Photograph by Douglas Rider
Best Mechanic: Jim Deck at Tires Unlimited is a master auto technician who has been working with cars since he started at a gas station when he was still a youth. He's now the business' lead mechanic.
Best of Campbell 2002: People & Professions
One look at Campbell during weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. and you'll know that the old biblical saying of earning bread with the sweat of the brow is true for those who work in the community. Everyone works hard in this city to make it a good place to live. Campbellites were full of choices in this category, showing they know and appreciate the people who work in their city.
Best Elected or Appointed City Official
Jeanette Watson
In 2002, Jeanette Watson became Campbell's first female mayor to be selected for a fourth term. For Watson, her appointment was especially meaningful because the city celebrated its 50th anniversary of incorporation.
Watson's family is steeped in the community's early civic history. Her father, Joseph Gomes, sat on the first city council and was mayor pro term during the city's inaugural year of incorporation.
Watson is also known as the community's local historian. Her book Campbell the Orchard City has earned her a reputation as a preservationist who cares deeply about Campbell's history.
"I have always felt that I wanted to contribute everything I could to Campbell," Watson says. "There is so much needed right here, and so much that needs to be done."
It is the primary reason Watson worked hard to help pass the 1967 Campbell bond issue which funded the construction of Campbell's new city hall, public works department, public library and police facilities.
Best Police Officer
Tie: Sgt. Kevin Austin - Officer Carlos Guerrero
Campbell residents couldn't make up their minds about who they thought was the best cop in town, so they voted for two favorites.
Sgt. Kevin Austin is a veteran member of the department who has worked in every division of the department throughout his more than 25 years there. He is now in charge of the department's detectives in its investigations division and has been there for about four years.
"All my officers do a very good job," Police Chief Dave Gullo says. "[Austin] delivers the service he would expect to receive if he were a citizen."
Officer Carlos Guerrero is a newer member of the department, having worked there since 1995. He has served as the department's sole D.A.R.E officer for about a year, spending time with fifth- and eighth-graders and warning them of the dangers of drugs and violence and discussing how to treat people fairly and with respect. Gullo says Guerrero is a hard worker who maintains good rapport with young people.
Best Mechanic
Jim Deck at Tires Unlimited
Jim Deck of Tires Unlimited is a master auto technician who has been working with cars since he started at a gas station when he was still a youth.
Within five or six years, Deck had become the station's lead mechanic, Tires Unlimited owner Jeff Slavich says.
"He's probably the best mechanic I've ever seen," Slavich says. "I have customers who will see no one else."
Slavich has known Deck for more than a decade and was able to hire him when Deck's previous employer closed up shop about 2 1/2 years ago. Deck, who lives in San Jose, studied automotive work at De Anza College and is an Automotive Service Excellence certified Master Automotive Technician. His specialty is taking a car that runs poorly and making it "driveable," Slavich said.
Jim Deck at Tires Unlimited, 125 S. San Tomas Aquino Road, 408.379.5665
Best High School Teacher
Tanya Smith
A combination of experience and willingness to learn make Prospect High School journalism and English teacher Tanya Smith a real success.
Smith is in her first full year of teaching. According to Principal Rita Matthews, Smith was handed the challenging task of revamping the school's struggling newspaper. Even before school began, Smith was reaching out to her journalism students, cleaning out the journalism office and getting her husband's help updating the computers.
Smith, who previously worked in professional journalism at community newspapers, is in the midst of raising the quality of the paper and tackling controversial societal and campus-wide topics, Matthews says. But Smith is very open to suggestions and works hard to reach her students, encouraging them to do their best, she says.
Best Middle School Teacher
Tie: Judy Machado - Marilyn Silva
Campbell Union School District is lucky to have so many good teachers that two of them have been judged best at the middle school level.
Sixth-grade teacher Judy Machado at Rolling Hills Middle School brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to some 75 students who call her their teacher. Principal Nancy Atkinson says Machado started as a teacher, then backed off a bit to raise her own children and also worked as a school secretary. She came back to teaching and has been at Rolling Hills for more than a dozen years, developing good relationships with students, parents and staff and being flexible with her time and the needs of her students, Atkinson says.
"She goes way above the call of duty," Atkinson says. "I think that what really separates Judy is her deep commitment to people and her students. She really is the epitome of what an excellent teacher is."
Fifth-grade teacher Marilyn Silva at Campbell Middle School brings her youthful dynamism and energy to her job teaching her students through their sixth-grade year, as well as teaching some of the school's students who are learning to speak English. Principal Joe Pacheco says she also develops good relationships with her students and their parents and devotes a great deal of time to doing her job well.
"She's fairly new to the teaching profession," Pacheco says, "and has just grown remarkably quickly. She's so tuned into the individual students; she's been able to figure that out. It's a lot of work. She's a marvelous teacher."
Best Grade School Teacher
Jenny Croty
Old Orchard School first-grade teacher Jenny Croty is able to keep up with her students, but only if they can keep up with her.
Croty's best asset is her energy, says the private school's director Bonnie Weston.
"She's an absolute natural," Weston says. "She doesn't need a chair in her room, because she never sits down."
Unfortunately, the teacher, who has been at Old Orchard for three years and has had three of her own children go through the private school, has been felled by a broken hip and is giving her students a break. But Weston says the students and administration are looking forward to her return.
Father McMahon
Best Member of the Clergy
The Rev. Walter Mc Mahon
The beloved Walter McMahon and his dog Clancy will be seen less frequently around St. Thomas of Canterbury Catholic Church come summer, to the regret of his parishioners.
McMahon, 54, will be transferred to the Church of the Transfiguration in San Jose, June 30, says his office assistant, Mary Marr, and will leave behind about 500 people who will miss him, his excellent homilies and light-hearted personality.
"He's fun-loving; he loves people; he knows all his parishioners; he loves golf," Marr says. "He's very animated; he's enthusiastic about what he says. Everybody likes him."
McMahon, who has been a priest for nearly 30 years, is from San Francisco, though, so there's hope that the flock that has been blessed by his presence for 12 years will still have the chance to bump into him now and again.
Best Bartender
Derek Austin
Derek Austin at Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery makes good drinks and offers a good shoulder to cry on after a rough day at the office.
Austin is one of the brewery's lead bartenders and is in charge of educating its new bartending hires, says manager Jeff Greer. He's been with Rock Bottom since it first opened in February, 1997. Prior to moving to Rock Bottom, Austin bartended at T.G.I. Fridays, where he learned a few fancy tricks of the trade. He even won the Bartender Olympics at Fridays last year.
But what makes Austin extra-special, Greer says, are his sensitivity and personality, which have customers telling him things they might not tell others. And, though he works fulltime at the bar Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights, he has also been accepted into Santa Clara University's law school, Greer says, so customers might consider swinging by to get a cold one from him before he sets his nose to the grindstone and needs a shoulder of his own.
Derek Austin at Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery, 1875 S. Bascom Ave., 408.377.0707
Best Waiter/Waitress
Dave Wiesner
A good question to ask Hawgs' waiter Dave Wiesner is, "What's good here?"
Wiesner, who has been a waiter at the seafood restaurant for about two years, also worked as a chef there for two years before that, says co-owner Steve Hardin. Hardin says Wiesner is thus extremely knowledgeable about all of Hawgs' dishes and their preparation.
In addition, Hardin says, Wiesner had worked as a chef for 15 years. Wiesner took a break from his chef job at Hawgs and worked in other fields but missed the restaurant business and came back to try something new as a waiter, Hardin says.
Wiesner is a friendly guy, conscientious and always on time, too--witness his watch collection, Hardin says. He wants his customers to like him and to have a good time.
Dave Wiesner at Hawgs, 1700 W. Campbell Ave., 408.379.9555
Best Real Estate Agent
Arpad Racz
Arpad Racz is a relative newcomer to the real estate profession, but he is already working hard to gain long-term residential clients by giving people advice they need when selling or buying a home.
"I like to be more of a real estate consultant," he says. "I'm not going to try to make the sale if it's not right for my client."
Racz, who is a member of both the national and California associations of Realtors, also does home loans through more than 80 banks out of Atlas Realty. He says he uses his marketing degree and his overseas experience to approach a wide variety of people of different backgrounds and provide them with the service they need.
Arpad Racz at Altas Realty, 2020 S. Bascom Ave., 408.371.8288
The Best of Campbell 2002
Sense of Community
Dining & Entertainment
Goods & Services
Kids Stuff
Places & Spaces
Campbell, California
