Speakers

Mike Stake is a wildlife biologist at Ventana Wildlife Society in Monterey. A San Francisco Bay Area native, Mike became interested in birds when his 6th-grade teacher took the class to a local sewage pond to identify ducks, herons, and kingfishers. Mike left California in 1988 to attend the University of Nebraska. After graduation, he worked with The Nature Conservancy in Texas and Hawks Aloft in New Mexico before getting his Master’s Degree at the University of Missouri. Along the way, he assisted biology research projects in the Bahamas, Australia, Peru, and Ecuador, and spent two years teaching English classes in Russia. Mike has been back home in California since 2009 assisting with California Condor recovery on the central coast.

 

RICK GRETHER

          Operations Manager for Shower the People

 

I was born and raised just east of Stockton, California in 1946 and attended Linden High School, graduating in 1964.  That summer my father offered to pay for my Private Pilot's license, and I continued building flight licenses from then on, including Instructor Ratings, which I used during my college years.  

 

I started college at San Diego State in 1964, but my education was interrupted by the Vietnam War.  As I assumed I would be drafted, I enlisted for a six year commitment with the National Guard, and thus avoided a tour of duty over seas.  

 

Graduating from San Diego State in 1970, I partnered with another pilot friend and started Spirit of Palo Alto Aviation, a flight school and air charter service in the San Francisco Bay area.  In 1979 I was hired as a pilot by United Airlines and worked there until retiring (age 60 required) in 2006.  The following year, 2007, I was hired by Boeing as a B777 and B787 flight instructor, retiring from that in 2015.

 

My wife Claire (married in 1976) and I raised 4 children in San Luis Obispo, and were involved in all the usual child activities; baseball, soccer, 4H, church mission trips, etc.

 

In September of 2017 I was introduced to Becky Jorgensen of Showers of Hope, who needed a driver with a large truck that could pull her mobile showers trailer.  That lasted until February of 2018 when I met Gwen Watkins who wanted to start Shower The People, a nonprofit, all volunteer organization showering the homeless.  And now I'll live happily ever after as Operations Manager for that organization!