The DRAGONMagazine - Bishop O'Dowd High School
The DRAGONMagazine - Bishop O'Dowd High School
The DRAGONMagazine - Bishop O'Dowd High School
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<strong>The</strong><br />
DRAGON<br />
Magazine<br />
<strong>The</strong> Year of the Dragon<br />
Three generations of Dragons, from left to right, Joshua Brown ’12,<br />
Kathy Canty Brown ’84 and Jim Canty ’60<br />
Special Anniversary Issue - Summer 2012
STEPHEN PHELPS, Ed.D.<br />
President<br />
PAMELA SHAY, M. S. A.<br />
Principal<br />
ROMEO BALDEVISO, M.S.<br />
Chief Information Officer<br />
KEVIN CUSHING<br />
Assistant Principal<br />
CHRISTINE GARAVAGLIA, CPA<br />
Chief Financial Officer<br />
BRIAN JUDD, M.S.<br />
Assistant Principal<br />
MICHAEL A. PETRINI, M.A.<br />
Vice President for Advancement<br />
CYNTHIA WOLFE FUNAI, J.D.<br />
Director of Planned Giving<br />
MICHELLE HAWKINS<br />
Director of Development<br />
LISA COFFEY MAHONEY ’76<br />
Director of Communications<br />
NICOLE DEMARAIS SHAW ’81<br />
Director of Marketing<br />
We welcome your comments, questions or suggestions. Please contact<br />
Dragon editor Lisa Coffey Mahoney '76 at (510) 577-9100, ext.<br />
302, or lmahoney@bishopodowd.org.<br />
BOARD OF REGENTS<br />
Evelyn Dilsaver, chairperson, Kerwin Allen, David Bail ’87,<br />
Tom Counts, Denis Ducey, Fr. Leo Edgerly, Ray Galka,<br />
Stephen Ghiglieri ’79, Glen Hentges, Regina Jackson ’80, Paul<br />
Manca, Fr. Jay Matthews, Christopher Ohman, Peter Ross ’83,<br />
Gregory Schopf, Manuel R. Senna, Diane Steccone Smahlik<br />
’62, Edward Vieira-Ducey ’97, Kimberly Walsh and Jim Wolfe<br />
MISSION<br />
<strong>Bishop</strong> O’Dowd <strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong> is a Catholic, coeducational,<br />
college preparatory high school administered by the Diocese<br />
of Oakland. <strong>The</strong> school affirms the teachings, moral values,<br />
and ethical standards of the Catholic Church. It is a unique<br />
and diverse community. <strong>The</strong> faculty and administration strive<br />
to develop young men and women of competence, conscience,<br />
and compassion through an integrated academic, spiritual, and<br />
extracurricular program. <strong>Bishop</strong> O’Dowd <strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong> seeks to<br />
develop persons of influence who are loving, open to growth,<br />
religious, intellectually competent, and skilled leaders committed<br />
to justice and peace.<br />
Student body president Al<br />
Heeg ’55 (right) and<br />
Beth Sullivan George ’55 were<br />
among the first graduates of<br />
<strong>Bishop</strong> <strong>O'Dowd</strong> <strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong>.<br />
2 THE DRAGON
Celebrating 60 Years of Catholic Education<br />
O’Dowd celebrated a very special milestone this school year, the 60th anniversary of the<br />
establishment of the school.<br />
Alumni, past and current faculty members, past and current parents and today’s students gathered<br />
for a wonderful Mass and luncheon in celebration of our<br />
commitment to Catholic education.<br />
We are proud to have been a shining beacon on the hill for six generations of families. With<br />
your support, we will continue to provide the best education possible to prepare our students<br />
for the challenges and opportunities of a new age.<br />
Fittingly, 2012 is the Year of the Dragon.<br />
According to Chinese astrology, Dragon people excel. Here’s to another 60 years of O’Dowd<br />
Dragons making a difference in the world.<br />
Stephen Phelps, Ed.D.<br />
President<br />
<strong>Bishop</strong> <strong>O'Dowd</strong> <strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong><br />
3 THE DRAGON
60 Wonderful Years Celebrated<br />
Alumni from throughout the decades,<br />
past and current faculty and staff, as well<br />
as current students and their families,<br />
gathered on the <strong>Bishop</strong> O’Dowd <strong>High</strong><br />
<strong>School</strong> campus on March 25 to celebrate<br />
the school’s 60th anniversary.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> whole event was first class. So<br />
many alums kept telling me how grateful<br />
they were for the gift of their O’Dowd<br />
education, both academically and for its<br />
values and the self discipline it instilled.<br />
It was clear that O’Dowd’s reputation<br />
of excellence and care came in large part<br />
from the lives and skills of our graduates,”<br />
President Steve Phelps said.<br />
<strong>The</strong> day began with a Mass held in<br />
the large gymnasium concelebrated by<br />
former faculty member and O’Dowd<br />
Regent Fr. Jay Matthews, former faculty<br />
member Fr. Leo Dummer, OMI, and<br />
former principals Fr. Frank Wagner,<br />
OMI, and Fr. Ronald Schwenzer, CSB.<br />
Deacon Earl JOHson ’61 and Boyer and<br />
Joan August, both members of the Class<br />
of 1956, also participated.<br />
<strong>Bishop</strong> John Cummins, a former<br />
O’Dowd teacher and dean, and<br />
<strong>The</strong> 60th anniversary Mass was concelebrated by former faculty member and <strong>O'Dowd</strong> Regent<br />
Fr. Jay Matthews, former faculty member Fr. Leo Dummer, OMI, and former principals<br />
Fr. Frank Wagner, OMI, and Fr. Ronald Schwenzer, CSB. Deacon Earl JOHson ’61 and<br />
Boyer and Joan August, both members of the Class of 1956, also participated. Photo by Briana<br />
Loewinsohn.<br />
Enrollment is 120<br />
Tuition and fees $100<br />
4 THE DRAGON<br />
1951 – O’Dowd is established as a co-institutional<br />
high school by the Archdiocese of San Francisco and<br />
opens in facilities provided by St. Louis Bertrand,<br />
with a staff of two diocesan priests and four Adrian<br />
Dominican Sisters. Fr. Mark J. Hurley serves as the first<br />
principal.
Archbishop Francis T. Hurley, brother of<br />
O’Dowd’s first principal Mark Hurley,<br />
were unable to attend due to illness.<br />
Fr. Jay linked the gospel reading<br />
( John 12:24), which discusses the grain<br />
of wheat that dies and bears much fruit,<br />
to the growth of <strong>Bishop</strong> O’Dowd <strong>High</strong><br />
<strong>School</strong> throughout the years.<br />
O’Dowd has been a place for seeds to<br />
grow and germinate, with the Diocesan<br />
priests and Adrian Dominican nuns,<br />
the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the<br />
Basilians, and the current lay leadership<br />
all moving the school forward in a<br />
positive direction, he said.<br />
After Mass, the more than 300 event<br />
attendees enjoyed reminiscing in the<br />
small gym, where a Living Museum<br />
showcasing O’Dowd’s history was<br />
featured. A special display was devoted<br />
to <strong>Bishop</strong> James T. O’Dowd, the<br />
school’s namesake. <strong>The</strong> bishop’s great<br />
nephew, Paul O’Dowd, drove from New<br />
Mexico to join in the celebration.<br />
1952 – Classes<br />
meet for the first<br />
time on the present<br />
campus.<br />
Extensive memorabilia displays in the Living Museum showcased <strong>Bishop</strong> <strong>O'Dowd</strong> <strong>High</strong><br />
<strong>School</strong>'s history.<br />
Former faculty members attending the event included Cheryl Delahoussaye, Brad Goodhart, Jan<br />
Hagan, Matilda Ignacio, Eva Kastel, Mike Phelps, Joe Salamack and Sharon Stevenson.<br />
Lunch featured a Gold Dragon buffet, a “Dragon Dog” cart, a chocolate fountain, and an ice<br />
cream shop featuring a special commemorative flavor: O’Dowd Overload, made with Fentons vanilla<br />
and chocolate ice creams mixed with Honey Nut Cheerios (representing the “O” in O’Dowd) and<br />
included ribbons of caramel, Score candy bar pieces and malt balls. <strong>The</strong> wine and beer garden was also<br />
a highlight.<br />
Alumni enjoyed entertainment provided by the O’Dowd jazz band and had the opportunity to go<br />
on student-guided tours of the campus.<br />
5 THE DRAGON<br />
Check the O’Dowd<br />
website for photos<br />
and videos of the<br />
60th celebration.<br />
1954 – <strong>The</strong> school’s first<br />
full-length play, “Murder in a<br />
Nunnery,” directed by Father<br />
Poggi, is staged.
Class of 1956 Dedicates Bench in Living Lab<br />
In conjuction with the 60th<br />
celebration, members of the Class of<br />
1956 gathered in the Living Lab, near<br />
the pond, where a bench was installed<br />
in their honor. Crafted from a salvaged<br />
deodor cedar tree that fell in the Oakland<br />
Hills, the bench features a mosaic plaque.<br />
It was more than 10 years ago that the<br />
Class of 1956 donated funds through<br />
their 45th reunion to the then-fledgling<br />
Living Lab project. That money went<br />
towards the planting of many of the first<br />
native trees on the site.<br />
Since O’Dowd just purchased the<br />
land below the reservoir from EBMUD,<br />
and the new Center for Environmental<br />
Studies (CES) will be nestled among<br />
those trees, the school wanted to<br />
acknowledge the Class of 1956 for<br />
both their pioneering tree-planting and<br />
their continued support of greening the<br />
campus five decades later.<br />
In fact, members of those early classes<br />
of the 1950s were also responsible for<br />
planting many of the very first pine trees<br />
on the north side of campus (often as<br />
part of detention duty) which have now<br />
matured into a tall stand adjacent to the<br />
Living Lab.<br />
1955 – First graduating<br />
class<br />
Enrollment 900<br />
Boosters Club and Mothers<br />
Club formed<br />
Class of 1956 members were joined by seniors Hayley Jackson and Josh Proto (seated), and<br />
former faculty member and Chair of the Steering Committee for the CES Tom Tyler, third<br />
from left in back row, in the Living Lab for the bench dedication. Photo by Robin Mortarotti.<br />
6 THE DRAGON<br />
1957-62 - John S.<br />
Cummins serves as faculty<br />
member/dean at O’Dowd<br />
and later becomes the<br />
<strong>Bishop</strong> of the Diocese of<br />
Oakland.
<strong>The</strong> bench is located in a peaceful setting, by the pond in the Living Lab. Inset photo shows<br />
the detail of the mosaic. Photos by Tom Tyler.<br />
In celebration of the pioneering alums of the 1950s, a special reception was held<br />
for about 100 ’50s graduates and guests in Dominican Lounge. <strong>The</strong> ’50s folk got<br />
a big kick out of having a party in what they remember as the Dominican Sisters’<br />
community room in the convent!<br />
“It was a pleasure to meet so many grads from the ’50s, hear their early O’Dowd<br />
stories - especially the ones about the mischief they got into that earned them treeplanting<br />
detentions - and thank them in person for their ongoing support of our<br />
beautiful campus,” former faculty member and Chair of the Steering Committee for<br />
the CES Tom Tyler said. Read more about this project on page 24.<br />
1959 – Tuition<br />
and fees $150<br />
1962 – O’Dowd<br />
becomes part of<br />
the newly formed<br />
Diocese of Oakland.<br />
7 THE DRAGON<br />
Frank '56 and Jean Hudson McNamara '56<br />
were the first to test out the new bench.<br />
“I found it most memorable when<br />
we were taken to the north side of the<br />
grounds where there before us, stood<br />
the 60-year-old trees that we planted<br />
as a detention punishment (boys only<br />
of course!). Who thought they would<br />
become such giants?<br />
And then, it was down to the<br />
Living Lab where students, 55 years<br />
our junior, were also planting trees<br />
... but for an entirely different and<br />
perhaps more noble reason.”<br />
1963 – <strong>The</strong> school’s<br />
second (and current) alma<br />
mater is written.<br />
Frank McNamara ’56
On This Rock I Will Build My <strong>School</strong><br />
This photo of the <strong>O'Dowd</strong> campus in 1951 was discovered by Siegel & Strain architect<br />
Karen Richards during her research to determine the siting of the new Center for<br />
Environmental Studies. Read about the CES project on page 24.<br />
Jack Dold<br />
1966 – Missionary Oblates of Mary<br />
Immaculate assume administration of<br />
the school, with Fr. Frank Wagner, OMI,<br />
serving as principal. Jack Dold is the first<br />
lay vice principal of the school, serving<br />
O’Dowd through 1975.<br />
Tuition and fees $210<br />
8 THE DRAGON<br />
Before O’Dowd was a bustling high<br />
school campus, the school property was<br />
a rock quarry, owned by Joseph Catucci,<br />
an excavation, grading and concrete<br />
contractor.<br />
Joseph’s wife, Bella, took over the<br />
company after her husband’s passing in<br />
1939, and kept it going until the mid<br />
1940s.<br />
In 1946, she sold off part of<br />
the property to EBMUD for the<br />
construction of the Seneca Reservoir.<br />
<strong>Bishop</strong> O’Dowd <strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong> was built<br />
in 1951 on the balance of the Catucci<br />
property.<br />
Aerial view of campus in 2007.<br />
1967 – <strong>The</strong> boy’s basketball<br />
team, coached by Frank<br />
LaPorte, posts a 37-2 record<br />
and is voted the designated<br />
state champion.
About <strong>Bishop</strong> James T. O’Dowd<br />
<strong>Bishop</strong> O’Dowd <strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong> is named in memory of the former director of<br />
education at the Archdiocese of San Francisco, <strong>Bishop</strong> James T. O’Dowd. At the time<br />
of his sudden and tragic death in a car accident in 1950, when he was just 42, the<br />
<strong>Bishop</strong> was in the process of drawing up plans for a new Catholic high school in the<br />
East Bay.<br />
<strong>The</strong> San Francisco native had a short, yet remarkable career as a priest and<br />
educator. He was ordained a priest on June 4, 1932, at St. Mary’s Cathedral in San<br />
Francisco, and his first assignment was serving as assistant pastor at St. Lawrence<br />
O’Toole Church in Oakland.<br />
Archbishop of San Francisco John Joseph Mitty was quick to identify Fr. O’Dowd<br />
as one of his most able and promising priests and sent him to Catholic University<br />
in Washington, D.C., to earn a doctorate in education. Fr. O’Dowd’s dissertation,<br />
“Standardization and its Influence on Catholic Education in the United States,” was<br />
considered the model work in education circles at the time.<br />
Fr. O’Dowd was appointed Assistant Superintendent of <strong>School</strong>s of the Archdiocese<br />
of San Francisco in 1936, and was named Superintendent in 1941. This was a<br />
remarkable achievement for a young priest who was only 34 at the time.<br />
In his tenure as Superintendent, Fr. O’Dowd (who was named a Monsignor<br />
in 1943) helped plan and establish nearly two dozen Catholic schools including<br />
four high schools: Archbishop Riordan <strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong>; Marin Catholic; Mercy, San<br />
Francisco; and O’Dowd.<br />
He was admired and respected by his colleagues for promoting Catholic education<br />
in the Bay Area and nationwide.<br />
He served as chair for the National Catholic Educational Association’s (NCEA)<br />
California Secondary <strong>School</strong> Department, was a member of the San Francisco<br />
Coordinating Council for Youth Welfare, and served on the Teacher Training<br />
Committee of the California Board of Education. He also served as chariman of the<br />
NCEA national convention that was held in San Francisco in 1948.<br />
He was elevated to <strong>Bishop</strong> on May 27, 1948, and served as pastor of Mission<br />
Dolores.<br />
1968 –<br />
First Crab Feed held<br />
1969 – First<br />
computer on campus,<br />
purchased by Friends<br />
of the Computer.<br />
9 THE DRAGON<br />
<strong>Bishop</strong> James T. <strong>O'Dowd</strong>, <strong>Bishop</strong> <strong>O'Dowd</strong><br />
<strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong>'s namesake.
A New <strong>School</strong>,<br />
A New Method of Instruction<br />
When Archbishop of San Francisco John Joseph Mitty established<br />
<strong>Bishop</strong> O’Dowd <strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong> as a Catholic co-instructional high school<br />
(boys and girls on the same campus, but separated for most activities), the<br />
nation was abuzz about this new method of instruction.<br />
According to a local newspaper article written about O’Dowd’s Jan.<br />
30, 1951, dedication ceremony, the school represented “something new<br />
in American education.”<br />
“This type of school is now being widely copied along the Pacific<br />
Coast. Rev. Mark J. Hurley, Ph.D., principal of <strong>Bishop</strong> O’Dowd <strong>High</strong><br />
<strong>School</strong> has received visitors, many educators from all over the United<br />
States and Europe who were interested in this phase of secondary<br />
education. Among the notable visitors recently were three professors<br />
from Germany, sent under the auspices of the State Department,” reads<br />
the article.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Archdiocese of San Francisco took the lead in establishing coinstructional<br />
high schools with the opening of the first two such schools<br />
in the West – O’Dowd and Marin Catholic.<br />
Throughout the years, O’ Dowd has continued to be at the forefront of<br />
education.<br />
“Our Catholic traditions and beliefs call us to innovate to meet<br />
the religious and education needs of this era,” says O’Dowd President<br />
Stephen Phelps, Ed.D.<br />
1971 – Co-ed<br />
instruction begins<br />
1970 – O’Dowd launches football program, headed by coaches<br />
Joe Vanni and Pat Riley. John Cecconi ’71, Dan Dell’Osso ’71 and<br />
Steve Pena ’71 served as team captains for the inaugural varsity squad.<br />
Environmental science classes introduced<br />
10 THE DRAGON<br />
O’Dowd’s Principals<br />
Fr. Mark J. Hurley (1951-58)<br />
Fr. James F. Maher (1958-61)<br />
Monsigner Pearse P. Donovan (1961-64)<br />
Fr. Joseph F. Keaveny (1964-66)<br />
Fr. Frank Wagner, OMI (1966-72)<br />
Fr. Paul Waldie, OMI (1972-78)<br />
Fr. Ronald Schwenzer, CSB (1978-86)<br />
Fr. Joseph C. Mitrano, CSB (1986-91)<br />
Fr. Richard Ranaletti, CSB (1991-2000)<br />
Fr. Donald J. McLeod, CSB (2000-2005)<br />
Joseph G. Salamack III (2005-2011)<br />
Pamela Shay (2011-present)
Leaders from throughout the decades. Former O’Dowd principals Fr. Ronald Schwenzer, CSB, (1978-1986), far left,Fr. Frank Wagner,<br />
OMI, (1966-1972), second from right, and Joe Salamack (2005-2011), far right, with current O’Dowd Principal Pam Shay at the 60th<br />
anniversary celebration.<br />
1972 –<br />
Tuition and fees<br />
$500<br />
1975 – Graduation<br />
ceremonies moved to the<br />
Paramount <strong>The</strong>atre<br />
11 THE DRAGON<br />
1980 – AP classes<br />
introduced<br />
Campus Ministry Team formed<br />
Development program<br />
established<br />
1978 – Congregation of<br />
St. Basil (Basilians) assume<br />
administration of the school,<br />
with Fr. Ronald Schwenzer, CSB,<br />
serving as principal.
Year of the Dragon<br />
Yes, by now everyone knows that O’Dowd is celebrating its 60th anniversary in the<br />
Year of the Dragon. But did you know that it was exactly 60 years ago that we last<br />
had a “Black Water Dragon?”<br />
<strong>The</strong> mightiest of the signs, the Dragon occupies the 5th position in the Chinese<br />
Zodiac, and there are five different Dragons: Black Water Dragon (Years 1952 and<br />
2012); Metal Dragon (Years 1940 and 2000); Wood Dragon (Years 1904 and 1964);<br />
Fire Dragon (Years 1916 and 1976); and Earth Dragon (Years 1928 and 1988).<br />
Dragon artwork created by Denys Cazet '56<br />
1981 –Tuition and fees $1,220<br />
Men’s basketball team wins state championship<br />
Girls no longer required to wear uniforms<br />
Today's Dragon<br />
12 THE DRAGON<br />
<strong>Bishop</strong> O’Dowd designed<br />
his coat of arms with his motto<br />
“Cor Unum in Christo.” <strong>The</strong><br />
star represents his childhood<br />
parish, Star of the Sea.
A Sampling of the Original Rules of<br />
<strong>Bishop</strong> O’Dowd <strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong><br />
Appearance<br />
• Students must take reasonable pride in their personal appearance and dress as<br />
befits Catholic school students. Accordingly, for boys, T-shirts or jeans may not be<br />
worn to school. Writing of any kind is not to appear on trousers, jackets or other articles<br />
of clothing.<br />
• Girls will wear the school uniform, with white saddle shoes and white sox.<br />
• Boys Attire: If sport shirts are worn, no tie is necessary. If dress shirts are worn, then<br />
a tie must be worn at all times. Shoes must be clean and shined. Greys, slacks, etc.,<br />
must be pressed and cleaned. Belts must be worn.<br />
• ALL - No taps or metal tips of any kind may be worn on the soles or heels<br />
of shoes at any time.<br />
Disciplinary Measures<br />
• Weekly detention periods will be held for students whose general conduct is unsatisfactory.<br />
This includes habitual tardiness and lack of cooperation.<br />
• In grave cases, students may be required to report to school on Saturdays or holidays.<br />
Behavior<br />
• Smoking while wearing the uniform of the school is looked upon with disfavor by the<br />
authorities of the school. Any student repeatedly violating this regulation will be subject<br />
to severe penalties.<br />
• Out of Bounds: No student traveling to or from school may enter any creamery, soda<br />
fountain, soft drink parlor, recreation rooms and similar public places on MacArthur<br />
Blvd., between 80th and 105th Ave., or on East 14th St., between 82nd and 99th Ave.<br />
1985 – Groundbreaking<br />
for the Learning Resource<br />
Center, which doubled the<br />
size of the library, made<br />
possible by the successful<br />
Library Learning Center<br />
Campaign.<br />
Lacrosse introduced as a<br />
sport<br />
1986 - Tuition<br />
and fees $2,600<br />
1991 - Elevator<br />
added<br />
13 THE DRAGON<br />
1992 – Fr. Richard<br />
Ranalleti, CSB, becomes<br />
principal and will become<br />
the longest serving leader<br />
of O’Dowd, heading the<br />
school until 2000.<br />
1993 – Two-story, 10-classroom<br />
addition replaces portables<br />
Last of the Adrian Dominican nuns,<br />
Sister Katharine Emery (Sr. Mary<br />
Xavier), leaves O’Dowd.<br />
Prayer in Honor<br />
of O’Dowd’s<br />
60th Anniversary<br />
Belief in every student<br />
Intellectually challenging<br />
Service to others<br />
Hopeful futures<br />
One community<br />
Precious memories<br />
Opportunities<br />
Dedicated faculty<br />
Once in a lifetime experiences<br />
Working together<br />
Dragon pride<br />
By Emma Cronin ’13
Leading in a Changing World the Summer of Love, the assassinations<br />
Jack Dold<br />
Faculty member 1963-1974<br />
Jack Dold joined the <strong>Bishop</strong> O’Dowd<br />
<strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong> faculty in 1963, and in 1967<br />
became the first lay vice principal of the<br />
school. It was a time of great change at<br />
O’Dowd. <strong>The</strong> diocesan priests had just<br />
been replaced by the Oblates of Mary<br />
Immaculate (OMI), led by Fr. Frank<br />
Wagner. “Everyone in the administration<br />
was new, and we had a grand time<br />
figuring out how to keep the school’s<br />
traditions and yet modernize,” he said.<br />
Jack said there were some existing<br />
rules that made no sense. Classes were<br />
separated by sex, except for a few upper division language courses that had very small<br />
numbers. No talking was allowed in the halls between classes. <strong>The</strong> girls had different<br />
colored pastel blouses for each grade. No jackets were allowed in the classrooms and<br />
no ball point pens.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>re was a book that was filled with rules that could not be understood, much<br />
less defended. I remember sitting in our meetings reading that rulebook. If we<br />
couldn’t understand something or couldn’t defend it, it was thrown out, resulting in a<br />
streamlined new code for student behavior. Discipline is fine, essential for any school,<br />
but rules that even the administration couldn’t understand, much less the students,<br />
made no sense at all,” he said.<br />
Change was also taking place in the greater world, Jack noted. “Those kids grew<br />
up in one of the most turbulent times in American history. <strong>The</strong>y wandered into high<br />
school floating on the songs of the Beatles and they rocked out with Woodstock,” he<br />
said.<br />
Significant events that took place at this time included the Free Speech Movement,<br />
riots in Chicago, Detroit, Newark and Watts, the founding of the Black Panthers,<br />
1998 - Tuition<br />
and fees $5,875<br />
2000 - Living Lab<br />
constructed<br />
Performing Arts Center opens<br />
First science field research trip<br />
to Costa Rica<br />
14 THE DRAGON<br />
of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby<br />
Kennedy, Vietnam protests, and the<br />
creation of People’s Park.<br />
“That last half-decade of the 1960s<br />
was one of the most pivotal periods in<br />
American history. <strong>The</strong>y were years filled<br />
with innovation, artistic revolution,<br />
violence and protest, drugs, family<br />
upheaval, with rage coming from just<br />
about every facet of society,” Jack said. “I<br />
felt at times that the school, by necessity,<br />
had to be a place of stability in a storm<br />
that was changing our world right before<br />
our eyes.”<br />
O’Dowd was the center of the social<br />
as well as professional lives of the faculty,<br />
Jack said. “<strong>The</strong> faculty attended every<br />
event - dances, basketball games, awards<br />
events, and more. I think it made the<br />
faculty and students very close,” he said.<br />
“My years at O’Dowd are among the<br />
happiest of my life, years when I could<br />
actually make a difference with many of<br />
those students.”<br />
Jack and some of those students<br />
made a difference with the campus<br />
as well. “Many of the old pine trees<br />
on the back hill were planted by the<br />
Saturday detention boys. <strong>The</strong>re was a<br />
nurseryman, Frank Ogawa, who kept me<br />
supplied with root-bound trees which we<br />
stuck out on the hills. As I say, it was a<br />
different era!”<br />
2001 - First science field<br />
research trip to the Galapagos
Celebration Attendees<br />
<strong>Bishop</strong> James T. <strong>O'Dowd</strong>'s great nephew,<br />
Paul O’Dowd, drove from New Mexico<br />
to join in the celebration. He was warmly<br />
welcomed when introduced during Mass.<br />
2003- All-weather sports field and<br />
polyurethane track installed<br />
From left to right, classmates Barbara<br />
Moeller Bischoff '75, Ann Brekke Yungert '75,<br />
and Bridget McBride Belick '75 enjoyed<br />
catching up.<br />
15 THE DRAGON<br />
Former faculty member Fr. Leo Dummer,<br />
left, and <strong>O'Dowd</strong> parent Jeff Jorgensen<br />
listened to the Jazz Band perform.<br />
2004 – Gymnasium<br />
locker room facilities<br />
renovated, with Friends<br />
of the Dragon assisting<br />
in fundraising.<br />
O’Dowd Drama<br />
wins Ohlone Festival<br />
Sweepstakes award.<br />
Tuition and fees<br />
$10,050
Planting Seeds of<br />
Environmental Advocacy<br />
Brad Goodhart<br />
Faculty member 1968-1997<br />
Brad Goodhart arrived at O’Dowd in<br />
1968, straight from St. Mary’s College,<br />
and taught English, Geometry and<br />
Algebra for the princely sum of $4,600<br />
a year. He began teaching biology the<br />
following year, and, along with history<br />
teacher Sheryl Johnson, taught the first<br />
AP courses offered at O’Dowd. “Teaching<br />
was wonderful. <strong>The</strong> students were<br />
friendly, open and willing/eager to learn,”<br />
he said.<br />
Later, Goodhart led a committed<br />
group of students in the planting of<br />
tiny 10-inch seedling pine trees on the<br />
steep east slope of campus. This group<br />
became the Ecology Club and recycled<br />
tons of glass and aluminum long before<br />
the City of Oakland initiated formalized<br />
recycling. “We were the most active<br />
environmental high school group in the<br />
Bay Area,” Goodhart said.<br />
In addition to on campus activities, the Ecology Club went on camping trips in<br />
Yosemite and Mendocino, and engaged in litter cleanups in Redwood Regional Park,<br />
in the Sierra foothills and in the Gold country.<br />
Goodhart recalled the excitement of watching O’Dowd basketball games.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> basketball teams were legendary. A packed house watched in the boy’s gym,<br />
while hundreds more crowded into the girl’s gym just to watch on TV screens and<br />
contribute their cheers at every basket,” he said. “Frank LaPorte, Al Ferreira and<br />
2005 – President/principal model of<br />
governance introduced, with Dr. Stephen<br />
Phelps serving as the school’s first president.<br />
Joe Salamack appointed first lay principal of<br />
O’Dowd.<br />
16 THE DRAGON<br />
Mike Phelps were extraordinary. Everyone<br />
expected excellence. We almost felt the<br />
season didn’t start until we had won the<br />
league and headed to the CIF playoffs.”<br />
When Goodhart married in Chabot<br />
Park in 1970, then Principal Fr. Wagner<br />
concelebrated the wedding Mass with<br />
the O’Dowd Chaplin, Fr. Harris. Dozens<br />
of students were in attendance. “That<br />
morning some students and I loaded all of<br />
the tables and chairs from the cafeteria and<br />
moved them to the wedding/reception site,”<br />
he said.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Adventure Never Stops<br />
Goodhart says as his fascination with<br />
wildlife grew, he developed a whalewatching<br />
business that often used as<br />
many as three boats simultaneously to<br />
take thousands of people from all over<br />
the Bay Area out to sea for their first<br />
encounter with the migrating gray whales.<br />
“This expanded into whale watching with<br />
humpback whales in Hawaii and Beluga<br />
and Blue Whales in Canada,” he said.<br />
“From there, I moved to safaris in<br />
Africa, exploring new locations and<br />
eventually leading over 100 trips to<br />
see the endangered Mountain Gorilla<br />
in the mountains of the Congo (then<br />
Zaire), Uganda and troubled Rwanda. I<br />
also led many tours throughout Kenya,<br />
Uganda, Tanzania and more recently<br />
Ethiopia and Madagascar,” he said.<br />
Jane Goodall visits campus and the Living Lab.
Recently, Goodhart’s travels have taken<br />
him to Guatamala, Mexico, Belize, the<br />
Galapagos Islands, Peru, Ecuador, and<br />
Trinidad and Tobago.<br />
“Because of my experiences with wartorn<br />
and AIDS ridden communities in<br />
Africa I have taken a position on the<br />
board of directors of the African Orphans<br />
Foundation, which provides essential aid<br />
to orphaned girls for food, clothes and<br />
education. We are a small organization but<br />
very effective. None of us involved take a<br />
penny in pay or expenses. We have met<br />
every one of the girls personally and check<br />
in on them as often as possible. <strong>The</strong> AOF<br />
has made a real difference in the lives of<br />
these girls,” he said.<br />
Goodhart currently teaches at<br />
Geyserville <strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong>. His classes<br />
include biology, AP biology, chemistry,<br />
physics, astronomy, marine biology, AP<br />
English Literature, science fiction and test<br />
prep for the CAHSEE and SAT.<br />
His link with O’Dowd has continued,<br />
however, as he regularly teaches SAT prep<br />
classes on campus. “It’s an opportunity<br />
to see old faculty, friends, and old<br />
students. Actually I am the old one, but<br />
now in almost every SAT class there will be<br />
students whose parents were my students<br />
in that very same classroom (204) 20, 30, or<br />
40 years ago. It is always great to reconnect,<br />
even if only briefly, with the O’Dowd<br />
community I value,” he said.<br />
Ice Cream Anyone?<br />
60th anniversary guests Pamela Emerson '78, Michele Kinchen '78 and Ron Enos '55<br />
enjoyed a special commemorative ice cream flavor, <strong>O'Dowd</strong> Overload, created by Fentons. It<br />
was a blend of vanilla and chocolate ice creams mixed with Honey Nut Cheerios (representing<br />
the “O” in O’Dowd) and included ribbons of caramel, Score candy bar pieces and malt<br />
balls. Yummy!<br />
2006 – First immersion trip to Mexico<br />
Service Learning Program established<br />
Students begin participating in Yosemite<br />
Institute residential environmental<br />
education program.<br />
17 THE DRAGON
Memories of My Years at <strong>Bishop</strong><br />
O’Dowd <strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong><br />
2007 - 1-1 laptop program introduced<br />
Renaissance Campaign launched<br />
Eva Kastel<br />
Faculty member 1968-2000<br />
One would hardly recognize life at <strong>Bishop</strong> O’Dowd <strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong> as it was<br />
in 1968 when I joined the faculty. Boys and girls attended separate classes,<br />
the former taught by priests, the latter by nuns, with a handful of lay teachers,<br />
such as myself. Between classes, a hush went through the halls as students<br />
went from one class room to the next. <strong>The</strong>y were not allowed to talk, to speak<br />
to each other. This atmosphere must seem scary or weird to you now, with<br />
no nuns or priests on campus, with co-ed classes, with a relaxed dress code,<br />
and open meetings during break and lunch times. Don’t even think about<br />
hugging or kissing your girl/boy friend then! Much has changed, but change<br />
has not hurt, indeed has improved the life of the students at O’Dowd without<br />
sacrificing the school’s, or the students’ academic and athletic success.<br />
One of the changes occurred in 1970: students were now allowed to talk<br />
while walking the halls. Another change happened in l972, when classes<br />
became co-ed. That integration took place gradually. First all religion classes<br />
went co-ed, followed by the enrichment and academic classes. Although each<br />
new arrangement took some time to be considered “normal,” eventually both<br />
boys and girls felt as equals, in many ways, both in the classroom and outside.<br />
Another change, though, took years to be accomplished: it concerned<br />
the dress code. <strong>The</strong> rules for boys were strict when looked at from today’s<br />
perspective. No jeans or denims (“patch pocket pants”), a shirt with a collar,<br />
no tennis shoes. <strong>The</strong> hair had to be kept cut, above the ears, although that rule<br />
became almost impossible to enforce with the advent of the Beatles.<br />
<strong>The</strong> girls, in contrast, had to adhere to a rigid dress code. <strong>The</strong>ir uniforms<br />
consisted of a white blouse, a checkered blue and white skirt that had to go – oh yes – quite a bit below the knees, a rule<br />
that they hated. I remember girls rolling up their skirts at the waist until they became miniskirts. After all, they were<br />
modern girls, and miniskirts where “in!” But don't let any one in charge, particularly a nun, see them! In fact, if a girl<br />
2008 – Implementation of the school’s Charism<br />
Kairos retreats introduced<br />
First science field research trip to Montana<br />
18 THE DRAGON
wanted to show her individuality by just adding a belt, or<br />
any other “unauthorized” adornment, she got detention.<br />
Once a month was “free dress day,” when the uniforms<br />
had to be cleaned. You should have seen the girls prancing<br />
in their most fashionable and expensive dresses. Show<br />
offs, and how! <strong>The</strong>y had to make up for a month of<br />
wearing the hated uniform.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n, the question arose whether girls may wear pants.<br />
I am not sure when permission was granted and the issue<br />
finally resolved, but the yearbook of l970 still shows the<br />
girls wearing skirts. However, skirts or pants, the uniform<br />
rule still existed, but was, however, discussed frequently<br />
among the faculty. Some of us were aware of the injustice,<br />
the difference in code for boys and girls, and we fought.<br />
Yet, it was not until 1981 that girls could shed their<br />
uniforms. You cannot imagine how many meetings were<br />
held until faculty, then still mostly nuns and priests, and<br />
parents agreed to give up the uniform rules for girls.<br />
Girls still were held to that strict dress code before<br />
they were allowed to dress according to their taste, yet<br />
with some restrictions, similar to those of boys. <strong>The</strong>re<br />
was resistance from some parents and even some female<br />
students. With uniforms, one did not have to think what<br />
to wear. From the parents you heard that uniforms saved O’Dowd’s female students were required to wear uniforms until 1981,<br />
money. However, what about equality – since the boys’ while boys simply had a dress code. Eva Kastel vividly remembers heated<br />
code was less rigid – and individuality?<br />
debates about this difference. This photo, from 1965, shows how formal the<br />
Finally, uniforms were out, but it took a long time. early uniforms were.<br />
Look at your student body now. Progress has won out!<br />
Changes have improved conditions for all at O’Dowd<br />
since my first teaching class in l968 and my retirement in the<br />
year 2000. When I visit the campus now, I see that many more<br />
changes have occurred since then. Life goes on, life changes, and<br />
<strong>Bishop</strong> O’Dowd <strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong> does never lag behind!<br />
2009 – $10 million remodeling of all classrooms completed<br />
State-of-the-art AP Chemistry laboratory/classroom constructed<br />
Digital music class introduced<br />
Lights installed on athletic fields<br />
O’Dowd is the first school to hold its Baccalaureate Mass at the<br />
Cathedral of Christ the Light<br />
2,195 donors contribute to<br />
Renaissance Campaign’s success<br />
19 THE DRAGON
<strong>The</strong> O’Dowd Legacy:<br />
60 Years of Transforming Lives<br />
By Michael Petrini<br />
Vice President for Advancement<br />
Wondering if supporting O’Dowd’s scholarship program really<br />
makes a difference?<br />
<strong>The</strong> answer – absolutely.<br />
Just ask Sr. Judith Lynn ’60 and Richard Longrus Jr. ’12. Whether<br />
it is right now or the late 50s, without financial assistance, neither Sr.<br />
Judy nor Richard would have been able to continue to experience the<br />
empowering benefits of an O’Dowd education.<br />
What it comes down to is this: <strong>The</strong> best high school education in<br />
the country occurs at Catholic schools. And among Catholic high<br />
schools, O’Dowd is among the best of the best.<br />
Your scholarship support is transformational for so many deserving<br />
young people. It gets them into O’Dowd – where they grow<br />
intellectually, physically, emotionally and spiritually, where they make<br />
life-long friendships and prepare for life – and it sees them through<br />
O’Dowd – preparing them for college and careers, family life and active<br />
citizenship.<br />
Transformational? Absolutely.<br />
20 THE DRAGON<br />
YOUR GIFT TRANSFORMS LIVES<br />
“I can’t wait to be able to<br />
give back to this amazing<br />
community that has<br />
given me so much.”<br />
Richard Longrus Jr. ’12<br />
“I hope that O’Dowd<br />
always accepts kids<br />
who may not have<br />
the ability to pay, but<br />
have the potential to<br />
be leaders in the<br />
community and make<br />
a difference.”<br />
Sister Judith Lynn ’60<br />
2010 - Rugby introduced as a sport<br />
First science field research trip to the Sea of Cortez, Mexico<br />
O’Dowd Debate wins state title in parliamentary debate
<strong>Bishop</strong> O’Dowd<br />
<strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong><br />
95%<br />
<strong>The</strong> O’Dowd Advantage<br />
60 Years of Transformational Catholic Education<br />
85% 64% 56% 44%<br />
Catholic <strong>School</strong>s<br />
2011 – Pam Shay<br />
appointed first female<br />
principal of O’Dowd.<br />
Tuition and fees - $14,840<br />
Enrollment 1,125<br />
percentage of high school graduates likely to<br />
attend four-year colleges<br />
Faculty and staff of 125, and<br />
75+ part-time coaches and<br />
moderators<br />
other religious<br />
schools<br />
21 THE DRAGON<br />
Catholic secondary schools offer<br />
unparalleled college preparatory education.<br />
A recent study by the National Catholic<br />
Educational Association found that<br />
students who attend Catholic high schools<br />
are more likely to attend four-year colleges<br />
than students who attend other types of<br />
schools.<br />
non-sectarian<br />
private schools public schools<br />
Source: NCEA<br />
Other recent studies have demonstrated that, compared with public schools, Catholic schools...<br />
• are remarkably successful at erasing the achievement gap for low income and minority students.<br />
• produce graduates whose lifetime earnings are greater than their public school counterparts, which translates<br />
into greater state and local tax revenues.<br />
• graduate active citizens who are more tolerant of diverse views, more likely to vote and be critically engaged,<br />
and more involved in community service.<br />
Including community colleges, virtually all O’Dowd graduates go on to college, and nearly 60 percent of<br />
O’Dowd graduates are admitted to the University of California system, the highest percentage of any public<br />
or Catholic school in the East Bay.<br />
2012 – <strong>The</strong><br />
women’s basketball<br />
team wins state<br />
championship, and<br />
is ranked 7th in the<br />
nation.
State Champions!<br />
Photo by Shavon Jennings<br />
22 THE DRAGON
24<br />
25<br />
38<br />
23 THE DRAGON<br />
<strong>The</strong> Dragon<br />
<strong>The</strong> Alumni Magazine<br />
of <strong>Bishop</strong> O’Dowd <strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong><br />
In this issue<br />
Summer 2012<br />
24 Center For Environmental Studies Project Moving Ahead<br />
25 Personalized Learning at O’Dowd<br />
26 Amy Grant Ahlers ’91 Provides Wake Up Call<br />
28 Ecologist Mary Cadenasso ’83 Explores Urban Systems<br />
30 Dan Dell’Osso ’71 Advocating for Justice<br />
32 Philanthropy Profile: Tim and Judy Logan Smith ’64<br />
33-37 Alumni News<br />
34 Alums Support O’Dowd Scholars Program<br />
38 Sports<br />
40 Crab & Pasta Feed<br />
42 O’Dowd President Steve Phelps Inducted Into<br />
San Francisco CYO Athletics Hall of Fame<br />
42 We’d Love to Hear From You!<br />
43 In Memoriam<br />
44 Double the Difference
Center for Environmental Studies<br />
Project Moving Ahead<br />
By Tom Tyler<br />
Chair of the Steering Committee<br />
for the CES<br />
Following an extensive design process<br />
involving teachers, students, parents and<br />
alumni, under the guidance of Siegel<br />
& Strain Architects, the first full-scale<br />
color drawings for the new Center for<br />
Environmental Studies were unveiled<br />
in April. <strong>The</strong>se architectural renderings<br />
were crafted by Barney Davidge, an<br />
accomplished local illustrator who<br />
specializes in bringing schematic drawings<br />
to life.<br />
On the north hillside of the campus<br />
overlooking stunning views of the Bay,<br />
home for the new building will be in the<br />
Living Lab, our widely acclaimed 4.5-acre<br />
garden, wildlife habitat and ecological<br />
study area. <strong>The</strong> Center will feature two<br />
large indoor laboratory classrooms and a<br />
single large covered outdoor classroom;<br />
ample space for study, experimentation,<br />
research and group gatherings; office,<br />
restroom and storage facilities; a mobile<br />
kitchen, pizza oven/barbecue and fire<br />
circle; and a greenhouse.<br />
Designed to maximize natural lighting<br />
and ventilation while being extremely<br />
energy efficient, the building offers the<br />
flexibility of an indoor/outdoor learning<br />
environment. North-facing walls will<br />
open out into the adjacent tree-covered<br />
hillside and the west-facing wall onto the<br />
large open terrace. Built to the highest<br />
“green” building standard – LEED<br />
(Leadership in Energy and Environmental<br />
Design) Platinum – the Center will<br />
receive most of its power from roofmounted<br />
photovoltaic panels and will<br />
collect and store rainwater in large on-<br />
site cisterns. <strong>The</strong> south-facing wall will be cooled by a “living lattice” of plant life and<br />
feature high-angle clerestory windows.<br />
Celebrating O’Dowd’s commitment to “kinship with creation,” curriculum offered<br />
in the Center will emphasize hands-on learning and the latest technology to promote<br />
environmental literacy and stewardship. Working in partnership with UC Berkeley<br />
and Stanford University, the Center will help prepare our graduates for careers in such<br />
fast-growing fields as renewable energy, resource management and environmental<br />
engineering. And the Center’s grand mission? To inspire and ready our students to<br />
become leaders and innovators in solving the world’s most pressing environmental<br />
challenges.<br />
Anticipated ground-breaking for the Center is spring of 2013, with the expectation<br />
that the facility will be ready for students and teachers the following spring. With<br />
an anticipated cost of between $2.3 and $2.7 million, fundraising for the Center for<br />
Environmental Studies has begun in earnest.<br />
To learn more about the Center and the Living Lab, go to the “CES” link on the<br />
home page of our website, www.bishopodowd.org.<br />
To help bring the Center to life, please contact Vice President for Advancement<br />
Michael Petrini at mpetrini@bishopodowd.org, or go to the “Giving” link on the home<br />
page of the website.<br />
Artist rendering of the Center for Environmental Studies. Fundraising is now underway,<br />
with groundbreaking anticipated in spring 2013.<br />
24 THE DRAGON
By Romeo Baldeviso, M.S.<br />
Chief Information Officer<br />
Personalized Learning at O’Dowd<br />
A quiet revolution is happening at O’Dowd which mirrors what’s occuring in<br />
schools across the country – the use of technology, in particular the use of connected<br />
devices and educational applications, is allowing students to “personalize” their<br />
learning. <strong>The</strong>se laptops, netbooks, tablets and smartphones, combined with the<br />
ubiquity and access to educational applications, are not only an integral part of<br />
the learning culture at O’Dowd but a way for students to customize their learning<br />
experience to increase engagement and improve understanding.<br />
At O’Dowd, personalized learning starts with the option for students to choose<br />
their own laptops. Students can purchase a laptop from the school or bring their own<br />
laptop which meets the minimum system requirements required by the school. Half<br />
of the Class of 2016 purchased a laptop from O’Dowd and the other half chose to<br />
bring their own laptops to school (MacBooks, Sony, Dell, and HP to name a few).<br />
Also, O’Dowd is currently running a pilot study to determine if tablet devices<br />
(Apple iPads, Toshiba Thrive, and Samsung Galaxy) can completely replace the<br />
student’s laptop. So far, the data and evidence from the pilot study indicates that tablet<br />
devices are an ideal companion device to the laptop but not yet a replacement. But<br />
change is accelerating. By 2020, mobile devices will be the primary connection tool<br />
to the Internet for most people in the world. <strong>The</strong> day will come when mobile devices<br />
will replace the laptop and O’Dowd is uniquely positioned for this coming shift. In<br />
the meantime, students are encouraged to use tablet devices as a companion to their<br />
laptops to further enhance the personalized learning experience.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are many reasons why O’Dowd is thrilled about the prospect of bring<br />
your own device (BYOD) on campus. Advances in networking and cloud-based<br />
computing are allowing students to access the same information and perform<br />
the same tasks from almost any connected device. O’Dowd students use Gmail<br />
to communicate with their teachers and Google Apps to collaborate on school<br />
assignments. Evernote, another cloud-based application, is used by many O’Dowd<br />
students to take notes and organize their notebooks. Students also use Dropbox to<br />
save and bring their documents, videos and photos anywhere and share them easily. As<br />
proliferation of these cloud-based applications increase, students will have the option<br />
to choose the best application suited to their learning style. At O’Dowd, it is not<br />
uncommon in a typical class for students to use different tools (Microsoft PowerPoint<br />
for Windows or Keynote for Mac and iPad) to complete the same assignment. <strong>The</strong><br />
tool itself becomes less significant as long as the final outcome can be achieved. In<br />
the spring of 2012, O’Dowd launched “O’Dowd Mobile” for smartphones, iPad, and<br />
Android devices. “O’Dowd Mobile” features campus news, maps, videos, pictures,<br />
events, faculty/staff directory, Power<strong>School</strong> and Blackboard. As the variety and<br />
flexibility of these tools increase, so does the opportunity for personalized learning<br />
and engagement.<br />
Another aspect of personalized learning at O’Dowd is the notion of the 24/7<br />
classroom. Blackboard, O’Dowd’s web-based course management system, allows<br />
students to access course information, view and replay lectures, obtain class handouts<br />
and documents, participate in online discussions or live real-time sessions, and access a<br />
25 THE DRAGON<br />
<strong>The</strong> main icon for <strong>O'Dowd</strong> Mobile, which<br />
features campus news, maps, videos, pictures,<br />
events, faculty/staff directory, Power<strong>School</strong><br />
and Blackboard.<br />
rich variety of multi-media resources. All<br />
O’Dowd teachers maintain a Blackboard<br />
classroom with standardized content<br />
areas and unified navigation cues that<br />
are familiar to all students. At O’Dowd,<br />
students also experience a flipped<br />
classroom where they listen and view a<br />
new lesson online and come to class the<br />
next day and apply the new concepts<br />
with their teacher and peers. This allows<br />
students to focus on their individual<br />
learning and get the specific help they<br />
need. Blackboard is also used to help<br />
O’Dowd students during off-campus<br />
hours. BOLT! (Blackboard Online Live<br />
Tutoring) is available Sunday through<br />
Thursday evenings, from 8 p.m. to 9<br />
p.m. <strong>The</strong>se live sessions are staffed by<br />
peer tutors and monitored by an adult.<br />
Also, the pioneering efforts and growth<br />
of online classes at O’Dowd continues to<br />
accelerate as teachers incorporate an ever<br />
increasing amount and variety of digital<br />
resources into the curriculum.<br />
"Personalized Learning" continued on page 27
Alumni Spotlight<br />
Amy Grant Ahlers ’91<br />
Amy Grant Ahlers ’91 cringes when<br />
she hears women berate themselves<br />
for not “measuring up.”<br />
A certified life coach, Ahlers is<br />
committed to inspiring women to<br />
rise above the nonstop chorus of<br />
criticism swirling in their heads. “This<br />
internal battle eats away at self-love,<br />
self-worth, and self-esteem, leading to<br />
depression, dissatisfaction, decreased<br />
productivity and heart-stopping<br />
stress,” she said.<br />
Ahlers, 38, recently published “Big<br />
Fat Lies Women Tell <strong>The</strong>mselves:<br />
Ditch Your Inner Critic and Wake<br />
Up Your Inner Superstar,” a book that<br />
examines 59 common esteem-busting<br />
lies women tell themselves. <strong>The</strong> book<br />
offers women tools to rebut the “Inner<br />
Critic,” or “Inner Mean Girl,” and<br />
connect with their “Inner Wisdom.”<br />
“<strong>The</strong> most important relationship<br />
in your life is your relationship with<br />
you. And, most of us are not doing<br />
so hot. We are incredibly, intensely<br />
hard on ourselves, and that stinks.<br />
We think that if we were just<br />
accomplished enough, thin enough,<br />
beautiful enough, or rich enough that<br />
we could then magically shift our<br />
internal dialogue into an empowering,<br />
nurturing, loving one.<br />
“But after more than 11 years<br />
of coaching women from every<br />
conceivable walk of life, I finally got it:<br />
women are really hard on themselves<br />
despite their external circumstances.<br />
We all engage in beating ourselves<br />
up both for the big things and for<br />
the tiniest imperfections. And it isn’t<br />
helping us become more successful,<br />
or to feel more fulfilled, or even to get<br />
more done,” she said.<br />
Ahlers says her book doesn’t just<br />
talk about the problem, but gives<br />
immediate, bite-size solutions for<br />
Provides Wake-Up Call<br />
26 THE DRAGON<br />
“<strong>The</strong> most important relationship in your life is your<br />
relationship with you.”<br />
Amy Grant Ahlers ’91<br />
Life Coach and Author<br />
readers. “It’s been exciting for me to see that the book is having a<br />
positive impact,” she said.<br />
Published in October, “Big Fat Lies” reached #1 in Self-Help<br />
and #39 overall on Amazon.<br />
A Foundation For Life Coaching<br />
Ahlers credits her experiences on the O’Dowd Campus Ministry<br />
Team, helping organize and facilitate the junior and senior retreats<br />
in particular, with having a dramatic impact on her career. “I think<br />
I draw upon the skills I learned in CMT the most in my work as a<br />
coach,” she said.<br />
O’Dowd drama also played a big part in her life. “I was in several<br />
plays a year and the experience was just remarkable,” she said. “One<br />
of the things that I loved most about participating in drama was it<br />
didn’t matter what grade you were in, what your background was,<br />
or what race you were. When you got into that classroom there was<br />
just this feeling of true community,” she said.
Getting Started<br />
After attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for two years, Ahlers majored in drama<br />
at UC Irvine. She worked in online media sales for several years before earning the<br />
CPCC (Certified Professional Co-Active Coach) designation from the Coaches<br />
Training Institute. She is also a Bigger Game (leadership/growth/change model)<br />
certified coach, is a certified business advisor from OneCoach, and is a master coach<br />
equivalent.<br />
“I went to an introductory course about life coaching in 2000, and I immediately<br />
knew I had found my calling,” Ahlers said.<br />
Today, Ahlers is the CEO of Wake-Up Call Coaching, which offers a variety of<br />
coaching services, and the co-creator, with Christine Arylo, of Inner Mean Girl<br />
Reform <strong>School</strong>, a 10-session course that helps women replace negative beliefs with<br />
empowering affirmations. She also offers goal setting courses.<br />
Life Coaching 101<br />
Life coaching is, at the core, helping people set goals and reach them, Ahlers<br />
explains.<br />
Ahlers works with people seeking clarity about their goals, as well as those who<br />
have defined their goals but are having trouble achieving them.<br />
Radically changed workplace paradigms and the continuing economic crisis have<br />
resulted in an increased demand for life coaching, according to Ahlers.<br />
For example, Ahlers says she is currently working with several doctors who are fed<br />
up with the changes in the health care industry.<br />
“With their workloads they are only able to spend a few minutes with each patient<br />
and aren’t having the impact they want to have,” she said.<br />
“With the external structures crumbling, people are looking inward and trying to<br />
figure out how they can be true to themselves, find meaning and fulfillment, and also<br />
make a difference in the world,” she added<br />
Not for Everyone<br />
Ahlers acknowledges that life coaching isn’t for everyone. “You need to believe in<br />
the power of coaching in order for it to work for you,” she said.<br />
“You can get where you want to go without a coach, but you’ll get there faster if you<br />
have a coach,” she said. “It’s just like joining a gym. If you go to the gym, you’ll get<br />
results, but if you work with a trainer you will probably get the results faster.”<br />
Making a Difference<br />
Ahlers says the most rewarding part of her job is making a difference in the lives of<br />
others. Recently she worked with a young woman who was struggling on a number of<br />
fronts – in a personal relationship, with work, and with friends.<br />
Throughout the course of coaching, the woman was able to end the personal<br />
relationship, find a new, more satisfying job, and forge a new community of friends.<br />
“She came up to me with tears in her eyes at a recent retreat and said I had<br />
completely changed her life,” Ahlers said. “She had these tangible results, and<br />
the intangible result of really feeling happy in her life. It is very humbling and<br />
acknowledging to receive feedback like this.”<br />
An Oakland resident, Ahlers and her husband, Rob, have a four-year-old daughter,<br />
Annabella.<br />
In her free time, Ahlers enjoys running in the Oakland hills and spending time<br />
27 THE DRAGON<br />
with family and friends.<br />
For more information about<br />
Ahlers and her work visit www.<br />
wakeupcallcoaching.com.<br />
And you can visit www.<br />
BigFatLiesBook.com to receive<br />
information about her book.<br />
Amy Grant Ahlers '91 recently published<br />
"Big Fat Lies Women Tell <strong>The</strong>mselves."<br />
Personalized Learning<br />
continued from page 25<br />
Personalized learning at O’Dowd<br />
is shifting the learning away from a<br />
teacher-centered to a student-centered<br />
environment. As students discover how<br />
to learn with their devices, they are able<br />
to extend the learning experience beyond<br />
the school day, revisiting educational<br />
websites and participating in group<br />
discussions on their own time. It’s a<br />
very powerful experience for students to<br />
feel they have a learning tool with them<br />
at all times. O’Dowd is committed to<br />
innovations that cultivate a personalized<br />
learning environment where students are<br />
expected to know how to use content to<br />
make connections, be critical thinkers,<br />
information managers, and strong moral<br />
digital citizens who work collaboratively<br />
to transform the world around them and<br />
improve our quality of life.
As a youngster, Mary Cadenasso ’83 spent lots<br />
of time hiking in the Sierras with her family and<br />
exploring the varied systems – coast, mountains,<br />
agriculture, grassland, and desert – throughout the<br />
state.<br />
She remembers asking her parents lots of questions.<br />
Why do certain trees grow at lower elevations but not<br />
higher elevations? Why are the plants sparser on the<br />
east side of the mountains than the west side?<br />
Today, as an ecologist and tenured faculty member<br />
at UC Davis, Cadenasso, 46, is providing answers.<br />
“In general, my projects all attempt to answer some<br />
aspect of the question: How is the structure of the<br />
landscape connected to the ecological functions in<br />
that landscape? Sometimes humans create, modify or<br />
regulate landscape structure, and sometimes it occurs<br />
naturally because of topography, soils, or climate.<br />
Some landscapes are urban and some are not. In my<br />
research I use a variety of tools, from satellite imagery<br />
to field observations and experimentation to analytical<br />
chemistry of plant tissues, water, and soil,” Cadenasso<br />
explained.<br />
Some of the projects Cadenasso is currently<br />
involved with include:<br />
• Working in Kruger National Park, South Africa,<br />
to understand how the structure of riparian zones<br />
along seasonally flowing rivers influences the nutrient dynamics of those zones.<br />
• Examining metropolitan Baltimore as an ecosystem, with a focus on linking<br />
the way urban landscapes are designed with how they function ecologically,<br />
including such functions as heat dissipation, water runoff, water and air quality,<br />
nutrient cycling and biodiversity.<br />
• Evaluating the amount and form of nitrogen pollution entering California’s oak<br />
savannas by way of atmospheric deposition.<br />
• Investigating how the design of residential neighborhoods in Sacramento<br />
influences the water quality and quantity leaving them and entering regional<br />
waterways such as the American River and eventually the Delta, and evaluating<br />
the equitable distribution of trees and exposure to urban heat among residents.<br />
Cadenasso got interested in ecology after taking a course on the subject at Santa<br />
Clara University. “<strong>The</strong> first day the professor described ecology as the study of why<br />
questions. I was hooked,” she said.<br />
Ecologist Mary Cadenasso ’83<br />
Explores Urban Systems<br />
Mary Cadenasso sampling leaves in South Africa. Cadenasso shoots leaves off the<br />
tops of trees, as she needs leaves exposed to the sun to complete nutrient analysis.<br />
28 THE DRAGON<br />
“As a society we have very<br />
clever people and we have<br />
good ideas about how to solve<br />
problems, but it’s the wide<br />
implementation of those ideas to<br />
benefit all people that seems to<br />
be the tricky part.”<br />
Mary Cadenasso ’83
Raised in Oakland, Cadenasso attended Corpus<br />
Christi <strong>School</strong> prior to enrolling at O’Dowd,<br />
where she was active in sports, music and campus<br />
ministry.<br />
After majoring in biology at Santa Clara,<br />
Cadenasso worked as a marine biologist for an<br />
environmental consulting firm in Marin County.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>y had me on a job surveying invertebrates<br />
in wetland soil and determining the anticipated<br />
changes in water drainage through the wetland<br />
after the construction of a proposed parking lot.<br />
<strong>The</strong> job was supposed to be temporary but when<br />
my boss figured out I knew the plants of California<br />
I was put on additional jobs as a botanist and<br />
conducted rare plant surveys and mapped habitats<br />
in various places around California,” she said.<br />
Cadenasso subsequently earned a doctorate in<br />
ecology and evolution from Rutgers University,<br />
where she worked as a teaching assistant and<br />
taught undergraduate general biology and botany<br />
labs. She worked as a research assistant at the<br />
Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies (CIES) in<br />
Millbrook, N.Y., while conducting her dissertation<br />
research, which focused on forest edges. She<br />
continued at CIES as a post-doctoral associate.<br />
She held a visiting scholar position at the Hixon<br />
Center for Urban Ecology at Yale University,<br />
<strong>School</strong> of Forestry and Environmental Studies,<br />
where she developed two graduate courses – urban<br />
ecology and integrating urban ecology and urban<br />
design. “I also collaborated with urban designers<br />
in New York City and would contribute to their<br />
graduate urban design studios at the Graduate<br />
<strong>School</strong> of Architecture, Planning and Preservation<br />
at Columbia University,” she said.<br />
At Davis, Cadenasso teaches an upper division<br />
undergraduate course in urban ecology. She also<br />
teaches a graduate course on ecosystems and<br />
landscapes with a colleague. Every other year, she<br />
teaches a seminar course for graduate students<br />
on different topics, such as ecosystems services<br />
and environmental justice and social-ecological<br />
systems.<br />
Meanwhile, much of Cadenasso’s research<br />
focuses on urban systems. She loves cities and<br />
welcomes the opportunity to contribute her<br />
professional knowledge and skills to promoting<br />
healthy cities and making cities more livable. “I<br />
think that if we can achieve that then we can be<br />
more successful in limiting the low density sprawl<br />
that is removing or impacting so much of our<br />
unaltered land,” she said.<br />
Cadenasso says the most rewarding aspect of<br />
her job is working with graduate students and<br />
Mary Cadenasso and her husband, James Maness.<br />
colleagues to generate new project ideas. “<strong>The</strong>re is a lot of creativity<br />
involved in science, which frequently gets overlooked. Students bring<br />
new ideas and excitement and I have the luxury of constantly stretching<br />
my mind. I also get to interact with people from many different fields<br />
and I travel a lot for research or meetings. As a consequence I have<br />
friends and colleagues all over the world,” she said.<br />
Looking to the future, Cadenasso says she firmly believes there is a<br />
way to make cities healthy, socially just and ecologically functioning.<br />
However, many of the country’s development strategies have not yet<br />
fostered those goals.<br />
“I am concerned with both sides of the coin – how to make cities<br />
more livable while at the same time limiting the impact of cities on<br />
natural systems,” she said. “As a society we have very clever people and<br />
we have good ideas<br />
about how to solve<br />
problems, but it’s the<br />
wide implementation<br />
of those ideas to<br />
benefit all people<br />
that seems to be the<br />
tricky part.”<br />
Cadenasso and<br />
her husband, James<br />
Maness, reside in<br />
Sacramento. In her<br />
free time, Cadenasso<br />
enjoys cycling,<br />
rowing, cooking,<br />
literature and travel.<br />
29 THE DRAGON<br />
Online Information &<br />
Resources<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Bishop</strong> O’Dowd <strong>High</strong><br />
<strong>School</strong> website (www.<br />
bishopodowd.org) provides<br />
comprehensive information<br />
about the school’s history,<br />
academic programs,<br />
extracurricular activities, alumni<br />
events, advancement initiatives and more.<br />
Throughout <strong>The</strong> Dragon you will find the<br />
mouse symbol pictured here, which will<br />
direct you to supplemental online resources<br />
on our website.
Dan Dell’Osso ’71 AdvocAting for Justice<br />
<strong>The</strong> case was heartbreaking - a young<br />
girl fatally burned in her family’s hot tub<br />
when the temperature control switch<br />
malfunctioned and the water temperature<br />
rose to 160 degrees. Though Dan<br />
Dell’Osso ’71 negotiated a settlement<br />
for the girl’s family as part of a product<br />
liability case, he readily admits that no<br />
amount of money could compensate<br />
for the loss that his clients had suffered.<br />
However, he was gratified that the hot<br />
tub company agreed to correct the defect<br />
at no cost to consumers. That meant no<br />
one else would face a similar tragedy.<br />
“Success is usually measured by the size<br />
of the verdict,” he said. “It’s certainly a<br />
measure, but it’s not the only or most<br />
important measure.”<br />
Because of his stellar work in the area<br />
of personal injury litigation, Dell’Osso<br />
was recently recognized as the 2012 San<br />
Francisco Lawyer of the Year for personal<br />
injury litigation by “Best Lawyers”<br />
magazine. <strong>The</strong> lawyers honored in the<br />
publication are chosen for inclusion<br />
based solely on a vote of their peers. “It’s<br />
flattering and very humbling,” Dell’Osso<br />
said.<br />
A lawyer with <strong>The</strong> Brandi Firm,<br />
Dell’Osso specializes in product liability,<br />
auto crashworthiness and aviation,<br />
and typically represents individuals<br />
who are catastrophically injured by<br />
malfunctioning products.<br />
In the hot tub case, Dell’Osso engaged<br />
an electrical engineer to investigate why<br />
the temperature control switch failed.<br />
<strong>The</strong> engineer discovered that some hot<br />
tub models had a different wiring set up<br />
– one in which the temperature control<br />
switch cut off power to the heater only,<br />
not the entire hot tub.<br />
That meant that the hot tub pump<br />
continued to run, and the heat exchange<br />
that occurred when water passed by<br />
the active pump could raise the water<br />
temperature one degree an hour. <strong>The</strong><br />
“Success is usually measured by the size of the verdict.<br />
It’s certainly a measure, but it’s not the only or most<br />
important measure.”<br />
30 THE DRAGON<br />
Dan Dell’Osso ’71<br />
family had been away for the weekend and turned the hot tub off, but never realized<br />
that the pump remained active and could raise the water temperature to a deadly level.<br />
Born and raised in Oakland, Dell’Osso went to Our Lady of Lourdes <strong>School</strong> prior<br />
to enrolling at O’Dowd. Six of his siblings also attended O’Dowd – older sisters<br />
Jeannette and Paula ’69 and younger brothers Enrico ’74, Peter ’75 and David ’78.<br />
At O’Dowd, Dell’Osso participated in a wide variety of activities, including the jazz<br />
and concert bands and the ski club. Along with John Cecconi ’71, Dell’Osso served as<br />
captain of O’Dowd’s first football team. He also played baseball, ran cross country, and<br />
helped secure a league title for the swim team during his senior year when he agreed<br />
to enter the diving events in order to score points for the team.<br />
“I enjoyed my time at O’Dowd. It was a fun place, and it certainly gave me a great
academic foundation. <strong>The</strong>re was nothing<br />
I saw in college that I hadn’t already seen<br />
at O’Dowd,” he said.<br />
Dell’Osso graduated with honors<br />
from Virginia Military Institute (VMI)<br />
in 1975, with a degree in English,<br />
and was selected as a Rhodes Scholar<br />
nominee from the state of Virginia.<br />
After graduating from VMI, Dell’Osso<br />
was commissioned as a second lieutenant<br />
in the United States Marine Corps, and<br />
spent six years on active duty as a fighter<br />
pilot. He continued to serve as a pilot<br />
with the Marine Corps Reserve and<br />
rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel.<br />
He was the commanding officer of the<br />
Marine A-4 squadron in Alameda before<br />
retiring with 22 years of service.<br />
During his years of active duty,<br />
Dell’Osso was stationed in Hawaii, but<br />
was deployed on average 200 days a year.<br />
A newlywed at the time, Dell’Osso said<br />
communications with his wife, Lisa,<br />
were limited. “This was before e-mail<br />
and cell phones,” he said. “<strong>The</strong> only<br />
communication available to you and your<br />
spouse in those days was writing letters.<br />
Once a week, if there was time available,<br />
you could talk on a short wave radio.”<br />
Some of Dell’Osso’s most memorable<br />
experiences as a pilot include his first<br />
carrier landing during flight training,<br />
going Supersonic for the first time (he<br />
says it’s physically imperceptible), flying<br />
from Hawaii to Japan via Midway Island,<br />
and being selected as the commanding<br />
officer of the A-4 Squadron in Alameda.<br />
Inspired by his father, who was a<br />
lawyer, Dell’Osso earned his law degree<br />
from Golden Gate University in 1984<br />
and entered practice with Walkup,<br />
Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger. At the<br />
same time, Dell’Osso was regularly flying<br />
as a reserve, keeping his skills current. “It<br />
was not unusual for me, during that time<br />
frame, to work 90 or 120 days straight,”<br />
he said.<br />
He left Walkup in 2000 and moved<br />
to Arizona where he worked for Coben<br />
and Associates. He returned to the Bay<br />
Area in 2005 and began working at <strong>The</strong><br />
Brandi Firm.<br />
Dell’Osso says trial work is very<br />
gratifying because it is dynamic. “You<br />
never entirely know what a witness will say, or how a judge will<br />
rule,” he said.<br />
He has been involved in the preparation and/or trial of<br />
automobile crashworthiness cases against most of the major<br />
automobile manufacturers including Toyota, Mitsubishi, Honda,<br />
KIA, Nissan, General Motors, Ford, DaimlerChrysler, Volvo<br />
and Mazda. He has tried automobile defect and crashworthiness<br />
cases in California, Arizona, Nevada, and Pennsylvania and<br />
participated in crashworthiness cases in New Jersey, Maryland,<br />
Ohio, Hawaii and Maine.<br />
Dell’Osso’s cases have involved a wide variety of vehicle<br />
defects, including poor roof design, vehicle stability, defective<br />
tires, seat failures, seat belt failures, airbag systems, child<br />
restraints, occupant door latch failures, and side structures.<br />
His $18 million verdict against Ford Motor Company in<br />
2009 was one of the top 100 verdicts of that year. <strong>The</strong> case<br />
centered on a seat in a Ford E-350 van that became unlatched<br />
from the floor rendering the young man sitting in the seat a<br />
quadriplegic.<br />
“That verdict was satisfying because the person who was<br />
injured doesn’t have to worry about housing or medical care for<br />
the rest of his life,” Dell’Osso said. “That is significant because<br />
as a quadriplegic it is difficult for him to get full medical<br />
coverage, and his care costs are between $200,000 and $300,000<br />
a year.”<br />
Adds Dell’Osso, “We all take so much for granted. Doing<br />
this work makes you appreciate the blessing of being in good<br />
health.”<br />
Dell’Osso is a firm believer in the saying luck is when<br />
preparation meets opportunity. “Opportunity starts with things<br />
like your education at O’Dowd. Because I learned fundamentals<br />
in high school, I had a certain level of confidence. I knew I<br />
could always compete academically,” he said.<br />
Being at the right place at the right time doesn’t hurt, either.<br />
While on a reserve deployment in Canada, and looking for his<br />
first job as a lawyer, Dell’Osso met up with a fellow pilot whose<br />
childhood friend was a partner in the Walkup firm. That pilot<br />
contacted his friend on behalf of Dell’Osso. As a result of this<br />
networking, Dell’Osso was hired as a summer intern charged<br />
with working on an aviation case. His background as a pilot<br />
proved helpful. “I went from working on that one case to being<br />
a partner,” he said.<br />
A Berkeley resident, Dell’Osso is an avid runner. He<br />
participated in seven consecutive Boston Marathons and is<br />
a regular in the local Dipsea race. He also enjoys swimming,<br />
surfing, reading, golf and traveling and antiquing with his wife.<br />
Looking ahead to the day when he gives up practicing law,<br />
Dell’Osso says he’d like to teach. “Certainly a trial advocacy<br />
class would be fine, but I’d be happy teaching middle school<br />
Math and coaching,” he said.<br />
31 THE DRAGON<br />
Alumni Spotlight
Profile in Philanthropy<br />
Judy ’64 and Tim Smith firmly believe that a Catholic education is an advantage for life.<br />
That’s why the couple is among the strongest supporters of<br />
O’Dowd’s Scholars Program,<br />
which provides much needed financial assistance to<br />
deserving students. <strong>The</strong>y recently gave $15,000 to underwrite one student’s tuition.<br />
“A Catholic, college prep education is important because it provides students with a<br />
strong academic and spiritual foundation, and an understanding of their responsibilities to<br />
each other and the world,” Judy said.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Smiths are inspired to give to O’Dowd because they believe in the<br />
core values of the school and its leadership.<br />
“O’Dowd continues to graduate competent young people who go out into the world and make a<br />
difference. We also know that there are many parents who have the same educational dreams for their<br />
children that we had for ours, but need financial assistance to make them a reality,” Judy said.<br />
32 THE DRAGON<br />
Judy ’64 and Tim Smith<br />
“O’Dowd provided me a nurturing environment in which I could both<br />
learn and grow up,” Judy Logan Smith ’64
Class of 2006 Celebrates<br />
Five Year Reunion<br />
Class of 2006 members (from left to right) Kevin Ruma,<br />
Sterling Mosley, Evelyn Montiel, Landon Hill and Kiersten<br />
McKoy were among more than 80 classmates who attended<br />
their five year reunion, held on Dec. 23 at Luka's Taproom<br />
and Lounge in Oakland. <strong>The</strong> classmates enjoyed reconnecting<br />
and reminiscing.<br />
Alumni Directory to be Updated<br />
This Summer<br />
Keeping in touch with your fellow alumni has<br />
never been easier! O’Dowd has contracted with Harris<br />
Connect to produce the next alumni directory. <strong>The</strong><br />
previous directory was published in 2006.<br />
<strong>The</strong> publication will include a full-color glossy front<br />
section about O’Dowd, a “Throughout the Years” photo<br />
gallery, organized by decade, of color or black and white<br />
images and captions submitted by alumni, a geographical<br />
section, as well as an alpha section which will include<br />
each alumni’s contact information, current job title and<br />
employer and up to two post-secondary degrees earned<br />
and the institution(s).<br />
Harris will mail O’Dowd alumni postcards which<br />
request that they call an 800 number to verify/update<br />
their information and, if they wish, submit photos and/or<br />
personal messages for inclusion in the project.<br />
Thanks in advance for your cooperation with this<br />
project.<br />
33 THE DRAGON<br />
Alumni News<br />
Upcoming Reunions<br />
Class of ’57 ... <strong>The</strong> Class of 1957 will hold its 55th reunion on<br />
Saturday, Sept. 29, 2012, beginning at noon, at <strong>Bishop</strong> O’Dowd <strong>High</strong><br />
<strong>School</strong>. <strong>The</strong> day will include a catered picnic barbecue. A flyer with<br />
more details and price will be mailed soon. Please contact Joyce Allencastre<br />
Souza ’57 at jbeeniebear@netzero.com for more information.<br />
Class of ’62 ... is preparing for its 50th reunion, and has planned a<br />
series of events for Friday, Oct. 12, through Sunday, Oct. 14, 2012,<br />
including a Friday golf outing followed by an informal meet and greet,<br />
brunch on campus, presentation of Golden Diplomas, and a reunion<br />
dinner Saturday night at Castlewood Country Club. <strong>The</strong> nearby Sheraton<br />
hotel in Pleasanton will offer special rates and van service for out<br />
of town classmates. Please contact Pam Ellis Mack at macksj@comcast.net<br />
or Wes Smith at wes_smith@comcast.net for more information.<br />
Also, be sure to register on the class website, www.bod1962.com.<br />
Formal invitations detailing the cost of each event will be mailed to all<br />
classmates, and can also be viewed on the class website.<br />
Class of ’63 ... is already making plans for a 50th reunion. Festivities<br />
will begin on Friday, Aug. 2, 2013, with a tour and reception at<br />
O’Dowd. Join your classmates for dinner the following evening, Saturday,<br />
August 3, 2013, at the Claremont Hotel and Spa. Please send your<br />
current e-mail address to Lyn Cardin Andersen, at lynmbs@aol.com,<br />
or Paul Vassar, at prvassar@prodigy.net, even if you think we have it!<br />
Class of ’77 ... has planned a reunion for Saturday, June 30, at Neptune’s<br />
Restaurant at Pier 39 in San Francisco. Members of the classes<br />
of 1976 and 1978 are invited to join in the fun. Details: reception/<br />
cocktails/hors d’oeuvres from 6 to 7 p.m.; dinner and presentations<br />
from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.; and dancing with DJ from 9 p.m to midnight.<br />
Cost is $50 per person and includes two hours parking. Please send<br />
checks made out to Kelly Tatum/Linda Verdun Thompson to 2303<br />
Vista Del Mar, San Mateo, CA 94404. Note: limited hotel rooms have<br />
been reserved at Radisson Fisherman’s Wharf under “Linda Thompson<br />
Group.” Call the hotel directly at (415) 392-6700 to make a reservation.<br />
Class of ’82 ... <strong>The</strong> 30 year reunion for the Class of 1982 is set for<br />
Saturday, Oct. 20. Detailed information will be mailed soon. Contact<br />
Debbie Furino Marshall at dnd87@aol.com, or join the class Facebook<br />
page: <strong>Bishop</strong> O’Dowd - Class of 82.<br />
Class of ’02 ... <strong>The</strong> 10 year reunion for the Class of 2002 is set for<br />
Saturday, July 14, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., at the Castro Valley Community<br />
Center. Cost is $30 per person. Contact Keli Martinez at<br />
kelimartinez08@gmail.com for more information.<br />
Other classes interested in planning reunions should contact advancement@<br />
bishopodowd.org.
Alumni News<br />
Alums Support<br />
O’Dowd Scholars Program<br />
From left to right, Vice President for Advancement Michael Petrini, Ed Renteria '78,<br />
Tosha Y. Eagles-Williams '84, Victor Quint '67 and President Steve Phelps display the<br />
ceremonial check for the donation the alums made to the <strong>O'Dowd</strong> Scholars Program.<br />
Victor Quint ’67, Ed Renteria ’78 and Tosha Y. Eagles-Williams ’84 recently<br />
presented O’Dowd President Steve Phelps and Vice President for Advancement<br />
Michael Petrini a check for $5,000 for the O’Dowd Scholars Program.<br />
<strong>The</strong> donation was made on behalf of 1st United Services Credit Union in<br />
Pleasanton, where the three alums work. Quint is chief executive officer, Renteria is<br />
chief information officer and Eagles-Williams is chief operating officer.<br />
<strong>The</strong> alums visited campus on March 28 to make the presentation. <strong>The</strong>y also took a<br />
tour of the campus, and had an opportunity to chat with several students.<br />
“It is evident that the students’ best interest is a top priority,” Eagles-Williams said<br />
after the tour. “<strong>The</strong> campus is extremely clean and the teachers and students were<br />
friendly and engaging. We learned of the exciting plans for expansion and believe<br />
these plans will benefit the students and faculty alike.“ <strong>The</strong>se are some of the reasons<br />
Eagles-Williams chose to send her daughter, Maya, to O’Dowd.<br />
Added Eagles-Williams, “we felt that this is a token of our appreciation and a<br />
great way to give back. Donating to this fund will help yet another student attend this<br />
excellent school and enjoy the benefits of a top notch education.”<br />
Quint said he would never have been so successful in business without the excellent<br />
education and foundation that O’Dowd provided. “I am amazed how many O’Dowd<br />
graduates that I run into in business and in my personal life. And, what are the odds<br />
that there would be three executives at 1st United Services Credit Union who are all<br />
graduates of O’Dowd?” Quint said.<br />
"Donation" continued on page 35<br />
34 THE DRAGON<br />
Class of 1967 Memorial Mass<br />
Members of the Class of ’67, friends<br />
of Jody Gonzales who passed away Sept.<br />
7, 2011, are having a Memorial Mass<br />
commemorating Jody and all our deceased<br />
classmates including Bill Biggio, Cynthia<br />
Corder, Christine Ferreira Correia, Cheryl<br />
Jones Frank, JoAnn Lund Greiner, Stephen<br />
Peacock, Phyllis Fernandes Pearson, Janis<br />
Porter, Michael Scanlon, Jeffrey Smith,<br />
Michael St. Andre and Judy Kerr.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Memorial Mass will be celebrated<br />
on Saturday, Sept. 8, 2012, at 11 a.m., in<br />
the Chapel on the O’Dowd campus. A<br />
reception will follow in the adjacent lounge.<br />
If you would please RSVP to either Sue<br />
Barroero susanb@appliedfusioninc.com /<br />
(510) 537-8565, or Nancy (Nilson) Latham<br />
nlatham10s@comcast.net /(707) 579-4767<br />
no later than Aug. 15, 2012, we would<br />
greatly appreciate it.<br />
If you know of any other deceased<br />
classmates not mentioned above, please<br />
let Susan or Nancy know so they can be<br />
included in the Memorial Mass.<br />
We hope that you will be able to join<br />
with us in this memorial. Please forward<br />
this information to any classmates who may<br />
not receive “<strong>The</strong> Dragon.”<br />
Invest in our students with the<br />
Gift of an O’Dowd Education<br />
Attend the<br />
Fund a Dream<br />
Luncheon<br />
Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012<br />
With you, we’ll achieve our promise<br />
of giving all deserving students an<br />
unparalleled O’Dowd education.<br />
Contact Cathy McFann at<br />
(510) 577-9100, ext. 303, for details.
35 THE DRAGON<br />
Alumni News<br />
Class of 1955 Pushes Mark J. Hurley Scholarship Fund<br />
Past $90,000 Mark<br />
Donation<br />
continued from page 34<br />
And, Quint says he still uses the French he learned in high<br />
school when he travels to Europe.<br />
For Renteria, O’Dowd set him on a path to fulfillment.<br />
“Everyone was always encouraged to set lofty goals and work<br />
to achieve them,” he said. “Both challenging and fun, my<br />
experience at O’Dowd laid a foundation for success both<br />
personally and professionally.<br />
“I am part of a very unique situation working with two other<br />
O’Dowd alumni, and we all have shared feelings about the value<br />
of our education received at O’Dowd,” Renteria said.<br />
Petrini said that alumni support of O’Dowd’s Scholars<br />
Program makes all the difference. “Financial assistance from<br />
our grads helps O’Dowd sustain its tradition of excellence and<br />
accessibility - a promise of life-changing opportunities to future<br />
generations,” he said. “All of us are grateful to Victor, Ed and<br />
Tosha, representing three generations of alums, for making this<br />
gift from 1st United possible for our students today.”<br />
Nearly 30 members of the Class of 1955, several coming<br />
from as far away as Nevada, Arizona and Georgia, were on<br />
campus on March 25 to attend the school’s 60th anniversary<br />
celebration. It was a great opportunity to share stories of the<br />
“good old days” and witness all the innovations that have since<br />
occurred, including all the latest technology. Following Mass<br />
and lunch, everyone continued socializing with the ’50s classes<br />
as we enjoyed the wonderful reception in the former convent<br />
setting (Dominican Lounge).<br />
As a reminder, the Mark J. Hurley Scholarship Endowment<br />
Fund that was established by our class has passed the $90,000<br />
mark. If you would like to contribute, tax deductible donations<br />
may be made at any time and forwarded to the school. <strong>The</strong> next<br />
quarterly lunch will be held on Wednesday, July 19, so save the<br />
date. For more information, contact Bev (Mello) Rettus at (408)<br />
866-9300 or rettus@att.net.<br />
Going Somewhere?<br />
If you’re moving – to a new home, a new city, a new<br />
state or a new country – don’t forget to let us know. You<br />
can help us save postage and we can make sure you won’t<br />
miss an issue of <strong>The</strong> Dragon.<br />
Please print your new address and attach your mailing<br />
label to this form.<br />
Name Class Year<br />
Address<br />
City<br />
State/Zip Phone<br />
Return this form to:<br />
Lisa Coffey Mahoney ’76<br />
c/o <strong>Bishop</strong> O’Dowd <strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong><br />
9500 Stearns Ave.<br />
Oakland, CA 94605
Alumni News<br />
1966 1970<br />
A resident of Scottsdale, Ariz.,<br />
Michael Tucevich is a judge with the<br />
federal government hearing Social<br />
Security appeals. He is also an avid tennis<br />
player (4.5 level).<br />
Michael and his 16-year-old daughter,<br />
Morgan, (pictured below) visited Paris<br />
last summer.<br />
1969<br />
John Kukulica and his wife, Gigi,<br />
live in a newly remodeled home on the<br />
Truckee River in Reno with their 45<br />
hens, five cats, five dogs, four ducks and<br />
one rooster. <strong>The</strong> couple has two children:<br />
Dominic, a firefighter for CALFIRE, and<br />
Ariana, a junior at Reno <strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong>.<br />
John works for Aflac.<br />
Class Notes<br />
Mary Beth Monteith Denoncourt’s<br />
daughter, Sara, and granddaughter,<br />
Savana, 5, recently appeared in a<br />
production of “<strong>The</strong> King and I,” staged<br />
at the Douglas Morrison Little <strong>The</strong>ater<br />
in Hayward. Pictured below: Savana (in<br />
pink) was the littlest Royal Princess and<br />
Sara (in red) was a Royal Dancer.<br />
More <strong>Bishop</strong><br />
O’Dowd <strong>High</strong><br />
<strong>School</strong> alumni news<br />
can be found at<br />
www.bishopodowd.<br />
org, under “alumni.”<br />
36 THE DRAGON<br />
1974<br />
Michael D’Orazi was named the<br />
permanent Fire Chief of the Alameda<br />
Fire Department (AFD) on Dec. 19,<br />
2011.<br />
Mike began his firefighter career in<br />
1979 with AFD. He was promoted to<br />
lieutenant in 1988 and to captain in<br />
1999. He also served as the Department’s<br />
training director from 2003 to 2007. He<br />
retired in 2007.<br />
“We are very fortunate that Mike has<br />
agreed to come out of retirement to serve<br />
as chief,” said Alameda City Manager<br />
John Russo. “He knows the department<br />
and the city as well as anyone, and we<br />
need him to help transition AFD to a<br />
broader work mission given the long term<br />
fiscal shortfalls Alameda is facing.”<br />
Mike and his wife Lori have been<br />
married for 32 years. <strong>The</strong> couple has<br />
three children and two grandchildren.<br />
1986<br />
Dr. Kim Williams joined the<br />
political science faculty at Portland State<br />
University in the fall of 2011 and also<br />
was named director of the Center for<br />
Women, Politics & Policy at PSU.<br />
Previously, Kim taught at the Harvard<br />
Kennedy <strong>School</strong>. Her research and<br />
teaching interests converge around issues<br />
of race and immigration in American<br />
politics.<br />
She is the author of “Mark One<br />
or More: Civil Rights in Multiracial<br />
America,” and she is working on her<br />
second book, “<strong>The</strong> Latino Population<br />
Boom: How Blacks & Whites are<br />
adapting to a New Chapter in American<br />
Politics.”
2002<br />
Christine Parry (pictured at right)<br />
graduated with a double major in<br />
psychology and political science from<br />
the University of Southern California in<br />
2006.<br />
Following college, Christine moved<br />
to San Francisco and attended UC<br />
Hastings, graduating and passing the bar<br />
in 2009.<br />
In 2010, Christine began working as<br />
a Deputy District Attorney in Contra<br />
Costa County. Currently, she works in<br />
the county’s Richmond branch office<br />
conducting jury trials and preliminary<br />
hearings.<br />
Thus far, Christine has had the<br />
opportunity to prosecute over 20 jury<br />
trials. In addition, she files cases and<br />
writes various motions.<br />
2003 and 2004<br />
David Brower ’04 and Shannon<br />
Dilling ’03 welcomed Mason David<br />
Brower on Aug. 30, 2011.<br />
2006<br />
Michael Parry (pictured in next<br />
column) graduated from the University of<br />
Washington’s Michael G. Foster <strong>School</strong><br />
of Business with a bachlor’s degree in<br />
finance in 2010.<br />
Immediately afterwards, Michael<br />
moved to Texas to begin work as a<br />
member of the 2010 Teach For America<br />
Dallas/Fort Worth corps.<br />
He spent six weeks in Houston, living<br />
on campus at Rice University where<br />
all first year corps members from a<br />
number of regions completed their TFA<br />
“Institute” training. During the training,<br />
Michael '06 and Christine '02 Parry<br />
Michael taught Algebra I summer school<br />
classes to students at James Madison<br />
<strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong>.<br />
At the conclusion of the summer,<br />
Michael returned to Dallas and<br />
was placed at Texans Can Academy<br />
at Carrollton/Farmers Branch, an<br />
alternative charter school that caters<br />
to students 18-22, or those who have<br />
had difficulty in their traditional school<br />
setting due to a variety of reasons.<br />
Michael says 100 percent of the student<br />
body is considered “at-risk.”<br />
He is currently teaching Algebra I and<br />
II and Geometry classes to students that<br />
fall into all four grade levels.<br />
He was promoted to the position of<br />
Math Department Chairman in January<br />
2011.<br />
“Despite many of the obstacles that<br />
our students face on a daily basis, I am<br />
proud to say we have seen tremendous<br />
growth in our Math test scores over the<br />
first year and a half that I have been<br />
here,” Michael said.<br />
37 THE DRAGON<br />
Alumni News<br />
2007<br />
Allison McManis is working as an<br />
assistant women’s soccer coach at Vassar<br />
College.<br />
A former center-midfielder and four-<br />
year captain at Vassar, Allison helped<br />
guide the Brewers to four conseucitve<br />
winning seasons.<br />
She graduated from Vassar in 2011<br />
with a bachelor’s degree in geography.<br />
She earned departmental honors and<br />
received the Ellen Semple Churchill<br />
Award for Excellence in the Study of<br />
Geography. Allison was also selected as<br />
an alternate for the Thomas J. Watson<br />
Fellowship for her proposal to study Fair<br />
Trade production internationally.<br />
2011<br />
MacKenzie Daniel was named to the<br />
Dean’s List for the 2011 fall semester at<br />
Elon University in North Carolina.<br />
D'Angelo Guiton '14, right, is happy to be<br />
following in his father's, Harvell Guiton '80,<br />
left, footsteps as an <strong>O'Dowd</strong> student and a<br />
defensive cornerback on the football team.
THE YEAR OF THE<br />
DRAGON<br />
It was a year to remember. Both the men’s and women’s soccer<br />
teams and the men’s and women’s basketball teams captured North<br />
Coast Section championships in February.<br />
It was the first time in school history that all<br />
four winter sports teams captured NCS titles.<br />
For the women’s basketball team it was a<br />
fourth consecutive NCS crown and<br />
second consecutive NorCal title.<br />
And, much to the delight of Dragon fans, the women’s team<br />
captured the program’s first state championship, defeating Laguna<br />
Hills, 62-24, to win the California Interscholastic Federation Division<br />
III title. O’Dowd forced 26 turnovers and limited the opponent to<br />
the lowest point total in state title-game history.<br />
All Dragon players scored in the winning effort.<br />
38 THE DRAGON<br />
KC Waters '13 scored a game high 14 points<br />
and grabbed 12 rebounds in just 20 minutes of<br />
action in the state final and received the sportmanship<br />
award. She was also named the CIF<br />
Division III Women's Player of the Year.
Student-Athletes Sign<br />
National Letters of Intent<br />
Winter Sports Roundup<br />
Back row (from left to right): Brendan Royal, Max Orntil, Nehemiah<br />
Mitchell, Richard Longrus and Terrence Daniel. Front row (from left to<br />
right): Elena Duke, Victoria Burns and Ignacio Madrid.<br />
With their families and friends looking on, eight <strong>Bishop</strong> O’Dowd<br />
<strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong> student-athletes signed National Letters of Intent in a<br />
ceremony held on campus Feb. 1.<br />
<strong>The</strong> signees included Victoria Burns, soccer, University of<br />
Washington; Elena Duke, rowing, University of California, San Diego;<br />
Terrence Daniel, football, University of Oregon; Richard Longrus,<br />
basketball, Washington State University; Ignacio Madrid, football,<br />
University of Stetson, Florida; Nehemiah Mitchell and Brendan Royal,<br />
football, Sacramento State University; and Max Ornstil, soccer, Santa<br />
Clara University.<br />
Hardy Nickerson Jr. committed to play football at Cal, but wasn’t able<br />
to attend the signing ceremony. He was in Austin, Texas, playing in the<br />
2012 International Bowl, which featured the U.S. Under-19 National<br />
Team comprised of top high school players in the country against an<br />
IFAF (International Federation of American Football) World Team of<br />
premiere players age 19-and-under from outside the U.S.<br />
More information<br />
about <strong>Bishop</strong> O’Dowd<br />
<strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong> athletics<br />
can be found at www.<br />
bishopodowd.org, under<br />
“athletics.”<br />
39 THE DRAGON<br />
Hayward Area Athletic League<br />
Team Records &<br />
All-League Honors<br />
Men’s Basketball ... 16-0 ... 1st in HAAL<br />
All League: Kendall Jackson and Richard Longrus Jr.<br />
(first team); Josh Crum, TJ Daniel and Marcus Green<br />
(second team). Co-Coach of the Year: Doug Vierra.<br />
Women’s Basketball ... 16-0 ... 1st in HAAL<br />
All League: Ari Bostick, Oderah Chidom and KC<br />
Waters (first team); Asia Robertson (second team).<br />
Player of the Year: KC Waters.<br />
Men’s Soccer ... 7-3-6 ... 3rd in HAAL<br />
All League: Gabe D’Ambrosio, Marco Indrio and<br />
Tommy Powell (first team); Ari Flink, Adam Gold<br />
and Matthew Powell (second team)<br />
Women’s Soccer ... 12-1-0 ... 1st in HAAL<br />
All League: Victoria Burns, Kylie Carera, Kelsie<br />
Halstenrud and Ryan Walker-Hartshorn (first team);<br />
Kate Ranahan, Ryan Daniel, Darby Nordin and Roni<br />
Owyang (second team)<br />
Special Note: Richard Longrus Jr. broke the O’Dowd alltime<br />
career rebounding mark of 797, held by Tony Jackson<br />
’82, finishing with 919 career rebounds.<br />
Dominic Miroglio ’13 Selected for<br />
Elite 11 Quarterback Competition<br />
O’Dowd’s Dominic<br />
Miroglio ’13 was invited to<br />
participate in the Elite 11<br />
Quarterback Competition, a<br />
Nike and ESPNRise event<br />
featuring the top high school<br />
quarterbacks in the nation.<br />
Miroglio was to attend<br />
a regional camp at Contra<br />
Costa College on May<br />
18, and receive advanced,<br />
one-on-one quarterback<br />
instruction. Other regional<br />
camps were held in Dallas, Atlanta, New York City,<br />
Columbus, Ohio and Las Vegas.<br />
Top performers at the regional camps will earn a<br />
spot in the final Elite 11 event to be held in Southern<br />
California in July. Miroglio is the first O’Dowd<br />
quarterback invited to compete in the Elite 11.
Sellout Crowd Enjoys Crab & Pasta Feed<br />
Event co-chairs Teri Halstenrud, left and Laura Carlson.<br />
A sellout crowd of more than 530 people attended the Feb. 4 Dragon<br />
Athletic Boosters Crab & Pasta Feed, coming together to have fun and<br />
support <strong>Bishop</strong> O’Dowd <strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong> athletics. Co-chaired by O’Dowd<br />
parents Laura Carlson and Teri Halstenrud, the event generated $35,000<br />
in net profits.<br />
<strong>The</strong> evening included a silent auction and a Super Bowl drawing, won<br />
by Laura Carlson (1st and 2nd quarters), Tim Murphy (3rd quarter) and<br />
Kathleen Edwards (final score). All proceeds from these activities will go<br />
toward funding all O’Dowd athletics programs.<br />
Special thanks go to the more than 100 volunteers, including current<br />
and alumni parents, alumni and friends of O’Dowd, that helped make the<br />
event such a success, and to the O’Dowd maintenance and security staff<br />
for their support.<br />
40 THE DRAGON<br />
Past parents Peter and Jean Marcuzzo dig into the<br />
plentiful supply of crab.<br />
Coaches Ashley Craver '04 and Turshika Bennett '96<br />
enjoy delicious pasta.<br />
Crab Feed attendees Janet Howley, Vanessa Lowe and<br />
Michael Bridges chatted before dinner.
Special Thanks...<br />
Many of our most dedicated volunteers have graduating<br />
seniors, or have children that have already graduated!<br />
<strong>The</strong>y have worked for many years, providing the rest of us<br />
with wonderful Crab & Pasta feeds at <strong>O'Dowd</strong>.<br />
Front row: Peter Nuti and Diane Splendorio; middle row: Ross Catanzarite,<br />
Patty Taggart, Bill Currotto and Joe Salamack; back row:<br />
Arnie Espos and John Taggart.<br />
From left to right, Thomas Whittington, Jim Gold, Craig Barton and<br />
Kim Luboviski.<br />
41 THE DRAGON<br />
Graduation Outcomes<br />
Guided by the Mission Statement of <strong>Bishop</strong> O’Dowd<br />
<strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong> to prepare students for lives of spiritual,<br />
intellectual, and personal growth, graduates will be:<br />
Academic Achievers who…<br />
• Exhibit knowledge and skills necessary for<br />
college.<br />
• Practice critical thinking and problem solving<br />
skills.<br />
• Research, analyze and synthesize information<br />
effectively.<br />
• Demonstrate innovation, creativity, and a love<br />
of the arts.<br />
Spiritual Individuals who…<br />
• Demonstrate knowledge and appreciation of<br />
Catholic faith and traditions.<br />
• Participate actively in their faith community.<br />
• Respect diversity of religion and culture.<br />
• Make moral, ethical and healthy choices in<br />
daily living.<br />
Effective Communicators who…<br />
• Exhibit expert reading and writing skills.<br />
• Articulate ideas clearly and creatively.<br />
• Use information technology effectively and<br />
ethically.<br />
• Understand divergent points of view.<br />
Active Leaders who…<br />
• Model personal integrity, responsibility, and<br />
ethical behavior.<br />
• Utilize emotional and social skills to build<br />
collaboration and teamwork.<br />
• Embrace diversity and promote excellence.<br />
• Demonstrate effective decision-making skills.<br />
Globally Responsible Citizens who…<br />
• Model human connectedness through a com -<br />
mitment to social justice.<br />
• Respect cultural and ethnic influences.<br />
• Work for a moral, just and peaceful world.<br />
• Exhibit care and respect for the environment.<br />
Life-long Learners who...<br />
• Demonstrate openness to growth.<br />
• Take responsibility for their own actions and<br />
the welfare of others.<br />
• Critically assess the values of contemporary<br />
culture in light of the Gospel.<br />
• Promote justice and peace in service to their<br />
faith.
O’Dowd President Steve Phelps Inducted Into<br />
San Francisco CYO Athletics Hall of Fame<br />
In recognition of his longstanding commitment to championing the core values of<br />
leadership, team play and good sportsmanship, O’Dowd President Steve Phelps was<br />
inducted into the San Francisco CYO Athletics Hall of Fame and honored at the 5th<br />
Annual Catholic Charities CYO Athletics Hall of Fame Induction Dinner held on<br />
March 10 in San Francisco.<br />
Phelps was lauded for his leadership and mentoring of inner city kids in the<br />
Fillmore and throughout San Francisco, where he helped shape the lives of hundreds<br />
of young men over a 20-year period beginning in the late 1960s.<br />
He first got involved with CYO while in college in the late 1960s, when he took<br />
a part-time job as a playground director in the Hunter’s Point area of San Francisco.<br />
After his graduation from college Phelps taught, coached and served as athletic and<br />
youth director at Sacred Heart <strong>School</strong> and elsewhere in the Western Addition.<br />
In 1972, he accepted a full time teaching position at St. Ignatius College<br />
Preparatory while continuing to run youth programs in the Fillmore until 1982.<br />
He taught, coached and served as an administrator at St. Ignatius until becoming<br />
president at O’Dowd in 2005.<br />
“When we give freely of ourselves to other people, we gain more than we give,”<br />
Phelps said of his work with CYO.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Hall of Fame Dinner featured former San Francisco 49er Eric Wright as the<br />
keynote speaker and was attended by many of Phelps’ former players.<br />
We’d Love to Hear From You!<br />
Your fellow alumni are interested in reading about what you are doing. Please use this form to keep your classmates and other<br />
O’Dowd friends up-to-date on the activities in your life. Send us news about career moves, publications, additions to your family,<br />
awards, etc. We especially welcome wedding, baby, and group gathering photos! By policy, we do not print non-legal unions,<br />
engagements, or pregnancies, and we reserve the right to edit submissions.<br />
Full Name:_____________________________________ Detach this form<br />
Maiden Name:__________________________________ and mail to: Lisa Coffey Mahoney ’76<br />
Class Year:_____________________________________ c/o <strong>Bishop</strong> O’Dowd <strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong><br />
Street Address:__________________________________ 9500 Stearns Ave.<br />
City:_____________State:________Zip:_____________ Oakland, CA 94605-4799<br />
Home Phone: __________________________________<br />
E-Mail: _______________________________________ News (please print or type):<br />
Occupation:____________________________________<br />
Employer: _____________________________________ ____________________________________________<br />
Business Address: _______________________________ ____________________________________________<br />
City:____________State:_________Zip: ____________ ____________________________________________<br />
Business Phone:_________________________________ ____________________________________________<br />
Colleges Attended/Degrees: _______________________ ____________________________________________<br />
______________________________________________ ____________________________________________<br />
Children: ______________________________________ ____________________________________________<br />
Spouse’s Name: _________________________________ ____________________________________________<br />
You can also e-mail your news to lmahoney@bishopodowd.org<br />
42 THE DRAGON
Barbara Murray Baxter ’56<br />
Carol Callaway, mother of Sr. Kathleen Callaway, SNJM, Susan<br />
Callaway (Del Losson), Janet Callaway ( Jim Peterson), Richard (Chris)<br />
Callaway '68, Donn Callaway '71, and Steven (Sharon) Callaway '80<br />
Charles F. Calloway, M.D., husband of Marie Edwards Calloway and<br />
father of Charles F. Calloway Jr. '69, Karen Elisabeth Calloway '77 and<br />
Pamela Anne Calloway '79<br />
Elmer Costa, husband of Millie and father of Steve (Kate) and Ken<br />
(Patty) Costa, and grandfather of Josh, Adam, Chris and the late Anna<br />
Felicia Costa '90<br />
Beverly Perreira Graves DeMaria ’60, wife of Gerald DeMaria,<br />
mother of Jeff Graves (Kim), stepmother of Dana Johnson (Curtis) and<br />
Brad and Michael (Stacey) DeMaria '84, and sister of Geraldine Perreira<br />
Sampson '56<br />
Hilda Detwiler, mother of Mike '81, Paul '82 and John '86 Detwiler<br />
Hon. Stephen Dombrink, husband of Debi and father of Michael '00<br />
and Mark Dombrink<br />
Juan Duenas, husband of Nancy Duenas and father of John Duenas<br />
'70, Vicki Duenas '70, Jean Duenas '70, Liz Duenas Pawek '76 , Ellen<br />
Duenas '78, Terri Duenas '79, Maggie Duenas Biscevic '81 and Paula<br />
Duenas Case '84<br />
James Howard Durkin, husband of Mary and father of Jim Durkin,<br />
Dennis Durkin (deceased), Coleen Durkin '71 (deceased), Ann Durkin<br />
Crawford '72 and Katie (Kelly '80) Durkin Cronin '80, and grandfather<br />
of Connor '09 and Emma Cronin '13<br />
Frank Elizares, husband of Margaret and father of Jack '71, Sally '73<br />
and James Elizares '77<br />
Cheryl <strong>The</strong>resa Jones Frank ’67, wife of Barry Frank and mother of<br />
Michael (Lisa) Roberson, Eric Roberson, Matthew Frank and Michelle<br />
Frank<br />
John Gira Jr., husband of Kathleen Mayer Gira '81 and brother-in-law<br />
of Keith Mayer '82<br />
Richard Himenez ’56<br />
In Memoriam<br />
<strong>Bishop</strong> O’Dowd <strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong> encourages <strong>The</strong> Dragon readers to forward to the school copies of obituary notices about the passing of O’Dowd<br />
community members so that the names of the deceased can be listed in the In Memoriam section of this magazine. Please send the notices to<br />
Lisa Coffey Mahoney ’76, c/o <strong>Bishop</strong> O’Dowd <strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong>, 9500 Stearns Ave., Oakland, CA 94605, or e-mail them to lmahoney@<br />
bishopodowd.org. Note: Listings are based on information known at press time and may not include all surviving family members.<br />
43 THE DRAGON<br />
Diane Agostini Jackson ’58, wife of Jim Jackson, mother of Denise,<br />
Keith, Tracy and Summer, and stepmother of Julie and Jill<br />
Fitzroy “Fitz” Killingsworth ’56, husband of Denise and father of Nick<br />
and Adriana Killingsworth<br />
Timmy Knickerbocker ’94<br />
Ron Lappa, husband of Lynda and father of Kelsey '07 and Daniel '04<br />
Lappa<br />
Daniel J. O’Conner, husband of Dorothy Davi O'Conner '58, and father<br />
of Michael O'Conner (Lisa), Patricia Barnes ( Jason), <strong>The</strong>resa Nelms ( Joe)<br />
and Timothy O'Conner (Tara)<br />
Joan Heier McCormick ’65<br />
Lawrence E. Murray ’55, brother of Anna Riesing '59, Judith Griffith<br />
and Catherine Galloway '62<br />
Thomas Allen Pullman ’68, brother of Patty Pullman Schoenstein '61,<br />
Barrett Pullman '64, Maggie Pullman Graney '65 (Tim Graney '67) and<br />
Dave Pullman<br />
Maria Ratajczak, former <strong>O'Dowd</strong> faculty member<br />
Edward John Ritelli Sr., father of Mary Patricia McGoldrick, Edward<br />
Ritelli '75 (Teresa Sorisio Ritelli '75), William Ritelli '76(deceased), Beth<br />
Ritelli Sblendorio '78 (Sblend)and Colleen Ritelli '82<br />
Fred Rynders, father of Stephanie '98 and Christopher '01 Rynders<br />
Louise J. Schoenbachler, mother of Susan Schoenbachler Sanford '57,<br />
Maris Schoenbachler Robinson, '61 and mother-in-law of Catherine Joyce<br />
Schoenbachler '55<br />
William (Brad) Shaw ’83, husband of Nicole DeMarais Shaw '81, father<br />
of Gretchen '13 and Andrew Shaw '15, and brother of Michael Shaw '84<br />
Len Silva, husband of Maria Silva, father of Kristin Salinas (Anthony)<br />
and Timothy Silva '04, brother of Ed, Frank, <strong>Bishop</strong> Larry '67 and Trudy<br />
Silva<br />
Laraine Bellinghausen Van Houten ’57, wife of Al Van Houten
<strong>Bishop</strong> O’Dowd <strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong><br />
A Diocese of Oakland <strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong><br />
Accredited by Western Association of <strong>School</strong>s and Colleges<br />
and the Western Catholic Education Association<br />
9500 Stearns Avenue<br />
Oakland, CA 94605<br />
(510) 577-9100<br />
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June 30, 2012. Give today and make it possible<br />
for deserving students to experience the power<br />
of an excellent Catholic college-preparatory<br />
education at O’Dowd.<br />
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