Mark Meltzer:  

Live in Bay Area. Have 2 kids, Eric born in 1989 and Amelie born in 1992. Married to Sara who teaches math at CCSF. Live in Palo Alto. Work in Sunnyvale. I went to UC Berkeley with cohorts from Sequoia: Bob Ziegler, Andy Elliott, Andrea Sodman, Brenda Wong, Barbara Harding, Janice Clark, Marshal Gluskin, Bob Dickow and others. Have kept in touch with Janice C (lives in RC, got a Stanford degree after UCB) Bob Z (tech author in Silicon Valley), Andy E (homeo/naturopathic physician in Ore.), Brenda W (psychotherapist in SF), Andrea S (social work consultant in Ore). Leif Rideout (who many of us knew at McKinley Jr. High) is an architect in Santa Cruz and races classic sports and race cars at Laguna Seca. I saw Steve Krantz in April 08. He is a very prominent math professor at Washington University with a zillion published books and journal articles (does that surprise anyone?). I saw Sue Sitnek years ago (1980s) when I lived in the LA area. She was doing high end movie special effects work combining her talent in art and engineering. Saw Al Manning a few years ago, he is a lawyer in LA. Bob Dickow is an accomplished composer, french horn player and professor of music with a PhD from UC Berkeley. I played second horn in Sequoia's orchestra and band. Now, seeing what a major talent occupied that first chair, I don't feel so bad. Bob has truly phenomenal musical talent. Our brainiac classmate Tod Sloan has more degrees than I can count including an MD, MBA and PhD. He is a medical school professor and practices anesthesiology in CO. Tons of publications too. Having studied next to Tod in Sequoia's Physics-Electronics program, I got an early glimpse of his immense talent After completing my sophomore year at UC Berkeley I took a year off and served as a VISTA volunteer in federal anti poverty programs in rural Louisiana. I helped establish emergency food and medical programs for people who were living in shocking poverty. You can say what you want about President Lyndon Johnson, but he truly cared about poverty in the US and tried to help those who suffered from its effects. It is a sad statement that government concern for eradicating poverty seems to have diminished since LBJ's War on Poverty of the late 60s. We didn't win the war, we just stopped fighting it as hard. There were kids who were really suffering down there. I saw too many kids who were infested with worms, malnourished and not attending school. The federal programs got them emergency medical care and supplemental food for their families.Poverty and discrimination still deeply concern me. I've been incredibly lucky in my education and career, but I am acutely aware that "luck" is not evenly distributed in our society. The kind of luck I have enjoyed is directly related to the opportunities I had. A white male typically gets the biggest slice of the opportunity pie and that just isn't right. If a cop stops me and I reach for my pocket he will probably think I am going for my wallet and while I might get a shouted warning to put my hands up, I am unlikely to be shot. A black or brown person doing the exact same things is likely to be eyed with more suspicion and fear which can prove fatal. The US is a great country but we have a long way to go in eliminating poverty and racial bias. Having a two term black President is a significant milestone, but Obama would still have trouble getting a cab to stop for him at night in NYC or Chicago if he were alone and his face wasn't clearly visible. I am not currently on the front lines addressing social injustice directly, but I do contribute money to good causes I have endowed a scholarship at my alma mater targeting disadvantaged students who need help. I expect to resume more direct work when I retire. My father was a commercial fisherman and agreed to teach me his tr...Expand for more