• Steve wrote the notes for the weekend, similar to what I did during my two week visit last June. I've attached a photo album here and written cutlines to share more on our great Saturday playing tourists.

• First night in San Francisco: we eat dinner at a restaurant Howard found last summer - Cafe Claude. They’ve paid attention to style in every inch of this place. Including the hostess. The waiter recommends something I can’t understand and Howard orders a Sancere wine from the Loire Valley of France and seared halibut. (Steve has a pasta with sausage dish!) Musicians in the other room played jazz on muted trumpet and thrumming bass. The trumpeters name is Marcus Shelby, and Howard makes a joke referencing the old tv series “Marcus Welby, M.D.” We’re the only ones in the place old enough to get it. And I’m wondering where San Francisco hides all its fat people.

• Howard is 2-2 for earthquakes. He wrote about one on his first visit, and we had one the first night we were here. I was resting on my bed in the hotel room when there was a tap at the door, the headboard on the bed knocked lightly up against the wall, and it felt like someone had bumped into the mattress. About five minutes later the TV news reported a 4.2 quake in nearby Lafayette.

I was about ready to blame this all on Howard, or note how cool it was that every time Howard comes to San Francisco, there’s an earthquake. That was before we read in the San Francisco Chronicle that they got about 80 tremors of some sort this past week, and more than 60 the week before!

• Walking across the Golden Gate bridge: bracing, invigorating. We’re higher above the water here than we were on the plane as we made our final approach to SF International. The tides coming in, water swirls and even forms a couple of whirlpools below us, sea lions hang out at the edges of the vortices—must be good fishing. On one of the metal braces there’s a sign describing the symptom of depression with a phone number for a suicide hotline. It’s 65 degrees, the beauty and energy around me is beyond description, the San Francisco Bay on one side and the boundless Pacific on the other. How could anyone surrounded by such beauty will himself to toss it away? I’m reminded of how insidious, how blinding, and how powerful in it own way depression can be. Then I almost get knocked over by a jogger.

• The redwood is the tallest tree in the world, and the sequoia is the most massive. They both thrive in California. We saw the redwoods Saturday at Muir Woods, just north-northwest of the Golden Gate. It was Howard’s first look at them, but I remember camping beneath redwoods when I was about 14, how it rained one night but we never got wet. The trees had collected all the rainwater in the canopy.

One stop on the trail through Muir Woods is Cathedral Grove. Stand there in silence, listen to the water flowing through Redwood Creek, breath in the slightly moist, warm air of this early spring day and try to come up with a better name.

• Napa Valley, Joseph Phelps Winery—Steve Pavy is showing us the room at Joseph Phelps where some of the wine is being aged. Each barrel is specially made and “toasted”, the oak in each chosen for the particular effect and taste it will bring to the wine. Labeled with the maker’s name, type of wood and the forest from which the wood was cut.

It reminds me of the way luthiers choose woods for a guitar: the deep bass, bright treble, brilliant overtones of brazilian rosewood; the mellower, woodier sound of mahogany; the crisp, well-defined notes from curly maple (my favorite): the bright, well-defined midrange of the Englemann spruce top on my Larrivee. Luthiers have hundreds of different ways to hear the wood, like the winemakers have hundreds of ways to describe the way the grapes, the earth, and even these barrels affect the taste of the wine. Ears and tongues more attuned to the world than my own. The words they use are approximations, but they enrich our way of describing the world.

To those less interested in wine or music, all these words can seem like an affectation. But these luthiers and winemakers are trying to come to terms with something wonderful they’ve heard or tasted in the instrument or wine they’ve created. It’s inspiring just to listen.

Wine barrel trivia — some of the barrels at the Phelps winery are made with hoops of willow. Steve tells us the tradition comes from the days when wood boring insects were a real threat to the wine barrels. The borers were attracted to the willow wood and would eat these willow hoops and leave the oak staves alone.

• We spent much of yesterday in a rented Chrysler Pacifica (Howard’s dime) driving through the wine country of Napa and Sonoma Valleys and stopping at tasting rooms. Howard is in nirvana, and the more time I spend here and taste this hobby of his, it’s easy to see why. I’ve got a whole page of new vocabulary to try out when I get home, but we’ve got a plane to catch and I only have time here for quick note.

The image that sticks with me is the pastoral beauty at Joseph Phelps, the premiere winery where Steve Pavy hosted us. Pastoral literally—Phelps uses sheep as lawn mower in their vineyards—no machines, no chemical fertilizers or pesticides. All part of the trend of bio-dynamics in the wine world, where Phelps is on the cutting edge.

His family is from the southern Indiana hills around Vevay, Indiana, but my impression of Stephen is of a man who has come home, both in place and vocation. You listen to him talk about the science of winemaking, the mystery and art of it, and hear him speak about the earth these grapes are grown in. It’s a life of the liberal arts literally grounded in these beautiful hills, and you can hear the joy and passion in his voice when he talks about this work.

Howard can tell you all about the wines we tasted. All I know is that the Insignia I tried was something I’d never tasted in my life. And it was good. I sat at the edge of the parking lot after we said our goodbyes to Steve and just took in the valley — the lines of vines, the live oak leaning like they’re running up the hill. This is what land looks like when it is truly valued (certainly economically, but here, something more.) Sort of what land looked like in Indiana before we started ripping out windbreaks, not letting the land rejuvenate, and contenting ourselves with growing crops in chemicals in sterile soil. I couldn’t help but think of my friend Mike Bachner, who would revel in seeing land so loved.

I called my wife, who grew up in southern Indiana on land farmed the old way, and I described the scene to her the best I could.

†Then one of the employees drove up and I realized it was late and time to go. They needed to lock the gates. Eden was closing.

• One more thing: we returned to San Francisco across the Golden Gate at dusk, full moon rising over the city and the bay, and to the staccatoblasts of fire crackers and the Chinese New Year’s parade. Jammed with people, dragons bobbing up and down on the street, a pickup full of Chinese youth banging on cymbals and a huge drum. It’s the Year of the Pig —Happy New Year — and we're headed home to Indiana.

Surrounded by the art that John exhibits there—the American realism style I’ve admired for years — I couldn’t imagine a better place for a Wabash gathering.

(See previous blog entry below for photos from Friday's event. And for a bit of a humorous look at my travel companion's obsession with grape juice, click here to read about dinner after the reception. And be sure to check Monday for a look back at the trip, and an invigorating Saturday north of the city.)

Wine provided (and some made) by alums Stephen Pavy and Doug Sparks. A warm welcome from John Pence, who recommended President Pat White’s From Center Hall column in this issue of Wabash Magazine.

Howard clearly relished this reunion with the alumni he visited last summer and who are featured in this issue, enjoying even more the honor of introducing them to the gathering and telling a story or two about these men.

Bob Hobson, stalwart supporter of the College in so many ways, introduced Pat White.

Then Pat glanced around the gallery and recalled his days as a freelance art critic. This is his first visit with San Francisco area alumni since being named our 15th president, and he saw analogies between understanding art and learning to be a college president.

Both require “patience before the work,” he said. You must take time to contemplate and understand the College just as you would a fine painting. Meeting these Wabash men in San Francisco was part of that contemplation, a time of listening.

Understanding art and being a college president also require humility, he said, adding that while great college presidents were also once the chief educators and teachers at their institutions, with the fine faculty at Wabash, his role is that of "chief learner." As he conversed with alumni during the evening, he was that same eager student we’ve seen on campus ever since he arrived.

Chris White thanked the San Francisco group for their hospitality and spoke of the kindness and hospitality extended to her during this trip. In some ways, she said, "we haven’t been at Wabash long enough to feel so much a part of the College, to feel so at home. But thanks to your welcoming and openness, we do."

Pat then brought up his favorite topic—Wabash students. He said that Wabash is a place where young men can be better, can be more than they ever imagined.

And looking around the room at these alumni he saw living proof.

For me, the evening was chance to meet many alumni we’ve featured in the magazine but I’d never met face to face.

Guys like Steve Miller, now professor emeritus of archaeology at Berkeley. Steve now lives in Nemea, Greece, where his work as an archaeologist  helped revive the town and the ancient Nemean games. He’s finishing books on that work, and hoping to keep the games going in 2008. Like so many retired Wabash men I meet, his retirement seems to have little with slowing down and much with focusing his energy and time on those things that matter most to him. (We need to do a theme issue on these guys).

Seeing Ernie Vela again, I was reminded of the students he’s brought to Wabash, of his poignant talks to students during our admissions visit days. A highlight of the evening for me was hearing stories from Ernie and Anthony Avitia about the early days of the College’s Hispanic Society, about their decision to change the name to Unidos por Sangre and the roots of the group’s tutoring program. I wrote about that group’s work a couple years after Ernie and Anthony had graduated—it’s such a vital group in the Wabash and Crawfordsville communities now. Listening to Anthony speak so eloquently about it, how it had helped him deal with his own issues of identity, affirmed to me the value of such organizations in the education of Wabash men.

So much of what transforms our students into being “better than they’d ever imagined” happens outside the classroom—with help of faculty and staff, for sure. But our students also learn so much from each other as they work together.

And, of course, there were other stories. The last half hour was pure joy for me, listening to Ernie, Anthony, and Hector Mariscal recall some of their Wabash adventures. I hadn’t laughed so hard in a long time. These are the stories we rarely get to publish—misadventures of looking for dates at other schools, that experience with the professor or staff member out of the classroom that was so unexpected, fun, or just funny. Even Hector’s experiences as Wally Wabash, back when the only costume was a pair of Sphinx Club overalls and that awful papier mache head.

I’ve got to figure out a way to gather these.

Not surprisingly, Howard shared what may be the best story of the night.The guys on the cover of this issue of the magazine had all been at the John Pence Gallery just one time before—more than a decade ago when they were being recruited as students. An amazing convergence that underscores both John Pence’s commitment to Wabash and Pat White’s point about Wabash students becoming “better than they’d ever imagined.” You see that in the lives of men like Hector and Hugo Mariscal, Ernie Vela, Anthony Avitia, and in the work that you can read about in this issue of the magazine.

Meeting men like these, you realize Wabash is so much more than a campus in Crawfordsville, so much more than four years in our students’ lives; and we have so much to learn from them.

“Where ever you go, Wabash goes with you” Pat White wrote in this issue of Wabash Magazine. That’s certainly been true for us on this trip. In this diverse and dynamic city 2,000 miles from Crawfordsville, in the not altogether unlikely confines of an art gallery celebrating American realism, those of us traveling from Wabash felt very much home, very much at Wabash.

But we didn’t bring Wabash with us — we met it here in these men.

In photos: Top right, Pence makes opening remarks. Center, Chris White talks about the warm reception she and the President have received on their visits. Lower left, Avitia, Mariscal, Vega, and Hewitt re-unite.

The evening was designed to honor all Bay Area alums and give them a chance to meet the new president. See a photo album from  Friday's event here.

The 2007 Winter Issue of Wabash Magazine was on display featuring nine Wabash graduates. Seven of the nine featured in the magazine were on hand for a fun evening.

I introduced the Wabash alums who I visited in June 2006 for the magazine and online features and also the Wabash staff present for the event. It was a great thrill to see them all there and their reactions to the magazine features.

President White spoke about his first months in office and his hopes and dreams for Wabash College. He talked about his early days writing art reviews in homage to John Pence's involvement in the art world. Pence praised White's Center Hall column in the new issue.

The President took particular note of the three Salinas graduates - Anthony Avitia '96, Hugo Mariscal '98, and Ernie Vela '95- and shared some insight on a current student from the same Central California city. White talked about the involvement, dedication, and enthusiasm he's seen in Julio Enriquez '08.

As any Wabash event, the event was social as well. The group had the chance to taste wines made by Doug Sparks '69 - his award winning Barbera was a big hit. Stephen Pavy brought some of his own wines as well as a generous contribution of wine from his employer, Joseph Phelps Vineyard.

Many stayed late to share stories and meet the Whites. We'll have more on our San Francisco visit posted this weekend.

In  photos: Above, Stephen Pavy '81 listens to Pence tell a story.

Much of the content can be found online already. The magazine is being mailed Friday.

The biggest surprise of the trip was during a layover in St. Louis - threatening weather moved through the area and all passengers waiting at the gates were asked to move to the interior of the building. A tornado had been spotted in the area! The weather passed and we proceeded to San Francisco on schedule. I assured Steve that was nothing compared to the mild earthquake I felt on my previous  visit.

Steve and I visited John Pence '58 briefly this afternoon to make sure everything was set for tomorrow night's reception. And when we arrived at our downtown hotel  we were doubly pleased to see a box of the magazines waiting on us. A large portion of the California-related stories came from my 10-day visit here last June.

We enjoyed a brief gallery tour with John, went over Friday night details, and will probably check out one of the great S.F. restaurants tonight. We will be posting photos and news about the reception late tomorrow night or early Saturday morning.

This is a quick trip, we head back Sunday. But for those who followed the blog last summer, we ARE going out to Napa Valley on Saturday. So to stay with the previous entries, we just might post a few pictures and write about that as well.

Friday night promises to be a great Wabash evening. We're  really looking forward to it!

In photo: Pence and Charles talk about a painting John recently acquired.

The magazine will feature stories and photos produced during a 10-day road trip last summer that was documented in this blog! You can read those entries below.

The idea for a return trip was first suggested by Jonathan Walsh '98 during my San Francisco visit. Jonathan wasn't on my visit list but really wanted to get together so we met one evening over a great glass of Pinot Noir. When telling him about the magazine and alums I had visited, Jonathan suggesting returning to California to debut the magazine when it was published.

I thought Walsh had a great idea and suggested it would really be a coup to have our new president make his first visit at the same time.

When I returned to campus I was tickled to present the idea and find most everyone thought it was a great plan. So, we're headed back to the city by the bay.

We're hosting a reception in 1958 grad John Pence's downtown gallery and we're expecting a big turnout. Reservations were closed Friday with nearly 50 people expected to attend.

Magazine Editor Steve Charles will make the trip out with me and we'll be on hand along with the President, his wife Chris, along with major gifts officer Steve Hoffman '85, and coordinator of donor relations Marilyn Smith. Smith was actually making a personal trip but when she heard about the reception wanted to be a part of the plans.

We believe 6-7 of the 9 men visited during our California Road Trip will be present. Justin Castle '97 was living and working in San Jose during our visit but has since returned to Indiana. Bronson Frick '95 had planned to attend, then his work with Americans for Non-Smokers Rights required him to be in Detroit Friday night.

Wabash Magazine will be mailed Thursday or Friday. We'll have copies on hand in San Francisco for the reception. This is a unique collaboration between the Magazine and our online efforts.

We introduce all nine of  the alums in the magazine, but we've spread the wealth of material between the two mediums. You will find full profiles on all of the alums on the website - just click here to go to the front page of our online profiles. Click here to go to Wabash Magazine Online.

Charles and I will blog throughout the trip, so check back! I'm sure we'll have some Bay Area photos and experiences to share along with coverage of Friday night's event.

The "California" issue of Wabash Magazine is set to be published in late February or very early March. And, we're planning a return visit to San Francisco for a special event.

Wabash College will host a reception to debut that issue of the magazine and to introduce Wabash's new President, Patrick White, on Friday, March 2, 2007. The details are still being finalized. Invitations will go out to Bay area alums soon. The reception will be held at the John Pence Gallery, 750 Post St., in San Franscisco.

The two-week California trip I made in June, 2006, will be our first effort to add a strong complement of online features to our magazine stories. I visited nine Wabash alums during the two weeks. We'll have features on five of those grads in the magazine and an introduction to the other four. The others we introduce will then be profiled with online stories. We're also adding some online extras with appropriate photos and audio from the actual June interviews.

So for all Bay area alums, keep your eye open for an invitation to a special Wabash event. RSVPs will be necessary when you're notified of final details!

Be sure to look for the Wabash Magazine stories and website profiles later this year on the nine alums we came out here to see. And by mid-week I should have a story up featuring Bronson Frick '95 and his view on a timely Surgeon General report due out before the end of the month.

Finally, thanks to  the many folks who left comments on the blog and all the e-mail about the trip. I can't wait to start writing the stories about these fascinating Wabash men!

Pavy attended Yale Divinity School after Wabash graduation and ministered for a while. He worked in higher education. Then he met two friends in Chicago who were doctors. One of those friends was dabbling in medical related software. That led Pavy into California’s software industry and after just a few years to his real passion.

Pavy did well in that business but eventually resigned to work on a stunning home atop the Sonoma Mountain. Pavy did much of the landscaping, planted a vineyard, and completed substantial work himself on the more than 6,000-square foot home.

But all along his interest in wine was getting stronger. So he started in a tasting room at St. Francis Winery and worked his way up through other winery hospitality positions. He loves the interaction he gets with the customers who trek through wine country.

He took a big step up recently when he became wine educator for Joseph Phelps. Phelps makes outstanding wines and last year Wine Spectator named Phelps ‘Insignia’ the No. 1 wine on its annual list of Top 100 wines.

But working in the industry isn’t enough for Stephen. He is using the knowledge he gained at St. Francis and hopes to gain at Phelps to make his own wines. He’s not a bonded winery so he makes it for friends and to just give away. But he has his eyes on the future.

He admits the possibility of combining the wine with his sprawling home to create some sort of a hospitality business. He has a barn on the property that was built for horses that he has converted to his make-shift winery.

He is making a Sauvignon Blanc and a Bordeaux blend red. He poured both during our chat Friday night. It was rather amazing to see this small vineyard near his home and then taste his two wines that held up well against much of what you’d taste in the valley. His Sauv-Blanc was outstanding.

He’s not sure where these combined interests will lead him but he’s energized when talking about the possibilities.

Read a full story on Stephen’s career path and interest in wine later this year in Wabash Magazine and the Wabash College website. 

Notes:

- I left San Francisco this morning under bright sun and probably the warmest day of the year for the Bay City.Temperatures inland reached near 90 degrees Friday.

I was headed up to Sonoma to meet Stephen Pavy but had all day. I made a stop after crossing the Golden Gate Bridge to take a few photos. I have a small photo album here from my day's travel.

I spent a couple of hours in Sonoma and visited a couple of wineries between Sonoma and the Inn where I'll spend the next two nights.

A story: I had lunch in the Swiss Hotel in Sonoma, which is probably the most famous restaurant in the area. Sitting beside me at the bar was a rather talkative woman that turned out to be the tasting room manager at Ravenswood Winery, just oustide of town. She gave me lots of suggestions and then went to her purse and pulled out a complimentary tasting pass for Ravenswood's reserve wines.I've found the Bay area different than many large city areas I've visited. The people just seem far more approachable and friendly!

Ravenswood makes pretty good Zinfindel that can be found in most of the country. The reserve Zins are available in restaurants and at the winery.

- My California visit comes to an end this weekend. I've booked myself into a nice bed and breakfast inn south of Santa Rosa and I'm going to be doing wine country for the weekend (my expense, not Wabash!)

I'll return to Indiana Monday and tackle the mountain of interviews and photographs I've taken over the past two weeks. Again, the stories on these nine alums will appear late this year in Wabash Magazine and on the Wabash College webisite.

After an 8-year stint in the Navy, which included serving Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson in the White House, and seven years working in the airline industry he opened an art gallery in San Francisco.

Pence, 70, decided to concentrate on American Realism because people can easily recognize talent in realist paintings. He also put his focus on young people and helping establish young artists. He brought young artists into the field when most major museums and galleries were displaying only American Realism paintings by deceased artists.

Today galleries like The John Pence Gallery have sprung up in San Francisco and across the country. There is one such museum in Evansville, he added. Pence even good-naturedly complains New York galleries often steal his up-and-coming artists.

His fashionable 8,000-square foot gallery near Union Square in San Francisco has housed more than just art over the past 32 year too. Pence has used his gallery for many charitable fundraisers, political fundraisers, and other gatherings.

“I think I’ve hosted a fundraiser for every woman who ever ran for anything in this city,” he said with a laugh. Pence loves talking about his work with young artists, but never strays too far from his Wabash political science major. He becomes energized and animated when discussing politics and its players.

He has devoted much of his life to those charitable organizations.  He is national chairman of The Point Foundation. The Point Foundation funds college scholarships for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender students. The one common thread among recipients is they have had some estrangement if not outright rejection from their families.

He is a behind-the-scenes organizer and “big idea man” for what is now one of the five largest LGBT charities in the nation. When the idea of forming a scholarship foundation for such young people was discussed, several of the organizers were thinking about making it big enough for the state of California. John urged them to think big and build it as a national organization.

It now consumes him every bit as much as his gallery. His charitable work has benefited from his years of work in Washington D.C. and the White House. He’s rubbed elbows with the very powerful and very wealthy.

He’s using his “negotiating skills,” he calls it, to bring people together to send disenfranchised young people to college. He said the Point Foundation work is part of the legacy he hopes to leave behind. But he doesn’t intend for that to be any time soon.

When he turned 65, he made a commitment to run the gallery until he was 75. So today John Pence is halfway there, but he’s a man who clearly has never done anything with only 50 percent effort.

A full story on John Pence will be published later this year in Wabash Magazine and the Wabash College website.

Notes:

- Ok, I rode a cable car, walked Fisherman's Wharf and visited Chinatown. I thought that was enough "San Francisco experience." But this morning I was awakened from a light sleep by what seemed like a jiggle in the bed - sort of like a water bed. I didn't think much about it and went back to  sleep. Imagine the mild surprise then when I was watching morning news to hear a 4.3 earthquake struck about 45 miles away. Indeed, that jiggle was a quake. I didn't need that S.F. experience!

- I've received e-mail from several Wabash alums in the Central California area, and elsewhere, saying stop by if you're in the neighborhood.
And there certainly are several men in the Bay area that could have been on our visit list. Jonathan Walsh '98 contacted me by e-mail suggesting together just to talk about Wabash and such and we pulled that off this evening. He works downtown for Washington Mutual in its credit card division. The Gary, Ind., native has been living and working in the city for four years after starting his career in Chicago post-Wabash. We talked about Wabash, wine, and the city. It was a nice visit.

- Today is the last day I’ll spend in San Francisco. I’ve now seen 8 of 9 alums planned for this visit. I wrap up the working portion of the trip Friday with a visit to Stephen Pavy ’85. Pavy was on campus for Big Bash and hosted a popular colloquium on wine and food pairings. So it’s back to Sonoma for the wrap-up!

- Since it is my last day in this magnificent city, one I had never visited previously, I took some early morning time to do more exploring. I took my only walk down through Chinatown.

In photos: Top right: Pence talks about the detail in one of the paintings on display. Center: Pence near the entrance of is gallery. Lower right: One of the most popular and practical attractions in Chinatown is the daily fresh vegetable and fruit market.

Sparks and his wife now spend their time working with partner farmers, a partner winemaker and handling all facets of the business from their San Francisco home not far from the Golden Gate bridge. He has a partner who makes his limited white wines, while Doug is the winemaker for the Zinfindel, Barbera, and Petit Syrah.

Sparks still does a little consulting and his wife works part-time in a wine shop. But the two-person business requires lots of hours. They rent space where they make the wine in Lake County, north of Sonoma. They buy all their grapes through hand-shake deals with local farmers. Doug hustles distributors to move his wines into restaurants and nice wine shops.

Today he drove through Suisun Valley, which borders Napa, and we visited the grower who provides his Zinfandel grapes. We walked the vineyard and talked about the annual challenges of producing just the right crop.

“It’s all about the wine,” said Sparks’ grower, Roger King. “It’s not about growing grapes.”

Sparks describes himself as part scientist and part artesian. He’s also a salesman and congenial host in a Sonoma County tasting room he shares with four other small, family-owned wineries.

He must operate the shared tasting room each Wednesday afternoon and one weekend a month. He pours wines from all five wineries and answers curious tourists questions about wine and winemaking.

He does it all with a wink and a smile. He admits he’d like to see his business grow some. Currently Sunset Cellars produces about 2,000 cases a year, putting it in the niche of family-owned boutique wineries.

His Zinfandels and Barbera wines have won numerous awards. His wines are currently not available in Indiana. He distributes primarily in California and Texas. He’s working on some other states, including an Indiana distributor.

Sparks full story will be published this fall in Wabash Magazine and on the Wabash website.

Notes:

- A personal note regarding my day with Doug Sparks. He and his grower, Roger King, and I went to lunch at a nice cafÈ near King’s vineyards. It really was a wine geek’s biggest thrill to sit and listen to the winemaker and grower talk about winemaking and the industry.

In photos: Top right, Doug pours one of his Sunset Cellars wines for a visitor to the Sonoma tasting room. Lower left, King and Sparks take a look at zinfindel grapes in their early stage of development.

Frick is the Associate Director of Americans for Non-Smokers Rights. He’s quick to point out that the non-partisan organization isn’t a non-smoking organization; it’s an organization promoting the rights of those who don’t smoke against second-hand smoke in the work place and public areas.

Frick, a Nashville, Ind., native has worked in the White House for President and Hillary Clinton, spent a year teaching in Estonia, had a year in France to study abroad, has taught English in Indonesia, and traveled the world working for the United States government.

He’s had all of those experiences at a relatively young age. He brought his political experience to the non-smokers rights group and now finds himself frequently traveling the country as a spokesman, educator and grass-roots organizer.

The organization is based out of Berkeley on a non-descript side street some distance from the city’s famous campus. The organization shares a building with the Sierra Club and the Berkeley Ecology organization – credited with starting the country’s first-ever recycling program.

Frick’s name often turns up all around the country in newspapers and media. The group assists local organizations in crafting and guiding non-smoking ordinances through local government.

Look for more from Frick in the next week on the Wabash website.

San Jose, Calif. – In a stereotypical world people in the Midwest and probably the East Coast think of California and think of wine, Hollywood, or maybe even liberal politics. Certainly the tech boom and Silicon Valley would be right in that mix.

Justin Castle ’97 has experienced the boom, bust and rebuilding of a company during his time with Covad.

Castle, a Frankfort, Ind., native started with US West and CEO Bob Knowling ’77. The former Little Giant football player began his Covad career as part of a management program. He quickly became a dependable up-and-coming manager and eventually took on opening up a new Atlanta office.

Covad is a provider of high speed internet services including DSL and broadband services. But the bottom fell out from under the fast-expanding company and left Castle questioning the company and his future. He had to dismiss the team he had formed to build the business in Atlanta. He called it a tremendous, and emotionally difficult, learning experience.

But he stuck with the company and took a position in Chicago, met his wife, and eventually went back to Colorado.

In order to grow with a company trying to regain its footing he moved out to San Jose two years ago. He explained that every job he has had with the company since the early days has little to do with a title. He’s always been given different tasks and currently provides management leadership to a team involved in the engineering functions of Covad’s services.

He said a liberal arts degree doesn’t make him an engineer but it did make him a good listener, and it helped him learn to surround himself with people he could trust.

Read more about Frick and Castle later this year in Wabash Magazine and on the College website.

So today is a bit of a travelogue day but tomorrow I'm seeing two alums and I'll be blogging sometime Tuesday night on those visits.

Sunday was an unseasonably cool, misty, cloudy day even for San Francisco. I had planned on going to see a Giants game and the new AT&T Park. I waited on city transit as two packed buses drove by. After a bit in the cool, misty air, I thought better and decided against the game.

I strolled downtown a bit and found a discount ticket to see actor Leslie Jordan in a one-man autobiographical show just down the street from my hotel. The show "Like a Dog on Linoleum" was hilarious.

You might not immediately recognize the name, but you would instantly know the face and voice. He has had rolls in Will & Grace, Boston Legal, and Sordid Lives. He might even be best known for playing an angel in a 1980s TV commercial for the U.S. Army. I found a picture on the web I've posted here to jar memories.

Today (Monday) was devoted to finalizing appointments and transcribing interviews. I knocked off late afternoon and visited San Francisco's famous Fisherman's Wharf. Here is a photo album of a few shots I took today.

Before making this trip I got lots of advice and it was very split on  the wharf. It's a tourist trap for sure. And I guess that's the advice I now would give: Go see it, knowing what it is. And a final  note - with  what seemed like a 100 seafood restaurants, I miraculously  picked out an extraordinarily mediocre one.

Notes:

- There are things you just have to do when visiting San Francisco. So, today I: Rode a cable car, bought some Sees chocolate, Boudin sourdough bread - and I think broke my little toe. I'd recommend at least the first three.

Ludlow grew up as a “poor farm boy” from Hillsboro, Ind., not far from Wabash College. He wanted to prove his critics wrong and show he could make something of himself. He has more than succeeded.

 “Jo Jo,” as his friends call him, earned a masters and doctorate from Vanderbilt and a post-doctorate degree from Berkeley. He recently semi-retired from a very successful seed business he still has a hand in at Salinas, Calif.

Angel’s Camp sits about 2.5 hours due west of San Francisco. It’s better known as an old gold mining town than it is for Twain’s occasional visits. Though Ludlow owns property in several other states, he calls a modest one-story home outside of town his permanent residence. 

But there is nothing modest about the “barn” he shares with a friend. The 8,500-square-foot barn actually belongs to a buddy who lives out on Pebble Beach. That friend stores three of his antique automobiles there. The barn has tile floors and a small apartment. Ludlow stores about 20 of his approximate 30 antique or collectible cars in the barn.

Stuffed inside a non-descript barn at his modest home, you’d find a stainless steel DeLorean and a 1989 Jaguar with a ’98 Corvette engine.

Ludlow is a storyteller, salesman and “good ol’ boy.” He loves each role.

All of his cars run just fine, thank you. “Why have these things and stick them in some barn to gather two inches of dust,” he asks. His vehicles are frequently in parades and even the movies! He takes one of his favorites to Las Vegas each year for a big cruise car show up and down the strip.

He has been slowed by a nerve problem in a hip and recent minor heart attack. But he energetically plays with his 6-month old mule Poncho Via.

His friends told him he had no chance of getting into Wabash College. That motivated him, and he proved them wrong. He’s modest about his success, but proud of his advanced degrees, admits his defeats, and enjoys his successes – all 12 cylinders at a time.

Note: Stories about Ludlow and the other alums we're visiting on this Californa trip will be published later this year in Wabash Magazine and on  the Wabash website.

In photos: On  homepage: Ludlow with his favorite car: A 1930 Cadillac once owned by Al Capone's wife. At top right, Ludlow talks about his 1926 Gardner made in Ohio. The car was used in the movie, "Oh Brother, Where  Art Thou," and star George Clooney drove it in the picture. Lower left, some of Ludlow's 'horseless carriages.'

 Notes:

- I’ve now visited four of the nine Wabash alums scheduled for this trip. It’s amazing how much they appreciate a visit and the chance to tell their stories!

- Now that I’m in San Francisco, let the wine geekiness begin. At risk of catching some major flak from a few folks – I’m going to include a comment on those days I find something really interesting. I’ll always put it at the bottom of comments for those rolling their eyes at this point! Tonight I drank Bonarda for the first time. It’s a grape grown in Argentina and a bit like Malbec without the tannic characteristics. Specifically, I had a 2004 bottle of La Posta Bonarda. It’s a grape many people have not heard of, but often used for blending in Argentinean wines. I paid about $20 for it from a wine bar, so I’m guessing it’s probably mid-teens if you can find it in a wine shop. Very drinkable, rather bold, some tannins, and it would be great with food!

Saturday I will travel near Yosemite to see Dr. C.J. Ludlow '62. Ludlow has had an interesting career path and lives in the heart of the old gold rush area. He also is a collector of antique automobiles.

Today I was a bit adventurous. I drove out to the Pacific coast this morning and down Highway 1 past Carmel, about half the way to Big Sur. Wow! The views are simply stunning! The drive up through the central part of the state was rather long and hot, but it's interesting to drive by field after field of vegetables then south of Stockton past miles and miles of citrus groves!

So today's entry is just a photo album - some shots I took along the coast!

I've taken a couple hundred photos, I suppose. And, I have about two total hours of interviews to transcribe.

But tonight (Thurs.) we wrapped up the visit. I took Mariscal, Avitia, and incoming freshman Miquel Esquivel to dinner. Hugo suggested we go out to Monterey, only 30 minutes west of Salinas. We later met Ernie back in Salinas for one brief drink before I said goodbyes. His daughter had a sixth grade recognition program he had to attend, preventing him from making the Monterey trip with  us.

We went to the fisherman's wharf area where you can choose from several outstanding seafood restaurants. We ended up at a bit of a cultural landmark. We ate at John Pisto's Abalonetti on the wharf. Pisto is a bit of a west coast infomercial, chef, TV personality restaurateur. His restaurants are really top notch.

The trip out was nearly as interesting journalistically as the dinner was socially.

We passed through huge fields of cauliflower, lettuce, broccoli while leaving Salinas. Close to Monterey was the remnants of Fort Ord, the huge military base that was closed several years ago. The military housing which seemed to stretch on along Highway 1 for a mile or two is all abandoned and in disrepair.

But the evening was mostly about camaraderie. The guys occasionally see each other but seldom have the opportunity to spend time. They had a ball. They recalled times in Martindale Hall and the Lambda Chi house. They told stories and talked about old roomates, old friends, and college pranks.

They had plenty of advice, though perhaps a bit jaded by their own Wabash prejudices, for the young 2006 Alisal High grad.

Vela is talking about starting up a Central California chapter of Wabash Men. He promises to talk to Tom Runge.

The thing that's tough to explain here is the appreciation they felt for a Wabash visit. They talked about it in my presence and when I was not around as well. The sincere gratitude and the time they took to share their stories was really special.

We parted with gifts. I brought the yuys new NAWM pins, some Wabash DVDs, and new baseball caps. Hugo gave me a bottle of Monterey County Pinot Noir.

I'm not sure who got the best deal. But I know we all won from a great two days of talking about life, careers, and Wabash.

Notes:

- Friday is a travel day. I have to be in Stockton area tonight for a Saturday morning meeting with C.J. Ludlow near Yosemite in the old gold rush area. So Friday's blog entry may be brief, part travelogue, or ???

In photos: Top right, the Abalonetti Restaurant on Fisherman's Wharf on Monterey Bay. Lower left, looking out into Monterey Bay at dusk.