This month we are featuring Elders Tony DeRose and Gene Hewitt.
Tony DeRose
Elder Tony DeRose grew up in San Mateo. His father was Catholic, and his mother was Southern Baptist; however, his mother began attending a non-denominational church when he was a child and that is the church where he grew up. Tony attended Westmont College where he majored in music (guitar &voice) with an emphasis on music education. He met Ben Daniel and Anne while attending Westmont. After receiving his degree from Westmont, Tony went on to study at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena.
Tony, Ben and Anne have remained friends during the years since college, and Tony learned of Foothill Presbyterian Church (FPC) through his friendship with Ben. Tony has worked at four churches as youth minister, including FPC in 2001-2004. At the time, Tony was working as a software tech support, and part-time as youth minister. Tony currently teaches guitar at Santa Teresa High School; he started the guitar program there in 2004-5. Tony and Jackie DeRose married in February of 2008, and became members in 2009. They wanted their son Dom to be baptized, and so decided to join the church at that time.
Tony enjoys camping and has gone backpacking every summer since 1994; before that, he would camp with a group of college friends. Tony also likes to go wine tasting, and he and Jackie enjoy traveling to Napa, or exploring many of the different wine regions in California.
When asked to share something that few people would guess about him, Tony indicated that he has had malaria. In 1996, Tony went on a youth mission trip to Honduras, and came down with what he had thought was a flu bug. He returned to Houston where he was living at the time, felt better for a day, and then got worse. Despite negative test results, the doctor decided to treat him for malaria, and he responded to the medication.
Speaking about FPC’s role in the community, Tony said, “It has a lot of people who really care about outreach to the community – we have the dog park, the garden, the CSA, and other outreach ministries. And it also provides a local, traditional worship service that is kind of dying out as other churches change to contemporary format.” Tony describes FPC’s service as “an approachable, relatable worship service.”
Tony credits volunteer youth leaders at his church with helping to shape him as a person and as a Christian. They also helped out his mother when she was having financial difficulties. Tony says he volunteers now “because, when I was growing up, people who volunteered at church helped me out so I like to reciprocate in the universe.”
Gene Hewitt
Elder Gene Hewitt is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area. He and his fraternal twin were born in Oakland, and grew up in Fremont. Their parents attended a non-denominational church; however, Gene says he was attracted to the Presbyterian faith, which has a strong sense of history and tradition, and expects people to think and not just accept what they are told. Gene received his undergraduate degree from San Jose State University (SJSU) and then moved to New York where he earned his Masters in Public Policy from the New School for Social Research in Manhattan.
Gene met his wife Sharon Rowser in New York, and they lived there until their son Gregory was born. At that point, they decided that they wanted to raise their family in California, and they moved across the country to settle in Fremont. In addition to Gregory, Gene and Sharon have a daughter Elizabeth, and two cats Rocky and Sienna. Gene works as a manager of administrative services for Santa Clara Roads and Airports.
While living in Manhattan, Gene occasionally attended a Presbyterian church in Greenwich Village. When Gene and his family moved back to California in 1986, a family member recommended Foothill Presbyterian Church (FPC). Gene says that both Sharon and he were drawn to FPC for a number of reasons, including: 1) it felt like a warm, welcoming place, but was tempered with giving a person some space to develop a relationship; and, 2) they didn’t get the sense that the church was only desperate for another body.
Gene and Sharon had only been members of FPC for six months when he was approached to be an elder. Gene says, “I was honored. You get to work with and know other people within the church.” Gene’s first term as an elder was in the late 1980’s, but he has continued to serve through the years. In fact, he served on the Pastor Nominating Committee that called Ben to FPC.
Gene enjoys bicycling, and once bicycled around Maui for three weeks with the Sierra Club. He has also bicycled up Mt. Hamilton and down the other side with a local Century Ride and enjoys watching the Tour de France. One of his creative hobbies has been carving wood blocks and making prints. He also enjoys photography, hiking, recreational shopping for clothes, perusing bookstores, (especially used bookstores), and travel.
While in college at SJSU, Gene studied Hebrew for two years. He explained that he had studied Spanish, French and Italian and thought it would be fun to learn a language with different letters from the western alphabet. He also visited Israel twice during those years. However, the only phrase he remembers in Hebrew is how to say, “I love cake and cookies.” This phrase is appropriate because Gene enjoys cooking, and specializes in baking cookies and cakes.
Having been at FPC for the length of time he has, Gene says he has seen it grow in so many wonderful ways. He has watched the church grow organically, building on the strengths that FPC has. In addition, he points out the many ways FPC is connected to the community: the dog park, community garden, ecumenical work, the preschool, and music program to name a few. Gene considers volunteering an important way to be personally connected to the community. “I try to volunteer for things that I feel connected with so that it is more meaningful to me. It’s a way to give of yourself.”
The Semibreve
Jay Jordana, Director of Music Ministries
MANY THANKS…
to Dawn Imada, Herb Miller and crew, Darlene Ristrim, Carol Tillman, and Shana Zajdel for help with the Ragtime and the South Bay Philharmonic concerts. Many thanks to Kraig Williams for the successful concert production of the Monteverdi Brass Quintet concert. We also thank Kraig for for bringing a variety of semi-pro and professional early music musicians to Foothill and to the South Bay.
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