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Keep in touch with fellow classmates with California Monthly's Class Notes. Become a member of the California Alumni Association now to receive your own copy of the magazine. We'd love to hear from you. Why not submit your own Class Notes now? Party of the Century On the occasion of his 100th birthday in February, Robert McManigal ’22, Boalt ’28, not only hit the century mark, but also became the oldest practicing lawyer in California. McManigal celebrated in true Cal style:
McManigal received his law degree in 1928 and began practicing in Los Angeles, where he specialized in intellectual property and probate law. He has represented two local corporations for more than 50 years, and continues to work from his South Pasadena home. Still propelled Herman Bank ’40 sits in his home office telling a reporter about Volunteer Professionals for Medical Advancement, the group he founded for retired space engineers and scientists from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The retirees use their knowledge of space technology to advance medical technology, and newspaper stories about their efforts cover a sofa and two bulletin boards nearby as Bank talks. “Let me do one thing,” the soft-spoken, 84-year-old engineer asks. “I have to send a fax. Someone has built upon one of our discoveries.” After he sends the fax, Reader’s Digest calls about doing a story on his group.
The friendly Bank is busy, and that’s understandable. His 15-member group, aged 65 to 84, achieves impressive results helping local hospitals solve technological problems. The group designed an isolation chamber to test asthma and allergy sensitivity. It adapted an electropolishing process, developed in the aerospace industry, to solve a blood-clot problem related to stents. It devised an automated oxygen enrichment system for premature babies. And it is developing, with JPL, a computer database to educate pediatricians worldwide on the treatment of childhood illnesses. To encourage discoveries such as these, Bank gladly works at least 30 hours a week. “I guess I’m partially a workaholic,” he says, “I need something to keep me challenged and occupied at least a part of my time. The business of retiring and suddenly doing nothing is for the birds. I’m not the type who goes to a senior citizen’s center and listens to all kinds of agricultural information and what not.” Bank recognized his interest in medicine early. “I wanted to go into medicine as a youngster but just couldn’t afford it,” he says. “So I went into mechanical engineering because I seemed to be mechanically oriented too.” In 1947, he joined the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, a research and development arm of NASA. He supervised the structural design on Explorer I, the first satellite after Russia’s Sputnik, and on the Ranger and the Surveyor, which made the first crash and soft landings on the moon. Later he worked two years on a JPL project to apply the advanced technology of space to medicine. That funding expired, but he wanted to continue the investigation when he retired in 1984. The group for JPL retirees he founded in 1990 meets monthly in Pasadena at the California Institute of Technology, which manages JPL. “I feel very satisfied [about the group’s successes],” Bank says. “I feel more satisfaction than anything I had in space.” Bank hopes to replicate the group across the country and wants to continue making discoveries. “My mother lived to 97,” he says. “My dad lived to 87. I’m hoping to break the family record and live to be 100. I want to live until I die, and not die while I’m living.” — Gary Libman Hot chocolate For generations brought up on Hershey’s, Scharffen Berger gourmet chocolate is a real eye-opener. With as much as 70 percent cocoa content, Scharffen Berger provides an intense shot of flavor, a lot like an espresso. Despite its European-sounding name, Scharffen Berger is actually an American company—the first
“I thought, ‘This is exactly like my last business.’ I started making sparkling wine because there was no good sparkling wine made in the United States,” says Scharffenberger, who felt the same was then true of chocolate. Steinberg and Scharffenberger became partners with the goal of producing chocolate to rival Europe’s best. They realized that the challenges would be great, but they decided to take the plunge anyway. “When I started to look into this, one of the things that made me curious was how many people in the chocolate industry told me not to do it!” recalls Steinberg, whose quest for great chocolate had already led him around the world, from France to Africa to Venezuela. They began with a small factory in South San Francisco, making chocolate with vintage European equipment and testing each batch for taste and quality. They call their process “bean to bar,” and emphasize that there is a great deal more to making chocolate than movies like Chocolat would have us believe. “There’s a traditional mystique around it,” says Steinberg. Cocoa beans are fermented, roasted, crushed, and blended, and finally the sugar and vanilla are added. This complex process requires that a good chocolate maker have the combined skills of a gourmet coffee blender and a fine-wine maker. Their attention to detail has not gone unnoticed by the public, and now the company is struggling to keep up with demand. But help has recently come in the form of a second Cal graduate, Peter Wais ’76. A couple of years ago, Wais had just sold his family steel-finishing business when he came across a bar of Scharffen Berger at a neighborhood grocer. He was so taken by it that he asked to join the company. With his help, Scharffen Berger has just moved into a larger factory in Berkeley. On reflection, Scharffenberger says he is not all that surprised by their success: “If you’ve had Wonderbread all your life and suddenly you have a baguette, you really don’t go back.” Reunion Fever A great weekend of reunion celebrations is planned for the Classes of the ’80s and ’90s during Cal’s Homecoming Weekend, September 28-30. Kick off the festivities at the free Young Alumni reception, 7:30-9 p.m. on Friday at Alumni House, followed by a spirit rally at Haas Pavilion (known as Harmon Gym in our day). Saturday, check out the great food and entertainment at the Bear Affair brunch and festival on Campanile Plaza before the Cal-Washington football game, and march into Memorial Stadium under your Class banner before the start of the game. Mark your calendars and plan to attend with family, friends, and alumni of all years. For more info, see http://homecoming.berkeley.edu or call 888/UNIV-CAL.  Return to Top |
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