Santa Clara Magazine

Col. Garrett S. Yee ’87 completed the Army War College, earning a master’s degree in strategic studies, and was re-elected to his position on the Board of Trustees of Ohlone College in Fremont, Calif.

Garrett S. Yee '87 was recently promoted to the rank of Brigadier General in the United States Army Reserve. Garrett, who just returned from a year-long deployment to Afghanistan, lives in Fremont with his wife, Maria and their three children.

Michael Williams ’87 and his wife Heidi Huhn adopted their eight year-old son Justin on November 16. They live in Alameda, Calif. and have two children from Michael's first marriage, Eli (21) and Hannah (18).

Freshman Dorm: Swig

Anne Weldon ’87 received her teaching credential from UC Berkeley in 1988 in K-8 education with endorsements in English, French. She taught Language Arts/Social Studies at Sequoia Middle School in Pleasant Hill, Calif. for two years before moving to the Northwest. She substitute taught in Seattle and Gig Harbor and worked as a tour guide in Alaska before joining World Teach where she taught English at the University of Loja in Ecuador for one year and stayed an extra year living in Vilcambamba, Ecuador in the Southern Highlands of the Andes. She returned to Gig Harbor where she taught Spanish at Peninsula High School for 4 years before moving to Olympia, Wash.—the land of water, mountains, rainforests, volcanos, where she now resides with her two children, Allie-18 and Casey-13. This will be her 12th year teaching Spanish at Nova Middle School, a private school for gifted and talented students.

John Turner '87 was appointed senior vice president of sales at TriNet, a provider of PEO services to small businesses and entrepreneurs. In this role, Turner will be responsible for increasing TriNet's sales activities and revenue while expanding the company's sales team. Prior to TriNet, Turner was the vice president of Americas Sales at FalconStor Software.

Freshman Dorm: Swig

Stacey Taddeucci '86 writes: "For 24 years I have lived on the Monterey Peninsula with my husband, Dominic and our 2 children, Alexandra '11 and Patrick. I retired from teaching kindergarten a few years ago and am now enjoying substitute teaching and walking my dog, Champagne. Dominic is enjoying a new job in the produce industry. Alexandra is a senior this year at SCU and is enjoying her last year. Patrick is at the University of Arizona and loving the big school scene."

Claire Stoermer ’87, longtime house manager for the California Shakespeare Theatre in Orinda and current teacher at Fruitvale Elementary School, is supporting her 14-year-old daughter, Zendaya Coleman, as she begins her acting career on the Disney Channel’s new comedy Shake it Up. Stoermer, a former Bronco basketball player, says when Zendaya was younger, she would routinely bring her to the Shakespeare Theater where Zendaya would pass out programs and sell raffle tickets, but mostly she would eagerly watch the shows and rehearsals.

Laura Rogers Stimson '84 and husband Charles "Cully" Stimson welcome children 3 and 4, Will and Cate--they join Ian and Sophia, both 7 years old. Laura is Director of the Career Litigation Track for the US Navy and Cully is a Senior Fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington DC.

Kathleen (Mitchell) Simpson ’87, M.A. ’90 married Robert Simpson on October 2, 2010, at St. Augustine Catholic Church in Pleasanton, CA. Kathy and Bob were second-grade friends and classmates in Pleasanton. They currently reside in Brentwood, Calif. SCU alums in attendance were bridesmaid Christine Fierro ’88, Wes Bliven ’88, Brendan Lewis ’88, Michelle Matsumoto ’88, Diane Zilliotto ’88, John Scardamaglia J.D. ’09, and Jim Mitchell ’83.

Mark Shuken '87 has been appointed Senior Vice President and General Manager of Time Warner Cable (TWC). In this new role, Shuken will oversee day-to-day management, programming, production, marketing and all business operations of the regional sports networks. Prior to joining Time Warner Cable, Shuken served as President and CEO of DIRECTV Sports Networks, where he was responsible for all of the company's regional sports networks. Previously, he served as President and CEO of Liberty Sports Group, where he created and led a standalone division of regional sports networks. Before that, he was the Senior Vice President and General Manager for Fox Sports Net Northwest, which, at that time, was the nation's most highly rated regional sports network. He has 25 years in sports programming experience. He also spends a significant amount of time on community service initiatives, including currently acting as Chairman of the Board of Directors for Special Olympics Washington, and serving on the Boards of Directors for The First Tee of Greater Seattle and the Seattle Sports Commission.

Susan and Mark Samuelson '87 are happy to share the news that their daughter, Darcy, was born July 19, 2010.

Beth Rumery '87 writes: "Sue, my partner for 21 years, and I have been in Connecticut for 17 years. After several years working in academic libraries, and having my own business, I went back to school and earned a Master in Library Science degree. In July 2010, I became the Library Director for the Univ. of Connecticut, Avery Point Campus."

Barry Rudolph MBA ’87 has been appointed to the Dot Hill Systems Corp. board of directors. Dot Hill is a leading provider of SAN storage solutions. Rudolph, a storage and networking veteran of 32 years, retired from IBM in November 2010.

Until his retirement Mr. Rudolph held numerous senior level positions in a variety of functional areas, including operations, engineering, product development, test and assurance, program management, field support, and direct manufacturing. Most recently he was VP System Networking, with responsibility for delivering overall networking product strategy, portfolio management, and P&L over each of the products in the group.

Luis J. Rodriguez '89, J.D. '92 was among five attorneys certified in July for the State Bar Board of Governors. He was elected, along with Gretchen Nelson, to represent District 7, which encompasses Los Angeles County. Elected to serve a three-year term, Luis will be sworn in at the State Bar’s annual meeting on September 25. Luis Rodriguez, a Los Angeles County deputy public defender, is a former member of the State Board of Education, a former president of the Mexican American Bar Association, and former chair of the State Bar’s Council on Access and Fairness.

Shannon Potts ’87, the coordinator of assessment in the Santa Clara Unified School District for the last seven years, is La Entrada Middle School's new principal. Her earlier work in the Santa Clara district office included a stint as the instructional, materials, library and technology specialist at the middle school and high school levels, according to a press release issued by the district. Ms. Potts, who has also taught first and sixth grades, has technology and bilingual credentials, according to the district. She served as a summer principal at both the middle school and high school levels for several years, working closely with the Stanford Teacher Education Program, or STEP, the district said. She received her bachelor's degrees in history and Spanish from Santa Clara University and her master of arts degree in educational leadership from San Jose State University.

Alexa Xianlan Mendizabal was born on 3 Sept. 2009 to Greg Mendizabal '87 and Jennifer Wang in Kirkland, Washington. She joins her sister, Kira, who turns 4 in November, and her parents who live in Kenmore, Washington.

Daniel G. McBride '87 is the Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Risk Officer for The Cooper Companies based in Pleasanton, Calif. Dan and his wife, Maya, live in Orinda with their three children, Aidan (12), Liam (9) and Kieran (5).

After departing from the Rose Garden, I headed straight to Belize, Central America, for a year-long stint as a PE coach to 750 primary schoolkids. Had no idea what I was getting into, but it was a hoot. Upon re-entry, driving back to the Bay Area for an indoor job, I stopped by a friend's house in LA and never quite made it any farther north. Through a course of unpredictable events, I eventually acquired my wonderful wife (Paula), two fantastic boys (Andy, Kevin), a hefty mortgage, and a dog (which I tried to get rid of). Along the way, I kept moving south and currently live in the Los Alamitos/Seal Beach area. Someday I might find myself in Central America again--who knows?Education, with the exception of UCLA grad school, has been all Jesuit training since kindergarten--I kid you not. So I've been conditioned to always ask why. Why am I here? Why not? How did I get here?, somewhat like that Talking Heads song, "Once in a Lifetime." This is probably more than you need to know. Perhaps I'll find answers at the 25th Reunion. Perhaps not. Either way, I'm excited about attending with Paula. For work, I'm currently with a company, DealerTrack, none of you have heard of unless you're in the automotive industry. I've been on the client side, the agency side, and the marketing partner side. When asked which I liked best, I tell people they all have their up sides. My interests: At this moment, I'm interested in figuring out how not to forget to wind up the cuckoo clock. Due to the fact that kite boarding was no longer conducive to my lower back, I've become an avid stand-up paddleboarder (what's SUP?), and one can frequently find me on the water at 7:00 am. The key to all of this is trying to keep a balance in life. If you know how, please share (cmcycle@gmail.com).  Music-wise: Still living in the '80s. For favorite movies there are four: Field of Dreams; The Good, The Bad and The Ugly; How to Train Your Dragon; and Dumb and Dumber because I can't believe something so stupid could be so entertaining.

Diane E. Maolney, M.A. '87 is Director of Field Education at Loyola University Chicago Institute of Pastoral Studies.

Michael Krupa ’87 joined Mercer as the technology strategist for its global talent business. In this role, based in Portland, Ore., he will be responsible for further enhancing the vision and strategy for client-facing technology solutions that support product and consulting offerings across Mercer's Talent business. He will also advise senior leadership on all aspects of technology-driven market changes that can meet the needs of clients and support business growth.

He has more than 20 years of experience in all facets of HR and IT applications and is a well-known speaker and blogger regarding HR technology. He joins Mercer from Knowledge Infusion, where he was director of technology, responsible for designing the technical architecture and planning service offering for the firm's deployment practice as well as consulting in this area for numerous clients.

Prior to Knowledge Infusion, he held a number of technology-related senior management positions of increasing responsibility at such leading organizations as Charles Schwab, InfoBox, Inc. (where he was the founder and CEO) and Kaiser Permanente.

Jenny (Merk) Krenek '86 writes: "I have been married to Jeff Krenek '87 for 17 years. We have four children; Alex and Maddy, 15, Leah, 13, and Peter, 11 (hopefully some future Broncos in the bunch). We lived in the Bay Area for many years but have called Portland home for the past 14. I'm a stay at home mom, which of course means I'm not home much, mostly driving between schools, sports, and activities. Pleasant surprise to find several Bronco families at our local elementary. There's an instant connection with fellow Santa Clara grads. Looking forward to catching up at the 25th reunion!"

Kim (Johnson) Flodin '87, a photo supervisor with The Associated Press in Los Angeles, has been appointed News Editor/Photos for Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. She is based in Dallas.

Freshman Dorm: McLaughlin

Steven "Blue" Jay ’87 has been living in Chicago since 2010 where he works as a Consultant/Project Manager for Infor Global Solutions. Married to Laura, whom he met at fellow alum Jay Holmes' ’87 wedding, Steven and Laura have three children, Sarah(9), Margaret(8) and Griffin (5). Steven still cant believe the hockey team he followed since his youth, the LA Kings, are Stanley Cup Champions!