THE LONGTIME coach of the Los Gatos Rowing Club, Skip Braatz, has been honored as Coach of the Year for the Southwest Region by U.S. Rowing America, the umbrella organization that junior and master rowers join. Braatz was founder of the Los Gatos Rowing Club 18 years ago, and he has instructed hundreds of young people in the rowing art, turning out a number of state and national champions. It's a well-deserved award.
TO BE honored for her 80th birthday is Ruth Barati, who has taught yoga classes in the Los Gatos-Saratoga Community Education and Recreation Department for 20 years. Barati makes her home in Soquel and teaches in Los Gatos two days a week. A recent fall left her with a broken arm, interrupting classes. A potluck birthday celebration will be on March 9 at the recreation building, 123 E. Main St.
YOU CAN'T say Our Town doesn't rate with the best of them where nationally read periodicals are concerned. In Newsweek's Feb. 8 Periscope is a photo piece about Silicon Valley. After mentioning that "A decent three-bedroom house can be had for as little as $500,000 in hubs like Saratoga and Monte Sereno," the magazine says the valley's family car is a Range Rover or Grand Cherokee. "But the tradition of buying a Ferrari when your company goes public abides. Favored model: the F355 Spider preferably from Ferrari of Los Gatos."
Periscope also says Apple and Hewlett-Packard "send haggard employees to the Preston Wynne Spa in Saratoga for seaweed algae facials."
WHILE OTHER Los Gatos High School sophomores toil in their classes as usual, Derek Fullagar, 16, is experiencing a very different "classroom." He's on a round-the-world voyage aboard the tall ship Concordia, which is 188 feet long, as part of a seagoing educational program called Class Afloat. Most recently, he was sailing off the coast of South Africa, said his mother, Catherine Fullagar of Los Gatos. Students aboard the sailing vessel learn navigational skills and visit many sights on shore. The program is conducted by West Island College in Canada, and the ship is operated by Boston-based Ocean Challenges Inc. Derek's classmates are kept in touch with him weekly through the newsletter Class Afloat News.
IT ISN'T too often that a fourth-generation Los Gatan is born with living great-grandparents. Natalie Kay Jaramillo arrived at Good Samaritan Hospital on Jan. 24 to parents John and Amanda Jaramillo, whose home is on San Mateo Avenue. Also welcoming the newcomer were her grandparents, Troy and Jubie Jaramillo (Jubie is a longtime teacher at Louise Van Meter) and Darrell and Susie Freeman, and great-grandparents Paul and Bernice Arnerich. At 87, Paul Arnerich, a onetime Los Gatos police officer and restaurant owner, is the oldest living native-born resident of Los Gatos.
MADELYN DOVANO, whose Visual Voice provides vocal narration for the sight-impaired at theatrical events, was at the Performing Art Center in Mountain View for a performance of Under Milk Wood when 400 patrons had to be evacuated because a small fire cut off backstage lights, leaving the actors unable to perform. Patrons weren't told why they had to exit. A Visual Voice describer calmly informed blind patrons.
SITE MANAGER of the Live Oak Senior Nutrition Center, Eleanor Vora says she is grateful for a $500 grant that came from Smythe European Motors by way of the Los Gatos Community Services Commission.
Newly named as program director at the nutrition center, Rebecca Herr is planning events--including cultural, educational and health programs--for the seniors who come to lunch five afternoons a week.
At Los Gatos Kiwanis Club, President Don Wolf presented Ernest Patterson, Los Gatos CPA, with the Kiwanis Legion of Honor Award. Patterson chalked up a remarkable 35 years of perfect attendance. Currently the Kiwanis treasurer, he has held virtually every club office.
AN ATTORNEY opening a law office in New York City ordinarily wouldn't rate space in this column. But Mark Nerenberg, whose new office is at 220 Fifth Ave., is the son of Ben Nerenberg, O.D., and Lillian Nerenberg of Los Gatos and a graduate of Los Gatos High School. Mark, 43, a specialist in immigration and nationality law, attended UC-Berkeley and UCLA and received his law degree from the University of Chicago. He's married and has a daughter.
READING our item about the old Red Coach Inn reminded Ed Carman, Los Gatos nurseryman, that his LGHS class of 1941 held its 15th reunion there. The building, he informs us, was built as a sales room for Elliots Nursery, the largest nursery in the Los Gatos area in the '30s and '40s. There were glass houses in back containing plants. There were Sierra incense cedars at each end of the building and one remains at the south end of the planting area in front of McDonald's Restaurant on Los Gatos Boulevard, the former Red Coach Inn site.
Also responding was Chuck van Damm, a 1950 LGHS grad who went on to San Jose State University and is now retired after 37 1/2 years with General Electric. "During the school year and summer of 1949, I was a dishwasher at the Red Coach Inn," he writes. That was before Mike Modrich owned the Inn.
LOS GATOS Seventh-day Adventist Church will have a "Healthvan" at the Town Plaza on Feb. 25 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. The "Healthvan" will offer free screenings for blood pressure, cholesterol and lung capacity.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, February 14, 1996.
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