Santa Clara University

In Memoriam

Wayne M. Kanemoto J.D. ’42

On May 24. The San Jose native was awarded his law degree in absentia in May 1942 because he and his family had been sent to the internment camp at a converted horse-racing track in Santa Anita. Thanks to the help of friends, he was permitted to take the state bar examination in Los Angeles under military escort. Later, after being moved with his family to an internment camp in Gila River, Ariz., he was allowed under a rare exception to be sworn into the California state bar while under federal detention in Arizona. He then volunteered for the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the all-Nisei combat regiment. He was subsequently transferred to the Military Intelligence Service Language School at Camp Savage, Minn., then to the U.S. 10th Army Air Force in India and Burma, where he served as a Japanese-language signal intelligence specialist for the remainder of World War II.

After returning in 1946, he met and married his wife of 60 years, Betty, and began private law practice in San Jose—which made him the first Japanese-American attorney in Santa Clara County. He assisted in the creation of naturalization classes and mass swearing-in ceremonies for first-generation immigrants, Issei, in San Jose. In 1962 he was appointed to the San Jose Municipal Court, becoming the first second-generation immigrant, or isei, jurist in Northern California. He retired from the bench in 1982. He is survived by his wife and four children.

Steve Cisler

On May 15. A longtime friend of the Center for Science, Technology, and Society, Cisler joined the Center in 2007 as project manager for the KnowledeX program, which is focused on research and development in communication, collaboration, and knowledge-sharing in virtual communities. He served in the Peace Corps in Africa and had a long and distinguished career as a librarian, first in a public library and then as a senior researcher in the library at Apple Computer, where he also headed the Apple Library of Tomorrow program. He supported a wide range of community networking projects, served on the board of the Internet Society, and was among the first people lobbying for the allocation of radio spectrum for wireless computer networks—an effort that led to the establishment of the 802.11 standard commonly used today. He is survived by his wife, Nancy; two sons; and twin granddaughters. A memorial service was held in June. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in his memory to the Friends of African Village Libraries (www.favl.org; P.O Box 9053, San Jose, CA 95109-3533).

Timothy John Pramer Jr.

On Aug. 28. A first-year law student, Pramer died after a fall from the railing in the third-floor atrium in the Learning Commons, Technology Center, and Library. He and his family were remembered at a Mass held in the Mission Church and services were held at Our Lady of Fatima Church in Danbury, Conn.