Alumni of the San Jose State University Math Dept.
(collected from old Math Dept. and COS newsletters)
1930-39
Preston Royer received his AB Math from SJSU in 1936. He later received an MBA from Stanford in 1938. He is retired after working for more than 30 years at Owens Corning Fiberglass as a manufacturing executive.
Robert W. Rector received his AB Math from SJS in 1937. He was the Dean of College and Engineering and Computer Science at West Coast University. He also held positions at the US Naval Academy and UCLA. He was also an Executive Director of the American Federation of Information Processing Societies.
1940-49
Dorothy Carey Denevan received her BA Math in 1941 and her MA Math in 1977 from SJS. She taught as a lecturer in our department for many years after receiving her Master’s degree.
Albert Yost received a BA Math from SJS in 1942. He worked for the US Engineering Dept. for three years. From then until his retirement in 1990 he was employed as a civil engineer and land surveyor by a civil engineering firm in Redwood City.
Lucille Morton began her studies at SJS in 1943 in mathematics and received a master’s degree from this department writing her thesis under Vern Hoggatt. Her maiden name was Rafferty. She taught at Notre Dame High School and also at Evergreen Elementary. She subbed at SJCC in the evening and also taught at Campbell High School in Gilroy. She has given money to fund the Morton Future Teacher Award, which is given each year to a student interested in teaching mathematics.
Marjorie A. Stuhlman (Hopper) received a BA Math degree from SJS in 1947. Marjorie writes that she attended SJSU from 1942-47 and was a member of the first class of graduate students. Marjorie taught math at Fremont High from 1947-50, then was department chairman at Modesto High School from 1960-82.
Mary Eileen Wilson Kahara received her BA Math in 1947. She has worked as a computer scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Charles Ginsberg received a BA Math degree from San Jose State College in 1948. After graduation he worked as a studio and transmitter engineer at radio station KQW in San Jose, now KCBS in San Francisco. In 1952 he joined Ampex as an electrical and radio engineer. He was put in charge of a six-member research team that conquered the technical hurdles and in 1956 introduced the world's first practical videotape recorder (VTR) and the tape to go with it. Charles Ginsburg held the position of vice president of Advanced Technology at Ampex from 1975 until his retirement in 1986. In all, Ginsburg received seven U.S. patents and 32 foreign patents. Charles was one of the first 50 inductees into the Consumer Electronics Association Hall of Fame for his contributions as a leader in developing video recording. In 1990 Ginsburg was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, where he was credited with "one of the most significant technological advances to affect broadcasting and program production since the beginning of television itself." Ginsburg was born in San Francisco in 1920, but was living in Eugene, Oregon when he died in 1992.
Benjamin Briggs received his BA Math from SJSU in 1948. Later he received his MA from Stanford in 1949 and an MBA from Santa Clara in 1975. He worked for 31 years at NASA Ames in research, technology transfer, digital computer usage and programming and several years after that as a financial analyst for FMC Corporation.
Claire Christensen received his BA Math in 1949 and her MA Math in 1951 from SJS. Claire is a retired mathematics teacher and dept. chair. He taught at Los Altos High School for 25 years.
1950-59
Arthur Hiatt received his BA Math in 1956 and his MA Math in 1964 from SJS. He taught for ten years in the Santa Clara Unified School District during which time he completed his Ph.D. degree from UC, Berkeley. He taught at Fresno State University for 20 years until his retirement in 1994. Dr. Hiatt died in 2007 at the age of 73.
Robert Rienhart received his BA Math in 1957 and his MA Math in 1964 from SJS. He has taught at Blackford High School in Campbell.
Robert Buchser received his BA Math degree from SJSU in 1957. He later received his MA degree from Santa Clara University in 1974. He taught for 7 years as a secondary mathematics teacher and more than 19 years as a Vice Principal at Wilcox High School.
F.K. Tomlin received his MS Math from SJS in 1958. He was employed for over 35 years developing software on a variety of different projects at SRI. He died in 1992
1960-69
William R. Nipper received a BA Math from SJS in 1960. He taught high school math for seven years. Later he programmed various mathematical and statistical models at GE for twenty years. He eventually became a manager and then a technical writer at GE. He continued as a technical writer at Sun Microsystems after leaving GE.
Hank Javora received his BA Math from SJSU in 1962. He worked for many years as a Computer Procurement Specialist and IP contract administrator. He also picked up a JD degree on the way. He is now retired.
Howard Jensen received a BA Math in 1962 and an MA Math in 1967 from SJS. He taught for many years at Pioneer High School in San Jose. In 1992 he was recognized as Teacher of the Year by the Santa Clara Valley Mathematics Association and he was selected as a finalist in the Tandy Technology Scholars Program.
Michael Hodos graduated from our department in 1965. He has worked for many years at Oracle Corporation. Presently he is the Director of Internal Support.
Dan Borror received his BA Math from SJS in 1965. He has been employed by Toshiba Semiconductor as the director of engineering.
Miriam Pasqual received her BA Math from SJS in 1965. In her first math class at San Jose State she remembers being the only girl in the class. She received a teaching credential in 1966. She taught K-8 mathematics in the Murray School District and the Dublin Unified School District for 38 years from 1966-2004. Her goal was to make mathematics interesting and inviting to all of her students, but tried to give special encouragement to the girls in her classes.
George Crozier received his BA Math in 1966 and his MA Math in 1970 from SJS. He taught mathematics in the Fremont Unified School District for 17 years. He then acquired a tax preparation company now known as Tax Related Services, which he still operates today.
Ken Smith received a BA Math from SJSU in 1967. Later he received an MSEE in Computer Science from UC Santa Barbara in 1977. He has been employed by the Pacific Missile Test Center where he has developed software for the testing of US Navy missiles and aircraft.
Barbara Warsavage received her BA Math from SJSU in 1967. She later received an MS in Statistics from CSU, Hayward in 1975, and a Ph.D. in Education from Stanford in 1982. She has worked as a statistician at Rolm Corporation but she is currently a self-employed statistician/analytics professional.
John Legg received his BA Math degree from SJSU in 1968. John has been employed by the Ford Aerospace and Communications Corporation. He served as a Design Reliability Supervisor and his group was responsible for the reliability analysis of spacecraft.
Cheryl Larson Stewart received her BA Math in 1968 and her teaching credential in 1969 from SJS. She taught Math for 17 years in the Fremont Union High School District
Kenneth Neves received his BA Math degree from SJSU in 1968. Later he received an MA Math in 1970 and a Ph.D. in Mathematics (numerical analysis) in 1973 both from Arizona State University. He worked for many years at Boeing where he was the director of computer science research. Presently he is the Chief Information Officer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
William Goodin received a BA Math degree from SJSU in 1969. He received his Masters in 1971 and Ph.D. in 1975 from UCLA. He has worked in environmental, aerospace, and computer graphics industries, he has been a faculty member of Caltech University and has also worked as Coordinator of Industrial Programs at UCLA extension.
Patricia Seymour received her BA Math in 1969 and a teaching credential in 1971 from SJSU. She has worked for several years at Lockheed as a Subcontracts Administrator in the Space Systems Division.
Yvonne Kim Cantey received her BA Math degree from SJS in 1969. She has worked as a programmer analyst at TRW.
1970-79
Vernon Paige received his BA Math in 1970 and his MA Math in 1974 From SJSU. Vernon has worked as a CADCAM systems consultant for Lockheed Missiles and Space. He has written a book on Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and teaches classes in mathematics and CAD at DeAnza College.
Eugene Pucine received a BA Math from SJSU in 1970. For 25 years he worked as a computer systems analyst at NASA headquarters in Texas.
Wilson Wong received his BA Math from SJS in 1970. He is the co-founder and general manager of Asante Technologies in San Jose. Prior to founding Asante, Wong held engineering and management positions at a number of technology companies including Sperry Univac, Sytek and Ungermann-Bass. He also has a Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California and a Master's Degree in Business Administration from the University of Santa Clara. Wong also holds five patents in computer and network design. Headquartered in San Jose, Asante Technologies Inc. is widely recognized as a leader in providing multi-platform, high-performance LAN networking and Internet solutions for the SOHO, education and pre-press markets.
James Hayes received his BA Math degree from SJS in 1970. He worked for several years as a mathematics instructor in the Clark County School District in Nevada.
Gary Schaezlin received a BA Math degree from SJS in 1970. After graduating he started his own business. He is the owner and co-founder of Western Mountaineering a company in San Jose that manufactures and sells sleeping bags and other outdoor equipment.
Tom Ezaki received his BA Math degree from SJS in 1970. He has worked as a software engineer at General Electric. He received an MS in Cybernetic Systems from SJSU in 1976.
Bill DeHay received his BA Math from SJS in 1971 and later received a JD degree from Santa Clara in 1984. He has worked as a staff engineer at Lockheed Missiles and Space Company.
Bob Randall received a BA Math degree from SJS in 1971. He teaches math at Los Altos High. He is also a member of the California Bar having earned his law degree in 1991.
Gregg Whitnah received a BA Math from SJSU in 1971. Gregg chairs the math department at Menlo–Atherton High. In 2001 he received the San Mateo County Teacher of the Year Award.
Harold Bishop received his BA Math from SJS in 1971. He served as an officer in the US Navy for more than 20 years. In the Navy he was a data/research analyst, using computers to do mathematical modeling dealing with manpower studies. He also obtained an MS degrees in Applied Mathematics and Operations Research from the Naval Postgraduate School.
Matthias Reese received his MS Math degree from SJS in 1971. He worked for several software firms, mainly aerospace companies, as a senior programmer/analyst.
Bruce Kelly received a BS Math in 1971 and an MS Math degree in 1974 from SJS. He also received an MS in computer science from UC Davis. Bruce is a computer scientist at the National Energy Research Computer Center in Livermore. He has also taught Math and CS courses part-time at Chabot College.
Patricia Figueroa received her BA Math degree from SJSU in 1972. She has served as a mayor and city council member for the City of Mountain View for more than 10 years.
Karen Shimane Akimoto received BA Math degree from SJS in 1972. She also received an MS in computer science from Santa Clara University in 1981. She has worked as a senior engineer at ESL Inc.
Rodman Gibbs received his BA Math in 1973 and his MS Math in 1977 from SJSU. He has worked as a senior staff engineer at Ultrasystems and before that he was a software systems engineer at TRW.
Cathleen Kennedy received a BA Math degree from SJS in 1973. Ms. Kennedy is an associate professor of computer and information science at the College of San Mateo. Cathleen was selected, from 500 nominees nationwide, as an Outstanding Community College Professor of the Year for 1998 by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
George Rios received his BA Math from CSU, San Jose in 1974. He then went to Law school at UC, Davis and obtained a JD degree in 1977. He then returned to San Jose to practice law. He feels strongly that the training and problem-solving skills he acquired while obtaining his Math degree greatly contributed to his success in his law career.
Ron Darnell received a BA in Math from SJS in 1974. Currently Ron works for Lockheed Martin as a Staff Engineer in the United Kingdom. He used his math skills to optimize the orbits for the first seven GPS satellites launched in the 1970's and 1980's. He was also a contributor for one of the first "Star Wars" development programs for Lockheed.
Michelle Cook-Crosby received her BA Math degree from SJSU in 1975. She later received an MBA from Santa Clara in 1979. She has worked as a manager for Finance-Systems Development at Four-Phase Systems in Cupertino.
Ruth Davis received an MS Math degree from SJS in 1976. She received her Ph.D. in Information Science from UC Santa Cruz in 1979 and her dissertation won the ACM Doctoral Forum award that year. Presently she is a Professor of Computer Engineering at Santa Clara University.
Robert L. Day received his BS Math from SJSU in 1976. He is an Engineering Specialist with Loral Space Systems working on sophisticated weather and communication satellites.
William Slough received his BA Math in 1976 and his MS Math in 1976 from SJSU. He later received his Ph.D. in computer science from Washington State University in 1992. He now teaches in the Dept. of Math and CS at Eastern Illinois University.
Keith Sorenson received a BA Math degree from SJSU in 1976. He is the chairman, president, and CEO of RasterOps Corp., which he co-founded in 1987.
William Malloy received his BA Math from SJSU in 1976. He has worked for MASSTOR Systems Corporation as a software development engineer. Presently Mr. Malloy is a Senior Technical Staff Member in the Business Intelligence and Database Technology organization at IBM's Silicon Valley Laboratory. He has 30 years experience in business, scientific, and operating systems development.
Paul Blocher received his BA Math in 1970 and his MA Math in 1977 from SJSU. He has taught math at Baymonte Christian High School in Scotts Valley and currently teaches at San Lorenzo Valley High School.
Mark Belshaw received his BA Math degree from SJSU in 1977. He has worked as a musician and layout designer for Altera Corporation. He now works in Silicon Valley and plays for a local band, the Joe Sharino band.
Martin L. Casserly received his BA Math in 1977 and a teaching credential in 1978 from SJS. He has worked as a mission controller at Lockheed in Sunnyvale.
Madelyn (Teall) Gould received a BS Math in 1977 and an MS Math in 1980 from SJSU. She worked as an Assistant Professor of Math/CS at Georgia Perimeter College. She recently retired after 25 years of teaching.
Jim Riley received an MS Math in 1977 from SJSU. He worked for several companies as a systems analyst/software engineer. Presently he is the coordinator of the Math Lab at Hartnell College.
Margaret Owens received a BA Math in 1978 and an MS Math in 1980 from SJSU. Later she received her Ph.D. from the University of Oregon. She has been at CSU, Chico since 1984. She received the 1994-95 outstanding teacher award at CSU Chico. Presently she is the associate dean of natural sciences.
Pran Suri received his MA Math from SJSU in 1978. He has worked as an engineer with Ford Aerospace and Communications Corporation. In addition, Pran teaches mathematics classes at Mission College.
Gary Blair received his BA Math degree from SJSU in 1979. He also obtained an MS in computer science from UC Davis. He has worked for many years at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratory. In addition he teaches part-time at New Haven College.
Eileen Casey Walters received her BA Math (Concentration in Statistics) from SJSU in 1979. For many years she was employed as a senior analyst by Applied Decision Analysis. Presently she is the technology specialist for the Contra Costa County Office of Education. In 1997 she received the gold disk award from CUE (Computer-Using Educators).
1980-89
James Hoeft received his BA Math from SJSU in 1980. He has been employed as a software engineer at several companies including Lockheed Missile and Space Company and Tiburon Systems.
Dorothy Shreve received her BA Math from SJSU in 1980. She has worked at ESL Inc. and other companies as a software developer.
Sharon Cabaniss received her BA Math from SJSU in 1982. While at SJSU, Sharon received an ARCS scholarship in 1982. She later received a Ph.D. in Math from UC Santa Cruz in 1986. She taught for several years in the Math/CS department at San Jose State. Currently she is a tenured professor in the Math Dept. at Sonoma State University.
Cliff Holroyd received his MS Math from SJSU in 1982. He has been a software engineer at Unisys Corporation and has also worked at Lockheed as a scientific programmer/analyst.
Laurel Leone received her BA Math from SJSU in 1982. She worked for 10 years as an account executive and industry consultant for Pacific Bell. She later founded her own company, Leone Advertising.
Katherine Sarin received her BA Math in 1983 (summa cum laude) and her MA Math in 1985 from SJSU. She has worked as a software developer /consultant for a variety of companies in Silicon Valley including KLA, ATP, IBM, and Rasna. She has also been the VP of Engineering for aod.
Kent Okasaki received his MA Math from SJSU in 1984. He has worked for many years as a numerical analyst at HP Research Labs. When his supervisor Paul Byrd died he worked to raise money to fund a Paul Byrd award, which is given each year to a deserving student in applied math. In addition to donations from Professor Byrd’s family and colleagues a significant portion of the money was raised from the sale of stock from Kent’s HP stock option plan to endow the scholarship.
Kathleen (Dedinas) Hann received her BS Math from SJSU in 1985. While at SJSU she received a Math/CS Dept. scholarship in 1983. She received her Ph.D. in Math from UC Davis in 1991 under the supervision of Don Chakerian. Presently she is a Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at CSU East Bay.
Seana Hogan received her BA Math degree from SJSU in 1985. She later got an MA Math degree from University of California, Berkeley. She has been a software engineer at IBM for over 15 years. In 2004 she inducted into the Ultracycling Hall of Fame. She won the Race Across America (RAAM) 6 times and broke the woman’s transcontinental record several times.
David Marshall received his MS Math from SJSU in 1985. He has worked as a research and engineering computer analyst for the US Air Force.
James Bonacci received a BA Math from SJSU in 1986. Presently James is at Adobe Systems in San Jose, working as senior project leader. James is also interested in art and received a BFA from SJSU in 1996 and took a six-month break from work to pursue graduate level studies in fine art at Mills College in Oakland.
Linda L. (Cope) Eisel received a BA Math degree from SJSU in 1986. She became an officer in the United State Air Force working in the Manpower and Quality Management field, which is a combination of Industrial Engineering, Manpower Resource Management, and Total Quality Management.
Alvaro Brasil Silva graduated with a BA in Math from SJSU in 1986. Alvaro works in the field of Manufacturing Management. Alvaro is currently the Production Control Manager in a Sunnyvale MEMS company.
Mark McKinzie received a BA Math from SJSU in 1987. At SJSU he received the Hoggatt prize for research potential and a Dieckmann scholarship in 1986 as well as Putnam prizes in 1985 (1st place) and 1986 (2nd place). Mark went on to study at the University of Wisconsin where he received a Ph.D. in the history of math. His thesis entitled The Halley-Euler Method, was supervised by Dr. Michael Bleicher. Mark is currently a professor in the Dept. of Mathematical and Computing Sciences at St. John Fisher College. In 2002, Dr. McKinzie received the Carl B. Allendoerfer Award for a joint paper with Curtis Tuckey, "Higher Trigonometry, Hyperreal Numbers, and Euler's Analysis of Infinities", Mathematics Magazine, Vol. 74, No. 5, December 2001, pp.339-368. The Carl B. Allendoerfer awards, established in 1976, are given for articles of expository excellence published in Mathematics Magazine.
Stephen Monarque received a BA Math degree from SJSU in 1987. Stephen relocated to Maryland from California, where he left a position as an environmental engineer with the Marine Corps to work for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Washington D.C. as a project manager. As a project manager, he examines requests from nuclear power plants for code reliefs and license amendments and also evaluates safety reports on equipment inspections.
Daniel Abihider received his BA Math from SJSU in 1989 and an MBA in Computer Information Systems at the College of Notre Dame. He has worked as a programmer/analyst for Lockheed Missiles and Space for many years.
1990-99
Matthew Lazar received an MS Math degree from SJSU in 1991. In 1994 he received a Ph.D. degree in Mathematics from the University of California at Santa Barbara, where he wrote a thesis entitled Two-Sided Equivalence, Double Cosets under the supervision of Morris Newman. Dr. Lazar started teaching at Mission San Jose High School in January of 2002. Before that Dr. Lazar worked as a software engineer at Sportvision, the company that created the “yellow first down line” for college and professional football on television.
William Dunlap received a BS Applied and Computational Math in 1992. While at SJSU, William was awarded an ARCS scholarship as well as a Dieckmann scholarship from the Math Dept. in 1991. William is presently employed by Microsoft as the product manager for Microsoft Visual C++. Before that he had programmed C++ and Java tools at Borland International.
Julie C. Mitchell received her BA Math from SJSU in 1992. While in the Math Dept. at SJSU she received the Hoggatt prize, and a Dieckmann scholarship in 1991 as well as a Putnam prize (2nd place) in 1990. She continued her studies at the University of California Berkeley where she wrote a Ph.D. entitled Hodge Decomposition and Expanding Maps on Flat Tori, which she wrote under the supervision of Morris Hirsch. Presently she is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Biochemistry and the Director of the BACTER Institute for Computational Biology at the University of Wisconsin.
Rebecca Wahl received her MA Math from SJSU in 1993. While at SJSU, Rebecca received a CSU pre-doctoral scholarship. She continued her studies at Purdue University where she completed a Ph.D. in functional analysis under the supervison of Carl Cowen in June 1997. Presently she is an assistant professor in the Dept. of Mathematics and Actuarial Science at Butler University in Indiannapolis.
Cecelia Anderson received a BA Math from SJSU in 1994 and earned her Math Teaching Credential in 1995. She was one of 26 public school teachers who were designated "1999 Teachers of the Year" for Santa Clara County. She was honored at the 30th annual awards ceremony held in September at the Mountain View Center for Performing Arts. Cecelia currently teaches at C.T. English Middle School in Los Gatos.
Chris Jang received his BS Applied and Computational Math from SJSU in 1994. While at SJSU Chris received an ARCS scholarship and a MAERCS scholarship in 1991 and Putnam prizes from the Math Dept. in 1990 (3rd place) and 1992 (1st place). He later received an MS Applied Math from NC State University. Since 1998 he has been working at Alcatel Network Systems with a group that develops network management software for telecommunications equipment.
Karl Yorston received his MS Math from SJSU in 1995. At San Jose State he was awarded an ARCS scholarship and he also was awarded a Fuller scholarship from the Math Dept. He is a mathematics teacher at Menlo School.
Chieko Honma received her MS Math from SJSU in 1998. Her thesis was entitled Approximate Inverse Preconditioners for the Conjugate Gradient Method and was published as a joint article with her thesis advisor Dr. Mohammed Saleem in the International Journal of Computer Mathematics. Chieko is presently an assistant professor of mathematics at Ohlone College where she received tenure in 2004.