Clockwise from left: Dorotes (Dottie) Chiriaco, John Racs, Bob Logan, Dallas Oller Jr., David Johnson

Service Awards to recognize long term employees

Honoring those who have reached employment milestones, the 48th annual Staff Service Award Ceremony will be held on Monday, June 9. Caltech community members are invited to Beckman Auditorium at 10 a.m. to cheer on colleagues who have served 10 years or more (in increments of five years). Provost Steve Koonin will give an address and, following the ceremony, awardees and audience are invited to a reception in the Beckman Institute courtyard. At noon, awardees with upwards of 20 years of employment will enjoy an Athenaeum lunch, hosted by Tom Schmitt, associate vice president for human resources and campus services.

Some honorees have been here so long, even they’re surprised. “I can’t believe it’s been 35 years!” says Dorotea (Dottie) Chiriaco. As a new hire in accounts payable, she started in Throop Hall, which was damaged in the 1971 San Fernando earthquake and torn down. Having worked in finance before there were even calculators, she’s thankful for the advent of computers—“I don’t know where we’d be without spreadsheets.” She worked her way up to accountant and now is in trust accounting. “The people at Caltech have been wonderful to work with,” she says.

David Johnson heard about the Institute from his sister’s father-in-law, Francis Lehner—one of the first engineers in Seismology. Still a high schooler, Johnson began by changing the paper in the seismographs, joining the technical support staff full-time after graduating in 1967. The job’s technical nature, field work, and flexibility have suited him well. “I love being outdoors,” he says, describing having to “deal with snakes, scorpions, and spiders” on post-earthquake expeditions. He has also enjoyed meeting “a diversity of people—students, faculty, staff” on the job. “It’s a great place to work.”

An alum as well as an employee, ITS deputy director Bob Logan started working the week after he graduated with a BS in engineering in 1968. “It’s been lots of fun and I’ve seen lots of changes,” he says, recalling a time when “no one ever worried about parking,” computers had “great big cabinets you could walk in,” and the network consisted of copper wires running all over campus. Logan will probably see more changes before he retires—it’ll be a while. “I’m still having fun,” he says.

When he calculates that he’s worked under five of Caltech’s six presidents, beginning with Lee DuBridge, Dallas Oller Jr. says, “You know you’ve been here a long time.” Once the sole network technician, he gained several colleagues in 2000 after Caltech’s systems were upgraded for Y2K: “It got to be too much for one person.” Oller, who’s retiring in June, has really appreciated his four-decade career—“the campus setting, immaculate grounds, the atmosphere and people. I’ve always enjoyed getting up and going to work each day.” Now how many people can say that?

Biology staff member John Racs grew up in Hungary, but left in 1957, following the attempted political revolution of the year before. He headed to Hamline University in Minnesota on a scholarship, earning a degree in biology. “I graduated one day, got married the next day, and we started driving to Los Angeles the day after that,” he says. Following grad school at UCLA, he joined Caltech in 1963, when San Pasqual Avenue was still a thoroughfare with “nothing north of it.” After 40 “mostly fun” years here, Racs plans to retire next year. “I’m waiting for the stock market to go back up.”

10 years

Lindy Alo
Glenn Bach
Elizabeth Bertani
Diana Bisel
Patricia Burrescia
Stanislav Cincera
Wayne Coffman
Eduardo Delvillar
Barbara Di Palma
John Dimmitt
Kevin Doody
Douglas Wayne Elliott
Moises Garcia
Richard Gerhart
Ismael Gonzalez
Diane Goodfellow
Helen Hasenfeld
Karianne Johnson
Scott Jung
Derrick Key
Norman Lee
Abraham Leibovici
Richard Leske
Jing Li
Steven Lo
Willie London
Steven Lord
Sara Loredo-Gallegos
Luana Lovato
Nanyao Lu
Rodrigo Luna
Amy Seidel Malak
Cruz Martinez
José Mata
Socorro Mendez
Warren Midkiff
Fred Luther Newman
Sandra Pelaez
Carolyn Porter
Linda Riggall
Floreen Rooks
Maria Rosales
Richard Savage Jr.
Nick Scheckel
Hiroaki Shizuya
Jeri Standfield
Lydia Suarez
Margaret Vinci
Wayne Waller
Robert Weber
Darryl Willick
Fumihisa Yamazaki
Chiou-Hwa Yuh
Steven Zwick

15 years

Catarino Alvarado
Paul Angelino
Michael Baker
Rachel Barnes
Phyllis Belisle
Charles Bilheimer
John Cardenas
Rosa Carrasco
Ann Margaret Chrisney
John Cromer
Evelina Cui
Siddharth Dasgupta
Dian De Sha
Kimberly Douglas
Alice Edel
Andreas Feuerabendt
Cheryl Gause
Richard Germond
Natalie Gilmore
Salvador Inchaurregui
Carol Irwin
André Jefferson
Susan Kallenbach
Joyce Kato
Leroy Lamb
Hsing-Yang Lee
Susan Lee
Wen-Piao Lee
Rosario Marquez
Aurora Marquina
Miguel McCall
Dwayne Miles
Stuart Miller
Denise Okamoto
Davida Perez
Harold Petrie
Robert Pool
Mable Poon
Laura Quattro
Timothy Ranalli
Irma Ribeiro
Anita Romero
Marion Schmitz
Tracy Sheffer
Peter Siegel
Arlana Silver
Douglas Smith
Donna Sparks
John Strickland
Ruth Sustaita
Frank Teng
Carlette Thompson
Larry Watanabe
Ann Wehrle
Rosa Wing
Carl Winstead
Dana Young

20 years

Elliott Andrews
Patricia Bateman
Chris Ann Baughman
Gloria Brewster
Robert Carr
Jerolyn Chittum
Nian-Ming Chiu
Rochelle Diamond
Effie D’Souza
Alireza Ghaffari
Deborah Gira
Delores Lee
Johnny Noyes
Milton Olander III
Robert Paz
Martha Penunuri
Steve Stryker
Candace Vavra
Herlinda Vega
Larry Wallace
Douglas Warden

25 years

Cynthia Akutagawa
Michael Anchondo
Emilio Arroyo
Elizabeth Ayala
Barbara Barth
Ana Lidia Bowman
Thomas Chester
Elsa Echegaray
Suzanna Horvath
L. Katherine Hutton
Eugene Kopan
Guillermina Martinez
Marlys Murray
Patricia Norman
John O’Keefe
Irena Petrac
Gwenda Pollard Murdock
Jane Raymond
Stephen Scott
Kim Stapp
Roberto Vega
Dennis Wittman
David Woody

30 years

Alan Cummings
Cathy Fontenette
Richard Goeden
Richard Gomez
Jean Grinols
John Hanson
Paul Koceski
Gerald Landry
Josephine Macenka
Michael Miranda
Cecile Rose
Gerald Thompson

35 years

Dorotea (Dottie) Chiriaco
David Johnson
Bob Logan

40 years

Dallas Oller Jr.
John Racs