ticket guarantee. Here’s why:

1. Qualcomm is a perfectly good stadium. There is no better venue for professional football in the state. The Rose Bowl, LA Coliseum, Candlestick, Oakland Stadium and Stanford Stadium are all inferior to the Q.

2. The Chargers claim the Q is not economically viable, this only a few years after they convinced the City to ante up $68 million to upgrade it so that Super Bowl could be held regularly. Yet they refuse to provide financial details to prove their point. The City guarantees them 100% occupancy with the right to charge any price they wish, and they claim economic deprivation! Wouldn't you like to have a business where you were guaranteed 100% occupancy and could charge any price you wished? We would all be millionaires with those conditions.

3. When the fans and City criticized the ticket guarantee, Dean Spanos refused to renegotiate, retorting, "A deal is a deal." But now he wants the City to take his word about economic viability, without validation. I say, "A deal is a deal!" Prove it!

4. The fundamental problem with economic viability is not the stadium; it is the NFL’s method of revenue sharing. The NFL requires teams to share revenue they receive from general admission sales. However, all revenue received from luxury boxes, suites and club seats is retained solely by the home team. Hence, the push by owners to build new stadiums with more luxury boxes and club seats, revenue they do not have to share. The solution is to require that revenue from all sources be shared. But the NFL will not do it because it is their method of holding cities hostage to build new stadiums.

5. It is interesting to note that only publicly owned stadiums need to be torn down and rebuilt. Green Bay, Dallas and Dodger Stadiums are examples of privately owned facilities much inferior to Qualcomm, yet there is no press to rebuild them. Only when owners can squeeze the public is there pressure to rebuild.

6. The claim that if the Chargers move, San Diego will never get another team is bunk. A number of teams are seeking to move and would love to play in Qualcomm as it presently exists. Examples are Arizona, Indianapolis and God forbid, even Oakland.

7. Fifty million dollars in bonds still needs to be paid for the recent renovation to the Q. The Chargers want to ignore that and have the City encumber itself for more than $200 million additional debt. Grossmont College is 40 years old but has had some renovations the past few years. What do you think public reaction would be if it were now proposed to tear it down completely and build an entire new campus? Outrage -- you got it! But that is what the Chargers are asking us to do for them.

8. The issue of the Chargers moving to LA if a new stadium is not built is a smoke screen. Any group in LA willing to build a new stadium will want an ownership stake in the team and Spanos will not share such a lucrative cash cow. Each NFL team gets at least $75 million a year just for TV rights. Their entire payroll is less than that. Add in ticket sales of a similar amount, include revenue from stadium signage, concessions, radio broadcasting rights, etc., and you can guess what a tidy sum they pocket each year. Economic deprivation? No! Greed? Yes!

9. A new stadium would bring Super Bowls and Super Bow1s bring enormous sums or money to the City. That theory has been debunked time and time again by Don Bauder, SD Union Tribune Financial Editor. He has interviewed numerous sports economists -- none buy into that premise. The NFL awards contracts to firms across the country to provide services at Super Bowls, everything from private parties to concessions to limo services. These companies from Atlanta, New York or wherever take the money with them when they leave. That money does not stay in San Diego.

The Chargers need a new stadium? Don't buy it! There are more important things this beautiful city needs before it needs a new stadium. We retirees can still influence positive changes in our communities, speaking to friends and neighbors about issues, writing to political leaders and letters to editors to express our views. Get involved! Stay involved!

Editior’s Note: The Grapevine staff welcome editorial length opinions from our readers and hope that Sam Ciccati’s editorial will be the first of many.  There’s lots to choose from: war with Iraq, reality shows, SUV’s, homeland security, cell phones, CEO pay, and much more. They say as we get older we get more opinionated—so let us hear from you.

Grapevine Staff enjoy lunch at Brigantine

John Dixon, Sirkka Huovila, Tom Scanlan, Rosemarie Scanlan and Bob Steinbach broke bread together this January at the Brigantine Restaurant in La Mesa. The staff luncheon is an annual tradition which gives all of us a chance to meet and relax together in person instead of our usual e-mail and telephone communications. It was a fine, sunny day, much too nice to ‘talk shop’ but a wonderful day to reflect on San Diego’s weather and feel sorry (briefly) for folks elsewhere in the country.

                
               (left to right: photographer’s thumb, Bob Steinbach, Rosemarie Scanlan, Sirkka Huovila, 
                     Tom Scanlan and John Dixon)

Twenty-Two Emeriti Attend Chancellor’s Luncheon
                                              
                                                                    (click to enlarge)

The annual Chancellor’s Emeritus Luncheon was held January 17 at the Village Garden Restaurant in La Mesa. Emeriti attending were: Don Anderson, Bill Bornhorst, Sam Ciccati, Larry Coons, Ann Daluiso, Bob Danielson, Emily Duggan-Zouhar, Lee Engelhorn, Bill Givens, Bill Hansen, Pat Higgins, Leon Hoffman, Dick Lantz, Erv Metzgar, George Murphy, Muriel Owens, Chuck Park, Joanne Prescott, Bob Rump, Tom Scanlan, Bob Steinbach and Jane West.

Following an opportunity to socialize and renew acquaintances, Chancellor Dr. Omero Suarez emceed, informing the group of the upcoming budget crisis, an anticipated $5 million dollar shortfall in the next fiscal year. He stressed the need for letters to Sacramento. Dana Quittner, Director of Intergovernmental Relation and Public Information, provided specific information to the emeriti to facilitate their letter-writing.

GCCCD Governing Board member Rick Alexander introduced the Board’s newest member, Wendell Cutting, both of whom thanked the emeriti for their help with last year’s bond issue. Lunch was followed by a presentation from the new Cuyamaca College president, Dr. Gerri Perri, and then Grossmont College president, Dr. Ted Martinez, who introduced two new emeriti, George Murphy from Cuyamaca College and Jane West from Grossmont College.

Jane West Awarded Emerita
 

(the following is partially excerpted from Feb. 3 issue of Campus Scene)

The GCCCD Governing Board awarded professor emerita status to retiree Jane West at their board meeting on February 18. Jane was a Registered Nurse and instructor at Grossmont College from 1968 until her retirement in 2002.

Pediatric Nursing was her passion. While at Grossmont College, West contributed to the growth of the program in many ways. For example, she developed Child Health Nursing and Child Development Linkage through vocational education; served as Academic Senate Member from 1998 to 2002; and she served as Assistant Director of the Nursing Program from 1999 to 2000. She also chaired the academic program review process for her department.

West also reached out and led the way through her writing. She co-authored Water Rescue of Injured Animal Trainer, and authored The Unhappy Condom, published by Grossmont College. She also developed several focus groups to advise pediatric nursing textbook authors, and mentored MSN students at USD as a mentor teacher. "I can’t think of anything else I would rather have done," she says about her thirty-four years of service to Grossmont College.

Nancy Blazovic Retires

Joe Henry (Biology) and his wife-to-be hosted a retirement party for Nancy Blazovic on December 14, 2002. Approximately 60 people from the Division of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Exercise Science, spouses, retirees, family and friends enjoyed the fun-filled evening of conversation, stories, Mexican buffet, appropriate liquids and a pair of decorated cakes.

Nancy held several positions at Grossmont and Cuyamaca before becoming Division Secretary in 1985. She was a rock of stability in a procession of Deans: Lee Brown, Bob Steinbach, Wayne Harmon, Dick Mellien and Bill Bradley. Through the years, Nancy became a master at translating memos floating out of the adminisphere.

Party-Meister Mike Matherly created a laugh-filled invitation in the form of a tabloid exposé indicating that Nancy would blow the whistle on her former Deans’ peccadilloes, improprieties, ignorance and mismanagement.

Division faculty members recognize no master, so Servant-of-Ceremonies Wayne Harmon, with the help of comments from the gallery, extolled Nancy’s talents and virtues and noted that her natural modesty did not allow her to accept the title of Deanette which was offered on several occasions. All feared that Nancy’s retirement could bring anarchy to the division.

                 
              Guest of Honor looks pretty happy                            Her family, l to r, Nicole Sturm, Mike Blazovic, Nancy,                                                                                                      Ron   Blazovic, Sandy Pennock

     
                      The pop of flash bulbs attracts division members seeking fame by association.

Driftwood

   by Bob Steinbach

Snippets of gossip that have been burnished by friends and washed up on the Grapevine desk.

They shall remain nameless. At a recent get-together he showed up bruised and scraped. He attacked a tree toppled in a recent windstorm -- the tree took offense and returned the attack. §

Mary Booth, has been a knitter for years and has won many awards. Using her family name, she started her own knitting company that is featured at: http://www.sturgissknits.com. She will give a 10% discount to all retirees. You can contact her through the site or at marybooth@sturgissknits.com.

Sam Ciccati attended an Elderhostel cultural tour to Chile and Argentina in February. Also, anyone who buys season tickets to the Padre’s games this year will find Sam’s picture on the July 8 ticket. He was an early participant in the Padre Fantasy Camps and won his place on the ticket based on his fan-memories of the Padres.

Ann Daluiso maintains her connection with Grossmont by teaching a class now and then. Quilting is her relaxation.

Cathy and Bill Hansen recently celebrated their 50^th anniversary. In honor of that occasion and in recognition of their years of service to Grossmont College, the OPT faculty has created the Cathy Hansen Scholarship to be awarded to the outstanding Office Professional Training (OPT) graduate from the general office curriculum.

As many of you know, Cathy’s contributions to the OPT program and our students enabled many individuals to obtain employment and change their lives. Because of Cathy’s leadership, dedication, and initiative, this program has continued to help people enter the workforce and achieve economic self-sufficiency for the past 17 years.

Leon Hoffman  and Shirley are celebrating 50 years of marriage on March 22. They are taking their children and grandchildren on a cruise to Mexico.

Ivan Jones writes that his beloved Colleen passed away from cancer January 23. He thanks their friends in Southern California for the many get-well wishes over the past months. Now our prayers will also be welcome.

Margaret Kuhn enjoys being close to her daughter, Jodi, in Walnut Creek. She took three trips in 2002: Indiana (home) for a month to visit 8 great-grandchildren among others; San Diego for a few days; and the hospital after a fall. She claims to have become the Great Procrastinator.

Ann Lesh decided to scratch her itch to travel. Her Christmas letter mentions trips to Denver, Hot Springs, Bronson, Nashville, Georgia coastal islands, Alabama and the Southwest.

Ernie Neveu writes, "Everything is doing great. The reds are all in oak and the white (Pinot gris) is still fermenting -- it started on Sept 26th!!! We're pruning now and cutting back on the potential yield because of the severe drought the last three years. The quality of the wine is way above my initial vintage. As they say, ‘the learning curve is always going up!’ Hope you are all doing well... pray for PEACE."

Eddie Parris , although retired, is a frequent visitor to the Grossmont campus checking up on his friends. In addition, he and his wife, Julia, are members of the Theatre Guild and attend all the Grossmont drama productions.

Wanda Wagner and her husband, Conrad, live in Carlsbad after living in Leucadia for 19 years. She writes, "We have 3 grandchildren (Taylor 11yrs; Gaby 8yrs; Nathan 2 yrs; and expecting a granddaughter in April 2003, we lost our grandson Paul in Sept 1999 at the age of 23). A lot of the people I worked with will remember Paul as a little guy as I took care of him while I was working in the District Security Dept. (1981)." She has taken up quilting and is enjoying it very much. She entered one of her quilts in the 2002 San Diego County Fair and won a second place. They still enjoy annual trips to Twin Lakes, Mammoth for summer fishing.

Emilie Zouhar may be seen taking in the sun and fresh air while kayaking on Mission Bay.

And from our Grapevine Guest Book on the web:

Trudy Bratten: I finally joined the computer ranks and am enjoying all the new things I am learning. Grapevine is fantastic. I am now living near Nashville,TN but no southern accent yet. Wonderful keeping in touch. Thanks.

Lee Brown: Hi, I glanced at the homepage from Ketchum on a breezy and cool morning in December, looks great.

(Note:  All of the head photos in Driftwood with blue frames will enlarge if clicked.)

Biblio-files
  
   by Tom Scanlan

Those of you who have read The Hours (see Grapevine Biblio-files, Nov., 2001) or are fans of Virginia Woolf do not want to miss the film, The Hours. It is remarkably close to the book, beautifully filmed and full of talent. If you aren’t a fan of Virginia Woolf (whose afraid of Virginia Woolf?), but liked the film, I’d strongly recommend Quentin Bell’s magnificent biography of his aunt, Virginia Woolf-A Biography. It will provide a great deal of insight into this unusual woman (who was decades ahead of her time on women’s rights issues) and why she committed suicide. It reads like a novel and is well illustrated with photographs of Virginia and her important relatives and friends.

note:  Underlined titles  are linked to Amazon.com for additional reviews or purchase.  Click covers to enlarge.)

The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold (Little-Brown & Co., 2002) **

The most unusual thing about this novel is the point-of-view, which is primarily that of a fourteen-year-old girl, Suzie Salmon (yes, I know, but at least they didn’t name her Smokey), who has been raped and murdered and is now surveying the ongoing situation and the lives of her friends--and the murderer--from a heavenly perspective. Her assailant was a neighbor, and it turns out that he is also a serial killer who has killed before and will almost certainly kill again if he isn’t found out and apprehended..

Suzie watches not only her friends and relatives grieving over her death, but also the activities of her assailant and the detective who is working on the case. What might seem like a rather morbid story is actually rather light-hearted and upbeat, primarily because that’s the kind of person Suzie is. She alternates between interest in her friends and relatives, watching them live the lives she might have lived, and following the activities of her murderer and the ongoing investigation. The story is consequently a very interesting combination of a coming-of-age (that might have been) and a detective story. She is concerned about the effect grief has on her parents, as well as her younger sister and little brother, all of whom deal with her loss in very different ways. She is also concerned about the threat posed by her murderer to other young girls and women as he continues to elude the law.

This novel is actually fairly light reading and not easy to put down. It’s the kind of book that brings you into the story and keeps you interested in the characters, despite a patently incredible point-of-view. You may think the ending is a bit too ideal, but it’s consistent with this hopeful and upbeat story.

Flags of Our Fathers, James Bradley (Bantam Books, 2000) ***

Stephen Ambrose, famous for his own books on warfare, said this book was "The best battle book I ever read." It certainly is one of the best that I have read, but it is more than a battle book; it is the fascinating story of six men whose lives converged atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima in 1945 when each of them helped raise the American Flag--and were captured in one of the most famous photographs of all time. James Bradley is the son of one of those men, a Navy corpsman attached to a Company of Marines.

The account of the fighting on Iwo Jima, and what led up to this, and why it was so important, is a major part of the book. The ferocity of that battle and the horrible casualties inflicted on both Americans and Japanese make it one of the bloodiest battles in our history. It was truly awesome. There are few battles in that war or any war where the combatants can match the courage, endurance and heroism of the Marines who took that Island. More medals for valor were awarded for action on Iwo Jima than in any battle in the history of the United States (twenty-seven of the eighty-four Medals of Honor awarded to Marines in World War II were awarded in this single battle). The battle story will leave you exhausted and incredulous.

That having been said, there is another aspect of the book that is thoroughly engrossing in a very different way. It is the story of those six men, all with very different backgrounds, from the time of their boyhood until the battle on Iwo Jima—and the story of what happened to them after the flag-raising photograph became famous. I’ll tell you up front that three of them were killed within two weeks as the battle for Iwo Jima continued. The other three were assigned to a war savings bond tour to help raise money for the anticipated land invasion of Japan. How they dealt with this fame and the mantle of national heroism is the subject of the latter part of the book. None of those six survive today, but Bradley’s book, beautifully researched and written, is a meaningful monument to them as well as to the others who fought on that island and helped to significantly shorten and win the war.

Stupid White Men, Michael Moore (Harper-Collins, 2001) ***

Ray Resler handed me a copy of this book at a recent Second Tuesday retiree breakfast at Denny’s Restaurant and said I’d probably get a kick out of it. I took it home and then my wife, Rosemarie, read it and told me, "You’ve got to read this." They were both right, but I have to warn you that my political biases are more liberal than conservative, and that I’m pretty skeptical of politicians in general.

If you are a rigid Republican or Democrat and believe that Presidents Bush and Clinton are (or were) working for your best interests, you may not like what Michael Moore has to say--but that’s all the more reason it might be a book you should read. Michael Moore, some of you may recall, produced the award-winning documentary film, "Roger and Me", an irreverent expose of the CEO of General Motors. He’s also known for his Emmy-winning show, TV Nation. His style is irreverent, and outrageous, and he’s not above exaggerating, but he’s also funny--and his writing is based on a great deal of research. Even if you disagree with some of his points, you may find yourself laughing out loud at times, as well as wincing when he hits too close to home.

He begins by lambasting President George Bush, then the rest of the Bush family, and on to the entire Bush Cabinet. He then takes on our economic system where he finds rampant greed and self-interest; our flawed system of race relations, prisons, and the justice system, especially capital punishment; our dismal national record of education and literacy, and our even more dismal record on the environment. He takes on the Democrats for having no spine and Bill Clinton for being so slick that we overlooked the fact that his policies were inconsistent with his Party. Along the way he takes on Catholicism, Protestantism, the situation in Northern Ireland, the Arabs and Israelis, North Korea’s Kim Yong Il, and more. There’s something in here for everybody!

He’ll sometimes include a set of suggestions at the end of a chapter, which he believes might remedy the problems he exposes. The suggestions are mostly humorous but there’s just enough truth in them to make them seem vaguely plausible. His topics and material are timely and far-reaching, even if his treatment is too outrageous or satirical for the true-believer. It’s a good book to read if you’re finding yourself a bit fed up with the way things are, but you’re not ready to give up just yet--and you need a few good laughs. Apparently a lot of folks out there of all political persuasions are enjoying this book because it’s still on the NY Times Best Sellers list of non-fiction and has been for months.

Stan and Jan Claussen tell us what’s happening in the great northwest:

Received the Grapevine with all the news that's (mostly) fit to print. To update retirees and others on what Stan and Jan Claussen are doing, we must first tell you about our daughter Tina, an almost 4-point student at Grossmont, who, because of your TLC and good teaching, entered Western Washington U in Bellingham as a Phi Beta Kappa. She is finishing up there in Forensic Archeology, and who knows, after that. Son Jeremy is back in Lakeside and will also attend Grossmont. Jan has been involved in a very facinating kind of theater, acting assignments at the Univ of Washington,in which she plays patients with various ailments and acts out demos for the distance-learnng program. Stan has performed in Don Juan in Hell, Camelot, and radio plays in Washington and Los Angeles. Seven paintings – mostly Stan's California landscapes -- were chosen for the Retired Teachers Gallery in Sacramento for October through January. So when any of you make your trek to the STRS hq at 7667 Folsom Blvd., take a look at the walls before you check where your money is coming from.

Paul Epler   writes:

We just returned from a month in New Zealand (my 7th visit as my daughter attended university there and then worked for almost 3 years more at the Auckland General Hospital as a physical therapist.)

I have been retired from my medical practice (anesthesiology) for ten years now and from the Grossmont District Board since 1981. It is a pleasure always to see old friends from the Colleges and pleases me greatly when they remember me with kindness.

Aside from traveling (Elderhostel to Turkey and the south of France, plus China and Italy), I have been doing a lot of reading since my medical retirement. Mostly books on religion (just who was the person, Jesus, early Christianity, plus some modern history --WWII, Roosevelt, Truman, etc.)

My youngest daughter, the PT who trained in NZ, just finished a master's degree in nursing from the U. of San Francisco, and is now a Nurse Practitioner. She started her higher education at Grossmont, went to Mesa for PT assistant, NZ for the BS in PT and now NP at U of SF. Whew!! It would have been cheaper for me if she had gone to medical school in the first place! But what a joyous odyssey it always is to go for an education.

It is a pleasure to read the "Grapevine" for news and I especially enjoy the book reviews. Best wishes to the wonderful people who read and write the "Grapevine".

Paul Epler, Board Class of 1969-81.

Bob Randels writes (in response to Bob Steinbach):

Thanks for the prod. I guess that is what I needed. I had been thinking for some time of letting you (the Grapevine) know that I am still alive. Very much alive and well, thank you. I am a very healthy 82 going on 100. Still doing football calisthenics most every morning, from my past - not quantity, but quality. Flossie sends her greetings as well, and she is also experiencing good health. We are having the times of our lives here in the great Northwest.

After we retired, we built our retirement home at 6,300 feet in Idyllwild. We had purchased the Idyllwild Bible Bookstore and that is the reason we retired so early. Thought we would be there forever but 175 inches of snow the first winter chased us out.

From there we moved to Fallbrook, then San Marcos, then Escondido. In 1988 we moved to Oregon where two of our children had moved, absconding with our three grandsons. Our first location was Corvallis and in 1994 we moved to Dallas, thirteen miles west of Salem. We are enjoying this friendly small town. Unlike most people I know, I enjoy moving to new places and making new friends. In 1990 our youngest daughter and husband, with our three granddaughters, also made the Northwest their home. We are all within two hours of each other. What a blessing!

I've had the neatest part-time jobs wherever we have lived, but that ended in 1994 when we became active in the MAPS - RV program (Mission America Placement Service - RV volunteers). Our first project was in Alaska. We have been in all fifty states building new churches, repairing others, pastor’s homes, Teen Challenge facilities, etc. We are now retired again, sold the motorhome and are staying closer to home. We are both active in our church.

Bob, I really enjoy reading all the news about Grossmont College and old friends in the Grapevine. You are providing a wonderful service for all the retirees. I have saved all issues and enjoy going back and perusing them.

I want to remind the original counseling staff that in 1978 I was the first counselor to retire. I find it hard to believe that this June I will have been retired 25 years. I'll never forget my retirement surprise party - the Randels Roast. Wow, what a party! My tenure at Grossmont was only twelve years, but they were the best years of my professional life.

By the way, would someone give Claudia Thompson a hug for me. I see she finally retired in 2001. I've been waiting a long time for the last one of my vintage to hang it up.

Bob, your email said to send you a couple of lines. Come on, give me a break. This has been a long time coming. Skip that "Driftwood" stuff, this deserves "RETIREES WRITE" and besides, the picture is larger. To let you know I am serious, I checked some of the articles. The longest one I could find was an 8 1/2-inch column by Lee Roper. If this exceeds that, I allow you to perform some surgery. I thought Gordie would set the standard, but he only used up 5 1/2 inches. His bike must be getting old, I know he is.

Best regards to you, Bob, and all my old friends at Grossmont.

Jacquelyn Winn writes:

I retired this past July 1, 2002. After working 26 years in the Grossmont Cuyamaca District and for over 40+ years altogether! My life has had many changes with a loss of several members of my immediate family two years ago this March. Retirement is wonderful, but my husband (Barry Winn of the RESP department, Grossmont College) of 20 years still loves to work. We travel around the world now many times each year, around his work schedule, and are soul mates traveling!

Please send my regards to all retirees I’ve worked with these many years, it was an honor and privilege to work with each one. I wish them all the best of Health & Happiness in this new year.

Gay Russell Develops Computer Learning Center for Seniors

                                  
    Gay holding special clock award                                         new computer facility ready for use

Retiree Gay Russell has been working hard for the last twenty months developing a computer learning center at Tucson’s Sun City Vistoso Retirement Community. The center will be voluntarily operated and managed by the Vistoso Computer Society. There are no charges for any of the classes or services. Volunteers staff all classes and services.

Her efforts were featured in the December 8, 2002 edition of Tucson’s Arizona Daily Star. Following is an excerpt from that article.

Vistoso Seniors Eager to Tackle E-mail, Internet
            By Jonathan J. Higuera ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Who says senior citizens are afraid of computers? A new computer learning center for Sun City Vistoso residents, set to open this month, challenges all those tired assumptions and stereotypes. "Senior citizens have as much interest in computers as elementary school kids," said Gay Russell, past president of the Vistoso Computer Society and a key player behind the establishment of the new Vistoso Computer Learning Center. "They are primarily interested in the Internet and e-mail." For the past 2 1/2 years, Russell has made it her mission to make sure the residents of Sun City Vistoso have a computer learning center that offers hands-on instruction.

Sun City Vistoso is a seniors-only housing division with 4,800 units. The learning center will be available only to members of the Vistoso Computer Society - a group that currently includes more than 500 households. Her efforts have led the computer society to raise about $30,000 to furnish and outfit the computer center. She's also been able to wangle discounts and gifts from some of the biggest industry names: Dell, Apple and Microsoft, Adobe and other software makers. She even got Comcast Cable to donate high-speed Internet access. "I know what it means to write grants and do this kind of stuff," the retired college professor said. "I just put my skills to work."

She also worked with the volunteer architect to design the center, which is a 27-by-40-foot room within a 13,000-square-foot building. The Vistoso Center also will house a library, meeting rooms and administrative offices of the Sun City Vistoso Community Association. "In the past, we were always sharing a room with others," said Norm Callender, president of the Vistoso Computer Society. "Now it's ours." The computer learning center will feature 16 PCs, seven MacIntosh computers, 25 computer tables, 30 chairs and an overhead-mounted projector to be used for classroom instruction. Because none of the volunteers or coordinators are paid, member dues will go directly to upkeep of the center. "The club has been offering instruction to membership for several years but we didn't have any hands-on training," Russell said. "This will allow us to have hands-on instruction."

Among the reasons senior citizens are getting into computers, aside from the Internet and e-mail, are genealogy research and digital manipulation, particularly for old family photos. The society will continue to offer classes, including digital photography, genealogy research, financial management, word processing and other software. But now the students will be able to follow the instruction on a personal computer instead of taking notes.

By Bob Steinbach

Digital cameras are becoming ubiquitous. Using a computer to crop, enlarge and print copies of digital photos is quick easy and economical. It looks to me like we are about the last of the folks who are going to be asking, "What are we going to do with all of our slides?" Slides and photos take up a lot of space and furthermore, the colors in photos, negatives and slides tend to deteriorate over time.

What to do with my thousands of slides has troubled me. A lot of family history gets broken into pieces as photo albums and slides are distributed among heirs or worse yet, thrown out. For example, I would like to have my kids refresh their memories of a trip to Death Valley with their grandparents, but who gets which slides?

I considered video taping a slide show, but during viewing there is no flexibility in the time a picture is shown; also, getting to a particular picture is difficult. Digitizing photographs and slides offers flexible and economical options for preservation and duplication. After some experimentation with scanning, I have found that the best way to get slides into my computer is to project the slide on a quality screen and photograph the screen, without flash, using a digital camera on a tripod. The process goes smoothly with one hand advancing the slides and the other pushing the camera button for those pictures I’m interested in.

I have also had good luck using my digital camera to capture photos that are difficult to scan because they are in albums or frames.

Once in the computer, the photos have been preserved and now the fun begins. The pictures can be cropped and tuned (brightness, contrast, etc.); pictures can be joined to create a panorama; people can be added or distracting clutter removed from photos. I use Micrographix Picture Publisher to manipulate the pictures; John Dixon likes Adobe Photoshop; Don Scouller uses Corel Photo-Paint, and there are many others.

                            
Here’s a picture that could have been taken                                     Sample screen from Diji Album
    if Virginia and I had met in college.

To create digital photo albums, I use Diji Album. A trial version can be downloaded from www.xequte.com and purchased for under $35. DijiAlbum allows one to create computer photo albums with one or more photos on each page; the size of each picture can be adjusted; titles, descriptive text and graphics such as speech and thought bubbles can easily be added as well as video clips and sounds. Background music may be played during album viewing. You may select from many covers (e.g., leather, bamboo, granite, ...) and many page styles (e.g., parchment, rice paper, linen, woven reeds, colors, …)              

Create a number of albums and burn them on a self-running CD for distribution to your friends and relatives. The recipient places the CD in a PC and a bookshelf pops up displaying the titled spines of the albums on the CD. Click on an album and start turning the pages. Click on an icon to return to the bookshelf and select another album.

                
                                                                          The Diji Album bookshelf

We retirees can take an active role in preserving our photographs and family history. Eight or ten albums and thousands of photos on a single CD; think of all the empty shelf space you will soon have in your closet or garage.

P.S. Computer tip: The Print Screen key (don't shift) puts a copy of the monitor screen on the clipboard. You can then go to any other program (Word, Paint Brush, Publisher, Email, ...) and paste a copy of the screen into a document or graphic image.

Editor’s Note: If you have any helpful technical advice or tips that you think would be of general interest to our retirees, write us a letter.

Death is the golden key that opens the palace of eternity. ~ John Milton ~

Cora Lynn "Corky" Harrison

Cora Lynn "Corky" Harrison died on December 28, 2002, while resting on her sofa (she’d be grading math finals). Years ago she had several heart attacks, but had been in good health lately. Her career at Grossmont College began in 1974 in the math department. She was planning to retire this year at the age of 64, and had been crossing off the days on her office calendar.

Corky was originally from Los Angeles but her children were raised in San Diego County. She is survived by three children, Chet, Daneen and Dan, and four grandchildren. Corky loved her family and her friends as well as her Grossmont College students. She enjoyed gardening, a hobby she pursued during her entire adult life, especially tending to her many rose bushes. Corky had a wonderful, robust laugh and a zest for living that will be missed by her many friends, relatives and students. She was planning to move to Orange County after retirement to spend more time with her four grandchildren.

(ed. note: The preceding was submitted by retiree Elaine Wolfe, long-time office mate of Corky Harrison at Grossmont College)

George Washington

George Washington died December 18, 2002, at the age of 88. He was a ‘charter member’ of Grossmont College (1961) and served for many years as chairman of the Language Department until his retirement in 1976. His language specialty was Spanish.

George was born in Phoenix, Arizona, but moved to El Cajon, California in 1921, where he farmed with his family, graduated from Grossmont High and attended San Diego State University prior to serving as a communications officer with the Navy during World War II. After the war, he remained in the Navy Reserves, retiring as Cmdr. in 1974. He taught Spanish at Grossmont High from 1945-51 and at Helix High from 1951-61, at which time he joined the staff at Grossmont College.

George was not only one of Grossmont College’s first faculty, but also one of the first retirees. His quiet mannerisms endeared him to students and colleagues alike, and we shall all miss him.

Your Benefits Committee Needs a Retiree Representavive

The GCCCD Benefits Committee needs one more retiree. Presently, the only retiree representative is Gene Murray but there are two slots on this committee for retirees. The committee meets infrequently on an as-needed basis and helps determine important district benefits such as health and dental. If you'd like to serve or need more information, please contact Michelle Cuozzo at 619-644-7710.

Contact us or find out more about the GCCCD Grapevine at    Grapevine home