New Members

Arthur DeKleine

Eric Fisher

John Goodrich

Steve always wanted to be an Astronaut, but lacked the courage to fly. He preferred staying on the ground with a bottle of Chardonnay.

Eric Fisher was born at New York in 1954 and raised in the Hudson Valley. He served his country in the Peace Corps in Morocco. He majored in philosophy at Princeton and received his doctorate in economics at the University of California at Berkeley.

He worked first as an economist for three years at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, DC. He was an assistant professor at Cornell University, a tenured associate professor at The Ohio State University, and a tenured full professor at Cal Poly.

Eric has been married to Kathryn Marshall, whom he met in graduate school, for 31 years.

They have lived in San Luis Obispo for sixteen years. Their daughter Jane is a management consultant at Boston, and their son Marshall is a software engineer in the Bay Area.

Raised near fabled Eastern trout waters, Eric has caught trout on a fly all over America and in Sweden, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. In the last two years, he walked on a pilgrimage across France and Spain, and he rode his e-bike from the bottom of Manhattan up to the Canadian border.

He’s honored to be Inducted into SLO RAM.

I was born in Upland, California in August of 1941, was an Eagle Scout, graduated from Stanford University with a BA in Economics, University of Southern California Juris Doctor, and a law degree in Federal Taxation from New York University. Practiced corporate law in Palo Alto in the firm of Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati for 38 years, starting in 1973 at the birth of Silicon Valley. Ran a private corporation in San Jose for five years and “retired” to San Luis Obispo in 2010 to raise avocados. I have 5,000 flight hours as PIC (Pilot in Charge). I and my wife, Janice Odell, also a pilot, enjoy cycling and skiing.

Rich Niehuser

Tom Rost

Tom Rost lives in Topeka, Kansas and Morro Bay, California. He is married and they have five children, nine grandchildren and two great grandchildren. He is a retired United States Marine, retired trial lawyer of 40 years in the courtroom. He is not an engineer but owned one third of a civil engineering firm operating from Fairfield, California to Frankfort, Kentucky and he is not a musician but owned part of a music company that provided live music in hotel lounges throughout the lower 48 states. Tom continues to be actively involved in a farming operation he owns for over 70 years.

Rich and his wife Trish moved to San Luis Obispo County in 2018 and currently reside in Los Osos. Rich was born in San Francisco and lived in the Bay Area prior to moving to Los Osos. Rich attended Saint Mary’s College and graduated with a degree in Physics in 1969. His work career involved Environmental

Engineering with an emphasis in Air Pollution Control Systems. Rich also attended law school later in life and became a member of the California Bar practicing Environmental Law and Patent Law. Rich and Trish have three adult children and one grandchild. Rich enjoys gardening and viticulture and has been an amateur wine maker for over 50 years. Rich and Trish are enjoying retirement and exploring the many features of the beautiful Central Coast.

Ronald Smith

Jim Irwin

I graduated from Salinas High School in 1961 and entered Cal Poly in 1961. I majored in Ag Business Management and participated in swimming and wrestling. I joined the US Navy in 1963 for three Westpac Tours to Vietnam. I started working for Air Vol Block Co. in 1971 as a Project Engineer developing new styles of concrete block and methods of production (Allen Block, Concrete Pavers, Split Face Block and Slumpstone). I constructed a cement sacking operation (Quickcrete products and sacked cement) and a rebar fabrication plant.

Retiring from Air Vol Block in 1988 I continued my lifelong traveling adventures with my wife of forty-five years, Janice Guerra, a SLO native. Besides traveling, hobbies include fishing, hunting and golf. I do skiing and scuba diving not so much now! Janice has three great boys as well as my two. Between us we have numerous grand and great-grandchildren. They keep us hopping!

My wife Lynn and I moved to SLO in December 2019 to join our daughter Cait and her husband Andy. Lynn and I were finishing our tour of duty in Dubai, UAE and decided to retire in SLO to reunite our family. Lynn, Cait and I are originally from Honolulu. Prior to moving to Dubai, we lived in Florida, initially in Orlando and then the Miami area.

I was a career corporate risk manager in the petroleum/marine transport industry (BHP Hawaii) then in the cruise industry (Disney & Royal Caribbean) and finally in the hospitality business (Kerzner International). I earned a BS in Finance from Indiana University and an MBA from Chaminade University of Honolulu. I am an avid tennis player and a long-time waterman - sailing, windsurfing, scuba diving and outrigger canoe paddling.

Lynn and I are proud to share that we are first-time grandparents with the birth of our grandson "Kai" on 12/14/2022. Mom, Dad and baby Kai are all doing well!

My name is Herbert Arthur DeKleine. My family always called me “Art”, but when I retired the Social Security office said, “your name is Herbert”. I was born and raised in western Michigan. During the summer months I still farm, with my brother, cherries and chestnuts in MI. I have been active in the California Rare Fruit Growers. I attended Western Michigan University as an undergraduate, and the University of California at Riverside for my graduate studies. I joined the Cal Poly mathematics department in 1974. Getting paid for doing my hobby has been a wonderful opportunity. My areas of interest include applied mathematics, combinatorics, game theory, and voting models.

I am married. My wife's name is Gloria. We attend the SLO First Presbyterian Church. We have two daughters and five grandchildren.