Darin Gray said his goal over the next few years is to focus on mitigating learning losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo courtesy of Darin Gary)
Darin Gray, the co-director of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering K-12 STEM Center, was recently named the James E. Ballinger Engineer of the Year 2020 by the Orange County Engineering Council an award which honors exceptional engineers renowned in their fields.
The OCEC honored Gray for his long-term work at the STEM Center and awarded him for his influence on disadvantaged students. For the last 25 years, Gray has been part of the STEM educational outreach and has helped many Black and Indigenous students, students of color and girls pursue STEM as a profession. Gray said his work aims to excite students about STEM and educate teachers about how to teach them.
Da’ Hawai’i Seniors Club (DHSC) of Cerritos had approximately 160 members in 2020 and continues to maintain its membership numbers. However, when a club is so large, it is difficult to get to know everyone or be able to meet people in person. This is an opportunity to get to know two people on the Da’ Hawaii Seniors Club Board who have been serving the club ever since they joined as new members, Amy Tong and Richard Chu. Here is what Amy and Richard would like people to know about themselves.
Pictured at a dinner are, left to right are, Da’ Hawai’i Seniors Club Secretary Amy Tong, daughter Alani, son Bryan, and husband Greg Tong. Photo courtesy of Amy Tong.
Secrets are hard to keep.
Key point: Black projects can be kept in the dark, but not forever. Here is how folks eventually found out about the existence of the SR-71 blackbird.
There are few secret projects like U.S. Air Force black projects, and that was certainly the case for the famed SR-71 Blackbird.
The SR-71 was no ordinary aircraft but a big, beautiful and state-of-the-art spy plane designed in the 1950s and early 1960s to fly quickly at high altitudes over the Soviet Union, filling in for the U-2 Dragon Lady which had become vulnerable to then-new surface-to-air missiles.
LUNCHEON SPEAKER Wayne Ratkovich and Jo Ann.
Last month, the Larchmont Chronicle featured the first half of a talk that Windsor Square resident, and “famous real estate developer,” Wayne Ratkovich presented to the Auxiliary of the Hospital of the Good Samaritan in the spring of last year.
Also last month, Wayne received another accolade, being honored on December 8 by the USC Architectural Guild as recipient of the Guild’s 2020 Distinguished Business Leadership Award. The award was presented at the organization’s 61st annual awards “dinner” a Zoom gathering, of course.
But back to last year’s luncheon. There, Wayne told the guests that he would “share some thoughts about Los Angeles including what I think are the agents of change in Los Angeles and in cities throughout our country and the world.” He said he would conclude those thoughts by recounting his own company’s “experience with historic preservation and what I have discovered about the importance of