Month: August 2019

Janice Endo in Human Resources was kind enough to share, with Joy Kobayashi and Harry Cullotta, the names of additional former (retired) VCCCD employees who have passed away within the last three years.  Their passing was unknown to the VCCCDRA until so informed by Janice.  We are grateful to her for helping us keep tabs on so many of our membership living in so many locales.

Because we have not been able to locate informed obituaries, we are asking the membership’s help in providing information on our recently passed colleagues.  We would like to know which location they worked, position(s) they held, and any other memories you may have.

The names Janice provided are (please click on each name to read the limited obituary for each):

McCallian N. Blain (photo included)

Mike Taggart, former ESL instructor for the Bilingual Vocational Arts program at Ventura College, passed on July 27, 2019 (he was born on September 15, 1930).  Mike would have been 89 next month.

Daughter Rebecca Taggart informed us that there will be a celebration of life for Mike in Ojai on September 8th.   More information will follow.

Hiroko Yoshimoto spent the five last days of his life by his bedside together with his family and friends in his house at Higgins Lake in Michigan.  When contacting us about Mike’s passing, Hiroko shared that Mike was a very close friend for nearly 40 years, and that in those days, he held court at the campus cafeteria with Frank Salazar, Mike Seely, Don Clark, Gary Johnson and many others most of whom are no longer with us.

Mike’s obituary was published in the Ventura County Star on Sunday, August 25, 2019; click here to view.

To visit the VCCCDRA website, click here.