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Six honored at DHS Hall of Fame ceremony
Davis High School Hall of Famers
2011: Elinor Armer, musician and educator; Jason Fisk, NFL standout; Bruce Gallaudet, benefactor; Jim O’Keefe, math teacher; Cathy Speck, musician and activist.
2010: Ron Brown, builder and benefactor; Dick Brunelle, music teacher; Michael Franti, musician and activist; Carol Greider, Nobel Prize winner in medicine; and Ralph Villanueva, standout athlete, coach and teacher.
2009: John Barovetto, U.S. Army captain; Tony Fields, actor/dancer; Dick Lewis, volunteer athletic trainer; Joanne Moldenhauer, math teacher; and Craig Wilson, water polo Olympian.
2008: Denise Curry, basketball superstar; A.J. “Bud” Henle, longtime coach/administrator; Mark Inouye, jazz trumpeter; Elaine Kasimatis, mathematician and humanitarian; and Dave Scott, triathlete and mentor.
That Davis retains its small-town feel was never so evident as at the Davis High Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Saturday night.
Two of the five honorees, Cathy Speck and Elinor Armer, grew up on the same street, Oak Avenue, 20 years apart, while Jason Fisk counted one fellow inductee — Jim O’Keefe — as his former math teacher at Davis High, and another — Bruce Gallaudet — as his former youth baseball coach.
To a person, the nominees — with the exception of O’Keefe, who was inducted posthumously — praised the community and Davis High for the influence on their lives.
Looking out on the audience of around 200 at UC Davis’ Freeborn Hall, Speck remarked, “We are all incredible … and I am a reflection of this community.”
There were actually six individuals honored at the ceremony — Nobel Prize winner Carol Greider was unable to attend last year when she was actually inducted, but attended this year’s event instead.
She had spent the morning talking to students and other community members at Davis High and remarked on how nice it was to “connect with people here again.”
The 1979 Davis High graduate was named a co-winner of the Nobel Prize for medicine in 2009 in recognition of her landmark 1984 discovery of the enzyme telomerase. She is a professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
“Coming from a place with deep embedded values (like Davis) really helped me,” she said of her achievements. “And I really very much appreciate this honor.”
Speck, a member of the Class of 1977, was honored for her advocacy on behalf of those with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), as well as her efforts on behalf of the gay and lesbian community.
She is, said master of ceremonies Bob Dunning, “one of the kindest, most compassionate human beings you can ever hope to meet.”
Speck herself spoke of her memories of growing up in Davis, playing football in the street, basketball at Davis High and learning to be loud if she wanted any attention in a house full of children.
Of her tireless efforts raising money and awareness for ALS, even as the disease that killed her mother and several siblings ravages her own body, Speck said it’s all about honoring those who came before her.
“I give back, because how could I not give back?” she said.
Former Davis High math teacher O’Keefe, who died in May 2010, was honored as a beloved teacher by former students and colleagues.
He was, said former DHS math teacher Gene Tashima, who accepted the award on O’Keefe’s behalf, not just an amazing lecturer, but a “great explainer,” who also had a wonderful sense of humor.
“In the classroom,” Tashima said, “he ran along the edge of scary and hilarious. He’d say, ‘Jimmy … if you don’t stop bothering Sarah, I’m going to sit on you.’
“And he was a big man,” Tashima added.
“If anyone could make math fun, it was him,” Fisk said.
O’Keefe taught for 48 years in the Davis school district, literally educating generations of families.
But O’Keefe was not alone among the inductees in the sheer number of people whose lives he touched. Beginning with his arrival in Davis in 1979, where he would serve as editor of The Davis Enterprise, inductee Bruce Gallaudet has coached and mentored countless children in youth softball, baseball and basketball.
As editor, he increased the newspaper’s focus on schools and children and was one of the first American journalists to write editorials and features in support of Title IX, which evened the playing field for female athletes.
Gallaudet came out of retirement to return to sports writing several years ago and continues to coach youth sports.
“If we had more people like Bruce Gallaudet working with youth in this country,” said Dunning, “we’d have far fewer problems.”
For his part, Gallaudet thanked the leaders, past and present, of the Davis High Blue & White Foundation for their efforts in building a new stadium at the high school as well as for creating the Hall of Fame.
“Not only do they look to our future,” he noted, “they pay attention to our history.”
Among those founding members of the Blue and White Foundation is Hall of Fame inductee Fisk.
A member of the Class of 1990, Fisk not only starred on the football field at Davis High, he also played for Stanford University and spent 12 years in the National Football League.
Following his retirement in 2005, Fisk and his wife, Miriam, and their three children returned to Davis where he spent three years as a defensive coach for the Davis High football team and worked tirelessly to get the new Ron & Mary Brown Stadium built. Fisk now serves as an assistant coach for the UC Davis football team.
A late arrival to the ceremony on Saturday night, following the Aggies’ losing effort again Humboldt State, Fisk congratulated his fellow inductees, saying, “it makes me so proud to be an alumni of Davis High.”
“Incredible people have come through this school,” he noted.
He thanked his family and friends, as well as his teachers and coaches at Davis High who truly prepared him, he said, for life.
“I feel so lucky to have grown up in Davis,” he added.
Sharing that sentiment was fellow inductee Elinor Armer.
A member of the Class of 1957, Armer went on to become a nationally recognized composer, performer and music educator. She is an emeritus professor at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
At the ceremony on Saturday, Armer recalled growing up on Oak Avenue during World War II, when that street still had many vacant lots, and the family dog became known for stealing butter rations from the neighbors.
She said she was “humbled to be inducted” alongside her fellow honorees, and paused to thank Speck in particular for her efforts on behalf of the LGBT community. She also thanked her family and friends, teachers and fellow students at Davis High.
“You are all a class act,” she said.
— Reach Anne Ternus-Bellamy at [email protected] or (530) 747-8051.
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