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On October 24, 2006, the Napa County Board of Supervisors presented a proclamation to Pacific Union College for the celebration of its 125th anniversary. Richard Osborn, president of PUC, and John Collins, vice president for financial administration, accepted the framed proclamation from Supervisor Bill Dodd at a Board of Supervisors meeting in Napa. Pam Sadler, vice president of advancement, and Herb Ford, professor emeritus, also attended the presentation. PUC was established in Healdsburg in 1882 but moved to Angwin in 1909. PUC is Napa County’s only four-year college. More than 1,000 graduates currently occupy positions of service in the county. PROCLAMATION WHEREAS, academic classes commenced in early 1882 in Healdsburg, California, for an educational institution that has today become known as Pacific Union College, and that in its 2006-2007 academic year is celebrating its 125th anniversary; and WHEREAS, the college in 1909 moved its campus from Healdsburg to Angwin in Napa County, with classes commencing on September 19, 1909, in buildings of Edwin Angwin’s former widely known resort; the resort had been built on “the best 200 acres” of George Yount’s 4,400-acre La Jota land grant that included all of Howell Mountain; and WHEREAS, Pacific Union College has grown from...

Following his graduation from PUC in 1993 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, Scot Blackburn decided to test his skills in the business world. His efforts paid off, and the result, is an award-winning strategy-meets-trivia board game he named Brain Chain. Brain Chain was co-created with current PUC Campus Chaplain Roy Ice, Kris Harter (Columbia Union graduate) and Brigit Warner (Southwestern graduate and Santa Rosa resident). Recently, Games Magazine honored Brain Chain as one of the 100 best board games. Blackburn credits his PUC education with a large part of this success. “Creating a game was a lot of fun, and Pacific Union gave me the tools I needed to succeed and the confidence to use them,” say Blackburn. He specifically credits professors Kopitzke, Voth, Neergaard, Hardcastle and Toledo with not only his understanding of the theoretical and practical business world, but instilling in him the confidence and drive to be an entrepreneur. “Although PUC does not yet have the name recognition as Harvard or Wharton, I was pleasantly surprised with the instant respect I, as a PUC graduate, was accorded within the business world.” Blackburn also credits current PUC Campus Chaplain Roy Ice and other Seventh-Day Adventist University...

Pacific Union College’s annual Phonathon kicked off on October 9 and will run for five evenings a week until December 7. A total of 34 students are staffing the phones in order to reach this year’s goal of $165,000, an amount that will be allocated to scholarships, residence hall renovation, and faculty development through PUC’s annual fund. The generous support from alumni has Phonathon on track to meet its goal, and Tonya Kamaloni of the alumni and advancement office is confident of the program’s success. “We have been receiving a steady number of gifts each evening and are optimistic that this generosity will continue over the next seven weeks so we can reach our goal of $165,000,” says Kamaloni. Phonathon was originally supported by faculty and staff volunteers. Twenty phone lines were set up in the side rooms of the cafeteria where the first Phonathon workers made their calls. Now entering its 31st year, Phonathon employs nearly twice the number of callers and has become a student-driven affair, a characteristic unique to the college’s fundraising campaigns, and one that provides the students with an opportunity to directly contribute to supporting PUC and its future....

In April, a high school student, who had been hiding her pregnancy, delivered her baby in a bathtub, cut her own umbilical cord, and then proceeded to wrap her baby in a plastic bag. The infant was later found dead under her bed. It is a horrific crime but one that is not uncommon. Each year, an alarming number of young women, hide their pregnancies, then abandon their newborn babies. While many infants survive, others have encountered devastating fates. The situation is especially tragic considering there is a law in place to protect those unwanted babies. Since 2001, the safe surrender law (also called Safe Haven or Safely Surrendered Baby) allows parents to anonymously give a newborn to a hospital, police or fire station within 72 hours of the baby’s birth, without criminal implications. The problem is that the majority of young people don’t know the law exists. “A lot of education has gone to health-care workers and adult audiences,” says Jaynie Boren, vice president for strategic planning and business development at San Antonio Community Hospital. “What’s been missing is information geared toward junior high, high school, and college audiences.” But all that is about to change. This past summer,...

On October 7, 2006, a special concert commemorated the 25th birthday of the Rieger organ at Pacific Union College. With Del Case, professor emeritus of music, on the organ and guest musicians on the violin and harp, the concert featured a wide range of composers with music from the 17th century to the present. The Rieger organ was installed in the spring and summer of 1981, culminating over 30 years of dreaming and planning by organists Warren Becker, Lowell Smith and Del Case. Under Case’s direction and research, the college decided to have the organ constructed by Rieger Orgelbau of Austria. Case also determined the tonal design, headed the fundraising effort, and supervised the installation and voicing of the organ. With four manuals, 58 stops, 85 ranks and over 4,700 pipes, the organ remains the largest mechanical tracker action pipe organ in the Western United States. Many prestigious organists from the United States and Europe have performed on the Rieger, and three recordings have been produced. In his comments at the performance, Case explained that the organ cost $380,000 when it was installed; if we were to replace it today, it would cost at least $1.5 million....