Our Teachers
Raymond Ausmus
Social Studies
RAYMOND EARL AUSMUS, 88, died at Kaiser Skilled
Nursing facility on January 2, 2007.
He was a San Leandro High School Social Studies
teacher, retired in 1978.
Raymond was a reserved and unpretentious man with a
subtle sense of humor. He was passionate about
Community theatre and supported as well as acted in
their productions. He sang with numerous choral groups
for many years.
He served his country proudly prior to Pearl Harbor
and until the end of the war.
He was born in Arkansas City, Kansas May 1, 1918 and
was predeceased by Maxine, his wife of 44 years.
He is survived by Dorothy Earnhart Thompson his wife
of 18 years. He leaves behind 2 sisters and numerous
nieces and nephews.
Milton Barber
Science
Deceased February 22, 1912-June 1999
Eleanor Beach
Social Studies
Deceased-reported by Ms Michell
Connie Birkie
English
Physical Education
Rockwell Blondin
Physical Education
Deceased December 21, 1907-November 19, 1987
Mary Bohmfalk
Homemaking
Deceased December 27 1907-April 19 1991
reported by Ms Michell/Mr Cardella
Robert Brown
Physical Education
Swimming Coach
Nancy Burt
Physical Education
Richard Cardella
Foreign Language
Doyle Carmichael
Art
Mathematics
William Clark
Business Education
Deceased-reported by Ms Michell/Mr Cardella
Louis Crawford
Science
Deceased-reported by Mr. Cardella
John Crawley
Physical Education
Football Coach
Kenneth Curran
Art
Deceased-reported by Mr. Cardella/Ms Michell
Woodrow Daley
Mathematics
Basketball Coach
Vera Dickie
Business Education
No picture in our 1958 Yearbook
William Drennon
Industrial Arts
Counselor
****you can email him through his entry under the Classmates side****
Robert Everingham
Science
Deceased August 8, 1924 - January 20, 1998
Ann Farrell
English
Lauralee Fawson
Business Education
Valentene Ferreira
Business Education
Name: Valentene Seney
E-mail: vals326@yahoo.com
Telephone: 817-896-6881
Comments: hello, I am the granddaughter of Valentene Ferreira, who was the business teacher in San Leandro in 1958. I am sorry to report that she past away a few years ago in June 2006. I will be more than happy to send you a memorial statement in a few days when I can get a copy from my mother. Please feel free to contact me if you have any question or concerns. I thank you for your time and acknowledging her joy and dedication for teaching all those years.
Valentene Seney
Louis Franz
Physical Education
Basketball Coach
Dorothy Freeman
English
Clifford Georgison
Science
Robert Gilbeau
Industrial Arts
Ruth Gist
English
Counselor
Ruth Palmer Gist - 1900 - 2003
Ruth Palmer Gist beloved and devoted mother, grandmother, great grandmother and friend, and long associated with education in California, died on Tuesday, December 30th. Mrs. Gist was born in San Jose, CA. . She received a B.A. from Mills College in 1922 and an MA from the University of California at Berkeley in 1926. She was a Social Worker in Harlem, New York City for two years. She taught at Mills College, 1927-28. Ruth married Arthur Gist in 1928. He was President of Humboldt State College from 1930 to 1950. After moving to Piedmont in 1952, she was a counselor and teacher at San Leandro High School. She was active in the Mill's College Alumnae, the Cancer Society and the Camp Fire Girls. She is survived by her daughter, Ruth; two granddaughters, Cynthia and Anne and four great grandchildren.
James Gray
English
Deceased November 2006 -
Reported by Sandy Govea Steele
James R. Gray - 1927 - 2005
Senior Lecturer in Education, Emeritus - UC Berkeley
James R. Gray, founder of the National Writing Project, an influential and highly regarded educational reform network, died October 31, 2005, at age 78.
Born in Madison, Wisconsin on June 13, 1927, Gray grew up in Whitefish Bay, a suburb of Milwaukee. He returned to Madison to attend the University of Wisconsin, where he majored in comparative literature. To pay for college, he earned money by playing in a dance band and working summers in the Milwaukee breweries. After obtaining a master’s degree, he took on some menial jobs. “I didn’t qualify for anything,” he wrote in his autobiographical work Teachers at the Center, “though all the personnel directors said I was overqualified.” He returned to the university to earn a teaching credential and embarked on a career that led, in the 1950s, to a position teaching English at San Leandro High School in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Gray approached teaching with the passion characteristic of his approach to life. From apple boxes, he built six-foot-high bookshelves along the walls of his high school classroom, then filled them with books he had found scouring Berkeley used book stores. “I expected students in all my classes to plunge into this library. I believed that the best thing I could do for high school students was to cultivate their love of books.”
In 1961, Gray became a member of the Department of Education at the University of California, Berkeley, supervising students preparing to teach English, a position that allowed him to develop that faith in the talent of others that was a major source of his leadership. He also taught courses in the English and rhetoric departments at the University, believing it was important to forge links between education and academic disciplines.
Beyond his professional life, Gray was a warm and vital man who loved classical music, model trains, Dickens, gardening, and a 5 p.m. martini. He was an avid collector of books and stamps and something of an expert on the works of Gilbert and Sullivan. No denizen of Berkeley’s gourmet ghetto, he enjoyed shepherding visitors toward the more substantial fare offered at Brennan’s Hofbrau at Fourth Street and University Avenue, where the food was as honest and free of frills as the man himself. Above all he valued fellowship, forging lasting friendships with colleagues and students, with persons met by chance while traveling or attending a concert, with bookstore owners, music store clerks, and a great assortment of other persons he felt privileged to get to know. He is survived by Stephanie, his wife of 48 years, and his daughter, Laura.
James Hager - Mathematics
Football Coach
Deceased
Charles Hawkins
Industrial Arts (Wood Shop & Mechanical Drawing)
Counselor and Wrestling Coach(reported by son Alan Hawkins 8/09
Deceased-reported by Mr. Cardella/Ms Michell
Deceased September 2000 - reported by his son Alan Hawkins, 8/19/09
Jack Hillis
Social Studies
Counselor
JACK WHITMAN HILLIS A popular teacher at San Leandro High School in the 1950s, '60s and '70s, died peacefully on January 24 at his son Steven's home in Hayward. He was 91. During the course of his life, Jack was a gold miner in Canada (where he was born), a union local president, and had a radio show during the Depression, where he preached and sang. After service in World War II, he married Patricia Saltz and settled in as a teacher at San Leandro High. After wandering the continent upon retirement in 1975, he moved to Santa Cruz, where he lived for the next 25 years, although he was hardly retiring: he wrote a biweekly newspaper column, registered voters in downtown Santa Cruz, and was active with the Gray Panthers. For the past decade, he found happiness with his partner, Ethel Stuart Hurt. Jack is survived by his sons and daughters-in-laws, David and Marija Hillis, Steve and Nancy Hillis, and Tim and Andrea Hillis, and grandchildren, Nick, Carrie, Brennan and Owen.
Esther Hood
Business Education
Wilma Hughes
Homemaking
Deceased=reported by Ms Michell/Mr Cardella
Catherine Humphries
Business Education
William Humphries
Foreign Language
William J.Humphries - 1914 - 1966
Paris (UPI)
Bay Area Man Dies in France
William J. Humphries, a San Francisco Bay Area School Teacher, died July 20, 1966, while vacationing in Southern France. The U.S. Embassy said the body of Humphries, a French teacher at San Leandro High School had been shipped back to Columbia, So. Carolina for burial with his parents.
Dr. Humphries, in his many years of devoted service to the school, proved to be one of San Leandro High’s best language teachers. His sincerity and dedication to bringing the French language and culture closer to the minds of his students earned him the esteem of all who knew him.
Joseph Iadorola
English
Lee Jensen
Science
****email him through the Classmates ***
James Johnston
Physical Education
Baseball Coach
Andrew Koval
Industrial Arts
ANDREW ADAM KOVAL October 16, 1924 ~ January 20, 2005
Died peacefully after a long battle with diabetes and leukemia. Andrew was born in Fox Hills, Pennsylvania. The family moved to Whiting, Indiana where he lived till he was drafted and served in the U.S. Army during WWII, later moving to Castro Valley, California where he pursued a college degree and teaching career of 35 years. His students received many awards for their shop class projects. Andy retired in 1985 from the San Leandro School District. He spent many summers and his retirement enjoying his almond ranch and perfecting his bowling game.
Andrew was preceded in death by his wife of 49 years, Eleanor Debrake Koval and is survived by his son, Andor A. Koval; four sisters, Mary (Koval) Beda, Helen (Koval) DalSanto, Margaret (Koval) Poplas, Ann (Koval) Martin and two brothers, Thomas Koval and John Koval and many nieces, nephews and cousins. Andy was a helpful, caring and loving father and will be missed by all who knew him. May his memory be a blessing.
Adele (Fridhandler) Levine
Adele Fridhandler Levine Longtime educator Adele Levine passed way peacefully in her Fremont home on Tuesday February 5th, just short of her 80th birthday. This loving wife, mother and grandmother nurtured an extensive web of friends and former students scattered throughout the world who remember her as a vibrant, intuitive, efficient, compassionate person who lived life with zest and a spirit of adventure. Adele was born in Montreal, Canada on March 24, 1928 and moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1950 to pursue a Master's Degree, where she taught school while attending Case Western Reserve University. Upon graduating, Adele moved to California and taught Government, Civics and World Affairs at San Leandro High School. She married Sam Levine, a fellow teacher, in 1957. Adele taught Secondary Education at Cal State Hayward and then at San Jose State University, and when she retired she was the only non-tenured, non-PhD. to receive emeritus status. Adele is survived by her brother, Sam Fridhandler of Sun City, Florida; her daughters, Taya Levine of Healdsburg and Shana Levine, her son-in law David Giu, and three grandchildren, Mark, Kelly and Lauren Gius of Dixon, California. A celebration of her life will be held on Sunday, February 10 at 2PM in the Jackson Theatre at Ohlone College in Fremont. In lieu of flowers, Donations in her memory may be sent to: Donation in Memory of Adele Levine George Kato Memorial Fund 5158 Vernon Avenue Fremont, California 94536.
Published in the San Jose Mercury News on 2/8/2008
Samuel and Adele Levine
A memorial put together by their daughter, Shana Levine, and shared with us
Mr. Levine passed away in 1996 and Mrs Levine February 5 2008. What a wonderful walk through their lives.
http://picasaweb.google.com/tmlsholt/Mommatinee?authkey=tgv5qW__8KI
Moses Levy
Social Studies
Harry B. Stehr
Mathematics, Counselor
Deceased 2007
Dr. Harry B. Stehr Died peacefully on September 5, 2007 after a long and brave battle with cancer. He was 79. He was born in Oakland in 1928, and graduated from Castlemont H.S. During WWII, Harry became a member of the Joint Brazilian-U.S. Military Commission, which assisted in the development of the Brazilian Air Force Weather School. Upon his return to the U.S., Harry attended the College of S.F., taking an A.A. in engineering. He then transferred to UC Berkeley to complete an A.B. with majors in history and mathematics. Later he completed both teaching and administrative credentials before going on to undertake M.A. and Ed.D. degrees in higher education. In the early 1950s Harry began his long distinguished teaching career at San Leandro High School. In 1960, because of his exemplary teaching, Harry was invited to join the faculty of the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley, where he served as Supervisor of Teacher Education until his retirement in 1992. His long productive service in the training of student teachers was noteworthy for introducing innovative practices in the teaching of mathematics and social science. He was on the cutting edge of technology, particularly with respect to introducing VCRs and computers into the classroom. He was an inspiring, engaging teacher, much beloved and greatly respected by his many students. His colleagues in the Alameda-Contra Costa Mathematics Educators Association recognized his teaching acumen by granting him their Distinguished Mathematics Educator Award for 1990-91. For two decades, he was involved with the renowned Demonstration Secondary Summer School sponsored by UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Education. Harry involved himself in many community and professional activities. In 1989, he was inducted into Phi Delta Kappa, an honor society in education. For several years he served as its president and in various other capacities and received the Phi Delta Kappa Service Key Award. He was often a presenter and seminar leader at educational conferences in mathematics and social studies. He frequently served on official evaluation teams for Bay Area schools and also as a consultant for local schools and colleges on the uses of technological media in teaching programs. Harry was a virtual renaissance man. In addition to his broad involvement in many facets of education, he was an avid horseman and breeder of Appaloosa horses. He also raised beef cattle, bred dogs, and was a bee keeper. In addition, Harry was an enthusiastic sailor on SF Bay and won several races over the years. One of his greatest non-academic accomplishments was his work as a builder. His friends claim that Harry could build just about anything. And, indeed, as a licensed contractor, he did build numerous houses as well as other structures. In his capacity as a Unitarian minister, he married several dozen students and friends. In 1991 Harry married the love of his life, Jane Dee Howden, who taught in the science department at the Town School for Boys in San Francisco. Since their retirement from teaching, they have their enjoyed frequent travels throughout the world -- to Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, and Australia. This passion for travel earned them friends all over the word. But the highlight for the Stehrs was their annual October train trip to historic Durango, Colorado, with friends and relatives. Harry's favorite destination was their timeshare in Maui, a place of peace and relaxation for both Harry and Dee. Harry is survived by his wife; sister, Ann Wilson of Alameda (husband, Larry); nephews, Chris and Jeff; his beloved godson, Gary Tuck Ho and family from Singapore. Harry leaves behind many dear friends in the Bay Area, throughout the United States, and around the world. He will be remembered most for seeing the good in people, never the negative, and for encouraging young people to reach their full potential in life. His warm sense of humor, his understanding and care for others endeared him to his students, colleagues, family, friends, doctors and medical staff at the Mount Zion Hospital. He still lives on in the acts of goodness he performed and in the hearts of those who cherish his memory. A celebration of Harry's life will be held on Sun., Nov. 18, 2007, 2:30-5:30pm at the Men's Faculty Club at UC Berkeley. In lieu of flowers, donations in honor of Harry may be made to the Harry B. and Dee Stehr Memorial Fellowship. Checks should be made to the UC Berkeley Foundation, and mailed to the Graduate School of Education Development, 3615 Tolman Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-1670. To donate online, https://egiving.berkeley. edu/egiving/mainform.asp. In the special instructions box, type Harry B. and Dee Stehr Memorial Fellowship. Donations may also be made to The UC Cancer Resource Center at Mount Zion Hospital, P.O. Box 45339, SF, CA 94145-0339.
Published in the San Francisco Chronicle on 11/4/2007
