Bruce Windoffer:
CLASS OF 1973
South Pasadena High SchoolClass of 1973
South pasadena, CA
Point Loma Nazarene UniversityClass of 1978
San diego, CA
South Pasadena Junior High SchoolClass of 1970
South pasadena, CA
Lincoln Elementary SchoolClass of 1967
South pasadena, CA
El Centro SchoolClass of 1967
South pasadena, CA
Bruce's Story
Life
My memories have become quite foggy, but I have a great fondness for everyone I knew in school...I only wish I spent more time socializing with everybody, going to more parties and football games! But I didn't get out of my "shy" stage until college!
After SPHS, I went on to college and became a chemist, but then moved over to the business side of science into the biotech industry. I still play the violin in a small orchestra and have started to build one!
My wife and I lived in SoPas until 1991, but now live in the San
Diego area (Del Mar). We have two kids. I work for a
biotech software company, Spotfire (a division of TIBCO Software).
Feel free to leave me a voice-mail message at: (800) 245-4211 x1534 or send an e-mail to bwindoff at tibco dot com.
Hope to see many of you at future reunions...
School
I spent Kindergarten and first grade in the Whittier schools before moving to South Pasadena in second grade where I continued until high school graduation. My earliest memories include playing on the library lawn after school (El Centro) with Susan McCallum.
Then it was on to Lincoln School (now Arroyo Vista! What was wrong with Lincoln?!) and 3rd grade with Mrs. Speyer. There was a great band of kids here: Cliff, Scott, Keith, Marc, Vicki, Debbi, ... Cliff reminded me of the Great Paper Airplane craze of 4th grade where he taught me to make one of the most novel of airplanes (I still remember how). This is also when I took up playing the violin which I still play to this day.
Then it was 5th grade with the evil Mrs. Shivell who I remember taking Marc Crockett by the ear and dragging him outside for scolding. She never let go of that ear, shaking it until I thought it would come off!
I was in love with my sixth grade teacher. Her name was Mrs. Thorne, but she got married during the year and I can't recall her maiden name. She was beautiful - but I had to move on to Jr. High.
The Jr. High was being remodeled and was so tight on space that we had to share lockers, and have classes in places like the auditorium stage, a room in the clock tower, and the gym.
On to SPHS. Good friends were: Debbi Stone, Cathy Mrakich, Gary Eliott, Ingus Richters, Cindy Leider - probably more. All my elementary school friends had gone into football or baseball and I had continued with violin. There was no orchestra in High School, so we walked to the Jr. High for a couple of years to be in orchestra there which was lead by Karla Payne - another favorite teacher of mine. I've managed to locate Karla and we correspond from time to time. The only girl I dated from South Pas while at SPH...Expand for more
S, was Virginia Burden (now DeRossi) (one year behind us), but I was still so shy that I didn't ask her to the Sr. Prom that year even though we had gone out just a couple of weeks before! She was a very nice, and very cute girl who probably wonders what the heck was wrong with me. In college I finally figured out the girl thing - dated a lot, and found my dream girl whom I married.
College
My 4 years at Point Loma College - now Point Loma Nazarene University - were some of the best years of my life (up until now!). This is an excellent school for getting an undergraduate education.
Drs. Heasley and Shellhamer (but mostly Heasley!) would always give me grief over how a chemistry student could take so much time to be involved in music - orchestra, choirs, summer traveling group, etc - but they were great profs that knew how to work on my weaknesses while leveraging my strengths.
My first year I lived in Klassen Hall. One night, fellow wing-mates Tony and Bill who were roomates really got after each other and Tony was almost strangled to death by Bill.
Hendrix was my dorm during the second year. My roomate would go behind my back and try to make the moves on whoever my girlfriend was at the time. I would find out sometimes months later that he was practically stalking them!
The last two years I lived in the first floor of Nease hall, but since Nease was a girls dorm and they have a policy of no co-ed dorms, they called it Finch Annex. So the first floor was Finch Annex and floors 2-6 were Nease. Voila! No co-ed dorm!!!
My roomate and I would put on "window plays" with our curtains drawn and a back light and the girls in the next building would sit out on their windows to watch - usually receiving good reviews. However, one play was a little on the edge with a risque theme which did not go over very well. However, it must not have hurt us too much...both Jim and I were voted into Who's Who that year.
Now I'm active in the Alumni Association and have joined the orchestra - playing violin - which gives me great delight. Both of my kids have graduated from their, too, so the entire family will be going to the same alumni events over the years! Cool!
Workplace
I've remained employeed in the area of my major - chemistry. However, I left the science side and joined the business side after leaving Truesdail Laboratories for Fisher Scientific in 1982. I have worked in sales ever since. Currently I'm selling data analysis software for Spotfire to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical research community in the southwestern United States. It's a great company with a fantastic potential.
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