Richmond High School - Shield Yearbook (Richmond, CA)

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ld To Richmond High “Landmarks” Take a female character out of Corneille or Racine, streamline and raise tothe nth power, add all synonyms of wise, kind, blithe, playful, cool, gallant, modest, captivating, sprinkle with elan, humor and old-fashioned horse-sense, cover with swishly casual clothes, ferment for thirty-seven years in rooms full of students, and lo! you have the mellow essence of Mrs. Blanche Sandford. She talks fast, says lots, means worlds, feels everything. She teaches French but imparts philosophy. Zigzagging among verbs and nouns, she pinions the great or subtle ideas expressed therein, and holds them up for all to see, probe, accept or reject. No pedant in mothballs, she is moderntoa fault, liberal to the marrow, and fair to the bottom of her king-size heart. Despite her phenomenal style, no teacher could be more our own than Mrs. Sandford. Pinole- born-and-bred, educated at RUHS and the University of California, she returned like a homing-pigeon to Richmond High for her first, last, only and utterly triumphant episode of teaching. Students took to her like ducks to water. Year after yearit was the same, whether she walked down the aisles, knock- ing books off study-hall desks, thereby foiling acrafty student-plot or whether she pinned back crim- son ears in rich French or English or plain Richmondese. No one could resist her; no one ever tried. She was mobbed, imitated, adored and run after; and incidentally she taught lots of French. The sad note for us in the midst of this happy recital is that Mrs. Sandford, though still at the top of her prodigious form, is quitting RUHS for no good reason that we can conceive. Perhaps we, full of self-importance, thought that we were her world. Well, we were, a little. Maybe the simple truth is that she loves her cats and her mountains, her brand-new Dart and the leisure in which to enjoy them more than she loves chalk-dust, language-labs, bells and Oilers. But one thing is plain. We positively know that Richmond High will never be the same without Mrs. Sandford to run to, joke with, learn from, and we rather pity the post-Sandford students of RUHS. However, we must mind our manners, put a good face on things and swallow our fretful protests. So, meilleurs voeux, Mrs. Sandford. Here is our Shield. We, the Class of 1965, and it are dedicated to you. We love you, as you must know. Somehow, leaving RUHS in your splendid company reassures us and makes of our graduation something of an awesome landmark. 9

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We Dedicate Our Shield = T In February, you, Miss Mary Gately, with » the jauntiest smile this side of County Clare, snatched the rug from under our feet and left us flat. You retired. We call this an Irish trick with trimmings. We and everybody else had come to think of you as fixed as the North Star, as tireless as Galway's tides, as uncomplaining as Paddy's anvil when the sparks fly. After all, you were forty-three-and-a half years queening it over Room Five, the mighty nerve-center of our mighty school. Perky, happy, resourceful, endlessly good-naturedly helpful, you kept us afloat and on course while you busily kept the growing archives, joshing with this person and that. But now we know that in your generous heart there were powerful yearnings to become unfixed, unbound and unburdened. But not uncommitted, Miss Mary Gately. We knowyou too well to think that. Clearly do we recall your wonderful pilgrimage to Rome in1950, the Holy Year, and your fierce addiction to pious, humane and selfless acts. You will, in all certainty, continue to be as deeply involved in mankind as you were when you regulated the heart-beat of Richmond Union High. But you will have more freedom and time, less pressure and haste in which toinvite your soul and do your deeds of goodness. For this we must sincerely and hugely rejoice. So what is there left to say, Miss Mary Gately, you Irish (once removed) flower of Richmond? That you sprang from the soil of Richmond? That you live in the house you were born in? That you graduated from RUHS in 1920? That you began running things at RUHS in 1921? That you know every- body and everything in your sprawling hometown? That you understand young people and like them immensely? That you, quite baldly, know your stuff? That for all these reasons and many more, RUHS has good reason to lament losing you, its most distinguished secretary, mentor, friend and alumna? Yes, we can say these things and one thing more. Like the Class of 1952, who had the honor and privilege of doing it before us, we too, the Class of 1965, dedicate our Shield to you.

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Memorial Park was built to honor the local boys who gave their lives for their country during World War 1. It is located between 12th and 13th Streets on Bissell. Construction of the park began in 1923. Dedication of the park was November 11, 1928, when the War Mothers of Richmond and the Citizens of Richmond erected a plaque with the names of thirty local boys who lost their lives in World War 1. The library at 4th and Nevin is thecity's oldest library. Today it is a branch of the Richmond Public Libraries and houses the Richmond museum too. On February 14, 1950, Contra Costa Junior College began classes in the building below at Point Richmond. Joseph P. Cosanp was the first dean of the college. In the Fall of 1956 the college was moved to its present site at the foot of Tank Farm Hill in San Pablo. The San Pablo Resovoir, located on the Dam Road between El Sobrante and Orinda, provides Richmond and the surrounding communities with water. Besides being a source of water, the resovoir area is a source of intense natural beauty. ‘Yhe oldest lighthouse in San Pablo Bay serves as a warning to ships on foggy and stormy nights. The lighthouse was operated by the Stenmark Family for many years dating back to approximately 1906. It is operated by the United State Coast Guard today and was probably constructed around the year of 1870. Whale oil was once a very vital product, but with the develop- ment of the petroleum fields and of electricity, whale oil lost its place of importance. Today the only whaling station left on the California coast is located in Richmond. oct i} ¢ a