Class Notes: 1979
Maximilian B. Torres writes: “My 13-year-old son, Gabriel Anthony Torres, the last of our eight children, hugged Pope Francis at a Wednesday audience on December 1, 2021. The Vatican posted it on the Pope’s Instagram page. My son was wearing my Cal sweatshirt, which is clearly visible in the Vatican photos. I am the Della Ratta Family Endowed Professor of Business at the Busch School of Business at the Catholic University of America. I taught a leadership class at our Rome campus this past fall, which is why we were in Rome.”
Class Secretary: Maria Protti, 3 Los Amigos, Orinda 94563, maria.protti@cal.berkeley.edu
Michael J. Coffino, J.D. ’79, writes: “After 40 years of law practice and 25 parallel years as a high school basketball coach, I became a professional writer. Since then, I have authored and co-authored eight published books. The most recent is my debut (and award-winning) novel, Truth Is in the House, a work of historical fiction. It tells the tale of two teenage boys—one of color from Jim Crow Mississippi, the other an Irish immigrant—who flee with their families to the Bronx in the 1960s after nightmarish tragedies bring death to their personal worlds and drive them to find common ground over the course of their adult lives.”
Class Secretaries: Shelly de Vries, 111 Kenwood Way, San Francisco 94127, shelly@de-vries.com; Maria Protti, 3 Los Amigos, Orinda 94563, maria.protti@cal.berkeley.edu
