Southern California Edison CEO, Boeing VP among Cal State L.A. alumni honorees

On Thursday, October 12, 2006, California State University, Los Angeles will honor Alan J. Fohrer, chief executive officer of Southern California Edison, as its Alumnus of the Year at the University’s 33rd annual Alumni Awards Gala. Fohrer earned a master’s degree in business at Cal State L.A. in 1981.

As it celebrates the outstanding contributions of its alumni and students to their professions, communities and the University, Cal State L.A. will also present its University Service Award to John J. Tracy, Ph.D., senior vice president of Engineering, Operations and Technology for The Boeing Company and another member of the Class of ’81.

Organized by the CSULA Alumni Association, the event begins at 6:30 p.m. with a dinner on the campus’ Luckman Street of the Arts, followed by an Academy Awards-style ceremony and multimedia video presentation in the Luckman Theatre. For tickets, call (323) 343-4980 or visit http://alumni.calstatela.edu/gala. 

Here is the complete list of honorees:

Alumnus of the Year
Alan J. Fohrer ’81 has been, since January 2002, chief executive officer of Southern California Edison (SCE)—one of the country’s largest electric utilities. He is a member of the Engineering School Board of Councilors of the University of Southern California and the Dean’s Advisory Council for the College of Business at California State University, Los Angeles. He is also a member of the board of directors of Los Angeles Sports Council; Montgomery Watson Harza, Inc.; San Gabriel Valley Council Boy Scouts of America; Town Hall Los Angeles; California Science Center; California Chamber of Commerce; and the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO). Fohrer earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in civil engineering from USC, and an M.B.A. from Cal State L.A. He is an Arcadia resident.

University Service Award
John J. Tracy ’81 is senior vice president of Engineering, Operations & Technology for The Boeing Company, responsible for defining and implementing corporate strategies for attaining and maintaining excellence in each of these areas. Most previously, Tracy was vice president of Engineering & Mission Assurance for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems. Tracy received a Ph.D. in engineering from UC Irvine, master’s degrees in physics from Cal State L.A., and bachelor’s degree in physics from CSU Dominguez Hills. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the Royal Aeronautical Society. He is a Huntington Beach resident.

Distinguished Faculty Alumnus
James Brady ’74 is associate professor of anthropology at Cal State L.A. A noted cave archaeologist with a specialty in Mayan caves, Brady has been recognized for leading the scientific investigation of Cueva de Rio Talgua (Cave of the River Talgua) in Honduras—where he found a remote burial chamber with skeletal remains of perhaps 100 to 200 individuals. The skulls and bones sparkled with tiny calcium crystals from the limestone cave, thus inspiring the site’s nickname, “The Cave of the Glowing Skulls.” He is also co-directing an interdisciplinary research project about “Ulama: The Survival of the Mesoamerican Ballgame.” Brady earned his B.A. in anthropology from UC Berkeley, M.A. in anthropology from Cal State L.A., and Ph.D. in archaeology from UCLA. He is an Alhambra resident.

Distinguished Alumni Awards
Leo Dardashti ’78,  president and CEO, Atlantic, Inc. (Beverly Hills resident)
Terrence E. Deal ’66, Ph.D., author, speaker, consultant and retired professor (San Luis Obispo resident)
Elizabeth M. Devine ’85, co-executive producer, CSI-Miami (La Canada-Flintridge resident)
Maxine M. Morisaki ’72, ’83, attorney, Susson, Parrett, Morisaki & Odell (Newport Coast resident)
Paul Jerome White ’56, managing partner, White, Zuckerman, Warsavsky, Luna, Wolf & Hunt, LLP (Los Angeles resident)
Donald J. Zuk ’61, president and CEO, SCPIE Holdings Inc. (Manhattan Beach resident)

Outstanding Senior
Taguhi Sogomonyan (B.S., Biochemistry ’07), Burbank resident

Outstanding Graduate Student
Ruth Elizabeth Montes (M.S., Biology ’07), Los Angeles resident

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MEDIA NOTE: For photos of alumni award recipients or to arrange interviews, please contact the Cal State L.A. Public Affairs office at (323) 343-3050.

Working for California since 1947: The 175-acre hilltop campus of California State University, Los Angeles is at the heart of a major metropolitan city, just five miles from Los Angeles’ civic and cultural center. More than 20,000 students and 190,000 alumni—with a wide variety of interests, ages and backgrounds—reflect the city’s dynamic mix of populations. Six colleges offer nationally recognized science, arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education and humanities programs, among others, led by an award-winning faculty. Cal State L.A. is home to the critically-acclaimed Luckman Jazz Orchestra and to a unique university center for gifted students as young as 12. Programs that provide exciting enrichment opportunities to students and community include an NEH- and Rockefeller-supported humanities center; a NASA-funded center for space research; and a growing forensic science program, to be housed in the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center now under construction. www.calstatela.edu