Herb Schmalenberger: athletics department

Herb Schmalenberger, whose tenure as a UC Davis coach, administrator and lecturer spanned five decades, died June 27 at age 81.

He came to UC Davis in 1956 after teaching in the Pacific Grove School District. He taught activity courses and lecture courses in the university's physical education department until his retirement in 1991.

Upon his arrival at UC Davis, Schmalen-berger served as an assistant football coach to former Golden Bear teammate Will Lotter, helping the Aggies to a 7-2 overall record and a share of the Far Western Conference title. He filled in as head football coach in 1958, then took over again from 1964 to 1969. He served as head men's swimming coach from 1957 to 1962, and head men's basketball coach for the 1957-58 season.

Schmalenberger also served as head men's swimming coach from 1957 to 1962. He earned his bachelor's degree at UC Berkeley in 1950 and his master's degree there in 1958.

Jim Doan: athletics

Jim Doan kept more than 30 years of Aggie sports statistics in his head or otherwise close at hand, and offered them up freely to the press and public.

Doan, who retired in 1993 after a 30-year career as the university's sports information director, was found dead June 16 at his Davis home. He was 66. Yolo County coroner's deputies said the cause of death had not been determined and that the autopsy report, not yet completed, could provide that determination. There were no signs of trauma or foul play, deputies said.

"He was a living history of all our past exploits," Larry Swanson, associate athletics director, told The Sacramento Bee.

Doan was UC Davis' first full-time sports information director, joining the university after graduating from Fresno State University. After retiring from UC Davis, he refereed tennis matches for 12 years as a certified official of the U.S. Tennis Association. He was secretary-treasurer of the Sacramento Valley Chapter of the National Football Foundation-College Hall of Fame.

Robert Matthews: geology

Robert Matthews, senior lecturer emeritus in the Department of Geology, died June 10. He was 79.

Matthews enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps at age 16 and became one of the Tuskegee Airmen, the nation's first black military airmen.He received his bachelor's degree in geology from UC Berkeley in 1953. He began studying for his doctorate in 1968, but suspended his studies when he was appointed to UC Davis in 1972. He finally completed his degree in 1996 after retiring from campus.

At UC Davis, he established the environmental geology program. Matthews originated the idea of using of cinder cone for sewage treatment at Lake Tahoe, and he studied groundwater issues in East Africa and Northern California. He was closely involved with students throughout his career and in 2000 one of the five courts of The Colleges at LaRue, a student residential complex, was named in his honor.

Ernest Gifford: botany

Ernest Gifford, professor emeritus of plant biology, died June 14 at age 86. Gifford studied at UC Berkeley, receiving his bachelor's degree in botany in 1942. He served as an infantry officer during World War II, and received the Bronze Star.

He was awarded a doctorate from UC Berkeley in 1949 and joined UC Davis as an associate in botany. He served as chair of the Department of Botany from 1963 to 1968 and again from 1973 to 1978.

Gifford studied plant structures and development, especially how the shoot tips give rise to leaves, flowers and stems. He authored more than 100 publications over 50 years, including a textbook, Morphology and Evolution of Vascular Plants, and entries in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. He pioneered the use of radioactive labels to detect DNA synthesis in shoots.

In 1959, Gifford and Ralph Stocking demonstrated for the first time the presence of DNA in chloroplasts, the structures within plant cells that carry out photosynthesis.

Ralph Stocking: botany

Ralph Stocking, professor emeritus of plant biology, died May 25 at age 93. Stocking received his bachelor's degree (1937), a master's degree (1939) and a doctorate in (1943), all from UC Berkeley. He joined the Davis campus in 1940 as an associate in botany.

Stocking served several terms as chair of the botany department, 1966-67 (acting), in 1967, 1968-70 and 1971-74. He retired in 1980. Honors included National Science Foundation scholarships in 1963 and 1970, which he used to spend a year each at Imperial College, University of London and King's College, University of London, England. His research interests were in water relations of plants, photosynthesis and chloroplasts, including the landmark finding of DNA in chloroplasts in a study with Gifford.

He was the co-author of several editions of a classic botany textbook, now called Plant Biology, authored exclusively by UC Davis faculty that has been in print under different titles since 1924. Stocking contributed to nine editions from 1959 to 2004. In 2002, he established the Elsie J. Stocking Fellowship in Plant Physiology for graduate students in honor of his late wife, Elsie.

Other funeral services:

Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. today at St. James Catholic Church, Davis, for Harold Olmo, professor emeritus of viticulture, who died June 30 in Davis. A campus memorial service is planned for July 30, the eve of his 97th birthday.

Also, a memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. July 15, at the University Club for professor emeritus Calvin Schwabe, 79, who died June 24 at his home in Haverford, Pa.

See Dateline's July 21 issue for obituaries on Olmo and Schwabe.