Amalie Brown
There was a point in time or in an area when and where both temporal and spatial energies intersected for me, and I finally began to understand learning how to learn. This realization should have come decades ago for me as a university professor, but this journey also speaks to restlessness and the need to continue exploring. At times I wish I had a childhood dream of who or what I wanted to be, but those visions never came. The decision to be a professional sports writer dissipated as the program at UCLA was dissolved and, it was on a challenge, that I began coursework in Geography and Geology and found a pathway. I should have known this—my father had remarkable skills in field tracking and my godfather was a surveyor and geologist. In reality, I wanted to work outdoors combining some brain power and a lot of physical tasks. So, 50 years later, I am still working in rivers, on hillslopes, mapping rocks and ancient trees, flying drones, deploying weather stations, and in my spare time, making abstract stained glass windows and taking batting practice for softball.
C. Blaise Mitsutama (née Jill M. Okuhara)
I’ve led a roller coaster life that has taken me to places I never imagined. I was privileged to take an exchange year in Japan in college. After graduating from the University of Southern California in 1974, I started my first business. I’m currently an Instructional Designer and learning management system (LMS) administrator. In the 1980s I earned my private pilot’s license but stopped flying for health reasons, got married, got divorced, and changed my name. I live in Bellevue, WA with my crazy, happy husband of 21 years, Lauren. We were married on 1/23/00 so Lauren has no excuse to forget our anniversary. He pronounces our wedding date as “1, 2, 3, oh-oh.” I enjoy content creation, computers, taking rides and walks of discovery with and without Lauren, and would love to be able to travel more.
Carolou Giovanonni Munson
When asked to write about myself, I found it somewhat uncomfortable, I was encouraged by the rest of the committee to “celebrate me and dive in.”
Since graduation from SMA, I have been guided by three quotes. The first is: “What you are is God’s gift to you. What you become is your gift to God.” I wanted a field related to medicine and yet still have a personal life so I decided to become a Physical Therapist and happily worked in that field for 40 years. I not only left CSULB with the degree I needed for a career, I left with a husband as well! We’ve been married 48 years. Along the way, we were blessed with three children (two boys and a girl) and have subsequently been graced with 3 wonderful spouses to add to the family as well as 8 grandchildren.
We have also enjoyed numerous outreach activities from feeding the homeless in Santa Ana for 5 years, to mission trips in Alaska and Haiti, sewing Days for Girls packets, and volunteering with the Trauma Intervention Program who are called out to situations when citizens are experiencing traumatic events in their homes, roadside, or hospitals
The second quote I’ve lived by is: “All sunshine makes a desert.” Despite having an idyllic life, we have had a few speedbumps along the way. I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000 and 2010. My husband had a cardiac arrest and was down for 45 min before his heart was jumpstarted to a normal rhythm. I was so grateful for the CPR classes that were required of me during my years of working in the hospital and home health. He had a second episode, (this time respiratory arrest due to ventricular fibrillation) in 2020 where a “precordial thump” basically getting to punch your mate in the chest, reorganized the electrical activity in his heart and his heart rhythm returned to normal. WHEW!!!
This brings me to my final quote: “All who wander are not lost.” Subsequent to the above events, we have felt that every day/year is a gift and have vowed to take full advantage. We have travelled the world and have cooked, viewed, and experienced as much as we can, as long as we can. God has blessed me many times over and I am so grateful. Looking forward to whatever comes my way with each dawning day.
Diane Daigneault Steinberg
I am a real native ‘Angelino’, growing up in the San Fernando Valley (youngest of 10) and on to the South Bay area. I was in the public school system until the ninth grade and then was enrolled at SMA. My ‘college years’ were spent being in the first group of Tour Guides at the RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach. Due to having a good work ethic (thank you SMA), dealing well with the public (which everyone should do at least once in their life!), and being all around enthusiastic, I was promoted to be the Tour & Travel Rep. for the attraction. I enjoyed a wonderful opportunity of traveling all over North America promoting the ship to travel industry planners, doing sales calls and attending travel trade shows. I then was offered to do the same position for the hotel on the ship. I happened to meet my first husband, who was the travel rep. for the Scottsdale Visitors Bureau. Unfortunately he developed terminal cancer soon after our marriage and we decided to return to Los Angeles so I would be around my family. I continued to be in the hotel industry working for Hyatt, Embassy Suites, and the Portofino Inn all in the LAX/South Bay areas. I have been married for 30 years to my husband Fritz (retired engineer/ Hughes Aircraft), and we have a very comfortable home (including 11 motorcycles) in Culver City.
Cindy Moser
Donna Tracy
Kathy Owens Gooley
In the mid sixties, with the arrival of NASA’s Gemini space program, I developed aspirations of becoming an astronaut. So I had the bright idea of taking a Physics class in my Sophomore year at SMA to see how far I could get academically toward my dream. Well, the dream was short lived! lol! I failed every physics test I took signaling to the academic advisor to not allow future SMA students to take Physics in their Sophomore year. I believe they gave it a title, “The Kathy Owens Rule”!
So, I became an elementary and middle school teacher for De La Salle Catholic School and for LAUSD. I taught for 25 years before retiring in 2017.
I have been married to my husband Chuck for 40 years. He is a chemist and a retired computer programmer. We have two daughters, one of which, Cindy, is the mother of 5 year old twins, and a 9 year old son. I enjoy being a Grandma to Aydin, and the twins Ayesha and Alesha. My other daughter, Kimberly, is getting married next June. She is teaching preschool and is enrolled in the teacher credential program at CSUN.
I currently teach English online to children in Beijing, China. I am also employed by LAUSD in their new part time Primary Promise Program, which was designed for retired teachers to assist students who are not reading at grade level. I am indebted to SMA for instilling in me the passion for teaching, as long as it is not Physics! Lol
Linda Vampola Berman
Lisette Thierry
My art journey lead me to a BFA from CSULB, specializing in Metalsmithing and Jewelry. My life as a jeweler has taken me all over the country participating in juried art shows. One year, I worked for a design company where I fabricated jewelry for Cybil Shepherd to wear on the TV series “Moonlighting”. Sarah Brightman wore a pair of my earrings on the Johnny Carson show. I called everyone I could think of to convince them to stay up late & watch!
Always an artist, visual and performing. I spent severally years singing with the Torrance Civic Chorale in local seasonal performances, including the Christmas Eve Music Festival at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion to performing at the 1986 World Expo in Vancouver, BC. I would say a far cry (or should I say song) from singing “Amen” from the movie “Lilies of the Field” (in a tenor voice) on stage in the gym freshman year!
I now cater to a private clientele and create one-of-a-kind art jewelry and participate in select group exhibits in art galleries across the U.S.
I am honored to be included in a current exhibit at the Metal Museum in Memphis, TN. The exhibit is titled “Divine Legacies in Black Jewelry” curated by LaMar R. Gayles, Jr. I am in good company with historical American Black jewelers including Arthur G. “Art” Smith, one of the leading modernist jewelers of the mid-20th century.
Even when my hand/eye coordination bites the dust, I will always be an artist!
Marcia Wade
Having been born and raised in Los Angeles, CA I never imagined that at this point in my life I would transition to Nevada! However, I am loving my new adventures and home in the Silver State. I’ve had an amazing life journey and I am so appreciative of all the many challenges, blessings and joys, both planned and unexpected, that I continue to experience. I found early on that flexibility was the key to success. My family has been the glue that helped me blossom. At UCLA I knew I found my niche when I changed my major from Nursing to Communication Studies – Interpersonal Relations. I excelled within my chosen occupation as a human resources professional and public sector administrator while raising my two children Kimberly (SMA Red Tie 1999) and Marcus (Loyola 2003) as a single parent. My husband and I divorced after 8 years of marriage.
In 1993 I returned to school at Cal State University, Dominguez Hills, while working full time, to obtain a master’s degree in public administration to open promotional opportunities. My family and I have been able to travel nationally and internationally. I’ve had a wonderful career within the public sector capped as chief human resources administrator for El Camino and Santa Monica Community College Districts and I retired in December of 2017 with 30 years of public service.
My family now includes three grandkids. I am known as their “Noni”. Kim and my grand children live in CA and Marcus resides in Arizona, the home state of my dad. Though I have chosen not to remarry, I am blessed to have a wonderful companion for the past 32 years. It’s worked because we don’t live together. Who knew?!!
Maria Coia Davis
Maria Fitzgerald Dzida
Marilyn Daigle
Nancy Conrad McCulloch
Looking back, I imagine it was in my genes to be a healthcare provider. My grandmother was a nurse and my father served on the USS Hope 7 in WW2. I received my RN from El Camino College in 1973 and had an amazing 45 year career, the majority of it specializing in cardiology in the Heart Catheterization Laboratory at Fountain Valley Hospital. Our team learned new innovations including the first coronary stents, implantable defibrillators, Aortic aneurysm repairs done via the femoral artery. Our hospital performed the first carotid stent in OC. All in all the most rewarding part was being part of a team that saved lives, improved lives, and most importantly cared for other human beings. I retired 3 years ago and keep myself busy exercising (spinning classes, H2O aerobics, golfing, walking near the beach, yoga). I like to read and do the daily crossword puzzle and sudoku in the LA times. I feel blessed to still be in good health and able to do these things. My marriage of 44 years to Dan has brought some adventures too. We lived in Kentucky for 8 years, 4 of which in a mobile home on a small river. Too many memories of that to include here without writing a novel. Imagine The Beverly Hillbillies backwards . We didn’t live in a mansion by any means before moving there, but city life to rural life. We raised our children in this house in HB where we have lived for 37 years. Reconnecting with the members of our reunion committee over the last 3 years has also been and continues to be a fun and heartwarming endeavor. I am looking forward to our 50 plus year reunion when it is feasible, and having an epic celebration. Take the time to look at your 1970 yearbooks. So many wonderful memories of such a special school.
Peggy Garner McCormick
Roslynn Piernas Hills
Always ready to speak her mind (and she did!), Ros’ passing on 27 Sep 2021, reminded our Reunion Committee of the gift of a woman who was strong and often made us re-think things we thought we understood.
She loved the Gold Ties. That was clear. Her memorial service was filled with “gold tie” colored flowers and her dedication to make our reunion a success was evident at all our meetings for over 2-1/2 years. She would roar up in her very large and always immaculate car to wherever we had scheduled a meeting in Southern California. We always knew she would be there with ideas.
Since she did not give us her “bio” for our website, we offer this:
Always ready to speak her mind (and she did!), Ros’ passing on 27 Sep 2021, reminded our Reunion Committee of the gift of a woman who was strong and often made us re-think things we thought we understood.
Roslynn was a true “Angeleno” born at Queen of Angels Hospital and who spent her grammar school years at St. Cecilia’s near the Los Angeles Coliseum. Following graduation from SMA in 1970, she worked hard at Smith’s Market to support herself as a student at California State University Los Angeles. Ultimately, she balanced a successful 25-year career in the California Department of Corrections, a 48-year marriage to her beloved and devoted Harold and raised her beautiful daughter Lezley. Roslyn knew how to organize and “get it done”—she was a fabulous cook, she created a gorgeous garden which produced vegetables and herbs, she travelled extensively, and she was the go-to person for family and community gatherings.
We’ll miss her assertive common sense and commitment. Our Gold Tie Reunion couldn’t have come this far without her.
Valerie Durel Hongo-Whiting