2006 Distinguished Alumni
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Bruce Hill
Attended
Mesa College, 1977-79
Bruce Hill has been the owner of Superior Alarm, Inc. since
1981. A Grand Junction native, he graduated from Grand Junction
High School and attended Mesa State College. He has been active
in many local organizations such as: Kiwanis; United Way;
the Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce; Rocky Mountain
Public Broadcasting; Downtown Development Authority; St. Mary's
Hospital Foundation Board; National Junior College Baseball
World Series, (JUCO); Crime Stoppers, and more. In 1997 Bruce
was honored with the "Citizen of the Year" award
from the Grand Junction area Chamber of Commerce and the 2003
recipient of "Small Business of the Year" award
as well.
Elected to the Grand Junction City Council in 2003 and served
as Mayor for two years. During his first three years on the
Grand Junction City Council, Bruce participated on the policy
committee for Colorado Municipal League (CML), the annual
conference committee, along with attaining the Certificate
& Leadership levels through the CML leadership program.
Attendance at the annual state CML conference has been a priority
along with attending legislative updates, regional meetings
and training classes.
Bruce understands the importance of participation of both
State and National level programs. By serving on the Community
and Economic Development Committee (CED), a better understanding
of how local issues are addressed nationally allows for better
representation of the citizens of our community. He has perfect
attendance in NLC Congress of Cities. During his attendance
at the 2004 Congressional Cities Conference in Washington
D.C., a video conference was arranged for Senator Ben Nighthorse
Campbell, to communicate back, via video conference, to the
Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce, Legislative Committee
meeting. Again in 2005 & 2006 he arranged and hosted a
video conference link with Senator Allard, Senator Salazar
and Congressman Salazar. He has attained the Bronze, Silver,
Gold and Platinum levels from the NLC Leadership Training
Institute.
Current council assignments include: Grand Junction Economic
Partnership, Chamber Legislative Committee, Economic Development
Partners, Grand Junction Economic Partnership and Western
Colorado Business Development Center.
Married to his wife Kristine, father of four children, Tiffany,
Brandon, Avery & Adison.
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Dr. Leon Shell
Associate of Science
Mesa College, 1956
Leon received his undergraduate degree from the University
of Colorado and Master's and Doctorate degrees in Counseling
and School Psychology from the University of Northern Colorado.
He taught math, science, and coached baseball and basketball
in Paonia (his first teaching position), later serving as
a counselor and school psychologist in Colorado, California,
and Arizona. He came to Arizona State University (ASU) in
1967 and served as Dean of Students for 27 years, six of these
years as Dean and Associate Vice President for Student Affairs.
As Associate Professor of Education as ASU, he also taught
Higher Education and Counselor Education courses and served
on Master's and Doctorate degree committees.
While as ASU, Leon served 12 years (and as past chair) on
the Arizona Blood Services Advisory Board (now known as Arizona
Blood Services), and served 14 years as ASU's liaison on the
Tempe Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors.
Since 1977, he has been a member and past president of the
Tempe Diablos, a service organization and official hospitality
hosts for the Fiesta Bowl and the Los Angeles Angles Cactus
League Spring Training, and donor for Tempe youth oriented
and educational activities. Since the Diablo Scholarship Program
started in 1977 until he retired form ASU in 1999, Leon was
the Tempe Diablo Liaison with ASU and administrator for the
program which now funds $150,000 annually in scholarships
to Tempe High School Union graduates coming to and attending
ASU.
Leon has been married to Carol Sullivan (a graduate of Grand
Junction High School) since 1962. They have two children,
Eric and Susan, and three grandchildren, including twins.
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Vaughn Shell
Associate of Science
Mesa College, 1956
Vaughn received his BS (Aeronautical Engineering) from the
University of Colorado and later earned his MS (Applied Mechanics)
and MBA from California State University-Sacramento. He spent
37 years with Aerojet General, an aerospace company located
in the Sacramento area. In the mid 1960's, he was part of
a twelve man engineering team that successfully designed,
fabricated and tested a solid rocket motor, which generated
over 5 million pounds of thrust. Forty years later that rocket
motor still retains the distinction of the most powerful rocket
motor ever tested. Later he was the engineering manager for
the Minuteman second stage rocket motor program. The Minuteman
weapon system was one of the nation's mainstays to deter nuclear
war during the cold war. He was a member of the American Institute
of Aeronautics and Astronautics and contributed numerous technical
papers regarding solid rocketry.
Vaughn's first career was not aerospace but baseball. After
playing ball at Mesa and Colorado University he signed with
the New York Yankees and played three years in the minor league
organization. He fondly remembers these three years as a time
that enriched his memory bank but not his fiscal bank. He
still remains active in sports participating in skiing and
tennis. In 2005 he led a team to a national tennis championship.
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Santo Trombetta
Bachelor of Arts
Mesa College, 1977
Santo "Sandy" received his Bachelor of Arts degree
in Human Services from Mesa College in 1977. He began his
government and public service career working at the Collbran
Job Corp Center. There he mentored underprivileged youth and
coached the Center's softball team which had not won a game
in 14 years, to a Grand Junction city championship.
In 1980 Sandy began his career as a Recreation Therapist
at the Department of Veteran Affairs Medical Center in Grand
Junction Colorado. There he developed the concept of utilizing
adaptive skiing and winter sports as an innovated form of
rehabilitation. He was instrumental in the development of
the Powderhorn adaptive ski program and single-handedly built
what is now the largest adaptive ski program of its kind in
the world today, The National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports
Clinic. This event has taught thousands of profoundly disabled
veterans how to ski and has produced a number of national,
world and Paralympic champions.
A leader in the field of Recreation Therapy Sandy has received
numerous awards including: the 1988 Air Force Association's
VA employee of the year, the 1990 Colorado Lieutenant's Governor's
Award, in 1991 inducted into the National Healthy American
Fitness Leaders Association, in 1994 awarded the Department
of Veterans Affairs Olen E. Teague award - the highest commendation
awarded to individuals working with combat wounded veterans,
in 1995 received the Veterans of Foreign Wars Outstanding
VA Healthcare Provider award, in 1996 selected as one of 5
exemplar individuals in the United States to attend the first
historic Surgeon Generals report on Physical Activity and
Health. A graduate of the Department of Veterans Affairs Leadership
VA class in 2000 and in 2005 was the recipient of the Department
of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, the highest
honorary award that the Department of Defense can bestow to
a private citizen.
He works closely with the United States Olympic Committee
in the development of disabled veteran athletes for Paralympic
competition. Sandy and his work have been publicized in numerous
magazines, newspapers and periodicals and has been featured
on the Sunday Morning Charles Karult Show, the Travis Tritt
tribute video to the spirit of the Disabled American Veteran
and a week long series on MSNBC. Sandy's parents and 2 sisters
reside in Grand Junction and he is the proud father of Derek,
Ashley and Nicole.
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Dr. Robert Walker
Associate of Science
Mesa College, 1968
Dr. Walker received his Associate of Science degree in Zoology
from Mesa State in 1968. He went on to receive a Bachelor
of Science degree in Medical Microbiology from the University
of Utah in 1971. This was followed by a Masters of Science
in Medical Microbiology/Biochemistry from the University of
North Dakota in 1973 and a Ph.D. in Veterinary Microbiology/Pathology
from Oklahoma State University in 1978. Immediately following
his graduate studies he entered a post-doctoral research program
at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Shortly after
starting his post-doctoral program he was invited to join
the faculty at the University of Tennessee as an Assistant
Professor and Director of the clinical microbiology laboratory
at the College of Veterinary Medicine. Seven years later,
as a tenured Associate Professor, he was recruited by Michigan
State University. At MSU he served as Section Chief of the
clinical veterinary bacteriology/mycology laboratory for the
College of Veterinary Medicine and the State of Michigan and
was promoted to Full Professor. As a tenured full professor
he was recruited by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's
Center of Veterinary Medicine's Office of Research to be the
Director of the Division of Animal and Food Microbiology.
Because of his excellent credentials as a research scientist,
Dr. Walker was inducted into the Federal Government's Senior
Biomedical Research Service during this recruitment process.
During his career Dr. Walker is the author or co-author of
two US patent applications, 25 book chapters, 94 peer-reviewed
articles, 32 general published articles, five procedure manuals
and 212 abstracts and presentations. He is also a co-editor
of two books and has presented over 20 hours of lectures in
six different countries throughout the world. In addition
he has served as an expert witness for the US FDA in a successful
litigation against a pharmaceutical company. In recognition
of his contribution to the FDA Dr. Walker has been the recipient
of six awards including a CVM Award for Excellence in Laboratory
Science for "the Development of the CLSI Approved Antimicrobial
Susceptibility Testing Method for the Fastidious Food Borne
Pathogen Campylobacter jejuni" and a DHHS Secretary's
Award for Distinguished Service "for Establishing a Program
in Mexico to Detect Antimicrobial Resistance in Food Borne
Pathogens to Better Assure the Safety of Domestic and Exported
Food to the U.S."
Dr. Walker also has remained active in several professional
organizations. He is a member of the Clinical Laboratory Standards
Institute (CLSI) which is a consensus-based organization responsible
for developing and disseminating validated microbiological
testing methods. Dr. Walker has been a voting member of this
organization's Subcommittee on Veterinary Antimicrobial Susceptibility
Testing (VAST), and serves as liaison between the CLSI VAST
and the CLSI Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (AST) -
the human equivalent of VAST for 14 years. In this capacity,
he has been instrumental in ensuring the quality of data submitted
by drug sponsors seeking interpretive criteria for antimicrobial
susceptibility testing. He has also been active in the American
Society for Microbiology (ASM), the largest professional organization
of its kind in the world. In actively participating in this
organization he saw a need for a forum for individuals involved
in animal health to share their knowledge and information.
In 2000 he was instrumental in the formation of ASM's Division
Z, Animal Health Microbiology. He has served as Division Chair-Elect,
Division Chair and Division Advisor from (2000-2003) for Division
Z. He has also service as Associate Editor for the journal
Anaerobe, and is an ad hoc reviewer for the Journal of Antimicrobial
Chemotherapy, American Journal of Veterinary Research, Journal
of Clinical Microbiology, Journal of the American Veterinary
Medical Association, Anaerobe, Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy,
and Veterinary Microbiology. In addition, Dr. Walker participated
as an Item Writer for the National Board of Veterinary Medical
examiners for two years. This committee is responsible for
formulating questions relative to clinical microbiology for
the Veterinary National Board exams.
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