Campbell High School was the first high school to open in the
Campbell Union High School District
Campbell Union High School District (abbreviated as CUHSD) is a school district based in Santa Clara County, California, serving the Silicon Valley communities of San Jose, Campbell, Saratoga, Santa Clara, Los Gatos and Monte Sereno.
It op ...
. The school was established on September 14, 1900, in
Campbell, California
Campbell is a city in Santa Clara County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, Campbell's population is 43,959. Campbell is home to the Pruneyard Shopping Center, a sprawling open-air retail complex which was i ...
.
It is also sometimes called Campbell Union High School, and the abbreviation can be found both as CHS or CUHS.
After 80 years, the school was closed in June 1980 due to declining enrollment at the school and within the district. The campus was purchased by the city of
Campbell Campbell may refer to:
People Surname
* Campbell (surname), includes a list of people with surname Campbell
Given name
* Campbell Brown (footballer), an Australian rules footballer
* Campbell Brown (journalist) (born 1968), American television ne ...
on August 1, 1985, and is now used as a community center.
History
Campbell Union High School opened its doors as part of the district in 1900, with a registration of 35 students, consisting of 23 girls and 12 boys. Two teachers were hired to educate the students: Professor E. A. Powers and Miss J. M. Newton. It was on the second floor of Campbell's Grammar School. The first graduating class was one student, Charles Beardsley, who went on to
Stanford University and became a lawyer, thus proving Campbell Union High School's academic merit.
By 1904, Principal Fred Smith had gotten the school moved to a new (bigger) building on the southeast corner of Winchester and Campbell Avenues. In 1936, they built again, on the northwest corner of the same intersection, where the buildings still are today.
In 1938, the auditorium of the Campbell Union High School was built, with
Work Projects Administration
The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, in ...
funds and the design of William H. Weeks. It is now commonly known as the Heritage Theater. Over the course of its forty years as part of the school, it is estimated that 20,000 students performed there.
Larry Hill, (a.k.a. Laurance J. Hill), Campbell's principal beginning in 1946, and a superintendent of the
Campbell Union High School District
Campbell Union High School District (abbreviated as CUHSD) is a school district based in Santa Clara County, California, serving the Silicon Valley communities of San Jose, Campbell, Saratoga, Santa Clara, Los Gatos and Monte Sereno.
It op ...
until 1969, is credited with much of the district's growth and planning in his years in office. An award in his name is given out every year at each high school in the district.
Campbell High School, although the namesake school of the district, was closed in 1980, because of declining enrollment in the area and in the district.
Prospect,
Westmont and
Del Mar High School
Del Mar High School (DMHS) is a four-year, public secondary school established in 1959 in San Jose, California. It is part of the Campbell Union High School District, (CUHSD), the other schools in which are Branham, Leigh, Prospect, and Westmo ...
's attendance boundaries subsequently expanded to pick up the slack. On August 1, 1985, after some negotiating, the
city of Campbell purchased the campus, including the historic Heritage Theater, and it became the Campbell Community Center.
The Heritage Theater, formerly the high school's auditorium, was reopened as the Campbell Community Center after renovations in 2004. Many local performance groups, including high schools in the CUHSD, rent the Heritage for various noteworthy performances. The rest of the Community Center holds classes, and portions are available to be rented for various purposes, including large meeting halls, office space, and outdoor facilities.
National Register listing
The campus' three buildings, as the Campbell Union High School Historic District, were added to the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
in 1989. They are the only example of 1930s
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...
construction built in the Spanish Mission style.
Principals
* Professor J. Fred Smith (1900–1912)
* Irving W. Snow (1912–1920)
* D. H. Cramer (1920–1934)
* Lloyd K. Wood (1934–1938)
* Willard H. Van Dyke (1938–1944)
* James W. Dent (1944–1946)
* Laurance J. Hill (1946–1969) Principal and Superintendent
* Sam Reed (1955–1961)
* Robert Culp (1961–1969)
* Robert Peck (1969–1974)
* Roland Baldwin (1974–1980)
Notable alumni
Notable
alumni of Campbell High School include:
*
Donald D. Chamberlin
Donald D. Chamberlin is an American computer scientist who is one of the principal designers of the original SQL language specification with Raymond Boyce. He also made significant contributions to the development of XQuery.
Chamberlin was e ...
, Ph.D., Computer scientist, one of the principal designers of the
SQL database query language.
*
Steve Davis
Steve Davis (born 22 August 1957) is an English retired professional snooker player who is currently a commentator, musician, DJ, and author. He is best known for dominating professional snooker during the 1980s, when he reached eight World S ...
, Former professional baseball player (
Chicago Cubs)
*
Don Hahn,
major league outfielder
An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to c ...
,
1969
This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon.
Events January
* January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco.
* January 5
**Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...
–75
*
Dudley R. Herschbach Ph.D.,
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...
winning chemist
*
Craig Morton
Larry Craig Morton (born February 5, 1943) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons, primarily with the Dallas Cowboys and Denver Broncos. He played college football at California, ...
,
NFL quarterback
The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...
,
1965 –82
*
Emil M. Mrak, Ph.D., Chancellor,
University of California at Davis
The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...
*
Larry Norman
Larry David Norman (April 8, 1947 – February 24, 2008) was an American musician, singer, songwriter, record label owner, and record producer. He is considered to be one of the pioneers of Christian rock music and released more than 100 albu ...
, Class of '65, pioneer of Christian Rock
*
Ed Oates
Edward A. Oates (born 1946) is an American businessman. He co-founded Software Development Labs in August 1977 with Larry Ellison, and Bob Miner. Software Development Labs later became Oracle Corporation.
Education and early employment
Ed Oate ...
, 1964, co-founder of Oracle Corporation
*
Jim K. Omura, Class of 1958, Founder of Cylink. Responsible for developing the benchmark technologies behind modern data networks. Recipient of the 2005 Alexander Graham Bell medal.
*
Billy Wilson,
NFL wide receiver
See also
*
List of closed secondary schools in California
This is a list of closed secondary schools in California.
There was a noticeable increase in closures starting about 1979, the year following the passage of Proposition 13. A change in funding changed the financial situation for these school dis ...
References
{{authority control
High schools in Santa Clara County, California
Campbell Union High School District
Defunct schools in California
Educational institutions established in 1900
Educational institutions disestablished in 1980
School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in California
Works Progress Administration in California
National Register of Historic Places in Santa Clara County, California
W. H. Weeks buildings
1900 establishments in California