Inducted in 2019
Dr. dick barnes - class of 1954
Dr. Dick Barnes was born in Taft, the second youngest child in the family, growing up on Naylor Street. He worked at various jobs, including shining shoes on a street corner on Center Street, cleaning the Fox Theater, and flipping burgers at Richie’s Drive-in. He was chosen to go to Boys State his senior year, and after graduation from Taft High, he set off for Brigham Young University as a pre-dental student with best friend Carl Mitchell. Dr. Barnes credited his interest in becoming a dentist to his admiration for Dr. Ben Dykes. After graduation, he married Elaine Jensen, and a few days later, the couple drove to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, so Dick could attend dental school at Marquette University. He supplemented his income during dental school by working in a bakery, the post office, and as a dental lab technician. In 1962, Dick graduated from Marquette Dental School and was awarded the coveted “Gold Foil” Award for his superior clinical abilities.
After a short stint working as a dentist for native Canadians in Alberta, Dr. Barnes moved his family to Rialto, California, where he practiced dentistry until 1985. His career in dentistry included teaching at the University of Southern California Dental School, serving as a member of the Aesthetic Dentistry Association, beginning a dental laboratory that today is one of the largest labs in the world, and training dentists worldwide. He conducted over 600 training seminars for the FDI International Dental Federation in Singapore, the American Dental Association (and dental associations in most states in the US, in Canada, Denmark, Norway, and Belgium), as well as clinical lectures given throughout the USA, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, Israel, Australia, Germany, and Switzerland.
His civic service has included the Rialto City Council, Rialto Kiwanis Club, Bishop of the Rialto Second Ward of the LDS Church and Boy Scouts of America Council member.
paula rivers gordon, ph.d - class of 1957
Dr. Gordon received her BA and MA degrees from UC Berkeley and her PhD in Public Administration from American University in Washington, D.C. She completed coursework on a second PhD in Educational Planning and Administration at the Graduate School of Education at UC Berkeley.
She has served in a variety of roles in the Federal Government and in the private sector. Her work has led her to coordination of intergovernmental agencies in a wide range of issues including drug abuse (National Institute of Mental Health), energy (the US Federal Energy Office and Federal Energy Administration), research utilization (the research applied to the National Needs Program of the National Science Foundation), and education (on behalf of the US Advisory Commission in Intergovernmental Relations for the Department of Education). Dr. Gordon is a leader in the field of drug abuse prevention, having authored a Guide to Drug Abuse Programs and Policies which was distributed by the US Office of Education. From the mid-nineties to 2000, she played a role in influencing the scope and direction of national and global Y2K efforts.
After September 11, 2001, her focus turned to national security issues. Her research and information for policymakers, implementers, analysts, administrators, and managers in the area of national security may be accessed through her website at http://gordonhomeland.com. Currently, Dr. Gordon’s work is directed to enhancing and building the skills and capabilities of those in roles of public responsibility and those preparing for those roles, bringing a more collaborative understanding of functions and responsibilities in the in the areas of homeland security, defense, and emergency management.
In 2016, Dr. Gordon completed Parts 1 and 2 of her Hic-cu Chronicles—Mind, Heart, & Soul Candy, which was copyrighted in 2019. As she explains in the Forward, “A hic-cu might be described as a haiku in need of rehab. A hic-cu may be viewed as being a kind of mental or spiritual hiccup.” These hic-cu’s are delightful observations which serve to make us smile and to show us the whimsical side of a tireless public servant.
michael mc cormick - class of 1965
Michael McCormick was born in Taft, lived in McKittrick for 18 months, and moved to Guadalupe, California, where his family lived until 1957. When the family returned to Taft, e was enrolled in St. Mary’s School, through eighth grade. Since St. Mary’s had no music program, Michael did not have the chance to learn an instrument until his Freshman year of high school. He took the trumpet in beginning band with A. James Marsee, the Taft Union High School music instructor and band director. By his Sophomore year, Michael had joined both the marching and the concert bands, an affiliation he continued through the rest of his high school years. He also participated in the choral music program, joining the Modern Music Masters, under the direction of Miss Emma Strangman. From his Freshman through his Senior year at Taft High, Michael also participated in all sports open to males, except golf.
After graduation from Taft High, Michael attended and graduated from Taft College and went on to graduate from Fresno State, but it was his experiences in music under the tutelage Marsee and his contact with coaches at Taft High that directed his decision to major in music and minor in physical education.
Following college, Michael joined the Naval Reserves and went to Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, (among other locations), eventually attaining an intelligence specialist rating now known as Specialty, NOS B600.
After a teaching stint in Arvin, Michael returned to Taft to teach at Lincoln Junior High, and from there to Taft Union High School where he spent the next thirty years of his career. He taught music, geography, driver education, and driver training. In 1990, he became a counselor and remained in that capacity for ten years. He was one of the very successful swim coaches of the Taft High swimming program, whose swimmers won several SSL League and CIF Division II Championships. While at Taft High, Michael also was an adjunct instructor at Taft College.
Officially retired in 2010, Michael has not allowed himself to slow down. He has been a volunteer brass instructor for the Taft High and at Lincoln Junior High School band programs, and he currently heads the Board for the West Kern Oil Museum.
harvey trop, ph.d - class of 1972
Dr. Trop received his BS in Chemistry (with Honors) at UC Berkeley; he was a State Scholar while at UC Berkeley. He graduated with a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from MIT in 1979. His work was involved with coordination chemistry of two transitional metals, rhenium and technetium, the isotopes of which are currently used in nuclear medicine. During his research, he co-authored over a dozen research papers. While at MIT, he had the distinction of being the first graduate student ever appointed to MIT’s Radiation Protection Committee, the group whose job it was to oversee all programs at MIT that dealt with radioactive materials and which was responsible to draft rules and regulations for the safe use of those materials.
In 1979, Dr. Trop went to work for AT&T Bell Laboratories and, along with another member of the technical staff there, developed a commercially-viable palladium plating process. This patented process was introduced into a number of Western Electric (the then manufacturing arm of AT&T) sites, and its use was estimated to have saved AT&T over $10 million in its first five years of use. His work at Bell also included semiconductor processes, including those that etched lenses onto the surface of light emitting diodes and photoconductors. He was part of the team who developed the first undersea qualified solid-state laser that was used in the first all-optical trans-Atlantic communications cable, TAT-8. In 1985, Dr. Trop was promoted to head an R&D team charged with, among other tasks, developing sensors for monitoring chemical processes used in the manufacture of printed circuit boards and semiconductor devices. By the 1990’s, Dr. Trop had been given the responsibility for a pilot manufacturing line designed to take ideas through to manufactured products. New optical components and sub-systems for experimental use by the military and NASA came from this work.
Currently, Dr. Trop’s work is in the areas of optical and telecommunications systems and in the development of the next generation of optical switches for the optical communications network. These switches are similar in function to the on and off ramps of a major freeway and are able to direct individual wavelengths of light contained within an optical fiber onto different optical fibers. He resides in Fremont, California, and he travels the world.