Santa Barbara County District Attorney* Thomas W. Sneddon Jr. ‘63* is the prosecutor who filed child molestation charges against pop singer Michael Jackson. . . . Brian Grunert ’92 won a Grammy in the category of Best Recording Package for his design work on Ani DiFranco’s compact disc Evolve_. . . . Eric Baumgartner ’88, ’93Ph.D. is lead test and operations engineer for the robotic arm component of the NASA Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. He works at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. . . .* Trustee William F. Reilly ’59 won a date with actress Uma Thurman (_Kill Bill Vol. 1, The Truth About Dogs & Cats) with a bid of $60,000 at a New York City auction to benefit the charity Room to Grow. The group helps needy mothers with small children. Reilly is reportedly a Thurman family friend. . . . Pat Collins ’86, assistant U.S. district attorney in Chicago, has served as lead prosecutor in the corruption case against former Illinois Governor George Ryan. . . . An article in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin examined the role Joseph A. Power Jr. ’74 played in the Ryan scandal coming to light. In 1999 Power negotiated a $100 million settlement in a wrongful-death lawsuit. The suit was brought by a couple whose children had died in a traffic accident involving a part that came off a truck. Years before the accident Ryan had been secretary of state, and his employees were responsible for issuing commercial driver’s licenses. The Law Bulletin article said the accident led to a highly publicized investigation of licensing practices and eventually to charges being filed against more than 60 people. Power contended that the truck’s driver had received his commercial license in 1992 in exchange for a bribe. . . . Dan McElroy ’70 went from Minnesota’s finance commissioner to chief of staff for Governor Tim Pawlenty. . . . Dan Hynes ’90, comptroller of the State of Illinois, is seeking the Democratic Party nomination for Senate while Andrew McKenna Jr. ’79, president and chief operating officer of Schwarz Paper Company, seeks the Republican nomination. . . . Jerry Pappert ’88J.D., former judge of the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals, is the new attorney general of Pennsylvania. . . . In January the remains of Michael McCormick ’68 were laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery, 30 years after he was shot down and lost in Vietnam. His remains were located last summer. He was lost just weeks before the war ended. . . . Marine ecologist Kathleen Sullivan Sealey ’78, associate professor of biology at the University of Miami, was named Principal Investigator of the Year by Earthwatch Institute for her study of the coastal ecology of the Bahamas. . . . In what is believed to have been a first, Bill Herp ’84 and a co-pilot visited every paved airport in Massachusetts in a single day last December. Their purpose was to honor the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ first flight at Kitty Hawk and to raise money for a homeless shelter in Boston. The pair landed their four-seat Cessna 172SP Skyhawk at 35 of the 40 paved airports in the state that were open to the public. They flew over the other five, where weather conditions or military protocol prevented their landing. . . . John James Kelly ’56 was elected chairman of the board of directors of Pan-American Life Insurance Company. . . . Molly P. Rozum ’87, an assistant professor of history at Doane College in Nebraska, won the Thomas O. Enders Award from the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States. She is the younger sister of long-time Alumni Hall rector Father George Rozum, CSC, ’61, ’80MSA . . . . Venus (Quejada) Day ’92 won the Worldwide Pageant title of Mrs. Worldwide 2004. Worldwide Pageants competitions aim to identify individuals internationally with “true beauty, that which comes from within.” Day often appears in a mermaid costume to raise money and supplies for women and children in need. She was profiled in the summer 2003 issue of this magazine. . . . Kurt Sanford ’80 is the new president and chief executive officer of corporate and federal markets for the news and business information services supplier LexisNexis. He had been CEO of LexisNexis Asia Pacific. . . . The Chicago Tribune described the daunting rebuilding challenges in Iraq facing civil affairs soldiers including reservist Major Bob Caffrey ’81, normally a trial lawyer in Manchester, Connecticut. . . . Samuel J. Hazo ’49 won the prestigious Maurice English Poetry Award from the Maurice English Foundation for Poetry. . . . Francis X. Taylor ’70, ’74M.A., who spoke on campus in February about the war on terrorism, is assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security and director of the Office of Foreign Missions. He directs law enforcement for the Bureau of Diplomatic Security and oversees State Department programs to protect U.S. government employees, facilities and classified information abroad. He also ensures the equitable treatment of U.S. diplomatic and consular missions and their personnel and regulates the activities of foreign missions in the United States. . . . Deborah Berecz ’93J.D. was elected chair of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Section of the State Bar of Michigan . . . .* Architect *Kelly Ann Gleason ’98 won one of four Dr. Nancy Foster Scholarships awarded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She’s pursuing a doctorate in coastal resource management at East Carolina University. The scholarship provides an annual stipend of $20,000 for four years and up to $12,000 annually for tuition . . . . Gregg S. Behr ’95 is founding director of the Content of Our Character Project, a national organization that promotes social consciousness among young people. He’s also managing director of the Copeland Fund, a nonprofit organization in Pittsburgh. . . . Former federal prosecutor Walt Brown ’85J.D., a specialist in white-collar crime, joined the San Francisco office of the international law firm Orrick, Herrington, & Sutcliffe LLP. . . . Steve Linehan ’82 was named treasurer of Capital One, a subsidiary of Capital One Financial Corporation. . . . Daniel J. Connors ’81 was named to the newly created position of executive vice president and chief administrative officer at Kinko’s Inc. . . . St. Petersburg (Florida)_ Times_ business reporter Jeff Harrington ’84 and another reporter on the paper shared a 2003 Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism. The award recognized their investigation into ties between a high-tech company in Clearwater, Florida, and the Church of Scientology. . . . The New Mexico Business Journal profiled David H. Kelsey ’59, ’61J.D., who in 1973 became the first lawyer in the state to devote his practice entirely to family law. . . . Joseph O’Neill ’53, senior partner in the Saint Paul, Minnesota, law firm O’Neill, Grills & O’Neill, received the Saint Paul Area Chamber of Commerce’s 2004 Legacy of Leadership Award for community and public service. . . .* Robert Stock ’50,* a popular reporter and editor at The (Cleveland)_ Plain Dealer_ for 30 years before retiring in 1996, died last December at age 70.