Scotts Valley Patch: What is your occupation?
Randy Klein: Tutor, teacher, photonic engineer; these are things both near and dear to my heart! Most importantly, Pat Perkins and I are partners in our dream business, working with “dedicated learners” at the Tutoring Club of Scotts Valley.
Patch: Where were you born?
Klein: The Panama Canal Zone (U.S. Territory) as the first child of an Army Air Corps Pearl Harbor Survivor. My birth place was Fort Gulick.
Find out what's happening in Scotts Valleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Patch: Where were you educated?
Klein: Being an Air Force brat took me all over the U.S, from Panama through Texas, Washington, Nevada, Colorado, Louisiana, Novato and Santa Rosa, California, all before college. I completed undergraduate work at Cal State University at Long Beach with graduate studies at Santa Clara University and Law School at Lincoln University.
Patch: How long have you lived in Scotts Valley?
Klein: My wife Pat and I have lived in Scotts Valley for about 12 wonderful years.
Patch: What brought you to the area?
Klein: Love, my fiancée, lived in Aptos while I lived in Los Altos. I loved this area so much and wondered why I hadn’t spent more time in these beautiful surroundings. Then, after 30 years over the hill, I made the move here, something I should have done earlier.
Patch: What is something you are known for?
Klein: Probably mostly the work that I enjoy doing with our young people both through Rotary, and my tutoring/teaching at the Tutoring Club are at the top of the list. I’ve also had the wonderful opportunity to work as an engineer in the photonic industry during the times when night vision, optical fiber communication and laser ranging to the moon were being developed from scratch. This was before office computers and cell phones too!
Patch: What is your latest project?
Klein: My work with Rotary covers so much that is aimed at contributing to our community--New Generations (SVHS) and as SVMS Interact Club coordinator and working with my friends and fellow Rotarians Jack Marden and Mike McMurry in Community Service. Also, whatever I can do for the Scotts Valley Education Foundation.
Find out what's happening in Scotts Valleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Patch: Book you last read?
Klein: A short story about Neil Armstrong and a companion one about space travel envelop my current reading, perhaps complemented with another by Brian Greene about “string theory,” whatever that is!
Patch: Newspaper or magazine you read regularly?
Klein: I read Scotts Valley Patch, the Press Banner, Santa Cruz Sentinel, and anything I can find about aerospace, computers and Shelby Cobras!
Patch: Movies you could watch again and again?
Klein: Bullitt, Airplane and Contact.
Patch: Favorite things to do in your spare time?
Klein: Spending time with Pat, our children and grandchildren. It’s precious seeing our children live their lives and seeing them raise their children, our grandchildren. It is so great watching our wee ones learning to read, write, to play a sport, dance, sing and generally enjoy their lives.
After that, watching auto racing at Laguna Seca and meeting some of my lifetime auto heroes, such as Dan Gurney, Carroll Shelby, Parnelli Jones, Peter Brock, Phil Remington, Jim Hall and the Shelby employees of old.
Patch: What is one of your most gratifying accomplishments?
Klein: Being able to live a life contrary to Thoreau’s writings that … “most [people] live lives of quiet desperation.” Mostly, this joy comes from having the opportunity to serve others, and to work with others in so many ways.
And my only patent on “Laser initiation,” co-authored with Drs. Don Scifres and William Streifer, is very important to me.
Patch: What is your greatest indulgence?
Klein: Racing on a racetrack in a Shelby Cobra, then getting a back adjustment, are two indulgences.
Patch: One of your most memorable vacations?
Klein: The big island of Hawaii where I proposed to Pat is a memory for life.
Patch: What is a goal you are chasing after?
Klein: Living life to the fullest by being thoughtful, kind and loving to my friends, family and community. A motto that I try to emulate is that of Rotary International, which is “Service above Self.”
Patch: What do you like most about life in Scotts Valley?
Klein: The people of Scotts Valley. Those who make our community safe, those who educate the children of our community and those who do their best to plan for, help and guide our future together, make our small community exceptional. The trees and ocean proximity are a dual attraction.