Volunteer Spotlight Series

HomeVolunteer Spotlight Series

The Ashby Village Volunteer Spotlight Series offers a glimpse of just a few of the dedicated and compassionate individuals who give their time, heart and talents to our community.

Ashby Village is fueled by five generations of volunteers, ranging in age from 16 to 94. Many of our more than 300 volunteers are Ashby Village members themselves and they enjoy the opportunities to help their fellow members. Some volunteers collaborate on program teams and at the highest levels of leadership, some provide direct member services, and others lend a hand on specific events, projects, and in the office.

Collectively, our volunteers are truly the heartbeat of our village. We're grateful for the rich life experience each individual shares with our community, and we're sure that you'll enjoy getting to know a few of them throughout this series!

One of the Originals
Volunteer Mark Goldman

November 2024

A Global Journey to Ashby Village

Mark’s involvement with Ashby Village began 13 years ago, after a neighbor and founding member encouraged him to join. Since then, he has become a key figure in the AV community, handling handyman tasks and resolving tech issues, particularly with Apple products. He also leads a support group that transitioned from members’ homes to what are now Zoom meetings once a month.

Born into a U.S. Army family in Munich, Germany, Mark moved around the U.S. before settling in Monterey, CA at age eight. He earned a Geography degree from San Francisco State University, where he met his wife of 38 years. Now residing in Kensington, they continue to explore the world with a mix of road trips and extended getaways.

Curiosity, Dedication and Quick to Offer a Helping Hand

Mark’s passion for technology, coupled with his love for hiking, cycling, birdwatching, reading, and music, defines his vibrant lifestyle. His early career included work on the California Water Atlas which led to roles in publishing, graphic design, and ultimately brand strategy at Pentagram, a renowned design consultancy.

Mark exemplifies a commitment to learning, adaptability, community service and setting an inspiring example for all those in the Ashby Village and beyond. He encourages the Ashby Village community to welcome change, ask questions, and embrace technology. His top tip? Document your passwords and keep them secure!

If this piqued your curiosity about technology, join him at the next Apple Tech Group Zoom class on the first Tuesday of the month (check the AV Calendar for times and link). If you or someone you know is interested in volunteering at Ashby Village, call (510) 204-9200 or email Volunteer Manager Jessica Sterling at jessica@ashbyvillage.com.

Librarian Turned Genealogist
Volunteer Barbara Ryken

August 2024

Barely had Barbara started to think about where to volunteer, when an Ashby Village reference came up in a local publication. She loved the concept, applied, was interviewed and very soon started to work here. After a life in leadership positions, culminating as Head Medical Librarian at Summit Hospital, she loves the simplicity of taking on a straightforward task and "doing as she is told," she says. Barbara has been volunteering in the AV office on Thursday mornings since 2019 and works mostly alongside Volunteer Coordinator Jessica Sterling, tending to administrative work. This includes answering the phone, a part of the job Barbara likes a lot. “You can tell people deeply care” she says, “members for volunteers and vice versa, including staff”. She loves to be a part of this compassion team in action.

History Through a Special Lens

Currently, Barbara’s other interest is genealogy, a curiosity that arose as her family ancestry is a mixture of Danish, Dutch, German and Swiss. "Why did some of them leave, why did others stay?" She is taking a look at history through the lens of her own family. "We know many women died in childbirth, but did you know they had babies later in life than we think? and that, once they delivered one or two, chances of survival were rather good?" Her genealogy research takes much of her time, and she has to be an avid reader to understand the complexities. With any time left, she likes to sew quilts and mend things, swim and work out at the local YMCA, and she stays abreast of Berkeley politics.

Family Life

Barbara hails from Buffalo, New York where her family moved from Los Angeles when she was a baby. The eldest of five children, she is the only sibling who moved out to California – for love. She bought a 1923 Craftsman house in Berkeley where she and her son with his wife still live. Barbara ceded the main floor to the young family (and soon in September, to be joined by a granddaughter) and lives in the souterrain herself with Mochi, the family Dachshund.

Did this pique your interest to become part of the “compassion team in action”? Or to start your own ancestry research? Contact Ashby Village Volunteer Coordinator Jessica Sterling at jessica@ashbyvillage.org. about volunteering at Ashby Village, or call the office on Thursday mornings to talk to Barbara!

(Bottom) Barbara Ryken (L), Jessica Sterling (R)

An Enriched Life
Volunteer Amy Blasenheim

July 2024

“Having to get up in the morning to help others saved my life during the pandemic,” said Amy Blasenheim, an Ashby Village Volunteer since 2012. “I was raised by two immigrant grandmothers in New York. I liked helping them and that’s how my volunteering started. When my partner became one of the first members of Ashby Village, I decided to sign up as a volunteer. Volunteering has enriched my life.”

Ashby Village MedPals

For six years, Amy served as a MedPal and driver for an Ashby Village member who had multiple health concerns. “A MedPal is someone who is trained to accompany a person to the doctor and makes sure all necessary questions are asked, answered, and recorded. Doctors’ appointments are not very long and it is important to be prepared, especially if a person is stressed and dealing with a serious diagnosis. I get together with the member ahead of time to write down their concerns and to look over the Ashby Village MedPal general list of questions as a guideline.”

Feeling Useful

During the pandemic, direct contact between members and volunteers paused, and Amy's MedPal work stopped. “I switched to being a volunteer grocery shopper and dropping purchases at the door. It was during this time, that my partner died. My grief was lessened by continuing to volunteer. It made me feel useful and saved me emotionally from severe depression.” Amy continues to be a driver, grocery shopper, food preparer, and MedPal, in addition to resuming her second career as a massage therapist.

Breaking the Glass Ceiling

“My first career, which lasted 31 years, was with Pacific Bell in San Francisco. I was a telephone operator and then an installer and repair technician.” Some of her more interesting jobs were installing the phone system at the Giants’ Ball Park and the Ferry Building. She was one of only a few women performing that work and, even there, found ways to help people. “I got in trouble once for taking too much time on a job because I stayed on to help the customer join a program that lowered her phone bill.”

Instilling Hope

As an Ashby Village volunteer, Amy has met a lot of older members who have active lives filled with purpose. “They set a good example and fill me with hope.”

If Amy's story inspired you to volunteer with the village or you would like to learn more, contact Ashby Village Volunteer Coordinator Jessica Sterling at jessica@ashbyvillage.org.

Newest Member of the Student Team
Volunteer Sonia Hochschild

March 2024

Sonia Hochschild is currently enrolled at Berkeley High and is one of four who make up the high school student volunteer team at Ashby Village. When looking for something new and different to do, Sonia pondered volunteering someplace where she could meet people from other generations. There is an affinity she can’t quite explain – she simply “gets along well with seniors” and enjoys every encounter.

But, Where to Volunteer?

Senior Centers came to mind as a place to volunteer until Joan Cole, a friend of the family and one of Ashby Village’s founding members, suggested our village. Introductions were made, and Sonia liked what she saw. She attended the first volunteer training and orientation available and soon started to support the village under the guidance of Volunteer Coordinator Jessica Sterling.

As a volunteer under age 18, Sonia cannot work one-on-one with our members to help with the many services the Village offers, but she did not see this as a limitation. She loves the connection to the Village and the opportunity to contribute wherever she can, which is typically in the office (and travels across town by bus to do it!) and helping with events. Working with Jessica, Sonia does some data entry and spends a fair amount of time on the phone, calling to check in on members, confirming new volunteer references, and following up with various suppliers.

Jessica loves working with the high school student volunteer team. “They get to it,” she says, working quickly and directly on whatever request comes their way.

An Athletic Baker!

As demonstrated at Ashby Village and at school, Sonia is curious and adventurous. She is athletic, doing gymnastics for many years, crew rowing after that, and she just started Lacrosse, a team sport she is enthusiastic about. Sonia enjoys baking, particularly pies. She always starts out with a recipe and then tweaks things, apparently quite well, as her fan base is apparently increasing. If you attended the Ashby Village holiday party this past December, you likely met Sonia ... guess where? Behind the cookie counter! Sonia loved the event for the opportunity to meet members, staff and fellow volunteers, and she is looking forward to supporting teams at events more frequently in the future.

Family Ties

Some readers may recognize the Hochschild family name: her grandparents are none other than Arlie and Adam Hochschild, each well-known and respected writers, UC Berkeley professors, and Ashby Village members, among other accomplishments. Sonia does not mind being occasionally identified through their fame. She says it does not happen frequently among her contemporaries, but “it’s cool that they've come to school for presentations.” Sonia thinks her older sister Rosa, who goes to Occidental College near Los Angeles, may be asked more frequently about the Hochschild connection.

What's Next

Sonia sees herself as a creative and independent person. When looking to the near future, she is currently torn between Architecture-Interior Design and Natural Sciences as possible fields to explore after high school. Thankfully, the decision does not have to be made just yet, and who says it has to be made definitively at all? Perhaps it is just a question of integration, or even sequence. Given that living to 100 and beyond is increasingly expected, there may be time for both ... and more.

If Sonia’s story inspired you to encourage other high school students you know to volunteer with the village, and you would like to learn more, feel free to start a conversation by contacting Ashby Village Volunteer Coordinator Jessica Sterling at jessica@ashbyvillage.org.

Sister Rosa (L), Grandma Ann Ii (C), and Sonia (R)

The Man Behind The Camera
Volunteer (and now Member!) Howard Kirsch

February 2024

As with many Villagers, so Howard Kirsch: he learned about the Village Movement through the NYT article that described the emergence of the Beacon Hill Village, a concept quickly followed by Ashby Village among a few others. Howard became a volunteer at Ashby Village in 2011, and recently also became a member.
His initial volunteer work was in collaboration with Maryl Gearhart on the tech support team. He still serves in the tech arena, but now in a unique capacity: Howard is the man behind the camera of the videos used to promote the Village online. Think, documentation of special events, volunteer training, and he's been working on something special – a series of video histories of Ashby Village founders, which is currently in production.

Outside of the village, yet very much relating to its mission, Howard serves as a Senator on the California Senior Legislature (CSL), representing Senior Citizens to the Governor. This corps of 40 Senators and 80 Assembly Members meets annually and each fall prioritizes issues and finds legislative support to send their top 10 list to Governor Newsom for consideration in the upcoming year’s state legislature.

Pre-Ashby Professional Life

Howard was born and brought up on the East Coast, in New York City. In 1962, right out of high school, he kicked off a career in broadcasting starting as a Page at ABC television. After attending technical school, he was offered a union job at ABC technical operations. In 1968, he was called to Jerusalem, Israel, to participate in the pioneering work of establishing the country’s first public broadcast television station.

Roughly a year and a half later upon his return to New York, he joined DDB (Doyle, Dane & Bernbach), a worldwide advertising and marketing company, whose TV complex he managed for 11 years. Later, working at NBC, he and his family were contemplating a move out of New York City. As Howard perused job offers, he noticed an appealing opportunity with KRON TV in San Francisco, and, while a move to the West Coast was further away than the Kirsch family had originally envisioned, the opportunity to become Assistant Chief Engineer was golden, and the allure of the golden state worked on the entire family. They moved to Oakland in 1985. Following KRON, Howard continued to work in tech and media related positions, namely for 11 years at JVC as a Sales Executive, promoting the equipment he knows so well from his work in the field. Howard is still on standby as a consultant for ASG (Advanced Systems Group) in Emeryville, where he served as Market Development Executive for 5 years.

The Thread: Art, Wellbeing, Volunteerism + Travel

Back in 1970s New York, Howard volunteered for CSI (community sex information), an organization that ran a hotline to refer clients to reproductive health services. Later, still in New York, he was also on the Board of an HMO startup, the Manhattan Health Plan. After his wife was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s Disease in 2004, he began to work as a volunteer with the Alzheimer’s Association and was asked to join its Northern California/Northern Nevada Chapter. He served for six years and was a VP for 2 years. Howard loves the arts, especially photography and music, and within music, especially Jazz. Applying the latter practically, he also volunteers at the Jazz and Justice Church in Oakland (part of Plymouth United Church of Christ). Howard also enjoys travel, and at the time of this conversation, he was on the verge of a one-month trip to South East Asia.

Private Howard

Howard and his wife (who passed on in 2011) have two daughters, and meeting the children and grandchildren, luckily, does not require long travels: one lives in Piedmont, the other in Orinda. Both daughters also each have two children, a boy and a girl each, ranging in age from 15 to 6. Howard is concerned about several issues of our times and especially about the problems we created and may leave unsolved for younger generations. Yet, simultaneously, he is a firm believer in the basic goodness in all people and that, in the end, goodness will transcend the problems we currently face.

If this brief glimpse into Howard’s life inspired you to spread goodness in your own way, and you are interested in learning more about volunteering opportunities in the many areas of service Ashby Village offers to members and the greater community, please contact Jessica Sterling at jessica@ashbyvillage.org.

Putting Her Skills To Use
Volunteer Hilary Naylor

January 2024

“I discovered Ashby Village in 2018,” recalls Hilary, “I was looking for some way to use my tech skills and saw that The Village was offering a workshop on voice activation devices, such as Alexa. I was greeted by a team of very professional and knowledgeable volunteers around my own age who asked me to come to the next meeting and to their holiday party. It was at this social gathering that I really was able to connect with the team.”

Hilary is also a volunteer for Amnesty International. In 2016, she and five others developed a training program for human rights work. “We were stunned when the Board of Directors fully funded our project,” she said. “Now we had to do it!” They recruited 30 new trainees and sent them to local chapters to assist them with their projects, such as how to release Prisoners of Conscience and stop torture in foreign countries. “We developed an “Action Plan” based on questions such as, ‘Who can stop it? Who is supporting it? Who are our allies?’ We figured out leverage tools and what pressure could be placed on businesses. Everyone had something to contribute.” She also worked many years to abolish the death penalty, following the Supreme Court decision in 1976 that allowed states to reinstate it.

Finding Her Way to Berkeley

As a college student, Hilary knew she wanted to do something to serve the world in a non-partisan and relevant way. After completing her undergraduate work in England, she came to the United States in the summer of 1967 under the auspices of a program that sponsored foreign students to work in the United States. “My first job was as a waitress in Richmond, Virginia,” she remembers. “It was three years after desegregation and there were still racial divides. For instance, only Whites were allowed to wait on tables. It was my first exposure to race in the United States. Following that job, we traveled west by bus to National Parks. When we reached the West coast and walked around the UC Berkeley campus, I knew this was where I wanted to be.”

She earned her Master’s Degree at San Francisco State and a PhD in Educational Psychology at UC Berkeley, while continuing her work on neuropharmacology and information processing research for 25 years at UC San Francisco in the Department of Psychiatry.

The Perfect Balance

“I have had a very lucky life,” she remembers. “I could work part-time, volunteer, and enjoy the Bay Area – its sea, air, State parks, and mountains. England, in contrast, is tiny, crowded, and has poor weather.”

As a volunteer for Ashby Village’s Tech Team, she helps organize and hold workshops on such topics as Gmail and password management. “I also make visits to members who need tech help. It’s not only rewarding, but it's a wonderful way to meet people.”

If Hilary's story has inspired you to volunteer with Ashby Village (or expand the ways you're already volunteering), contact Volunteer Coordinator Jessica Sterling at jessica@ashbyvillage.org for more information.

She Persists!
Volunteer (and Member) Judy Sorey

December 2023

An Epiphany

"Moving to Berkeley in the 1970s was a wake-up call for me," Judy Sorey recalls. "My husband enrolled at the U.C. to earn his PhD and my eyes were opened to new possibilities. My parents were very conservative and believed that girls should not go to college. So I married at 18, had two kids, and worked while my husband got his education. Once in Berkeley, I realized I no longer was limited to being a helpmate, but could become an independent woman by getting my own education. I started to take community college courses part-time at practically every community college in the Bay Area."

"In the late 70’s my husband and I and our 2 young sons had the wonderful opportunity to live in New Zealand on an exchange program with the US and NZ Geological Survey. After returning to the US, I realized I wanted to change from clerical work in medical offices to actual patient care."

In her mid-40s, Judy enrolled at De Anza College and earned a degree as a Physical Therapy Assistant. She worked for 15 years in the Neurological Rehabilitation Department at Stanford Hospital. "It was wonderful to see the progress patients who had had strokes and brain injuries could make," she remembers. Judy continued to pursue her educational goals and finally, in 2006 at age 62, earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Cal State Hayward. "As I tell my grandchildren, keep persisting in what you want and what you believe in."

A Productive Retirement

Now in her retirement, Judy continues to be productive and helpful. She volunteered for the Alameda Community Food Bank once a week, bagging fresh produce and dry goods until it became too hard on her back. "I heard about the North Oakland Village and became a volunteer in 2012. I was new to the area and it was a great way to connect with people, particularly," she added, "when you are an office volunteer and driver."

North Oakland Village merged with Ashby Village in 2020 and she currently volunteers on the Outreach Ambassadors Team that holds monthly Information Sessions and talks with potential members and volunteers about joining the village. She organizes and has hosted monthly potluck gatherings for the North Oakland members and is active in the Elder Action Climate Action Group, which recently held a Village Zoom seminar on plastic pollution and recycling. "I have always been conscious of environmental problems and worry about the health of our oceans, streams, and air."

But wait, there's more! Judy hosts the Non-Fiction Book Group, which she says is "a great vehicle for people to talk about important issues." She is also a member of a team that makes monthly calls to members of the North Oakland neighborhood group to see how they are and to notify them of upcoming events. Somehow, Judy still finds time to paint watercolors, knit, garden, and be available to her two teenage grandsons. "I also need quiet time and enjoy sitting in my garden and reading a book.”

If Judy's experiences have inspired you to volunteer with Ashby Village (or expand the ways you're already volunteering), contact Volunteer Coordinator Jessica Sterling at jessica@ashbyvillage.org for more information.

Engineer & Self-Described Bohemian:
Volunteer Craig Griffith

November 2023

How many people do you know who secured patents in mechanical engineering and moved on to produce artistic digital videos? Meet Craig Griffith: he would have never mentioned this patent for the “Autozero” board he secured in the 70s if it had not come up in a Google search and prompted the question. Before Craig’s invention of this instrument, devices reading voltage could only measure close to zero (-0.1 and +0.1), but not the exact 0 value. Craig created this precision enabling computer board, which IBM manufactured before PCs mainstreamed it. They are used in many places, car exhaust smog is perhaps one we all recognize.

Early Life & Work

Craig grew up in idyllic Westchester County, north of New York City. When his parents moved to Berkeley in the 60s, he came along. How could he not? – given the renown of this free-spirited and well-tempered land. He worked in the engineering field, originally at Berkeley Andros Analyzers, Inc., near 4th Street, and graduated from Heald College with an Associate degree in the 1980s. Aware of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak and their creations of bigger and farther reaching tools near Stanford, Craig heeded a latent call and assumed work at Compression Labs in Silicon Valley, where his exposure to visual digitalization began. Here, he was part of the commission that established the standards for MPEG, the visual digitalization standard being followed to this day – a huge undertaking to devise, involving many parties and addressing both technology and infrastructure. Layterm translation: what expectations have transmitters of receivers and what type of transit line is required? Clearly, major wiring upgrades were needed. We take wireless technology for granted today, but do you remember the novelty of an on-demand video invitation in a hotel room? Who knew that the adoption of this advanced technology by hotels would create a demand by being early adopters.

How Craig Came to Ashby Village

Craig’s journey with AV started in 2018 when he was looking for volunteer work outside of his technology habitat, so he perused Craigslist. No relationship to the other Craig, but a kinship. Both of their fathers worked at IBM, both Craigs are consumed by technology and ingenuity, and both are eager to serve philanthropically. This Craig interviewed with Pat Callahan, and before he knew it, he was back in the technology realm, albeit this time from a very different angle. Craig, the engineer, does not find hooking up a printer complicated. Looking at this and similar tasks through a novice’s eye, however, he sees complexities he did not recognize before. He enjoys such discoveries and volunteering with members in their homes, where he learns about so many different ways of living and provides technology support for others. Beyond this service, Craig does a lot more for the village behind the scenes. The 10-year anniversary video? Craig is the producer, with many members and volunteers providing content, of course, but he brought images and sounds artfully together. He did not retrain for this. He simply states "iMovie is amazing!"

Personal Life

A self-described bohemian, Craig and his wife Marian love the Bay Area and all it has to offer, namely our wonderful climate. Lately, they have started to appreciate walking. A distance of a mile or two, which they would have driven before, has become walkable. How nice to experience a physical feel-good moment and to not have to find/pay for parking. Perhaps this was Ashby Village's healthy aging influence, perhaps it is also a byproduct of being retired and having the luxury of time.

Embracing Age

There was a moment in Craig’s life, around age 50, right after he had completed his Applied Mathematics degree at Cal State East Bay, where he felt rejected when aiming to enter a new job market. He went back to managing engineers. "Those jobs are easy to come by," says Craig in his understated way. "People want to have fun with the work, the tinkering, the experimentation, not people management." Despite that rejection years ago, he now sides with the younger generation who seek to make their mark in the world and who are upset with the way we have left it, using up resources and polluting the environment. Craig appreciates that older adults are well enough supported and represented, a bit better than the younger generation perhaps. He likes to go to the Senior Center sometimes and enjoys being able to casually drop in.

If you are intrigued by Craig’s meanderings, curious why he thought Mathematics would bring him closer to God, or have any other direct questions for him, contact him at craig4292@mac.com. If his work, or any other volunteer opportunity at Ashby Village has piqued your interest, contact Jessica Sterling at jessica@ashbyvillage.org for more information on how to get started.

The Gateway to Ashby Village:
Volunteer Ken Peterson

October 2023

The next time you attend an Ashby Village Social Hour, you will probably be greeted at the reception desk by a distinguished-looking gentleman sporting a mustache and wearing glasses. Ken Peterson has logged in more than 200 hours as an Ashby Village volunteer and says, “Attending the first Friday of the month Social Hour is the entryway to meet people and to find out about Village activities. Just look for the people wearing Ashby buttons. They are there to answer questions and to engage in friendly conversations.”

In the six years that he has volunteered, he has been a walking buddy, handyman, and phone companion, as well as helping with pet care. He remembers fondly the year he provided companionship to a member who had lost his ability to speak, “We would go to museums and take walks together until the gentleman needed more care.”

A History of Helping Others

Ken grew up in Illinois and was a fifth-grade teacher for three years. He always wanted to live in California and so, at the age of 27, he enrolled at San Jose State University and earned his Master’s Degree in Urban and Regional Planning. As a graduate student, he supported himself by working as a substitute teacher and for two months was assigned as a woodworking instructor even though he had no experience. “I had to learn quickly,” he remembers, “and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.” For 23 years, Ken was a California State employee, working as a Low-Income Housing Program Coordinator, Loan and Grant Underwriter, and Environmental Planner. While in Sacramento, Ken counseled adults who were studying to pass their General Educational Development Test (GED).

After retiring, he moved to Berkeley in 2009. A friend whose wife is a gerontologist alerted him to Ashby Village. “I like to get involved in new activities and meet new people,” Ken says, “and so I started volunteering.”

Besides being an Ashby Village volunteer, Ken served as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) where he worked for five years with a foster child in both the courts and school. “He was a very troubled young man but by the time he was 18, he had succeeded in earning his high school degree.”

In thinking about his Ashby Village experience, Ken, who is 78, says, “Members of the Village are a great group of people. I love working with them.” And, in a whimsical exaggeration, he added, “One of these days, I may be old enough to become a member myself, in which case I’d like to start a history group as I majored in history and am still a history reading nut.”

Ashby Village would like to thank Communications Volunteer Elaine Mannon for contributing this story. If Ken's experience has piqued your volunteer interest or if someone you know wishes to start their own volunteer career at Ashby Village, please contact Volunteer Coordinator Jessica Sterling at jessica@ashbyvillage.org for more information on how to get started.

Salesforce Guru (Who Even Volunteers from Italy!)
Volunteer Tom Noyes

August 2023

Tom started to volunteer for Ashby Village right after he filed his online application that mentioned his deep knowledge of Salesforce, the computer program we use to run the village. That was in late 2018, and today he is a million hours into the project of tweaking and continuously improving it.

In very broad strokes, Tom assists with the programming of many tasks carried out in Salesforce related to membership and volunteer services. Tom works his magic on the systems that coordinate members' requests for services – making the complex volunteer portal function well and capture accurate information, such as recording when a service request is picked up, when it is completed, gathering mutual feedback from members and volunteers, and more. Tom has also helped to improve the systems that manage membership and donation information, and lends his reporting expertise to staff for just about any query, which is crucial for the continual optimization of all facets of the organization’s business.

Ashby Wasn't His First Village

Tom’s awareness of the Village movement and his enthusiasm for our unique community significantly predates his joining Ashby. Upon learning about the first Village forming in Boston, he searched for regional “openings” and joined San Francisco Village, as he and his family lived in San Francisco at the time. Upon retiring from Salesforce in 2016, Tom and his family moved to Oakland, the sunny side of the Bay, which became a bright moment for Ashby Village, too.

The timing of Tom’s interest in offering service to Ashby Village was serendipity, as it occurred just as budget constraints would soon force the village to discontinue work with a paid IT consultant who assisted in the early days of customizing the system to meet our organization's very specific needs.

Bicontinental Living

Tom and his wife Mary Tolaro Noyes (pictured at right) live here during the summer and winter and in Bologna, Italy in the spring and fall. The Italy connection is Mary’s, whose family hails from the middle of Sicily. In the 90s, looking up language immersion programs, Mary was drawn to Bologna, a region where fewer English-speaking ex-pats dwell than in Venice, Rome and Milan, yet a region rich in Medieval and Pre-Renaissance art and architecture, all of which appealed to her greatly.

When not cutting code for Ashby Village (which Tom loves to do and is grateful to be able to do from anywhere!), he and Mary love to travel and explore. They rent an apartment in Bologna and make short trips to other countries from there. “Door to door,” says Tom “from our apartment in Bologna to the middle of Rome takes only 2.5 hours”.

Mary Tolaro Noyes, historian and art aficionado, is a published author and a fabulous cook and patissier. Bologna Reflections - An Uncommon Guide, is the book she often recommends. Their two children, a son, and a daughter, also live in California, one in the South Bay and one in the LA area, and to date there are four grandchildren. Tongue in cheek, Tom said that he requested of his children to make enough money to support their parents later in life, which did not work out: one is an art teacher and the other one a professor of oceanography. It seems the entire Noyes family are art and nature lovers with an inclination to teach, serve and uphold conservation and social justice.

Volunteering Is at the Center of Family Life

Tom and Mary’s life always included volunteer work. In the 70s, Mary was taking prenatal classes at a local nonprofit and Tom helped the organization as their treasurer. While living on Telegraph Hill in the 90s, they were part of the nonprofit preserving that neighborhood including North Beach. Tom also volunteered for the YMCA, namely with an initiative that assisted separated families to reunite. And he works for Moveon.org. Mary is proud to see that the Contra Costa ballet, whose original marketing package she helped devise almost 30 years ago, is still using her “Partnering with Dance” theme.

There is surely more they were too modest to mention. Tom calls himself a “worker bee”, a label one could have guessed he would choose for himself. Not interested in "holding speeches”, but “moving the chairs and varnishing the floors”, i.e. working where the rubber meets the road.

Tom's Thoughts on Artificial Intelligence?

You can’t hang out for an hour with a deep systems engineer and not ask them what their stance is on the big AI discussion. Tom’s note: “It will be a long time before AI can handle intricate human (relationship) questions," more pressing now is the internet, which is “an enabler of disinformation ... you need to seek trusted sources for the news you consume.” Tom urges people to be very skeptical about unknown senders and information that come into your email inbox.

There is so much more to learn about and from Tom and Mary. We have Tom’s permission to invite you to contact him directly should you have more questions, especially about Italy or technology: tom.n@ashbyvillage.org

Ashby Village would like to thank Communications Volunteer Elisabeth Scharbaum for contributing this story. If Tom's experience has piqued your volunteer interest or if someone you know wishes to start their own volunteer career at Ashby Village, please contact Volunteer Coordinator Jessica Sterling at jessica@ashbyvillage.org for more information on how to get started.

If you are interested in joining Ashby Village’s corps of over 300 volunteers or have suggestions about Ashby Village volunteers who could be profiled in Village Voices, contact Jessica Sterling, Ashby Village Volunteer Coordinator, at jessica@ashbyvillage.org.

Ashby Village
1821 Catalina Ave
Berkeley, CA 94707
(510) 204-9200
info@ashbyvillage.org

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