John Flaherty, Jr.:
CLASS OF 1974
Fontana High SchoolClass of 1974
Fontana, CA
John's Story
Life
I married Mary Engelhard, my high school sweetheart, in 1977. We have 3 sons, Casey (42), John III (39), and Brian (36); we now have 4 grandchildren (Dean and Lila from Bri and Samantha and Forest and Faye from John and Fran) ages 1 to 7 years. We live in Pacifica, CA just outside San Francisco; thankfully our family is close by. Mare is retired and I’m right on the cusp.
For the past several years we have attended Cornerstone, a nondenominational Christian Fellowship, in San Francisco.
My favorite recreational activities are surfing, mountain biking, and walking/hiking. We love traveling, good food and good wine. My favorite wines are French and Italian, particularly the regions of Burgundy, the Northern Rhone, and Loire Valley and Tuscany and Sicily. Good food demands good wine and Mary is truly an amazing cook not to mention my partner for life!
School
My fondest memories of Fohi are hanging out with Joe Leogrande, Danny Medina. John Peraza, and Steve Erickson. When we weren't land locked in Fonta, we were at the beach surfing and partying (probably too much). I also enjoyed playing football for the Steelers and unfortunately in '73 we did not live up to our potential - what ever became of Terry Henderson our star running back? The best thing that hap...Expand for more
pened to me was meeting Mary who eventually became my wife. Who said "nothing good can come out of Fontana"! :)
College
After graduating Fohi I bolted for the coast and attended San Diego State (the "Harvard of the West Coast"), where I majored in surfing with a minor in Chemistry. All my studying paid off as I was admitted in 1978 to USC School of Pharmacy. I survived 4 yrs in La La Land (L.A.) and obtained a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree in 1982. After that I was accepted to the UC San Francisco Clinical Pharmacy Residency program ('82-'83) and I stayed on to do a 2 yr Infectious Diseases research felloswhip ('83-'85).
Workplace
I worked at UC San Francisco (UCSF) for 13 years as a Professor of Clinical Pharmacy. While I really enjoyed the academic setting and excelled at teaching, I decided to move to the private sector in 1998. I now work at Gilead Sciences and biotech company in the Bay Area that specializes in development and marketing of new drugs for viral diseases such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis B. I am currently a Director of Medical Affairs and I am responsible for conducting clinical trials for our products in the postmarketing setting. It's a cool job and I enjoy it a great deal. Our drugs are top sellers for HIV which is very gratifying to me.
Register for Free to view all details!
Yearbooks
Register for Free to view all yearbooks!
Reunions
Register for Free to view all events!