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A bit of this Gangplank for fun.
VOL#2 Here
ALUMNI ACTIVITIES-2003 AND 2004. (warning Pictures
have been re-arranged)
(1) Yippee! Our bleachers are restored thanks to Joe O'Donoghoe and the
S.F.Residential
Builders. Here's Joe with Mayor Brown, a contractor and Kathy Andrich.
(2) Hall of
Famer Mike Murphy ('60) took Bal's baseball coaches George Elsner and
dad Fred (now in Iraq) on a tour of Pac Bell Park. (3) Bud and Sue
Coletti and Jim McLennan (S'50) drove their vintage cars (stuffed with
lads and faculty, and festooned with orange and blue
balloons) around the track to the exhilarating Theme from Rocky and to
the delight of the
students at the Homecoming Game in September. (4) Here's the "Almost
Famous Singers"
of '68 plus, singing at our November Awards dinner. (5) The alumni
shared a booth with
Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval at the Excelsior Street Fair. There's
Dorothy, Viclde,
,Gerardo, Em and Gladys. (6) Don Montgomery and family dressed
appropriately at the
alumni vs varsity basketball game. (7) At our "Pat on the Back Dinner"
the brand new •
Nick Kafkas trophy for Outstanding School Spirit was presented to
Jamilyn Jangar.
Ms.Gray, Jamie, Nick and Emily are happy about it all. (8) That's "The
Price is Right" .
winner Al DePueci ('44) hitting a home run, when in his prime (was that
last week, Al?) |
WHAT HAVE WE BEEN
DOING ALL THESE YEARS?
The "Mission" statement in our By-Laws is that our
Main purpose is to Help Balboa High School and also to
Foster alumni activities.
Have we met our "obligations"? Yes, we have.
On April 16,1970, an organization meeting was held in
The Little Theatre (Now named the Salvatore Billeci
Little Theatre), the purpose of which was to organize
A Balboa Alumni Association. The meeting was sponsored
by the 100 BUCS, guided by Nick Kafkas, faculty member and 100 Bucs
sponsor.
Since 1970, with your help, we have raised hundreds of
Thousands of dollars to help Balboa, it teachers, students,
Sports, music, art and other departments. We have given
Tens of thousands of dollars as scholarships to deserving
Seniors. We have had an annual family picnic and Varsity
Vs Alumni basketball game for almost every year. Every
Other year we have an Athletic Hall of Fame and Hall of
Merit Awards dinner, to recognize and honor those Bal
Grads who have brought honor to Balboa through their
Accomplishments. We publish from one to three Gangplanks Per year. We
help with class reunions. We have named Certain facilities at Balboa in
honor of former teachers
And members: I'ne Kena case yins i»ym, i fte urron
Quails Boys Gym, The Carl Mitchel Field, The Archie
ChagonJian Stadium, the Robert R. Chase Hall, The
Salvatore Bilfeci LittleTheatre, The Emily Powell Library
Building, the Nick Kafkas Quad.The Don Hofvendahl Hail,
The Hummel Hall, The Leta Wheeler Library, the Rudy
Ramirez Library Office, and the Calvin Simmons
Auditorium. Annually we have a fabulous Vaudeville
Show in May. We have had special testimonial dinners
And theme dances, Days at the Races, many alumni
Cruises. We saved Balboa from closure in 1991 and
In 1995, through the el^rts of Solange Russek f81)
Beautiftil Balboa was named San Francisco Historial
Landmark #205, See the plagues in front of Balboa.
We have accomplished our goal of Having all 114
graduating classes embed their bronze
class numerals in front of Balboa (thanks to Dorothy
Benvenuti Orchid). We have had dozens of Balboa
Onuses and vacations. We have had four "Come
Back to Bal Days". We meet with administration,
faculty and students at Balboa regularly. AND, that's
only the "tip of the iceberg**! And many projects
are *in the works'. |
Speaking of "rodding", Andy BriziO
('50), known as The Rod Father", and who
was inducted into our Hall of Merit in
November, has skipped town with wife
Sue and now live in the Mother Lode area,
close to ranches of Don Neathery, Emily
Powell, and Bob Barnes and Louie Coscarelli.
Stephen E. Diamond (S'62) when at
Bal was student body president, "runner up",
Cheer leader, homeroom class president, lead
actor, wrestling winner. And he announces
he is "Royalty", (send self addressed, stamped
envelope for Steve's nobility record.). But
before he started searching for the Holy Grail,
while at Bal, he was a member of the Greater
Excelsior Auto Enthusiasts i.e.. The Centurions.
Involved with Eric and Jim Langer, and Great
Highway events and Joe dark and Gary young.
They drove around a lot—destination was
mostly a drive in restaurant. (Those cool 50's
when "drive-in" meant a restaurant, and not
a shooting.)
Would you like a tour through Bal and our
Museum? Call Emily 650-851-8101
or Dorothy 707-762-6162
San Francisco is made up of little
communities, almost like unique villages
within its borders. For example, as
"feeder" neighborhoods to Bal, we had
The Ingleside,The Excelsior (Why did we
always put a "the" in front of those
neighborhoods?), and we had Glen Park,
Bern'al Heights (sometimes referred to as
The Hill). Each was complete— had a
Library, a "show", butcher shop, grocery
store, soda fountain and a bar (or two),
and a church (or two). |
John Richards (S'67) teaches 8th
Grade English at Centerville Junior Hi
in Fremont. Guess who the principal is?
Garo Mirigian! Lots of loyal Bucs
in Millbrae: Charles ('38) & Cecelia
'Cull Andrews (42). They help us fund
the Gangplank and we thank you,
May of 1937 was a great day L.The
Golden Gate Bridge opened. Al
Hawkes (F'37) recalls that there was
no auto traffic allowed, only pedestrians,
and he thinks schools were closed. This
- reporter wore a little Spanish "fiesta" hats. The
first person to make it across was a Bal
- co-ed, and we lost the photo and article
(it's in our infamous 'black hole').
'Wondering what Val Webb Gaede
('73) has been up to? She is Director of
Children's Ministry at St. Johns Lutheran
Church in Wheaton, ILL. Has taught
Kindergarten, has a Masters Degree, and
Bacherlor's Degree. Married with 2 sons—-
The whole family loves sports. Val will
always be thankful for her great experience
at Balboa, and can still fit into her JROTC
Drill Team outfit!
We just found out that Geezer Dick
Sridgman'S dad used to own the
MarVal horse stables in Daly City. (that's
before Westlake was developed-Probably
lots of cabbage farms there then. Dick
inherited and owned them for many years.
Dick and his family are expert horse people.
Some of us remember when there were
stables and horse to ride in McLaren Park.
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Barbara Tehaney Wise (S45), also
known as one of the "three Barbara's",while
not extolling the virtues of The Gangplank,
hangs out with Barbara Mattson
Campbell (S'46), and Barbara Coyle
_______(fill in last name). Here' a Private?
message to the 3 Barbara's: geezer Bill
Weber (F'45) who lives in Caldwell,
Idaho (has 12 grandchildren) says; Hello.
he thought you were a terrific trio!!!
Bill will never forget going to Bal, then
working eight hours after school with his
now deceased baddy Jimmy LaFayette^.ag,^
Now we know why Bill and Jim slept
through class!
The Mission/Geneva/Excelsior Lions
Club was the scene last month of the High
School student speakers contest. The winner,
a Mercy High student, will go on for
more competition. Joe Farrah (f46) was
master of ceremonies and the judges were:
Nick Miller Eichinoff, Maurice Fitzgerald
and Emily Powell (all of F'46), and Frank
Gelini (S'47), They did their civic duty while
enjoying dinner and reminiscing about Bal.
Ellen Berg Kilbarn? ('39)
big sister to Mildred and Ray Berg, who
lives in Port Townsend, Washington,
visited Bal and our museum with her
husband last month. Dorothy Benvenuti
Orchid (F'45) was there as a "decent".
Pat Slattery has never forgotten her
tour of our Museum..Thanks for your
donations of$$$ and your senior sweater.
We feel so guilty! why?
'cause Paula Hope Dalton (805-486-0418)
and Pauline Kosmopoulous Barbieri (707-
585-9345), 1954 classmates, wrote that
for FIVE years they have been disappointed
because (after 3 letters and two calls to the
editor, who wishes to remain anonymous
'cause she's ashamed of herself) they have
asked for the following to appear in The
Gangplank. Here it is:
HAS ANYONE SEEN OR KNOW
HOW TO REACH THEIR BUDDY
GERALDINE TREVERTON??
(F'54). If you know, call Paula or Pauline
Anthony Smith class of
Something", is a counselor at Bal now and it's
good to see him wear his senior sweater on
Senior Sweater Wednesdays.
Lenny Barranti's (F'55)
^Leonardo's^Deli in Millbrae.
Want a copy? Send stamped envelope.
Tom DeMerritt (S'56),ofthe famous
DeMerritt family: Granville and Warren,
when he isn't fixing his driveway, sends
us news (some sad, like obits, and some
good). He read a story about "The Oldest
Rookie Cop"..that's Danny Hampton!
He retired as a S.F. cop, but then signed
up with the Millbrae P.D. (hence became
a rookie, again).Some years ago, Danny was
inducted into our Hall of Merit for
Heroism in the line of duty. His brother
Jim Hampton ('61), our first president,
with the Oakland P.D.!!! Brother''(and^^
family humorist) Tony is with the S.F
Fire Dept. We should all feel more secure,
'cause the Hampton's don't believe in
retirement!
Clifford Graves (S'56), described
in a Chronicle article 5/03, as being "a
dashing, dignified figure"-Wow! was
formerly head of the S.F. Redevelopment
Agency until for some (stupid?) reason the
Brown administration dropped him. But
that didn't stop our "dashing, dignified
Clifford"—he has surfaced as L.A.-Mayor-
Appointed head of Community Development
Office, of Los Angeles. Our loss, LA'S gain.
Cliff is the brother of the late Wilbur
Jordan Graves (S'47) for whom our
Military library in the museum is named
thanks to Larry Rideout (S'47).
You just never know what you'll find
when looking for books with Amazon.
Corn. We found a book entitled "Whitman's
Wild Children", by Neeli Cherkovski,
inspired by the philosophy of Walt Whitman
It contains poems by 12 poets..one of whom
Is Philip Lamai»ia, ('43?) Philip
started writing poetry in Junior High.
Probably best source of Philip's books
is at City Lights Bookstore, S.F. He
still lives in San Francisco. I have to stop
now.. It's time out to read some of Philip's
''poetry!
Shirley Lenet Wohlman (S52) is
happy to be member. Two of her sisters
also went to Bal: Patricia Lenet Palmer
(dec'd) and Peggy Lenet Brewington,
(S'47). Shirley lives in Gig Harbor, WA
and Peg is in Anchorage, Alaska.
"A friend is someone who reaches
for your hand, but touches your heart. |
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Class of S 1968 Post Reunion
Shoutout
*author forgot there was another class
attending too F67
A very special thank you to John Connelly for being our great Master
Of Ceremonies,
once again. (Tequila will never be the same!)
We hope everyone enjoyed the evening and look forward to seeing you all
in 2008 when
Anna will once again give us a wonderful reunion to remember!
WE MISSED YOU THIS TIME. ..Nick Guzman, Maxi Harper, Paul Bentty, Rick
Perreti, Rich Brown, Louie Fabela, Dan Hampton, Stella Huey, Nelson
Ordonez,
Chris
Vozikes, Maria Martinez, Jude & Al Bansuelo, Diane Rati, Peter
Bencharsky, Lucy
(Mendoza) & Bill Moore.
WHERE ARE YOU?...Stella Barquet, Jan Barnett, Kim Corona, Mike Gonzales,
Margie
Cortez, Judy Gomez, Bob Hansen, Joanna Montalbano, Gus Ubeda, Bob
Rigamonte,
Matt Travers, Dan Vance, Jeri Maldonado, Jerry Zari, Linda Le Duff,
Carol Bourcy,
Sharon Spencer, Phyllis Gonzales, Ronnie Rice. ^
Please contact Anna at (707)995-0736 |
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