Santa Clara Magazine

Taryn Hook J.D. 88's short story,"Pluto Rising," is included in the Literary Journal TheWritingDisorder.com's Anthology, Volume II. The Anthology presents the best short fiction published by the WritingDisorder.com in 2011. Hook is an author and private investigator living and working in the South Bay Area.

Taryn Hook, Esq., J.D. '88 writes that she "is credited with bringing a mysterious disease killing snakes all over the world to the attention of renowned scientist Dr. Joe DeRisi, Vice Chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UCSF. Hook, an amateur herpetologist, wrote DeRisi a letter imploring him to find a cure for Inclusion Body Disease, which killed two of her pet snakes and potentially affected another, Larry. In response, Dr. DeRisi researched the disease, and discovered that the cause of the illness appears to originate from a new set of viruses similar to the Ebola virus. A news article published by UCSF in August of this year relates that this new discovery potentially leads to diagnostics and treatment, making it possible to someday eliminate the disease from snake collections worldwide. Hook is featured in an UCSF and NPR story about Dr. DeRisi's groundbreaking discovery as well as on other major media outlets."

Colonel Roy Agustin ’88 lives in Georgia and is the deputy director for Installations and Mission Support for Headquarters Air Force Reserve Command.

Deanne Sprinkle Wilsted '89 has had her second book published. Untangling the Knot is a contemporary romantic comedy set amid a Catholic wedding. She, husband Jeff, and their daughter live in Portland, Ore.

Fred Mendez '89 was named director of the Office of Corporate Social Responsibility at Rabobank NA. He was previously senior vice president of community and economic development. He and his wife Nicole live in Sacramento with their two boys, Alejandro and Santiago.

Edward Kwok J.D. ’89 joined Hogan Lovells as a partner in the intellectual property practice, based in Silicon Valley. Kwok's practice focuses on patent prosecution, patent and trade secret litigation, IP portfolio assessment and development, infringement and validity opinions, and licensing. He has extensive experience in representing clients in intellectual property litigations in state courts, federal courts, and the ITC.

Since 1993, he has participated in patent infringement and trade secret trials before the ITC. Kwok has prosecuted patents for analog and digital electronic circuits, computer architecture, network systems, software, semiconductor equipment, semiconductor materials and processing, mass storage media, optical and laser instrumentation, controllers, telecommunication systems, digital signal processing, image processing, wireless communication systems, global positioning system applications, and software and Internet applications.

Before becoming a lawyer, Kwok held various engineering and management positions in the semiconductor industry.

Jens Gordon '89 was named the new coach of the Salinas High School boys basketball team. He becomes just the third varsity boys basketball coach at Salinas High in 65 years. 

Gordon, who earned a full-ride basketball scholarship to SCU, was an undrafted free agent for the San Antonio Spurs in 1989. After breaking his ankle, he went on to play basketball professionally in Europe and Japan for 19 years.  

In 2006 he returned to the Salinas area and earned his teaching credential at Cal State University-Monterey Bay. Last year he coached the Salinas High JV girls team to an 18-4 record.

Malcolm J. Carruthers '94 was appointed manager of customer support for Comtech Xicom Technology Inc. in Santa Clara. Earlier this year he presented a paper at the IVEC/IVESC Conference titled "The More Things Change, the More They Stay The Same," a retrospective and prospective look at the vacuum tube industry. Comtech Xicom Technology is a world leader in satellite communications (satcom) amplifiers, some of which will be used to transmit the 2012 London Olympics to countries around the world.