As we go through life we meet many people and through some of those contacts we develop friendships. I have been blessed in life that this has occurred more than most. My life has been interacting with people, education, coaching, broadcasting, fishing, politics and golf.

One such friendship was developed many years ago with a prominent man in town who was a successful attorney. I was initially introduced to this man by my dear friend, John Fraser. John worked with this man during his tenure as a Board of Supervisors member back in the 1970s and they became great friends. They both worked very hard as friends to make this a better community.

This man was James (“Jim”) Hooper, who outside of his professional life was a very private person. As John included me more and more in spending time with Jim, I learned of many things that were going on behind the scenes in working with government agencies and others to try to break through the hoops to complete projects. Some of this was about the harbor and much of it was about reconstruction after the 1964 tsunami and Christmas flood.

 When he attended an artists’ reception Sept. 1 at Crescent Harbor Art Gallery, a couple hundred feet from where his boat rests as it awaits repairs, Katsumi Moritaka, left, didn’t expect to enjoy a full-fledged conversation in his native Japanese language. Then local artist Garretta Lamore, right, telephoned her son-in-law, a native Japanese speaker in the Bay Area, and handed the phone to Moritaka. They talked for several minutes, and the Japanese sailor stranded in Crescent City even broke into song at one point.

Kristy Lynn Ramirez recently graduated with honors from Southwestern Oregon Community College in Coos Bay, Ore. A 2009 graduate of Del Norte High School, she is the daughter of Terri Ramirez of Crescent City, and Paul Ramirez of Bakersfield. Kristy has been accepted at Oregon State in Corvalis, where she will be pursuing a degree in business.

 Haley deVries and Andrew Allen of Hiouchi were married June 23, 2012, in Big Flat.

Haley is the daughter of Joan and Leonard deVries of Seattle. She is a graduate of Western Washington University and is employed as a trails maintenance worker at Redwoods National Park.

 On July 28, 2012, Jeremy Ryan Mills and Misty Ann Webb were joined in holy matrimony at Bethel Christian Center in Crescent City. 

They were joined by family and friends from as far away as the groom’s father Kenny and stepmother Katie, who came from Virginia to attend, a brother from Georgia as well as his mother Ann, sister and the rest of his family from Crescent City and Brookings. 

Del Norte Warrior Football Boosters are once again sponsoring a car wash with proceeds going to support Team Redwood’s annual medical mission trip to care for some of Haiti’s most vulnerable orphans.

The Warrior football team and cheerleaders will be washing cars  Saturday, Sept. 22 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Chetco Federal Credit Union, Hwy. 101 and 7th Street in Crescent City.

 Early this year, Somerset Rain Morgan won a $500 Ruth Marcus Memorial Writing Scholarship through the Humboldt Area Foundation.

Somerset intends to use the award to produce a book of photography of local natural beauty, with accompanying poetry, with the aim of helping to elevate Del Norte County youths. 

Jane Watkins greets the residents at Crescent City Convalescent Rehabilitation by name. She encourages one as he practices with a walker, admires the needlework of another, and wishes happy birthday to a third.

Watkins, 57, is one of 16 volunteers in the Long-term Care Ombudsman Program that advocates for quality care and quality of life in the seven nursing homes and 22 residential care facilities in Humboldt and Del Norte counties.

 “And after checking for dietary restrictions, it’s not unusual for one of our ombudsmen to  mark the birthday with a  cupcake and candle to blow out,” said Suzi Fregeau, coordinator of the program for the past two years.

Courtesy of NASA

HSU professor gets grant to study the pests 

A Humboldt State University biology professor has received a federal grant for research that may lead to better tick control without the use of pesticides.

Professor Jianmin Zhong received a three-year $353,500 grant from the National Institutes of Health for his research. He said he is focusing on deer ticks, a carrier of Lyme disease and one of the most commonly encountered ticks in California.

Wendy Bertrand spinning yarn at her Gasquet home. She has a new book, “Enamored with Place: As Woman + As Architect,” and is set for several local appearances this month. Del Norte Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

Bertrand set for conference, book signings 

When governmental architect Wendy Bertrand retired in 1994, she started writing a little bit each day — about her life, her travels and her career.

By the year 2000, that impulse coalesced into the determination to write a memoir, and the discipline to spend several hours each day doing so, while living at her Noe Valley home during the winter months in San Francisco.

Twelve years later, the result is a beautifully designed, ink-printed, hard-bound book titled “Enamored with Place: As Woman + As Architect,” whose official launch date is Sept. 21, the first day of the North Coast Redwoods Writers’ Conference (NCRWC).