Cal Poly Update
The E-Newsletter for University Friends and Alumni

Alumni in the News -- January

Alum, Retired Professor Team To Help Army With Iraq Peace Planting
Tom Burchell (B.S., Ornamental Horticulture, 1991) and Ag Education Professor Emeritus Joe Sabol answered the call from the U.S. Army to help with a gesture of peace in Iraq. The 164th Army Battalion there wanted to beautify the Balad base north of Baghdad as a gesture of goodwill. Master Sgt. Patricia Marsano wrote to the California Rare Fruit Growers for help; the unit wanted to plant 164 olive trees -- a traditional symbol of peace. Sabol and Burchell, both members of the CRFG association, took on the project as a challenge. Sabol contacted Burchell, owner of Burchell Nursery in Oakdale; Burchell offered to provide 200 trees at half-price, plus planting sleeves, tree stakes, and packaging. An anonymous donor volunteered to cover the cost of the trees -- and FedEx volunteered to ship them. The trees arrived at Balad in mid-December, ready for planting by the 164th.
Read the Tribune story

Passings: Influential Architecture Alum Horace Gilford
Noted Oakland architect Horace Gilford (B.S., Architecture, 1964) worked on schools, city buildings, shopping malls and single family homes. He also served as a mentor to many young black colleagues, offering support, guidance and a forum for them to showcase their work. Gilford died Jan. 4 of complications from multiple sclerosis. He was 69. In 1969, Gilford and two partners founded Advocate Design Associates Inc. in Berkeley, the first black-owned architectural firm in the Bay Area. The team, with Gilford as designer, completed many community-oriented developments, including the award-winning James Kenney Community Recreation Center in Berkeley and the Sojouner Truth Manor senior housing in Oakland. Gilford set up his own firm in Oakland in the mid-1970s.
Read the Contra Costa Times Obituary

Alum is Top Cotton Farmer in Western Region
This year’s Far West High Cotton award winner is Gil Replogle of Visalia. Replogle (B.S., Industrial Technology, 1991) began using a GIS system in his cotton farm operations recently, increasing productivity. The system he implemented uses satellite guidance system to ensure tractor work from disking, to furrowing to planting and cultivating is as accurate as it can be. Replogle, 38, is a third-generation Tulare County cotton producer.
Read the Western Farm Press story

'Monster Cable' Guy Noel Lee
Featured in Investor's Business Daily Profile
Noel Lee started a business to make a premium version of a commodity product — speaker wire. An engineer by training, Lee (B.S., Engineering Technology, 1971) discovered that wires of different construction produced higher quality audio performance than the cheap lamp wire that was commonly used at the time. Lee started Monster Cable Products in his garage in San Francisco in 1978. As a musician and avid audiophile, Lee was looking for ways to improve his sound system. He experimented with different types and methods of winding speaker wire until he found the best solution. People thought he was crazy to go into business selling premium speaker wire.
Read more of the Investor's Business Daily Story

Accounting Alum Liddell Victorious in Ultimate Fighting Title Bout
Accounting grad Chuck Liddell (B.S., Bus. Admin, 1995) is still the Ultimate Fighting Champion. Liddell fought challenger Tito Ortiz for the title Dec. 30 in a match broadcast on HBO Pay Per View channels. Cal Poly alum Liddell remains UFC's biggest star -- with fans clamoring for photos and autographs when he appeared in the audience. He appeared on the Conan O'Brien show Jan. 11.
Click Here to Watch the Interview on NBC.com
(See the 'Most Recent Videos' window & links)

Alumna Makes Headway in NASCAR
Over the last four NASCAR racing seasons, Allison Duncan has crisscrossed the country. Duncan (B.S., Mechanical Engineering, 2000) spent three years as part of the NASCAR-affiliated Drive for Diversity, racing at Hickory (N.C.) Motor Speedway in 2003-04, and at Stockton (Calif.) 99 Speedway in 2005. Last season she raced at Motor Mile Speedway outside Radford, Va. Along the way she scored two rookie of the year awards, at Hickory and Stockton, became the first woman to win a Stockton Late Model feature -- one of two triumphs she scored there -- and finished second in the standings in her first year as part of Richard Childress Racing's development program.
Read about her at NASCAR.com

Biochem Alum Scores Big with Wines
Matt Trevisan (B.S., Biochemistry, 1997) is now a Paso Robles winemaker. The Cal Poly biochem grad saved money for years, and even lived out of his car for a few months, to save enough money to put down on his property. It paid off; this month, his Linne Calodo wines accomplished a rare feat, being included twice in the San Francisco Chronicle’s Top 100 Wines of 2006. The 34-year-old admits he just stumbled into it while driving a forklift.
Read the SLO Tribune story

Ag Alumna is Director of Winemaking at EOS Winery
Leslie Melendez (B.S., Nutrition Science, 1995) is now director of winemaking for EOS Winery. Melendez began working at the winery in 1993 as a lab technician while she was studying food science at Cal Poly. She worked her way up through every position in the production department and considers herself "the luckiest person in the world" to be head winemaker today.
Read the SLO Tribune story on EOS Winery

CRP Alum is Assistant City Manager in San Rafael
Jim Schutz (MCP, City and Regional Planning, 1994) started as the Assistant City Manager in San Rafael in early January. Schutz, 38, received a bachelor's degree in environmental studies UC Santa Barbara. He served two years as an urban planner in West Africa, working for the Peace Corps. After leaving the Peace Corps, he received a master's in city and regional planning from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.
Read the Marin Independent-Journal Story

Alumna Makes a Life of Missionary Work in Kenya
Arroyo Grande native Andrea Newell (B.S., Recreation Administration, 2001) now calls Africa home. Newell, 31, has spent much of the last six years doing missionary work in Kenya. She’s traveled there six times, working with various outreach organizations, each time growing more dedicated to helping the children of Nairobi.
Read the SLO Tribune profile

Alumna Hits a Pinnacle in Floral Design
Melinda Lynch (B.S., Ornamental Horticulture, 1980) is a Cal Poly instructor who has has spent more than 20 years in the floral design industry. She has taught floral design to Cal Poly students for the past 10 years, all while running her own floral business, Festive Designs. Lynch’s creative designs are featured by the John Henry Co., a prestigious national wedding flower publication. The company's book, set to be released in January, is used by professional florists and floral design students across the country.
Read the SLO Tribune profile of Lynch

Alum Couple Featured in SF Chronicle for their Home Renovation
Alumni couple Wayne and Marilyn Rasmussen's restoration of a prematurely aging 1970s kit house in Alamo is full of curves. The San Francisco Chronicle recently featured their home renovation project, complete with a full photo gallery. Wayne (B.S., City and Regional Planning, 1974) met Marilyn when they were students at Cal Poly.
Read about the couple and their innovative home -- and view the photos

Alum Helps Fuel Biodiesel Interest in Sacramento
Obadiah Bartholomy (B.S., Mechanical Engineering, 2002), a 27-year-old SMUD engineer, keeps a 250-gallon tank of biodiesel in his one-car garage. He trundles it down the driveway on a hydraulic jack. On top of the tank, Bartholomy has rigged a pump and a meter. A fuel filter hangs from baling wire and plumber’s tape. Bartholomy got into biodiesel at Cal Poly. He built a trailer-mounted biodiesel refinery for his senior project. He volunteered his garage as a distribution node in 2004, and now has about 15 regular customers. Bartholomy isn’t in the veggie-fuel business for the money. He sells the fuel at cost.
Read the Sacramento Bee story

DPTC Cheese Course Alumna Another Headline-Making Artisan
Holly Foster Chapel’s Country Creamery cheese is based in Maryland and sold across the country -- recently making the big time in New York. She and her husband own 100 Jersey and Holstein cows and are adding a creamery and cheese line. Foster drives to Pennsylvania twice a month to make her unpasteurized cow’s milk cheese with the help of an Amish cheesemaker. She's just one of the artisan cheese makers across the nation who honed their business and gourmet craft skills in courses at the Cal Poly Dairy Products Technology Center
Read the Washington Post story

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