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ARMIJO ALUMNI NEWS
The newsletter of the Armijo Alumni Association, Inc. SPECIAL FORMER FACULTY EDITION 2013
Dr. Sam Tracas: Teacher and Administrator
Dr. Sam Tracas was a U.S. History/American Government /Spanish
teacher at Armijo High, then became
vice-principal for seven years and later
became the first principal of Fairfield
High School. His first year teaching at
Armijo in 1954 was eventful.
“The first year that I was there,
the school board fired a teacher and a
vice-principal and the students went on
strike for a couple of days,” Tracas said.
“Meetings were held in the old Armijo
Auditorium that is now torn down and
Dr. Sam Tracas at Armijo (photo: Yumi Wilson)
people in the community came and
some raised objections which the board
listened to. It was intense for a day or
two, but thankfully we got it over with
and kept moving forward.”
Tracas replaced the teacher
who was fired and was asked to help
improve communication between the
school district and community.
Fairfield was experiencing a
population boom and the old school,
now the courthouse on Union Avenue,
was not adequate so the new campus
on Washington Street was built in the
late 1950s.
“When the new Armijo building was under construction, we used
classrooms in bedrooms of homes on
Washington Street and rented rooms
from the church down the street,”
Tracas said.
In 1957, Tracas was surprised to be asked to become viceprincipal but was reluctant because
he was happy in the classroom. His
experiences in that position, which he
held until 1964, helped him to land
the job as the first principal of Fairfield High.
“I had experience with handling curriculum, discipline, faculty
matters, supervision and the whole
gamut of school activities,” Tracas
said. “It was an honor to be named
the first principal of Fairfield High
School because there were a lot of
applicants.”
Tracas had to build a culture
and handle details from hiring teachers to choosing furniture.
Armijo student officers offered assistance in establishing student organizations at the new school.
Tracas found himself torn when it
came to cross-town sports, however.
“The rivalry football game
was Fairfield High against Armijo and
my son was on the football team at
Armijo and he intercepted a pass and
they went on to beat Fairfield,” Tracas said. “That was kind of hard to
take. I was sort of stuck right in the
middle!”
One caveat is that the Fairfield High team had to play the varsity
game with only juniors. They had no
seniors.
Over Tracas’s career he was
honored for his contributions in the
academic arena. The Fairfield High
school administration building was
dedicated in his name. He also met
Ronald Reagan—twice.
“In the seventies I accompanied outstanding student Cindy
Abruzzini who’d been invited up to
Sacramento to meet Governor
Reagan,” Tracas said. “In 1986 he’d
become president and I was invited
to the White House Rose Garden. At
that time I was the principal of Amy
Blanc Elementary School and received the first National Excellence
In Education Award. It was a great
honor.”
Tracas still calls Fairfield
home and is most proud when he
hears of former students who have
done well.
“The main objective of high
school is to educate yourself and
prepare for the world of work and
good citizenship,” Tracas said.
IN THIS ISSUE
Ms. Rebecca Lum……………...2
Mr. Darrell Anderson…..….….3
Mr. Ron Cortese……………….4
Mr. Alex Scherr………………..5
Mrs. Frances Laws/Maben…....6
Coach Jay Dahl………………..7
Mr. Gary Falati…………...…...8
Why this Special Edition?...…..9
Board of Directors……………10
Membership Form…………....11
Ms. Rebecca Lum broke barriers and is still going strong
Rebecca Lum, who was born,
raised and went to college in San
Francisco, taught at Armijo High from
1958 to 1991. Her long career had a
rocky start before landing at the Fairfield school.
“Before I came to Armijo I
had a very difficult time getting a job
because my major was science and in
those days, do you think the white
people would let an Asian lady teach
science? Absolutely not!” Lum said. “I
was female and not white: two
strikes. When I first taught in San Carlos, I could teach there, but I could
not live there because I was not
white. People would have a vacancy
sign in an apartment window, but
when they saw me walking up, they
would say they were all full.”
When Lum came to Armijo,
however, what she found was a diverse student body —a cultural
gumbo with students from different
backgrounds complimenting one
another.
“We drew from the people
in town, we drew from the people in
the valley, the farmers, and we also
drew from Travis Air Force Base,”
Lum said. “We had people who lived
in the Country Club housing and people who lived in public housing. They
all meshed and got along together. It
was very diverse.”
Lum points to the unselfishness of a former colleague for helping
her get established at Armijo.
“I have to commend and salute Conrad Shepherd because he
gave up his trigonometry class to teach
computer programming,” Lum said.
“Everything I have done is because he
trusted me to teach that class and that
was in the 1960s. He was a man ahead
of his time.”
Lum was a much-beloved instructor and coach at Armijo whose
small stature was belied by her huge no
-nonsense attitude that served her well
Ms. Lum at Armijo (photo: Tony Wade)
in both her life and career. Badminton
and swimming participants knew that
if they messed up, she was prone to call
them out by referring to them as a
“hamburger.” Lum thinks her toughness is maybe a bit overstated.
“It’s because my voice is so
loud, but I am really a softie,” Lum said.
“Calling people “hamburgers” came
from a basketball coach I had as a kid
who would say that when we were
goofing around. It was instead of saying
something really nasty.”
Lum is proud that she had no
problems with teachers, counselors or principals and never sent
anybody to the office.
“Charles Dickens wrote “it
was the best of times, it was the
worst of times…”Well, I never had
any bad times at Armijo.” Lum
said.
Even though she retired
from Armijo two decades ago,
Lum simply moved to the other
side of town and still teaches
badminton at Solano Community
College. It was not a hard gig to
get because her reputation had
preceded her.
Before budget setbacks,
Lum had taught math at the college as well and points to a former student for getting her the
job.
“When I interviewed for
the math teacher part-time job,
the Dean of the Math and Science Division said "Robert Jordan
(Class of 1983) told me all about
you.” Lum said. “Robert Jordan
was the BEST student tutor EVER
to work for the Math Department.”
“My philosophy is don’t
give up and believe in yourself.
Like a salmon swimming upstream, all the odds were against
me and I just wouldn’t give up,”
Lum said. “When I was going to
school and said I wanted to be a
science teacher, all my counselors
keep saying I would never make it.
Good thing I was hard of hearing.”
The Armijo Alumni Association wishes to thank
Class of 1983 grad Yumi Wilson for taking some of
the photos for this special edition.
YUMI WILSON PHOTOGRAPHY
Studio telephone number: (925) 679-5178
Website: www.yumiwilsonphotography.com
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: www.facebook.com/yumi.wilson
2
Mr. Darrell Anderson taught English his own way
An unspeakable tragedy, in
part, is what drove English instructor
Darrell Anderson to the West Coast
and eventually to Armijo High.
“In the spring of 1958 I
taught English and was a speech
coach at a school in a small town in
Nebraska and there was a girl who
flirted with both the valedictorian
and the mayor’s son. The valedicto-
“In those days everyone wore
suits and ties to school and you were
expected to perform like a professor,”
Anderson said. “It was rather tight for
me because I am kind of a loose guy.”
Anderson conformed to the
traditional teaching style, but when he
became Department Head, he began
to implement changes.
“We thought we would
make it more interesting for
kids, so we split up classes
into English electives that
could meet different requirements,” Anderson
said. “We had tons of
classes kids could take including Advanced Composition and Social Protest Literature. They were very
successful and just going to
class was exciting.”
Anderson did not make students take tests, but instead
Mr. Anderson at his Fairfield home (photo: Tony Wade)
had them write papers.
“Kids
knew if they took my
rian and the girl were walking down
class
they
would
have to buckle down
the street holding hands and the
and learn how to write because that’s
mayor’s son shot them both dead
what I believed in,” Anderson said.
with a shotgun,” Anderson said. “He
“They got graded on how well they
then put the gun in his mouth and
wrote. That always seemed like the
shot himself, but he didn’t die. I
fairest way to do it. In that sense, I was
couldn’t believe it. That was my first
pretty tough. They had to realize that
year of teaching.”
reading and writing is the key to EngAnderson moved to central
lish.”
California to escape both the horrible
Looking back over his 32-year
memories and what he described as
teaching career, Anderson is most
the “limited attitudes” he encounproud of a system he helped develop
tered in Nebraska. He taught in Hancalled The Block.
ford before starting at Armijo in
“We took the best group of
1961.
students out of the seniors, about
35 kids and the best of the juniors,
about the same number and they
took 4 classes in English at each
level, four classes of math at each
level, four classes of history at
each level and four classes of science at each level,” Anderson said.
“Dee Brown, George Aldredge,
Becky Lum and I taught those
classes. It was so incredible. Some
of the kids in my classes were writing what you would expect from a
college senior who was an English
major.”
After a two or three year
run, and to the dismay of Anderson and others, administration
shut down The Block as “elitist.” It
was perhaps a precursor to the
prevalent “everyone gets a trophy” philosophy of the 21st century.
Since retiring in 1993,
Anderson and his wife have traveled abroad visiting the Amazon
Basin, took a safari in Kenya, and
went whale-watching in Mexico.
He looks back at his career
and sees what drew him to teaching: a love of people.
“I think kids are very sensitive to who likes them and who
doesn’t. If you genuinely like
someone, they know it and if you
don’t, they know that too,” Anderson said. “There are a lot of teachers that just don’t care about kids.
I’ve always believed there is an art
to teaching and the key is to be
empathetic towards people.”
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THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
3
Mr. Ron Cortese: Coach of Champions
Ron Cortese got his start
teaching and coaching at a school in
Lancaster near Edwards Air Force
Base.
“In those days, there were a
lot of experimental airplanes being
developed. Since many students
were connected with the base because their dads either developed or
maintained or flew them, whenever
one took its maiden flight we were
notified and all the classes would
empty and we would watch them fly
over,” Cortese said.
While it was thrilling to experience the aerial acrobatics of legendary pilot Chuck Yeager and others close-up, it was not enough to
make Cortese want to live in the desert. After a stint at Mitchell Junior
High in Cordova where he started
their wrestling program, he came to
Armijo in 1968.
Cortese was born in Arkansas in 1942, went to high school in
Martinez, California and college in
Oregon. He always had a love of
sports and played many included
softball. He got into coaching and
has coached just about every sport
there is, but wrestling holds a special
place in his heart.
“Wrestling was a great love
of mine and it’s the only sport where
the competitors are of equal size,”
Cortese said. “I’d see these 5 foot 2,
98 pound guys and ask them if the
football or basketball coach had
talked to them and when they said
no, I would tell them “Well I’ve got a
place for you,” Cortese said.
Under Cortese’s tutelage,
the Indian wrestlers had several
lightweight wrestlers that excelled
including John Silva and Joe Taylor.
One referee once dubbed his diminutive grapplers “the midget
squad.” But of course there were all
weight classes.
“Michael Burgher won three
league championships and he proba- some of the changes they made. It was
bly would have won four, but I didn’t different from scholastic wrestling. In
let him wrestle his freshman year
Olympic wrestling there are three
because there was a senior there and rounds and you have to win two out of
I thought it was the seniors’ time,”
three. So if I beat you in the first round
Cortese said. “He went on to Palo1 to 0, I win that round. If you beat me
mar Junior College and won the State 12-0 in the second round, you win that
Championship there, then went to
round. But if I beat you 1-0 in the third
UCLA and won the Pac 8 Championround, I win the match even though
ship. I watched him wrestle Olympic
you have outscored me 12-2! That’s
champion Lee Kemp and he scored
wrong.”
points, but lost. He was probably the
Since retiring in 1999, Coach
most talented kid who came through Cortese has stayed busy officiating variArmijo, but we
had lots of
great champions and lots of
good wrestlers.”
One not
-so-sweet remembrance
Cortese had
was when one
of his athletes
had to wrestle a
girl in a match
against VinSharon and Ron Cortese being honored in Vacaville (courtesy photo)
tage.
“I told Jeremy Feins it was a
ous sports and he and his wife Sharon
no-win situation because if you beat
are tireless community volunteers.
her, then well, you beat a girl and if
They help with everything from Meals
you lose, you’d never hear the end of on Wheels to ushering at the Downit,” Cortese said. “I told him if I were
town Theatre (formerly the Fairfield
you, I would get out there and get it
Center for Creative Arts). Their efforts
over as quickly as you could. So he
have not gone unnoticed and they were
took her out and pinned her in the
honored by both Fairfield Mayor Harry
first round.”
Price and Congressman John GaraThe Armijo High School Invimendi in Vacaville.
tational Tournament, founded by
Coach Cortese looks back
Cortese, has been going strong for
fondly on his time at Fairfield’s oldest
47 years. The controversial decision
high school and reflected on the wonto dump wrestling from a competiderful booster club the school had and
tion where it had been a staple for
how nice it is to see former students
much longer, (the Olympics) stunned contributing to society around the
the former Armijo coach.
world and especially at home.
“It was the oldest sport in
“It thrills me to see our people
the Olympics besides running. I’m
staying here and contributing as
heartbroken,” Cortese said. “I think
adults,” Cortese said. “Armijo was the
Olympic wrestling hurt itself with
perfect setting for me.”
4
Mr. Alex Scherr: Teacher and Armijo Alumni Association Member
Alex Scherr taught at Armijo very interested in the education of
cation.”
from 1965 to 1989, but his first
the students put into our classWhile unfortunate incidents
teaching assignment was at a onerooms.”
occurred, other triumphant ones stand
room schoolhouse in North Dakota.
Discipline was one of the
out in Scherr’s memory.
“I taught there for two years challenges Scherr faced in the class“We had the special education
and the first year I had three little
room as well as outside corrupting
kids from the county program come for
first graders and not one of them
influences creeping onto school
the Special Olympics. At first some of
could speak a word of English,”
property and creating disturbances.
the students were making fun of them,
Scherr said. “That was
but in the afternoon the Arthe same as when I
mijo Superband, led by Mr.
started school at age six.
Lindsey, played the Olympics
I spoke German at
theme when all the athletes
home.”
came out onto the field and all
Scherr was born
the students were out there
October 1, 1931 in a
cheering and applauding those
farmhouse in Strasberg,
special kids. No one was makNorth Dakota and the
ing fun of them. They were
first three of his six sibtreating them with great relings did not go past the
spect. That’s the kind of thing I
8th grade. He and the
saw take place at Armijo that I
rest, however, all gradureally loved to see,” Scherr
ated high school, atsaid.
tended college and
After being widowed in 1982,
earned bachelor’s deScherr married his current wife
grees. Scherr got the
Judy the following year and
bug to be an English
after retiring (he refers to his
teacher as a sophomore
retirement party as a
in high school and made
“graduation party”), he substiJudy and Alex Scherr at the Alumni Picnic in July
that dream a reality.
tute taught for seven years.
(photo: Tony Wade)
During Scherr’s
In addition to reading, making
first year at Armijo he taught BusiIt got so bad that during teachers’
birdhouses and working out, Scherr
ness English for juniors and seniors
prep periods they would patrol the
also supports the Armijo Alumni Assoand college prep English for sophocampus.
ciation, most recently attending the
mores. He developed a rapport with
“One guy suspected of dealpicnic at Pena Adobe in Vacaville in
students by reinforcing his primary
ing drugs was held by Mr. Welsh who July.
rule in the classroom: be civil to oth- told him he was under citizen’s ar“I was involved in the centeners at all times. He also fit right in
rest. The character proceeded to tell
nial celebration in 1991 and that comwith his colleagues.
Mr. Welsh what a big fat slob he was. mittee eventually became the Armijo
“We had a great faculty the
Then a police officer came by and
Alumni Association,” Scherr said. “I
first few years. We would have
the guy started telling the police offi- would like to see more former teachers
weekly gathering with the staff in
cer what a big fat slob he was, but
involved in the Alumni Association esthe gym and have some fun. We had the guy made the mistake of talking
pecially as we have some in the district
progressive dinners, played basketto probably the largest, strongest
who graduated from Armijo.”
ball, had get-togethers in different
police officer they had on duty,”
In 1996 Scherr and his wife rehomes—it was a very congenial
Scherr said. “The officer picked the
located to Nevada and the first four
group,” Scherr said. “Of course, as
guy up and put him headfirst into a
years there he worked as a janitor at a
the faculty got larger those kinds of
nearby garbage can. At that time an- brand-new Safeway store.
things fell by the wayside, but never- other police officer arrived and asked
“I enjoyed the people I was
theless, a very congenial group. I can what happened. The first officer said working with and that broom or mop
say with great pleasure we were
“Oh, it was just a case of misidentifinever complained,” he said.
5
Mrs. Laws/Maben Is Proud of Her Students
Frances Maben (also known
as Frances Laws during part of her
tenure at Armijo) is the daughter of an
English teacher and wanted to follow
in her mother’s footsteps. After attending high school in the small town
of Wilkesboro, North Carolina, she
Mrs. Maben in 2009 (courtesy photo)
completed her education in a piecemeal fashion out of necessity.
“I went to college all over
because my husband was in the Air
Force and we moved frequently,” Maben explained. “I took night classes
when my children were smaller and as
they got older, I enrolled in the University of Tucson, then transferred to
Sac State and finished up there.”
Maben’s first year at Armijo
was in 1973 and discipline was an issue.
“The first year it was sort of
like a circus. I had some kids who
acted badly and they seemed to outshine the ones who behaved well and
they took all my energy and time it
seems,” Maben said. “But I made it, I
stayed. I cut the mustard.”
To deal with students with
less than stellar homework habits, it
helped to have a sense of humor.
“I remember certain students
that would have weird reasons for not
doing their work such as their circadian rhythms were not right
(laughs),” Maben said. “It was hilaristunned a lot of people, “Maben said.
ous, but I couldn’t laugh then, I just
“They were surprised that Earl Maben
had to listen to them.”
and I would get married because Earl had
Sometimes outside the classbeen a bachelor for like 12 years and they
room relationships inspired creativity
didn’t think he’d get married again.”
in handling inside the classroom probMaben retired in 1992 and now
lems.
80 years young, most recently has been
“Once, one of my students
fighting cancer and has been comforted
was the daughter of a friend—in fact, a by her family as well as her pet beagle.
friend I had from the first day I came
Still living in Fairfield, Maben loves bumpto Fairfield—anyway, she was a coning into former students.
stant talker in the classroom, but I did“My dentist is a former student,
n’t want to hurt her feelings or make
my attorney is a former student and it is
her mad because she was my friend’s
just wonderful to, say, go to the grocery
daughter,” Maben said. “So I moved
store and see former students working
everybody from around her. She was
seated in a desert and didn’t have any- there,” Maben said. “I had some really
good kids and I am so proud of all of
body to talk to. Sometimes you had to
them.”
use different methods.”
During Maben’s
time teaching
at Armijo she
discovered
that often
when things
improved at
the school it
was due to
good administration and
that the reverse was
true also.
When it came
to getting
along with
the faculty,
Maben
moved
slightly further down
the alphabetical Faculty
listing in yearbooks in 1984
when she
wed late
mathematics
teacher Mr.
Maben.
“I
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6
Coach Jay Dahl Did Double Duty
Armijo Basketball Coach and
Athletic Director Jay Dahl was born
in San Angelo, Texas and his father
was in the Air Force which brought
his family to Fairfield. Shortly thereafter, tragedy struck.
“We got here in December
of 1965, I turned 14 in January of
1966 and my dad passed away in
March,” Dahl said. “We had just purchased a house and my mom was
thinking about going back to Milwaukee where both she and my father were from, but my three siblings and I talked her into staying
here.”
Dahl was tall for his age. Or
any age.
“When I walked into my 8th
grade classroom at Anna Kyle (then
Kindergarten through 8th) I was 6’
3” and everyone thought I was a
student teacher,” Dahl said.
Later at the then still-new
Fairfield High, Dahl played varsity
basketball as a freshman. His coach
was Ron Thompson who had come
over from Armijo where he ran the
junior varsity squad under legendary
Indians coach Ed Hopkins who handled the varsity.
“We had very good teams.
We were in the old Delta League
(Woodland, Davis Armijo, Vacaville,
James Marshall and Galt) and our
biggest rival was Davis,” Dahl said. “I
was 6’ 9” as a senior and got a scholarship to the University of the Pacific.”
Originally Dahl sought a career as a dentist, but after receiving
C’s in classes he had excelled at in
high school, he quickly formulated a
Plan B to pursue a degree in physical
education and become a coach.
“In 1975 I started at Bransford Elementary School. I had met
and became close friends with Armijo coach Leo Giovanetti at the rec
department and he’d taken over as
head coach when Ed Hopkins reit,” Dahl said. “When I came in Monday
tired,” Dahl said. “I could have gone
morning early to turn on the heat beover and worked with Ron Thompfore practice, I turned on the lights and
son, but I had played with him for
discovered black dog paw prints
four years and wanted to learn some painted all over the bleachers and the
different things, so I taught at Brans- floor and our rims were missing. That
ford and coached at Armijo with
was our payback.”
Leo.”
Coach Dahl now enjoys being
During his time coaching,
the Golf Marshal at Rancho Solano
Dahl was both JV and varsity
coach and later became the
athletic director. For years the
school’s administration expressed their desire for Dahl to
come over from Bransford and
teach and coach at Armijo. He
eventually did and regrets not
doing it sooner. Still, he made
good use of his connections to
the Armijo feeder school by
bringing Bransford kids to Armijo sporting events.
“I was trying to expose
kids to high school sports-football and basketball games. I
had some really good athletes
who came through Bransford
that looked up to and admired
the high school kids,” Dahl said.
“Some of the kids that went
through there like Huck Flener
later played basketball, football
and baseball at Armijo and
wound up playing baseball professionally.”
Coach Dahl at Armijo (photo: Yumi Wilson)
2005 was Dahl’s last
year at Armijo and at his retirement
which allows him to golf for free, and
dinner at Pepperbelly’s Comedy
also spending quality time with his
Club, he surprised several former
grandchildren. He takes a big picture
players in attendance by presenting
view when looking back on his coaching
them with their old varsity jerseys.
career.
He also shared a funny remem“The best part of coaching isn’t
brance.
the winning or losing; it’s working with
“We were playing Vacaville
the kids. When I was 14 and had the
in the 1980s and they were about to
experience I had with losing my dad,
announce the starting lineup and
Ron Thompson was a very big male insuddenly a shopping cart came flying fluence on me and I tried to do the
out of the back corner where the
same thing with other kids. If I could
team locker room was with the Vaca- help just one kid out a year, that was a
ville bulldog in it with arrows stuck in big deal,” Dahl said.
7
Mr. Gary Falati—Student, Teacher, Administrator and Mayor
Class of 1958 graduate Gary taught, ironically, at Fairfield High.
I had him and others in freshman footFalati has the unique perspective of He taught Distributive Economics in
ball and we just hit it off,” Falati said.
having been a student, teacher, and the mornings and ran the Fairfield
“They were all in R.O.P. and had jobs
also administrator at Armijo High.
aquatics center in the afternoons.
after school and I remember when he
On top of all that, he was
Fate came knocking on Faand his friends all got accepted into
the Mayor of Fairfield for 16 years.
lati’s door one day and it looked a
college. They were outside my classFalati looks back on his high school
whole lot like his old friend since sec- room, C-9, with wall-to-wall smiles.”
years fondly.
ond grade, Tom Hannigan.
Falati was still teaching when
“I went to school in the old
“Tommy Hannigan suggested he was elected mayor, but conducted
building that is now the courtno city business between the
house,” Falati said. “It had three
hours of 7:30 am and 4:00 pm as
stories and the cafeteria was in
he was on campus. One time he
the basement. Everyone congreremembers having an important
gated on the steps. Those were
meeting with the owners of Sowonderful, exceptional times.”
lano Garbage on the bleachers at
While Falati was involved
Armijo’s Brownlee Field because
in leadership in student governhe was coaching freshman footment as well as in the Future
ball.
Farmers of America, he also took
“In 1979, then-principal Ken
a leadership role in school pranks.
Perkins suggested I make myself
“Chick Lanza and I hooked
available to be Assistant Principal
up in 1954 and have been good
and I told him I didn’t want the
friends ever since. There was a
job. He said not to worry because
stack of hay by the Ag department
I wouldn’t actually get it, but it
and we caught a bunch of live
would look good on my resume
mice from there and put them in
that I applied for it,” Falati said.
bags. Then we took them to the
“So I was on Vacation at Disneythird floor and when the bell rang Mr. Falati in his Fairfield office (photo: Tony Wade) land and I told him to just call me
and everyone came out of the
after the official decision and tell
classes, we let them go. Omigod, it
I run for city council,” Falati said. “He me when I officially didn’t get the job.
was unbelievable,” Falati said, laugh- had been on the council for years
He called me up and said “You start
ing.
and been mayor and had got elected Monday morning.”
Fairfield being a much
to the State Assembly. I did run and
In 1983, a bit burnt out, Falati
smaller place then, news shot
personally knocked on 8,600 doors.
left public office and school administraaround town with rapidity that
What really helped get me elected is
tion and started a new career as an inwould put Twitter to shame.
that so many of those homes had
surance agent and recently celebrated
“If you got in trouble at
kids who knew me from working at
30 years with State Farm. He conschool, your parents knew about it
the city pool, the Fairfield Plunge.”
trasted his time on the council with the
before you got home,” Falati said.
While his City Council camcurrent day and also looked back on
“We had good, clean fun, not vanpaign was a success, Falati got himgrowing up in Fairfield.
dalism-type fun. Really the worst
self elected right out of a job as it
“We would have disagreements
that would happen would be when
was a conflict of interest to be on the at the council meeting and afterwards
someone would say “What hapcouncil and work for the city.
we’d go to dinner at Dick’s Seafood
pened to Mary Jane? Oh, she had to
He soon landed a position
Grotto and have no animosity,” Falati
go “visit her aunt” for 9 months.” ”
teaching Business Law as well as run- said. “You grow up in a community and
Falati attended Chico State
ning the regional occupation prothe community matures and hopefully
and while he wasn’t sure of his cagram (R.O.P.) at his high school alma you mature as a person too. I know my
reer path, he decided to get a teach- mater.
roots here and they are strong.”
ing credential as teachers were al“I loved teaching and I just
ways in demand. He later studentsaw an old student of mine recently.
8
THE ARMIJO ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OFFERS SINCERE THANKS TO ALL THE
FORMER FACULTY WHO PARTICIPATED IN THIS SPECIAL NEWSLETTER
WHY THIS SPECIAL EDITION?
First, your Armijo Alumni Association is always looking for ways to cut our costs, thereby ensuring we
are making maximum use of monies collected through memberships, by putting on events and
through merchandise sales.
ONE EXPENSE WE CAN DEFINITELY LOWER IS THE SIGNIFICANT
COST TO PRINT AND MAIL OUR NEWSLETTERS.
We are hoping to have more members switch from the printed
version to the electronic PDF that you can conveniently view or
download on your computer, tablet or smartphone.
The potential savings is hundreds of dollars per newsletter. That
is money that could go towards scholarships. Emails were sent
to those who choose the print version asking them to switch if
they are able.
Coach Dahl and Newsletter Editor Tony Wade
(wearing his old uniform the only way he can
now—as a bib) photo: Yumi Wilson
Secondly, this special issue is yet another example of exclusive content available to members. We offer a website with password-protected content including yearbook senior pictures, offer help with reunions including our Quickstart guide, now allow members to pay for memberships and event tickets
by PayPal and more benefits are in the works. The regular features of the Armijo Alumni News
(Reunions, President’s Corner and Classmate Passings) will return in the next newsletter.
We hope you have enjoyed this issue and thanks again for your support. Go Indians!
9
Armijo Alumni Association Board of Directors
President
David McBride
Class of 1964
Co-founder and Board Member
Gordene Parkison Pienovi
Class of 1960
Secretary
Robert Tidwell
Class of 1963
Recording Secretary
Kim Moore Scibelli
Class of 1980
Membership and Reunions
Nanciann Gregg
Class of 1959
Ways and Means
Rima Totah
Class of 1991
Treasurer
Jennifer Engell Matcham
Class of 1996
Networking/Newsletter Editor
Tony Wade
Class of 1982
The Armijo Alumni Association meets on the first Wednesday of each month
at 3602 Ritchie Road, Cordelia, CA at 7:00 PM
Mailing Address: Armijo Alumni Assoc., P.O. Box 460, Fairfield, CA 94533
Phone: (707) 429-1900 Email: Armijo [email protected]
Website: www.armijoalumni.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Armijo-Alumni-Association/240663522434
ARMIJO ALUMNI ASSOCIATION MISSION STATEMENT
To pay tribute to a school that has played a significant role in our lives and community
since 1891;
To reunite all the graduates, former students, teachers, staff and parents that
participated in the many successes of Armijo:
To foster old relationships, support school activities and class reunions as well;
And provide financially funded scholarships as an independent and non-profit
organization.
ARMIJO ALUMNI ASSOCIATION VISION STATEMENT
“First and Best for All Alumni”
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Non-Profit-Org.
US Postage Paid
Permit #290
Fairfield, CA
94533
______________________________
RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED
P.O. Box 460 Fairfield, CA 94533-0045
Alumni Office (707) 426-1900
BBQ Dinner & Dance, September 21, 2013, Cordelia Fire Hall $30
Become a member TODAY! Just $10 a year per alumnus! Goes up to $15 starting January 1st, 2014
Membership Term: January 1st - December 31st
For more info contact the Alumni Association Office: (707)426-1900 or [email protected]
on Facebook, ”like” the Armijo Alumni Association
CIRCLE ONE: NEW OR RENEWAL
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