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Saratoga Sampler
'Pair-a-docs' are still studying their way to the top
By Mary Ann Cook
TWIN PHDS: The banner proudly proclaimed "Pair-a-Docs" in front of this Saratoga house. A rousing Sunday afternoon party for 40 celebrated the duo doctorates earned by twins Julie and Paul Hagelin this summer. Paul received his doctorate in engineering from U.C.-Davis and Julie earned hers in ornithology from the University of New Mexico.
But that's only the tip of the talent tally for these two. Earlier, Julie was the second woman ever to study in Antarctica. She won a research summer (our winter) from the Girl Scouts of America and the National Science Foundation, and did her research at McMurdo Sound, a U.S. base.
She then spent a couple of months
in Christ Church, hosted by and living
with the Girl Guides, the New Zealand equivalent of the Girl Scouts. Christ Church is the staging area for the Antarctica base. All of which meant she graduated from college a year after her brother.
His undergrad degree was in general engineering from Harvey Mudd, hers in biology and German from Pomona. Then both won a Thomas Watson Fellowship, a $15,000 grant to allow students to follow their dream job in the year following their graduation, a pie-in-the-sky scenario. Forty of these are granted yearly.
Under this fellowship, Julie studied birds in New Guinea, Borneo, Australia and New Zealand. Paul worked in robotics for a German company, then went to Loughbrough University of Technology in England, where the European Research Center sponsored his masters' study.
His redesign of a robotic arm for a key Englishman led to his study at Loughbrough. There he studied artificial intelligence and neuro networks and earned a master's in science in mechatronics.
Today he specializes in optics and in designing micromachines, such as the trigger that switches on air bags. He and three others have founded a startup called c Speed, c being the symbol for the speed of light. The prototype of the optical switch they are working on uses lasers and mirrors. The redwood sign on Fruitvale near Saratoga Ave. junction is Paul's work, a scout project .
Meanwhile, Julie has been studying the mating habits of quails at the University of New Mexico for the past five years, and her next job will be at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, teaching biology.
The twins have recently turned 30 and are the offspring of Linda and Ron Hagelin. Ron is a retired math teacher and naval pilot. He still teaches kayaking and canoeing during spring and summer vacations for Santa Clara Union district.
Linda taught at Van Meter School in Los Gatos, in the GATE program at Saratoga and College for Kids at West Valley. She now teaches other teachers marine biology through the Monterey Bay Aquarium and a science methods class at San Jose State University.
PLAYING HOST: Nancy and Doug Anderson hosted retired Congressman Carlos Moorhead of Glendale and his wife Val recently. Nancy and Val were dorm-mates at the University of Southern California, class of 1950, and have kept in touch ever since.
The Andersons held a dinner party for 14 and took the Moorheads, who had never been to San Jose, downtown. "We had to show them that sculpture (in front of the Museum of Art) at Caesar Chavez Park," Nancy said.
Moorhead served in Congress for 26 years and before that was in the California Assembly. The Andersons kept up with the Moorheads via yearly New Year's trips to Southern California.
PHOTO OP: Felicia Pollock took the photos of the crowded library that were used in the most recent library brochure. Since she got no mention in the news about the Jump and Jive fundraising celebration to help kick off library expansion, she wanted the record straightened.
Pollock is on the recoup list at the moment, after her recent hammer-toe surgery and bunionectomy. "I'm getting the engines revved," she says about these body refurbishments, such as the new rotator cuff installed last year. Has a hot pink bandage to show off for her foot surgery.
FAMED FACES: Kevin Ruf appeared in the famed and oft-repeated photo of John F. Kennedy Jr. and his bride Carolyn Bessett Kennedy emerging from the church. Ruf is on the right in the wedding photo that recapped the latest Kennedy tragedy. He is the son of Egon and Kay Ruf and was a good friend of the couple.
LITWITS: The LitWits are 10 women who meet on the first Monday of the month to discuss assigned books they have read. In June they meet for a potluck and to submit the coming year's book titles, which are then culled.
Jeannie Ottinger founded the group about five years ago--reactivated it really, after her return from Pittsburgh--and enlisted likely bookworm colleagues. Some books they've dissected recently: Cry the Beloved Country, Alan Paton; The End of the Affair, Graham Greene; and The Book of Evidence, John Banville. "We stick to fiction," says Ottinger. "There's so much to develop in a discussion with fiction."
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
