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| Alumni Awards Spotlight Service and Work of Jim Barber, Mark French,
Elizabeth Gabler, Petra Van Koppen, and Arthur Rupe |
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| UC Santa Barbarba Alumni Association
President Jack Krouskup ’71, left, and Chancellor Henry Yang congratulated
awardees Professor Petra Van Koppen ‘79, Ph.D. ‘84, Elizabeth Gabler ’77,
Jim Barber ’67 and Mark French ’73. Arthur Rupe, not pictured, was
inducted as an honorary alumnus. |
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| The UC Santa Barbara Alumni Association presented its annual awards June 6
at UCSB’s Corwin Pavilion.
Alumni Association honorees were:
- Distinguished Alumni — Mark French ’73
- Distinguished Alumni — Elizabeth Gabler ’77
- Graver Alumni Service Award — Jim Barber ’67
- Alumni Teaching Award — Petra Van Koppen ’79, Ph.D. ’84
- Honorary Alumnus — Arthur Rupe
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| Distinguished Alumni – achieved
outstanding recognition in his/her field of endeavor |
| Mark French ’73 is the winningest coach in the history
of the UC Santa Barbara women’s basketball program. French, who announced
his retirement in April, will step down after leading the Gauchos to 13 Big West
Conference titles and 12 NCAA Tournament appearances during his 21 seasons in
Santa Barbara. After returning to his alma mater before the start of the 1987-88
season, French built UC Santa Barbara into one of the premier programs on the
West Coast. |
| Elizabeth Gabler ’77 is the President of Fox 2000 Pictures,
a division of Twentieth Century Fox Filmed Entertainment, which has produced
such films as “The Devil Wears Prada” and “Walk the Line.” Prior
to assuming her position as President of Fox 2000 Pictures in November 1999,
Gabler served as Executive Vice President of Production for Twentieth Century
Fox. Her earlier career included serving as a Vice President of Production at
United Artists, where she was the executive in charge of “Rain Man.” |
| Graver Alumni Service Award — demonstrated exceptional leadership
and service to UCSB through involvement with Association-related activities |
| Jim Barber ’67 has
been an Alumni Association board member since 2003. He was instrumental
in starting the All Gaucho Reunion weekend tradition in 2007. He also is
a founding member and was the first chair of the Gaucho Athletics Association,
a support organization for Gaucho intercollegiate athletics. While attending
UCSB, he was the Player’s Player on the 1965 Camellia Bowl football team
that was inducted into the Gaucho Athletics Hall of Fame in 2005. |
| Honorary Alumnus — enriched and contributed to the reputation
of UCSB as one of the nation’s leading universities |
| Through the Arthur N. Rupe Foundation, Arthur Rupe has established
an endowment at UC Santa Barbara for the Great Debate Series, which explores
contemporary societal issues, and an endowment for the Arthur N. Rupe Chair in
the Social Effects of Mass Communication. Rupe is the president of Arloma
Corp., a real estate and petroleum production company. In 1945, Rupe founded
Specialty Records, which recorded music with Little Richard and other R&B
stars of the ’50s and ’60s. |
| Alumni Teaching Award — made a positive impact on the lives
of his/her students with inspirational teaching |
 Petra
Van Koppen, ’79, Ph.D. ’84, a UCSB chemistry
professor, has developed California K-12 Science Outreach (http://outreach.chem.ucsb.edu/),
which helps elementary school students learn about physical sciences. Her work
with the Saturday with Scientists and Summer Institute for Mathematics and Science
programs has assisted high school students in transitioning to college. Teachers
have gotten curriculum help through her efforts with the South Coast Science
Project. Van Koppen has received several teaching and service awards, including
a Margaret T. Getman Service to Students Awards in 2003. |
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