People who pass by Ken Komoto's Mrak Hall cubicle might immediately figure out the longtime employee has managed to stay quite young at heart and that he's a computer programmer with a decidedly colorful personality. But they still might not grasp the whole picture.

Komoto's shelves overflow with Teddy bears, turtles, frogs and Furbys; as well as stuffed Garfield, Lion King, Animaniacs and Mickey Mouse figures. More than a decade's worth of pop culture icons is present and accounted for.

Lined up like characters in a meticulously-administered computer program code, each toy -- most of which came to Komoto inside Happy Meal bags -- represents a memory he has made with his grandson Kenny.

Komoto reaches over and takes in hand a tiny, stuffed football. It's the first thing he gave to Kenny when the infant arrived home from the hospital, Komoto explains, smiling as he reminisces. Not many months later, when Kenny was just shy of his first birthday, Komoto and his wife, Darlene, started raising the boy full-time.

"You don't expect to start over," Komoto says.

He returned to parenting concerned that child-rearing was perhaps a job reserved for the young. After all "the young definitely have the strength and stamina," Komoto says. But he and Darlene ultimately discovered other traits that proved just as valuable, he says, noting that older and repeat parents "do have the advantage of more experience, maturity and patience."

Also serving Komoto well is his enthusiasm for old-fashioned fun. "You can always grow old, but you don't have to grow up," he says.

Raising Kenny has been a great excuse for getting to ride roller coasters again, he says, noting his and Kenny's season passes to Marine World. In addition, Komoto has gone through Little League all over again, and trophies scattered here and there at his desk attest to his dedication as a coach. The Woodland resident also volunteers his time to work with 9-to-13-year-olds in the Royal Rangers program, a Christian organization similar to the Boy Scouts.

In the grand scheme of his 35 years at UC Davis, Komoto's toy-filled cubicle is a relatively recent phenomenon -- and one perhaps as unexpected as the evolution he's seen take place in computers. "It's been an interesting progression," the programmer VI says.

When Komoto arrived at UC Davis, the campus was still using punch cards. "As a computer operator, I never dreamed everyone would have a computer on their desk some day. Back then computers were taking up entire rooms and required huge air conditioning units to keep everything cool," Komoto says.

One of his duties included boxing up punch cards for shipment to UC Berkeley's mega computers for analyses. At the time, big projects on campus included creating computer simulations of the life cycles of bugs and analysis of dairy herd food rationing, he says.

Komoto later worked to help implement telephone registration on campus, and, after that, online registration. Working out of the registrar's office, he now helps with database programming for the Banner student information system. His group makes available reports on which students are taking what classes, who's eligible for intercollegiate sports or honor roles and, conversely, which students are subject to academic dismissal or haven't paid their fees.

"A lot of what we do isn't necessarily pleasant," Komoto says. "But it has to be done."

Komoto also helps to clear up error messages encountered by users when they try to retrieve these various types of student information. "Problem-solving interests me," he says, noting that in his field and at an institution the size of UC Davis, "there's never a dull moment."