Carruthers
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| 40s | 60s | 70s | 80s | 90s| Feather fince niche in
consulting
business
| Ramos' students connect
to NASA,
Internet | | |||
| Dorsett C. Bennet II, '73, and Blake K. Keffer |
| Doug Buffet, '84, and Mary Selmer |
| Irene Magallanez, '87, '93, andPaul Hughes |
| Robert C. Tryer, '94, and Moss Francesca DeWindt |
| Vivek Johsi, '96, and Brian Medina, '98 |
| Kelli M. Knight, '97, and Lawrence Vasquez |
| Marry Ellen Johnston Mullikin, '76, and Jerry Mullikin of Pendleton, S.C., daughter, Melanie Jane Mullikin, Nov. 17, 1997 |
| Janie Duke Gifford, '80, and the Late Dwight Gifford of Piano, Texas, Daughter, Kelsey Marinda Gifford, June 13, 1996 |
| Alvin T. Martinez, '81, and Gilda G. Gallegos, '87, of Santa Fe, son Francisco Gilberto Martinez, Dec. 28, 1997 |
| Craig Waugh, '85, and Cyndy Waugh of Denver, Colo., son Daniel Waugh, Dec. 20, 1997. |
| Michael L. Connor, '86, and Shari Hanson Connor, '86. of Albuquerque, son, Matthew L. Connor, March 3, 1997 |
| Christine Dupnik Aguilera, '86, of Phoenix, Ariz., daughter Isabella Theresa Dupnik |
| Roger Neal Wilkson, '89, and Esther Gomez-Wilkson, '92, of Schertz, Texas, son, Joshua Vicente Wilkson. Dec.22 1997 |
| Heath Petty, '91, and Tiffanie Tillman-Petty, '94, of Albuquerque, daughter, Alexa Rae Petty, Feb. 16, 1998 |
| Dennis J. Quintana, '92, and Sonia Melissa Holguin-Quintana, '92, of El Paso, Texas, son, Tristan Cruz Quintana, Feb. 17, 1998 |
| Meriltn J.S. Yerks, '94, and Gary D. Yerks of White Sands Missile Range N.M. daughter, Brittanie Jean Yerks,Jan. 17, 1998 |
| Raman Joshi, '97, and Preeti Joshi of Fresno, Calif., son, Devan Shanker Joshi, Dec 12, 1997 |
| Carl W. Reinecke, '27, of Albuquerque, Jan. 30, 1998 |
| Samuella L. "Sammy" Callaway, '29, of Alamogordo, N.M., March 31, 1998 |
| Sarah Mahill Allen, '33, of Tucumcari, N.M., Feb. 10, 1998 |
| Maxel L. Bright, '34, of Melo Park, Calif., Oct. 8, 1997 |
| Samuel Welsh, '38, of Albuquerque, Aug. 16, 1997 |
| Mildred Bruner, '39, of Santa Fe, Aug. 5, 1997 |
| Dewey W. Powell, '40, of Casa Grande, Ariz., Dec. 1, 1997 |
| Berneita Hendrix, '41, of Las Cruces, March 6, 1998 |
| Elmer V. Beyer, '42, of Mesilla Park, N.M., Dec. 19, 1997 |
| William R. Hanks, '42, of Rogers, Ark., April 6, 1998 |
| John E. Ansley, '48, of Clinton Township, Mich., Feb. 25, 1997 |
| Edward A. Ragsdale Jr., '49, of Pentwater, Mich., Feb. 14, 1998 |
| Robert C. De Baca, '51, of Huxley, Iowa, Jan. 31, 1998 |
| Frank "Pancho" Salopek, '55, of Las Cruces, April 21, 1998 |
| Dolores S. Telles, '56, of Las Cruces, Dec. 2, 1997 |
| David K. Mullins, '58, of Goleta, Calif., Dec. 4, 1997 |
| Carl Hammons, '59, of Escondido, Calif., September 1997 |
| Jerry Watkins, '59, of Alamogordo, N.M., Feb. 9, 1998 |
| Ronald M. Daniel, '67, of Truth or Consequences, N.M., Dec. 28, 1997 |
| John Reece McFadin, '67, of Alamogordo, N.M., Feb. 28, 1998 |
| Dean E. Wygant, '69, of Las Cruces, March 19, 1998 |
| Larry Lucero Rodriguez, of Las Cruces, Feb. 23, 1998 |
| Bruce Cooley, '83, of Cedar Crest, N.M., Feb. 22, 1998 |
| Gilbert J. Valerio, '84, of Albuquerque, Feb. 23, 1998 |
| Ronnie Stockton, '85, of Portales, N.M., Feb. 4, 1998 |
Carruthers
Garrey Carruthers, '64, was elected to a two-year term with the
U.S.
Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. Carruthers is president and chief
executive officer of Cimarron HMO. He was governor of New Mexico from 1987
to 1990 and served as assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of
Interior from 1981 to 1984. He was on the faculty of NMSU's College of
Agriculture and Home Economics for 12 years.
| |
John W. Riddle, '64, retired after 30 years with the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. He was awarded the Meritorious Civilian Service Award during a ceremony on Aug. 1. Riddle and his wife live in Temple, Texas.
Bud Hettinga, '65, was named to the New Mexico Game Commission by Gov. Gary Johnson. Hettinga is president of four companies, including construction, trucking and farming operations.
 | Larry D. Leavell, '66, was named president of Southeast Asia operations of Santa Fe Energy Resources. Leavell will be assigned to Jakarta to manage the company's oil and gas operations. His primary responsibilities will be the production, exploration, marketing and administrative activities associated with Santa Fe's four production sharing licenses in Indonesia. He will also oversee drilling operations in other areas of Southeast Asia. |
 | Rodger Allen Pool, '66, has been appointed president of Eastfield College, a member of the seven-campus Dallas County Community College District (DCCCD). Pool has held many administrative positions within the DCCCD, including 10 years as assistant vice chancellor of educational affairs. |
 | Hugh L. Boyt, '68, was promoted to president and chief operating officer for Santa Fe Energy Resources. Boyt has been with Santa Fe Energy since 1983. |
Rob Evans, '69, was hired in April as head basketball coach of the Sun Devils at Arizona State University. Previously, he built Mississippi into a Southeastern Conference power. Evans was an assistant basketball coach at NMSU from 1968-75.
 | Mary Ellen McKay, '79, has retired as department head of NMSU's Extension Home Economics and Family and Consumer Sciences Department. McKay was with the department for 30 years. She and her husband plan to travel and visit family members. |
 | Bruce Hinrichs, '84, has been named eastern district department head with NMSU's Cooperative Extension Service. As director, Hinrichs will administer extension offices in 11 eastern New Mexico counties, including Union and Harding counties. He will oversee extension programming, budgeting and personnel in the district. |
 |
David Blossom, '85, graduated summa cum laude from graduate school at Louisiana State University after receiving his bachelor of business administration degree from NMSU. He then spent several years with the Procter & Gamble Corp. Blossom works for Boston Scientific Corp., a medical products company, as a marketing manager with global responsibilities. In his role, Blossom has been a technical adviser on several episodes of the NBC television show ER and has appeared on the show. |
David A. Swift, '85, has joined Universal Concerts as the director of marketing for the company's 20,000-capacity amphitheater under construction in San Diego County, Calif. He will oversee the company's concert division's expansion into the San Diego market. For 10 years, he worked for the Los Angeles-based Avalon Attractions.
Christine Aguilera, '86, has been hired as vice president of business development and general counsel of Sky Mall, Inc., the largest in-flight catalog company in the United States.
Oscar A. Perez Jr., '86, has joined NMSU's Dona Ana Branch Community College as coordinator and instructor of the electronics technology program. He has been affiliated with the community college as a part-time instructor in computer-aided drafting and electronics since 1990.
Greg Smith, '86, was awarded the Honorary American FFA degree at the organization's annual meeting in Kansas City. The degree is considered one of the top agricultural awards in the nation. Smith is a rancher and farmer in New Mexico's Roosevelt County and is a board member and past president of the Roosevelt County Farm and Livestock Bureau.
Carmen Arrieta, '87, accepted a position as executive director for finance, budget and accounting with the El Paso, Texas Independent School District. Arrieta previously worked for the Gadsden Independent School District in Anthony, N.M. She is a Certified Public Accountant and a member of the Texas Association of School Business officials.
J. Calvin Crowder, '87, '92, has been named executive assistant to the senior vice president of Central and South West Corp., Dallas, Texas. Crowder, formerly director of Regulatory Services of CSW, lives in Plano, Texas, with his wife Lynne and son Joseph. The couple are expecting a second child in August.
Steven Downs, '87, recently completed the Surface Sonar Technician Course with honors. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Downs was taught methods used to describe sounds in sea water, sonar capabilities of anti-submarine warfare equipment, fire control and weapons systems.
John Naylor, '87, a cattle rancher, won the 1997 Young Farmer and Rancher Achievement Award presented annually by the New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau. Naylor uses financially innovative watering and fencing techniques. He serves on the Men's Council at Christ's Church in Roswell and is also a member of Promise Keepers.
 | Kim Trujillo, '87, was elected 1998 president of the Hispanic Women's Council Board of Directors. Trujillo, a former television newscaster at Channel 13 in Albuquerque and publicist for the international family film festival, heads her own public relations company. |
Maria Cooper, '88, was named a director of the Tourism Association of New Mexico at the association's annual meeting in Santa Fe. Cooper is the tourism and promotions manager for the City of Alamogordo.
Tina Griego, '88, won a first-place National Headliner award for a series of articles on the New Mexico's gambling industry, titled "New Mexico's Big Gamble." Griego recently transferred to the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colo. The National Headliner Awards are among the oldest and largest annual contests recognizing journalistic merit.
Mike Lowrimore, '88, was appointed president of the Norwest Back of Belen, N.M. Lowrimore has 18 years of experience in banking. Since 1994 Lowrimore has served as senior vice president of retail operations for Norwest's Community Banking division in Albuquerque.
Victor Valenzuela, '88, was featured in the Chamber Players de Las CrucesÕ world premier of NMSU resident composer and professor emeritus Warner Hutchinson's "Horn Concerto." He is a member of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and a freelance artist.
Scott Davis, '89, was promoted to sales manager of New Mexico Business Weekly. Davis has more than eight years of experience as a television news anchor, reporter and producer, and as a radio news director.
Scott McClure, '89, began his second year as a New Mexico State Society board member. McClure is a practicing attorney in the firm of King and Spalding.
Rosalee Montoya-Read, '89, director of development for the College of Nursing at the University of New Mexico, was selected to participate in the 1998 National Hispana Leadership Institute. Montoya-Read is one of only 10 Hispana leaders nationwide who will take part in the program, and the only New Mexico woman chosen to participate.
Greg Mitchell, '89, owner of United Drug, Hatch, N.M., was elected president of the 850-member United Drugs cooperative of independent pharmacies.
Lea Pare, '89, was named manager of Cottonwood Mall of Albuquerque, a member of the Simon DeBartolo Group. Pare began her career as assistant marketing director at the North East Mall in Hurst, Texas. She became a mall manager in 1995, overseeing the North Towne Square in Toledo, Ohio. Most recently, Pare was an area mall manager, supervising the activities of two malls in Toledo, Ohio. A former New Mexico Junior Miss, Pare is a certified marking director, an accreditation from the International Council of Shopping Centers.
 | Maureen Fresquez Simington, '93, has been accepted to the MIT Leader's For Manufacturing Program Class of 2000. She will pursue two degrees, an M.S. in Management from the Sloan School, and an M.S. in Materials Science & Engineering. She has worked for Eastman Kodak Colorado Division for five years and will relocate from Fort Collins, Colo., to Cambridge, Mass., to attend the program. |
Paul Gutierrez, '93, received the Honorary American FFA degree at the organization's annual meeting in Kansas City. The degree is considered one of the top agricultural awards in the nation. Gutierrez is the governmental affairs specialist for the New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau.
Jim Maes, '93, recently spent a week in Lima, Peru, teaching an international management course through Portland State University in cooperation with the Association of Peruvian Exporters. Maes is program director for New Mexico Highlands University in partnership with San Juan College, Farmington, N.M.
Katrina Weiss, '93, is Lea County, N.M.'s, first full-time program coordinator for the DWI Planning Council.
Carol A Evans, '94, '97, was hired by the Arizona Game and Fish Department as conservation education coordinator in Kingman, Ariz.
Don Graham, '94, was promoted to a management analyst IV with the New Mexico State Government's General Services Department, Office of Communications.
Keith McQueen, '94, helped build a 60-foot model of the ship Titanic for the recent motion picture. McQueen worked on the project for four months and was present for the film's special effects shots.
Lynden Armstrong, '95, was named treasurer for the New Mexico State Society. For the past three years he has been a staff member for U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici.
Andrea D. Fromme, '95, completed graduate studies in nutrition science at the University of Tennessee. Fromme is a clinical dietitian employed by St. Mary's Health System in Knoxville, Tenn.
Edward L. Hall, '95, has been promoted to senior environmental engineer at Chino Mines Co., Silver City, N.M. Hall has been with Chino since May 1994.
David R. Medina, '95, has been promoted to consumer loan officer in the Consumer Lending Division of First National Bank of Dona Ana County in Las Cruces.
Melissa Sanchez-Rutland, '95, has been promoted to administrative staffing supervisor for Olsten Staffin Services of Albuquerque. Sanchez-Rutland has been with Olsten for two years.
Tanya Torres-Steen, '95 '96, is a business and marketing education teacher, as well as the DECA advisor, at Lakes High School in Lakewood, Wash.
Dwayne Benefield, '96, has accepted a position in the Corporate
Finance
Department of Walt Disney Co. in southern California. Benefield will
travel around the world to Disney's divisions providing operational and
financial consulting services.
| |
Laura Bregler, '96, was promoted from operations officer for Pyramid Services, Alamogordo, N.M., to company president. She has been with the company since 1994.
Randy L. Chatfield, '96, is a UNIX/VMS system administrator at the Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring and Research Center, Carlsbad, N.M. In his spare time, Chatfield is working on his private pilot's license.
Daniel B. Dexter, '96, works for CMS Energy as the general manager of the Toledo Power Co. on the island of Cebu in the central Philippines.
Andrew A. Eaton, '96, received his commission as an ensign in the U.S. Navy after finishing Officer Candidate School and Naval Aviation Schools Command in Pensacola, Fla. Eaton graduated from Naval Nuclear Power School and is continuing his training as a nuclear submarine warfare officer at Nuclear Power Training Unit in Ballston Spa, N.Y.
 | Juli Hutchins, '96, began work as the 4-H agent for NMSU's Cooperative Extension Service in Valencia County in February. |
Mike Kozeliski, '96, will serve as vice president of the New Mexico State Society. Kozeliski works for U.S. Rep. Joe Skeen.
Al Siow Jr., '96, was hired as management information systems director for the Pueblo of Laguna in New Mexico in December 1997.
 | Cal Baca, '97, was named acting county program director in Cibola County for NMSU's Cooperative Extension Service. |
Alice B. Davenport, '97, has received the National Council on Family Relations' Certified Family Life Educator provisional designation. Davenport will receive full certification upon receipt of two year's of full-time experience in family life education.
Chris E. Garcia, '97, has been promoted to commercial account officer in the Commercial Loan Department of First National Bank of Dona Ana County in Las Cruces. Garcia has been with the bank since 1991.
Jason Gardner, '97, won the statewide Young Farmer and Rancher Discussion Meet sponsored by the New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau.
Anna Marez, '97, has accepted a position at Vaughn Elementary School, Vaughn, N.M., where she will teach second and third grade.
William Steen, '97, is a Washington State Trooper cadet assigned to Vancouver, Wash.
Matt Wiseman, '97, was promoted to livestock supervisor at the NMSU Clayton Livestock Research Center. Wiseman has been with the center for one year.
Daniel K. Gabel, '98, has been commissioned as a second lieutenant through the Air Force ROTC program. Gabel will be assigned as a scientist/analyst at the Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford, Mass.
 | Wendy Ray, '97, has been selected to the GTE Academic All-America District VI Team. |
Joseph A. Semprevivo, '98, is the CEO of Joseph's Lite Cookies. Joseph's can be found in 50 states and seven countries. Semprevivo created the Joseph's line of fructose-sweetened foods for diabetics.
Feather finds niche in consulting business
 |
When Dulles and Ronald Reagan Washington National airports wanted
help landscaping their grounds, they called on Tolbert Feather, '76, for
professional consulting services.
Feather, who received his bachelor's in biology, owns Feather and Associates, a Washington, D.C.-based landscape consulting business. Feather does not provide actual landscaping services, only consulting in landscape maintenance and pest management advice to a select client list of corporations and municipalities interested in long-lasting, environmentally-friendly landscapes. His two biggest clients are the major airports in the Washington, D.C. area. |
"Landscaping at a major airport is a unique challenge," Feather said. "There are several things that we have to consider, including the flight paths of birds and the migration of pests."
The Japanese Beatle, a pest that is quarantined in California and Oregon, is one of Feather's current concerns. "We are recommending the selection of plants that aren't hosts to Japanese Beatles," he said. "The beatles find their way onto airplanes and can migrate from the Washington area to the West Coast. That's something we don't want."
And while the flight paths of birds are another major concern of Feather's, visitors to the Dulles and Reagan airports were more concerned about bird droppings on their cars. "We had more complaints about that than anything else," Feather said. "Some people wanted us to get rid of the trees in the parking lots, but we can't do that."
Feather is a frequent speaker at conferences throughout the country. In October of 1991 he was a distinguished key speaker opening the American Society of Consulting Arborists conference in Albuquerque. This past January he returned to Albuquerque as part of the Think Trees 1998 conference.
Feather received his Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from the University of California, Riverside, in 1982. He established Feather and Associates in 1986.
Dan Trujillo, '92
Ramos' students connect to NASA,
Internet
Ramos had been telling stories about Johnson Space Center since
she spent three weeks there in 1997 as one of 20 teachers from around the
country selected for a hands-on summer workshop. The middle schoolers were
eager to see the Mission Control Room, Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory and
other aspects of NASA.
After Ramos attended the workshop, NASA furnished computer
equipment to her school so students could run experiments and use the
Internet. Recently, they monitored heart rates of persons standing,
running and lying on an incline, head down, like astronauts during space
flights. They shared data with students in Oklahoma and Nebraska.
"Students are excited to get to class," said Ramos, who teaches
eighth-grade integrated science. "I hardly ever have kids late to my
class."
Ramos is president of the Integrated Science Educators of Texas.
"We're trying to change how science is taught," she said. "Students
don't need to spend all their time memorizing things because with
computers you can look up the information to get the answer. It's more
important to know what the question is."
Melissa Ramos, '76,
examines a space suit at NASA.
At 5:30 on an April morning, seventh and eighth graders from Floresville
(Texas) Middle School boarded buses for a four-hour ride to NASA's Johnson
Space Center in Houston. Science teacher Melissa Clendenin Ramos, '76, who
organized the Good Friday field trip this year, was pleased and a little
amazed that 91 students showed up on a school holiday.
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