Riding the California Zephyr from Denver!

Our train compartment on the California Zephyr

By Patrick Butler Denver was well worth the three days and four nights my wife Karen and I recently spent there. We stayed at the Oxford Hotel, which was built in 1891 and is surrounded by some good restaurants. The hotel housed a popular speakeasy during prohibition and I am sure my maternal grandfather, a […]

Alice Gosak: Global Citizen

The teaching career of Alice Gosak in English as a Second Language, spanning the years 1980 – 2006, gifted San Jose City College with an experienced multiculturalist, who was deeply sensitive to the experiences and needs of our immigrant students.

Interview with the Author – Walt Soellner

Walter Soellner, the novelist, whose latest book is ‘How Soon the Flowers Fall’, announces its release date: May 18th, 2022. He says, “It’s a comfort to have book four now in print, with only the fifth book in my five-book series yet to finish writing.

Guess Who I Met on the Way to the Beach

Hawaii, the enchanting islands, is always a wonderful place to visit. For my birthday (no numbers please!) my daughter Anna gave me 2 tickets to Hawaii. Wife Sandra and I landed in Honolulu on Oahu for a 10-day visit.

Walter Soellner: Bringing History to Life

A common assumption is that some retirees have ambitious plans to write in their golden years, be it poetry, short stories, an autobiography/memoir, or the “great novel”.  Well, we have such a writer in our midst, Walter Soellner, who has fulfilled his own writing dream.  And although he had not anticipated producing even one novel, […]

Jim Potterton: Keeping It Real

Dr. Jim Potterton’s 37-year career at San Jose City College (SJCC) spanned from 1978 as an adjunct social psychology instructor who became a full time hire in 1980, to his service as Dean of Social Sciences and Humanities between 1995 to 1998, and then back to teaching until retirement in 2012, and adjunct teaching until […]

Follow up on Ann Lopez

Ann Lopez at Distribution, Photo by Steve Herrera

By Ron Levesque Feeding Terrified Farmworkers Following up on the article about the Farmworker Families program of Ann Lopez in our Spring 2019 newsletter, I want to summarize a San Jose Mercury News article from August 24, 2019 on one aspect of her program. Entitled “In Santa Cruz County, a clandestine food bank draws hundreds […]

William Jacobs, Fifty-two Years and Counting

A Life at San Jose City and Evergreen Valley College By Walter Soellner In the straw-colored Montgomery Hills above Evergreen Valley College, the procession snaked their way up to a grassy knoll overlooking the campus belowand the city of San Jose in the distance. It was a beautiful spring day, April 20th, 1990. After eight […]

Ann Lopez: Farmworker Families’ Best Friend

Dr. Ann Lopez may have retired from teaching biology, environmental science, ecology, and botany at San Jose City College in 2008, but she has since kept highly engaged by following her passion for the plight of bi-national Mexican farmworkers in California. As founder and executive director of Center for Farmworker Families in Watsonville, Ann has […]