2000 RP Group Distinguished Alumni

Welcome to the 38th Annual RP Group Conference and especially to the Special Session for Distinguished Research and Planning Alumni. Because the panel of distinguished guests is an added feature of this year’s conference, let us explain how it came about. In the planning of last year’s annual conference at Lake Arrowhead, those of us involved were already thinking about a theme and a place for this year. Year 2000, a new millennium! Let’s return to Asilomar where so many of our earliest RP conferences were held. And let’s invite former researchers and planners who made a substantial contribution to our field and who have either retired (or are about to) or left the field. Finally, let’s ask them to comment on what were the academic issues of their time while the audience can connect those issues to the present. The whole idea seemed to resonate with everyone we talked with. Furthermore, it fit perfectly with the Asilomar conference theme, “Back to the Future in Y2K: What We’ve Learned to Enhance Student Academic Achievement, Employability & Quality of Life.”

Next came the task of developing a list of distinguished individuals and finding them. Eventually The RP Board approved a list of 16 individuals. Then came the task of locating each of them. That was one of the best parts! Don’t you remember how much fun it was playing detective when you were a kid? Everyone helped out. For example, Where is Ben Gold now? Who would know? Bad addresses were corrected; wrong telephone numbers were finally changed. After many letters and telephone calls, an upscale list of email addresses emerged! And so it went.

Some of the Distinguished Alumni could not attend this year’s conference but were delighted to be so honored ( George Boggs, Jack Friedlander, Ben Gold, and Otto Heinkel ). To help out with some of the RP history and biographical sketches for these individuals, Julie Slark, Don Kester, and Bill Armstrong interviewed Ben Gold and Otto Heinkel. All attending alumni were asked to write a biographical sketch of themselves – focusing upon their involvement and what they believed to be the major research and planning issues currently facing California Community Colleges.

And so a round of thanks to the attending Distinguished Alumni!

Please welcome our honored guests and learn from their collective history!

Barbara A. Beno, Walter L. Brooks, Robert D. Jensen, Donald L. Kester, Dorothy M. Knoell, Merrilee R. Lewis, James S. Lucas, Thomas F. MacMillan, Chuck McIntyre, Paul P. Preising, Richard A. Rasor, Robin Richards, and William E. Threlfall.