John Marshall High School Alumni Association Newsletter 3939 Tracy Street, Los Angeles, California 90027 Spring 2015 Volume 35 • Issue 1 Our 2015 Distinguished Alumni Awardee - Don Bachardy Born in Los Angeles, California, Don Bachardy grew up in Atwater and graduated from John Marshall High School in the Summer Class of 1952. Bachardy studied at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles and the Slade School of Art in London. His first one-man exhibition was held in October 1961 at the Redfern Gallery in London. He met the writer Christopher Isherwood on Valentine’s Day 1953, when he was 18 and Isherwood was 48. They remained together until Isherwood’s death in 1986. A number of paperback editions of Isherwood’s novels feature Bachardy’s pencil portraits of the author. A film about their relationship, titled Chris & Don: A Love Story, was released in 2008. Don has had many one-man exhibitions in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Houston and New York. More recently, he exhibited at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California, in 2004. His works reside in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum of Art in San Francisco, the University of Texas, Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, California, the University of California, Los Angeles, the Fogg Art Museum of Harvard University, Princeton University, the Smithsonian Institution, and the National Portrait Gallery in London. Continued on page 8... JMHS Academic Decathlon Team Wins 3rd Place In City The John Marshall High School Academic Decathlon Team won 3rd Place in the Los Angeles Unified School District’s competition held on January 31 and February 7. First and second places went to our friendly rivals Granada Hills and El Camino Real high schools, respectively. This year’s stellar group of decathletes includes: Hanul “Christopher” Choe, returning city champ Kenneth Huh, Brian Lee, Raymond Lobaton, returning city champ Alayna Myrick, David Ornelas, Bruce Perez, and Gilbert Walker. The team took 4th place at the State Finals. Should you wish to make a donation to help this program thrive, please send your contributions to the alumni association. Please make checks payable to JOHN MARSHALL HIGH ALUMNI ASSOCIATION and send to P.O. Box 39847, Los Angeles, CA 90039. Put the name of the program to which you are donating in the MEMO The Academic Decathlon Team at Roybal HS with section of your check (Academic Decathlon). Coach Welch, Principal Patricia Heideman, Assistant Principal Barry Allwright, and Music Coach James Rozsa. Page 1 President’s Message... Calendar of Events Board Meetings & Important Dates In 2015 Since the Alumni Asso- ciation’s first newsletter in All Board meetings are held on the first Tuesday of the 1980, our aim has been month at 6:30pm in room 504 unless otherwise noted. to keep alumni connected and informed. Before there was Facebook Tuesday, May 5 Board Meeting or Twitter, there was an alumni newsletter! *Thursday, May 21 Senior Awards Night We kept up with the stellar accomplishments *Monday, May 25 Memorial Day (school closed) of our historic school. We shared moments *Saturday, May 30 Grad Night of triumph of former and current Barristers. Tuesday, June 2 Board Meeting We shared the grief of losing old friends and *Thursday, June 4 Graduation At The Greek Theatre/ classmates. Distinguished Alumni Luncheon As the years went by, the number of alumni *Saturday, June 20 Endless Summer Picnic receiving the newsletter grew. Unfortunately, *Saturday, June 27 Family Pitch & Putt Golf Outing so did the costs of producing newsletters. Tuesday, July 7 Board Meeting (off campus) Now, thirty-five years later, we face a dilemma. Tuesday, August 4 Board Meeting (off campus) The rate of donations to the association has *Monday August 17 New School Year Begins. Pupil- not kept pace with the rate of inflation. Free Day. (staff breakfast) We send out approximately 11,000 news- *Friday, September 4 Admissions Day Holiday (no school) letters each time to alumni all around the *Monday, September 7 Labor Day Holiday (no school) world. However, not all of these recipients Tuesday, September 8 Board Meeting are dues-paying members of the association. Tuesday, October 6 Board Meeting Our policy has always been to keep in touch *Friday, October 30 Homecoming (tentative) with all alumni for whom we have an address. Tuesday, November 3 Board Meeting Other alumni associations only send their *Wednesday, Nov. 11 Veterans Day (no school) newsletter to dues-paying members. Tuesday, December 1 Board Meeting We have already instituted some cost-cut- *Tuesday, January 12, 2016 Annual General Meeting ting strategies. We used to send three news- letters per year and now we only send two. *Denotes special event or date change. We encourage our alumni to request the All dates subject to change. newsletter electronically, and about 1,000 of Please contact us by e-mail at [email protected] you have responded to that suggestion. We or call 323-953-6542 to continue to solicit advertising from our alumni confirm dates and locations. to offset some of the costs of publication. The cost per issue is about $7175. That includes printing, postage, and paying for returned newsletters with bad addresses. If you are not current in your dues, please consider signing up now. A mere $25 per year would help us to keep sending the newsletter Would You Prefer An Electronic PDF to everyone on our list. Check the address la- bel on your newsletter to determine your dues Copy Of The Newsletter? status. If you are a life member, a “sweet- If you would prefer to receive your newsletter by e-mail (PDF) format, heart” donation toward the newsletter would please send your name (at graduation), year you graduated, and your be deeply appreciated. e-mail address to Joe Buford ‘74 at [email protected] and we You can pay your dues by check to our will send it to you through cyberspace instead of your mailbox! post office box or by PayPal if you have an account. Go to www.paypal.com and send your payment to [email protected] with a note in the comment box that indicates what the donation is for. Check Out Our New Website! We take very seriously our mission of keeping alumni connected. With your help The Alumni Association now has an official we can continue to do so. website! Please go to: Ynez Herrera Reinschmidt, Class of S’59 johnmarshallalumniassnla.org Page 2 Order Your Alumni Keepsakes Now! The Alumni Association is offering some very special keepsakes for JMHS grads. For a specified donation, you can order an Alumni polo shirt, baseball cap, or any of three ornaments now available in a series. You can order one or all of them using the form below. Caps are one-size fits all. Short-sleeved polo shirts are 100% preshrunk cotton. All Keepsake Ornaments are made of real pewter and weigh less than 3 oz. each. Any of these will make a great gift for a fellow classmate or alum from any year! You may now order your merchandise with Pay-Pal at [email protected] Be sure to list your order in the comment box. 80th Anniversary Johnny Barrister “M” Short-sleeved Baseball Ornament Ornament Ornament Polo Shirt Cap Polo Shirt: For a donation of $25 per shirt ($27 for 2X, 3X, or 4X) Choice of Royal or Navy Blue Small (34-36) #____ Medium (38-40) #____ Large (42-44) #____ X-large (46-48) #____ (2X) #____ (3X) #____ (4X) #____ Ornaments: For a donation of $18 per ornament 80th Anniversary #____ Johnny Barrister #____ “M” #____ Baseball Cap : (one size fits all) For a donation of $16.50 per cap. # of caps _____ (Shipping And Handling Included In All Donations) Total donation for Shirts $ ____________ + Caps $ ____________ + Ornaments $ _________ Total donation enclosed $ ____________ Make check out to: John Marshall High Alumni Association, P.O. Box 39847, Los Angeles, CA 90039 Name __________________________________________________________________ Class of ________________ Address ________________________________________________________________________________________ City, State, Zip ___________________________________________________________________________________ Phone # _____________________________ E-mail address _____________________________________________ Page 3 Jose Vargas W’43 September 3, 1924 - September 22, 2014 Jose Vargas, Class of W’43, and president of the JMHS Alumni Association from January 1997 through December 1998, passed away on September 22, 2014, after a long illness. He was 90 years old. Jose earned his degree from UCLA and spent his career mostly in the non- profit/social services sector. During Jose’s tenure as president, he encouraged the Alumni Board to expand the range of activities for alumni and contributions to the school. Among the projects of which Jose was most proud was the association’s donation to the Marshall Woodshop Class so that they could participate in Habitat for Humanity, building homes for the homeless. Also, it was during his term that the football stadium was named in honor of Marshall’s only NFL Hall of Famer, Mike Haynes ’71. In 2002 Jose arranged for a diploma to be presented to Manabu Sakamoto, who would have graduated in the Class of 1943. Unfortunately, Manabu and his family, Japanese-Americans, were uprooted from their home, along with thousands of other Japanese-Americans, after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. They were placed in a heavily restricted environment for the duration of World War II. During his time in the relocation camp, Manabu continued his education. As soon as he could, he enlisted in the US Army to serve the country of his birth as part of the US Army of Occupation in Germany.