You will all know me as “Bob” Lopez but I go by Ruben which was a childhood nickname. In any case I look forward to sharing remembrances & stories of our earlier days as Sequoia 59 classmates in the coming days. I didn’t know how much history we had shared until I saw the Kindergarten Central School Class of “47” and saw myself (the good looking kid)sitting to the left of Steve Chell. I have kept up with only a few from our class since graduating so I am glad to read stories about you now.

 David Chapman is my neighbor in Calistoga and we met up at a housewarming party 45 years after we graduated and lost contact. Not recognizing each other by sight, but by a strong vibe that led us to the discovery that we were both Sequoia Cherokees! Nancy Huebel is also a dear family friend that I have kept in touch with since her brother Gene and I worked together at Wetern Gold & Platinum in Belmont in the 70’s.

I had close school friends as  pals who were both older and younger than myself which caused some tension with Jack Siliman who felt that hanging with guys outside our class was the equivalent of heresy.

My older friends came from my brother(3 years older) Alex’s friends who were the Feretti’s, 11 kids. The younger, like Chris Steinbruck, Bill Moll, Dick Evdokimoff, came from just enjoying the same adventures.  

My Story

I seem to have a habit of doing every thing in reverse. I was not college bound and I avoided what I considered to be the academic rigors of schooling. Although I had always been curious of the way things worked, I was not drawn to reading and studying beyond what was necessary for me to get by.

My “working life” course was set early on when I saw my brother Alex, (3 years older) get a good paying job with a future after leaving high school. I watched him buy a brand new, shiny, black 1956 Ford Fairlane hardtop convertible during his first year on the job. I wanted to get one of those industry jobs too.

I was in what was “termed” a pre apprentice program as a Sequoia senior. Two regular classes and three of auto shop with Mr. Kleemeyer with his 1955 white Chrysler Imperial. I used the rest of the day to work as a helper for a neighborhood machine shop and earn some much needed money.

I got a job after graduation at Eitel-McCullough, a manufacturer of microwave vacuum tubes for radar with Rick Arluck through his cousin. When I awoke to the possibilities of working as a professional in this environment, I immediately enrolled in the English and Math courses that I had avoided in high school at CSM Coyote Point and began my game of “catch up”. Throughout the next 10 years, I attended night classes at CSM, Canada, Foothill Colleges earning an AA degree along the way.

I worked at Varian Associates in Palo Alto for a couple of years before going being hired by Western Gold & Platinum as a Lab Technician. In 1964 when the glamour of “just working” had worn off and the thirst for adventure among our group, 10 of us, we hatched a plan to save our money and become traveling pubescent drifters in Europe armed with backpacks and narrow budgets built on the strong dollar. Only three of us followed through and my good friend Jack Hernandez was the first to leave the states and Bill Moll was second. We were corresponding by mail and Bill was to meet my ship in Rotterdam some 3 months later. I had a job referral by my employer for companies in both Germany & France. I didn’t go to work there since neither work proposition seemed very profitable so I just traveled with friends I’d met along the way for 4 months finally meeting Bill on the street in Rome. It was during the experience of meeting people in different cultural settings that gave me a passion for traveling among the people.

I worked for another year at Wesgo after returning home before marrying Pat Corcoran at 23 and settling in San Carlos where I lived for the next 26 years. Pat and I divorced in 1970 but I remarried in 1988(together since 1984). My darling wife Dariann and I met in Guanajuato, Mexico. Dariann Lopez is originally from New Orleans and we have two sons from her first marriage.

Still catching up. I decided to complete an engineering degree in 1976 and began taking the necessary SJSU pre-requisites to transfer in 1979. I completed my B.S. degree, a young 40 year old, in 1981 and was hired by Varian Associates again where I continued to work in the Semiconductor Equipment Division until 1992.

You must be willing to reinvent yourself when you work in Silicon Valley or die. I next worked for Perkin Elmer/Applied Bio Systems 93-97 before the next lay off.After attending additional 3D modeling classes for a year at De Anza College in Cupertino, I went on to work back in the Microwave manufacturing business at L-3 Communications before retiring in Calistoga, thanks God, in 2003.

We love retirement. Dariann and I thought that life would slow way down when we moved to this small town but it turns out our Calistoga, population 4K, is an active community. I play golf with the Men’s Club, enjoy cycling on the Silverado Trail, and help Dariann put on charitable events for the Soroptimist’s Womens Group.

 We have been traveling along the way with trips to Botswana, Zambia, and South Africa on safari, Queen Charlotte Islands, Kamchatka, Russia, France, and of course Mexico & Canada.

Life has been good for us! Hope it is good for all of you too. Hope to see some of you at the event.

     Great web site reunion committee!  Looking forward to seeing all that are still standing from the Cherokee nation!
      Did SJS then marriage.  I have been married to Jeanyne now for 43 years and have lived in the same house in Medford, Oregon for 39 years.  I've been Self Employed for 35 years as an independent business forms distributor.
    2 sons - 4 grandsons and granddaughter expected this September.
    Life is good.
      

I am most grateful for everyone's warm friendship during my first 3 years in America. Japan in 1956 was still post WW II and America was a wonderland for me.  I came alone, was received by a wonderful American family (The Kirks, 35 King St), befriended by many of you, went on to college, IBM management career in the US and Japan, retired in 1998, moved to Seattle in 2000.  Looking forward to be in contact with you all.