GCCCD Grapevine GCCCD Grapevine | Volume 5, Number 3 | November, 1995 |
Checking on information about staff personnel in Grossmont's early days, the Grapevine
came on the picture above, which has been gracing the Personnel office for more years than
people can remember. It was titled "Pioneers of Grossmont College" by the
photographer. Everybody was identified except the woman on the far left in the second row.
Instead of her name on the identity list on the back of the picture there's a question
mark. Do you know her? If so, the Grapevine would like you to clear up the mystery. Let us
know. Incidentally, how many others in the picture do you know? Click
here for their identities.
Grossmont College's retiree ranks will increase by four in December, bringing the 1995
number to 16. Leaving in December will be George Hernandez, Administration of Justice
instructor; Richard Roscoe, Senior/Maintenance; Gay Russell, Telecom instructor; and
Jeanette Williams, Payroll.
Earlier 1995 retirees not noted previously in the Grapevine are Carolyn Constantine, Risk
Management; Judy Grobbel, Evaluations Tech/Adm; Connie Halterman, LRC; Ann Lesh, Student
Affairs; Glen Meyer, Custodial Supervisor; and Janet Wlodek, Theatre Arts.
One veteran from Cuyamaca College and 14 from Grossmont are already on the retirement list
for June, 1996. The Cuyamaca retiree will be Norm Walker, Electronics instructor.
Grossmont retirees will be Trudy Bratten, Math; Lee Brown, Political Science; Keith
Bryden, Telecom;Al Cano, Counseling; Ann Daluiso, Family and Consumer Studies; Ed Daner,
Sociology; Donna Doyle, Math. Also, Tom Hepp, LRC; Bob James, Physics; Vic
Mendoza, CSIS; Jay Richen, Speech; Neil Towne, Speech; Paul Wheatcroft, Philosophy; and
Ken Nobilette, Math.
Thirty-two recent and future retirees will be honored by their friends and colleagues at a
party marking the end or near-end of their service to the GCCCD.
The party, Friday, December 8, at Jake's Restaurant in Chula Vista, will feature a buffet
starting at 5 p.m. Music for dancing, contests, and drawing for door prizes will highlight
the evening.
Nonpaying guests will include one 1994 retiree, 16 from 1995 and 15 slated to retire next
June.
Tickets for everybody else will be $12. Ticket and reservation information will be
mailed-or already has been-to current retirees. As usual, the more, the merrier.
by Pat Higgins
What I'm about to relate has nothing to do with the GCCCD, retirement or journalism, but I
think it's worth passing on.
My wife and I were in Eastern and Central Europe for three weeks in September and October
and greatly enjoyed the visit. Sights, sounds, meetings were almost all memorable, but the
experience I remember most clearly was not on the tourist's list of highlights.
It involved meeting two friends, a mother and son I had known five to 10 years ago in San
Diego. They had come to the United States from Czechoslovakia to get away from a
repressive government. I never knew the specific details, but they arrived via refugee
camps in Austria and spent time in Los Angeles before coming to San Diego.
She had been an office manager in Czechoslovakia, but found such a position beyond her
here because she spoke little English. So, she went to work cleaning houses. I needed a
once-a-week cleaning woman, and some friends told me about her. So she cleaned my house
every week for six years. Her son, a university graduate who spoke English much better
than his mother, became a house painter and started his own company. But the going was
tough economically, and they found no streets paved with gold. Her parents and another son
were in Czechoslovakia, and it became apparent to me that her heart was in her homeland.
The same seemed true of the son, though the pull of Prague wasn't as strong on him as on
her.
But they kept working, and also studied for American citizenship. They succeeded, and
citizenship day was great for both of them. They took a new and more Americanized surname,
and she also changed her first name.
Then I married and moved, and didn't need her any more, and we lost track for a while.
When things blew up in Czechoslovakia and repression faded, we had an idea they might go
home. Our thought was confirmed later by a woman we met who knew them.
So, I was hoping last month, though a little faintly, that I'd be able to find them when
we got to Prague. I doubted that they'd be in the phone book, but thought the hotel
concierge might have some ideas about finding them.
But when I looked in the phone book, there they were, one after another under their
Americanized names. I phoned the son immediately. Though surprised nearly speechless, he
spoke English as well as ever, despite the long lapse in its use. He said he'd tell his
mother of our presence, and they'd come to the hotel for a visit.
They did come, and though our visit was only for a couple of hours, we caught up on their
life since they left America. Her mother had died, and her father, though living, wasn't
well. They're in different activities from those in the United States, they're involved in
management of a health foundation, and seem happy with their work. Surprisingly, the
mother's English seems better than when she was here.
Life in the Czech Republic is far better than under the regime from which they fled years
ago, and on the whole they're fairly happy with their lot.
Happy, that is, until they start thinking and talking about America. Now, despite the hard
times and frustrations they encountered in this country, America seems the prime object of
their affection. This country's individual freedoms, its opportunities, its government by
the people all are in their thoughts and talk. Their most prized possessions are their
American passports; I don't think anything or anybody could persuade them to give them up.
Will they return to the United States? I doubt the mother will, at least while her father
lives. But I won't be terribly surprised some day to answer the phone and hear the son
telling me he's in America again.
Maybe with them it's a case of the United States being greener pasture, or of absence
making hearts grow fonder. It doesn't matter. I still feel good thinking of my friends
who've lived here and gone back to their native land, confirming what I've always
known-with all its troubles, and its seemingly endless problems, America remains the
magnet for people who want the planet's best place to call home.
by Ray Reynolds
George Washington was the first . . . Grossmont College faculty member to retire.
George, who taught Spanish, got away in 1976. He has been living in the San Diego area
ever since and has a second distinction as a Grossmont teacher . . . has anybody else
spent a good part of his sabbatical in Tijuana? George, his wife and small son lived in a
trailer in TJ, George spending a lot of his time just "passing time" with
ordinary Tijuanans and picking all kinds of Spanish language idiosyncrasies to pass on to
his students. He didn't turn in a report to the administration and nobody asked him to,
but it was probably one of the most useful sabbaticals ever distributed at Grossmont.
Sure, he could have gone to Spain and studied inscriptions at the Alhambra. You could
write a report on that, but leave it to George to make sense of a sabbatical.
George's wife died recently after a 20-year illness. He visited his son and three
grandchildren in Sioux City recently and will probably do some traveling now. He promises
to make the next retiree breakfast.
by Tom Scanlan
This column differs from previous columns in that I'm featuring only one writer . . . Tony Hillerman. I discovered
his novels only five years ago while looking for something to escape the boredom of
waiting on a trial assignment during jury duty. I was instantly hooked, and I'd like to
share this reading pleasure with you.
Tony Hillerman's novels are set in the Southwest, primarily New Mexico and Arizona. The
protagonists are one or two Navajo tribal policemen, Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn, who lead
the reader down dusty roads past primitive hogans, remote trading posts, across mesas and
down canyons and into the mountains, while solving a crime mystery that involves their
jurisdiction, the vast Navajo reservation. His readers include "desert rats" who
love the settings, mystery fans who appreciate his well-crafted plots, people who are
fascinated by Native American culture, and those who read for that pure enjoyment to be
found in tales well told by a skilled writer.
It wasn't long before I'd read all of Hillerman's novels and found myself looking forward
to each of his new ones. I had hoped to see him briefly this summer during my visit to New
Mexico, but he was behind schedule completing his latest novel and facing a visit with his
editor in New York at the same time I'd be in New Mexico. Consequently he agreed to a
telephone interview. Much of what follows is based on that thirty-five minute interview
(which I've paraphrased and edited to accommodate space limitations).
Tony Hillerman Photo
credit: Barney Hillerman
Tony Hillerman certainly follows that advice. His novels are the kind that send you off to
a comfortable hammock or easy chair with a gentle admonition to your family that you don't
wish to be disturbed.
Tom Hepp, Grossmont's first faculty member and first librarian, who will retire next June,
hopes the GC Library will regain lost luster in the near future.
Hepp began work in June 1961, after getting a library degree at Cal Berkeley and spending
six years as assistant librarian at Diablo Valley College. He thinks 35 years here are
enough, despite the fact the library has been a major object of affection in all those
years. He may not forsake the place entirely; chances are that he'll do some part-time
work after he retires.
During Grossmont's first year of operation on the Monte Vista High School campus, Hepp was
the only librarian, with one library clerk to help. Frances Pierce joined him the next
year, and in time the library staff increased to a respectable number. But Hepp feels the
library has been understaffed for the last three years, and the deficiency is typical of
the overall library situation.
"The book collection is badly deficient," he says. "We have a library about
abreast of the '70s or the early 1980s. The number of journals we've had to discontinue
makes me unhappy.
"The building is grossly inadequate, and has been for the last 15 or 20 years.
There's a plan to enlarge it, but when, I don't know. But I think enlargement should be
scratched, and a new building put up."
He has hope for some alleviation of the library's poverty. His longtime library colleague,
Dick Johnson, is working on a three-year plan for reliable funding, thus filling some of
the library's gaps. However, a plan is a plan until its funds come through.
Still, not all of Tom's memories are of problems. In fact, most of his memories are
good-of the library, his colleagues and GC students.
One era stands out particularly-the time of the Vietnam War protests in the late '60s.
"I remember the all night sessions-library-ins-when students discussed the war and
their own courses. It was a time of closeness to students, and it was good," Tom
recalled.
During his years at Grossmont, Hepp has been active in regional and state organizations.
For example, he has been president of the statewide Community College Librarians, a
division of the California Library Association, and of the Palomar District of CLA.
In retirement, Tom will have the company of his wife, and occasionally of their son, 20,
who is a student at the new San Marcos State. Tom has the resolve of every near-retiree
who ever lived-to catch up on reading and on things which need doing around the house.
Good luck!
Front row, l. to r.-Ruth Camp, A & R; Jeanne Merchan DeMass/Hyde, A & R; Irene
Daves, A & R; Mary Kay Merch, President's Secretary; Joyce Gauss; Fredda Ferlin,
Counseling*; Hazel Lynch, Switchboard; Irene Denham, Data Processing*.
Back row, l. to r.-Unidentified; Jack Hansen, President; Grace Soldin, Pres. Steno; Woody
McDowell, Plant Manager*; Cornelius Vander Poll, Registrar.
*Deceased
Grossmont retiree Will Dellegar and his wife, Charlotte, bet their safety and their home
against Hurricane Opal in September and won.
As hurricane warnings resounded through their town of Lillian, Alabama, near the Gulf
coast just west of Pensacola, Florida, the Dellegars made preparations for the storm.
"We fastened down the hurricane shutters, and the house was completely covered, and
we were ready to ride it out," Will told the Grapevine.
Fortunately, the worst of the storm passed east of them; the only effect on the Dellegars
was an eight-hour power outage. In August an earlier storm had knocked trees onto houses
and caused widespread outages, but Opal did little or no damage to their neighborhood.
Residents of gulf islands were hard hit, Dellegar said, and a number of beaches lost their
sand to surging waves as high as 15 feet.
Traffic in the area and far inland became chaotic as thousands fled the coast seeking
inland shelter. One man Dellegar knows spent more than 17 hours in his car as he
unsuccessfully sought shelter, eventually making a circle back to his home.
One important thing on Charlotte's schedule has been to replace their ice maker, which
hasn't been working. Then she'll spend the two days of warnings before the next storm
making ice. It won't be for a neighborhood storm watch party, but to have ice when the
power goes out. Even an eight-hour outage can be tough on perishables, to say nothing of a
week without power, as many were during Opal's reign, and the Dellegars intend to avoid
that situation if possible.
 L to R. John Lomac, Bob Rump, Tom Archambault, Rob Larson, Tom Scanlan |
 L to R. Connie Halterman, Marilyn Filley, Mary Alt, Dave Glismann, Muriel Owen. |
More than 40 retirees and guests ate and visited at the annual Retirees Breakfast August
18 in the Griffin Gate on the Grossmont campus.
In addition to the much-praised buffet sponsored by John Burnham & Co. and catered by
Aramark, there were reports on district and college affairs by Chancellor Jeanne Atherton
and Grossmont President Richard Sanchez. The reports ranged from the future of the East
County Performing Arts Center-going to the city of El Cajon-to the number of district
personnel slated for retirement in the next three years-44.
The morning also included a talk by Sandra Curry of the sheriff's sub-station in Santee on
measures for personal and household safety against crime and a brief history of health
care efforts and social security by Faye Freeman.
Chief organizer and arranger for the breakfast, called by some who attended one of the
best we've had, was Lori Carver.
by Tom
Scanlan
Do you miss the campus but returning for a visit just isn't practical? Curious about
what's going on in your old department? Wonder what that new instructor who replaced you
when you retired looks like and what his background and interests are? Well now you can
visit the campus, look around a bit, check out some new faces, and never have to leave
home...if you have a computer and a modem with access to the internet.
Grossmont college went on the internet just before the start of this Fall semester (the
Cuyamaca site hasn't been fully set up yet). Workshops were available during Professional
Development week in August so that faculty could learn about the internet and how to use
available software to access the internet. These workshops were presented by Beverly
Blaylock, Instructional Computing Systems Manager, and others, and were filled to capacity
by faculty eager to drive on the "information highway".
A number of library computers have been connected to the net and are available now to
qualified staff and students. Some faculty and administrative offices are also already
connected, with plans to connect the remaining offices by the end of this academic year.
There is now limited off-campus access to the internet. This means that staff who have a
campus internet account can load the proper software into their home computer and
configure their modem to use the college as their internet "server". Before
long, students will be able to link up from home, download articles, upload term papers,
hold electronic forums with other students and their instructors and even link up with
"guest lecturers" on specialized topics. Times, they are a'changin', folks.
So how does all of this affect retirees (other than making some of us glad that we retired
when we did)? Well, if you have access to the internet through your home computer, you can
connect with GCCCD's web page at the following URL (address): http://www.gcccd.cc.ca.us/ From there,
you'll be able to go to the web page of either Grossmont College or Cuyamaca College. The
Grossmont College site includes general information and a history of the college,
department information, a campus map (and a great aerial photo), admissions information, a
calendar of events, faculty and student pages, and much more. By clicking on the
color-accented "hot text" (hyper-links) you can move from one page to another,
going from department to department, from a faculty page to a class page, for a grand,
illustrated electronic tour of the campus and what it offers our students.
The system is quite new and most faculty still haven't created their own web page, but
there are twenty on the Grossmont campus who have at the time of this writing, and the
list grows longer daily. Dave Lewis, a grad student from SDSU, is helping the faculty with
this and some of the pages are quite impressive. Most include a color mug shot, education,
some personal information, courses taught, brief course descriptions, and an e-mail
address. Others are much more extensive, with links to examination schedules, grading
policy, journal articles and other web sites of interest to students in their classes.
Currently, teaching faculty have the highest priority for establishing internet accounts
but retirees are eligible. If you're interested in accessing the internet via Grossmont
College, you can contact Beverly Blaylock at 465-1700, ext. 390. To establish an account,
you'd need to acquaint yourself with Netscape Navigator (one of the best web-browsers
available), Eudora, and e-mail and internet address formats. This is best
done at a workshop, although there's a packet of materials available from the Grossmont
College IMC-CALM lab that explain all you need to know.
If you have a computer and a modem and have used the internet, all of this is a breeze.
I'm no expert but I've gone through all of this; attended a workshop, set up an account
and created a web page. I'd be happy to answer questions on any of this, so feel free to
call me at 447-3934. If you have a computer and don't have a modem or haven't used
it, this may be a good time to see what's happening in cyber-space. Some day there'll
probably be a web-site for GCCCD retirees where information can be posted and
exchanged...maybe there'll even be an on-line version of the Grapevine.
At the very least, interested retirees ought to exchange e-mail addresses. It's so much
quicker and easier than snail mail. If you'll e-mail me your on-line address, I'll publish
a list in the next issue of Grapevine.
The Grapevine is a free newsletter for retirees of Cuyamaca and Grossmont Colleges, published three times yearly.
News and Production Editor
Pat Higgins
Desktop Production and Layout
Sirkka Huovila
Photography
John Dixon
Biblio-Files Column
Tom
Scanlan
To submit news items, articles or photographs of interest to GCCCD retirees, mail them to:
The Grapevine is published approximately the first week of November, April and August.
Deadline for submission is the 10th of the month before mailing.
Maintained by:
Tom Scanlan
Lasted Revised - October 14, 1998
