UC Irvine has a way to go before it’s mistaken for a sports factory, but the university known for its brains has been flexing some muscles of late. Last month the ‘Eaters won the collegiate men’s volleyball title, resulting in a photo op last week for the team and Chancellor Michael Drake with President Bush on the South Lawn of the White House. And even Trojan loyalists took note of the ‘Eaters exciting play in the College World Series, where UCI knocked off several perennial powerhouses, including cross-county rival Cal State Fullerton, before falling to Oregon State. Ironically, the baseball streak was preceded by the resignation of Athletic Director Bob Chichester, who told the Daily Pilot he’s worried whether UCI sports can remain competitive with their budgets being strained. Drake said UCI will launch a national search for a new AD …
UCI has been on a fund-raising roll, too. The latest: The university soon will announce that retired Rockwell International chief Don Beall has given $6 million to establish the Don Beall Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Merage B-school …
A record graduation class (6,500 degrees awarded), the White House visit, the World Series, the Donald Bren Hall dedication, the Beall gift,”I hate to see this week end,” said UCI advancement chief Tom Mitchell …
Leave it to George Argyros Jr. to make a quip at the wedding altar. He and Shannon Snyder (formerly with Edwards Lifesciences) tied the knot in a sumptuous ocean-bluff ceremony at Santa Barbara’s Bacara Resort attended by 135 family and friends. When Rev. Robert A. Schuller (like George Jr., the younger version of a famous name) got to the part about the bride taking the groom “for richer or poorer,” George Jr. interjected, “for richer or richer.” The newlywed George, looking trimmer and more relaxed than ever, checked back from the Bahamas last week to do a little business before heading to the Caribbean for the second leg of his honeymoon …
The June 6 New York Daily News carried separate stories on OC’s Sandra “Mendez vs. Westminster” Robbie and Gustavo “Ask a Mexican” Arellano. Gustavo’s book recently broke into the Top 10 on the L.A. Times Bestsellers list …
That amateur video of Kobe Bryant cussing out the Lakers has been an Internet hit,and free advertising for Pasta Pomodoro, whose Newport Coast Shopping Center sign is recognizable in the background …
Air Force First Lt. A.J. Korn of Huntington Beach finished his fighter-pilot training and is now deployed out of Lakenheath RAF, England …
Gov. Arnold appointed former The Irvine Company exec Monica Florian to the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force. No, it’s not an eye or dental plan, it’s a group that will make recommendations about upgrading the state’s levee/water system.
