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Ellwood P. Cubberley High School
Ellwood P. Cubberley High School
Location
	Palo Alto, California; United States
Coordinates	37°25′04″N 122°06′27″W / 37.417874°N 122.107544°W
Information
Type	Public high school
Opened	1956
Closed	1979
School district	Palo Alto Unified School District
Grades	9–12 (1975 – 1979); 10 – 12, (1956 – 1975)
Athletics conference	SPAL ; CIF Central Coast Section
Team name	Cougars
Newspaper	The Cubberley Catamount
Communities served	Palo Alto

Ellwood P. Cubberley High School (1956–1979), known locally as "Cubberley", was one of three public high schools in Palo Alto, California. The site of the closed school is now named Cubberley Community Center and used for many diverse activities.

History

Opened in 1956, Cubberley High was located at 4000 Middlefield Road.^[1] The high school was named after Ellwood Patterson Cubberley, the Dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Education and pioneer of educational administration.

The school was finally closed in 1979 as a reaction to declining enrollment and decreased revenues following Proposition 13.^[2] The other local high schools Gunn High School and Palo Alto High School had been created on friendly land transfers from Stanford University and if educational use was to be terminated, the land would revert to the university for the value at the time of transfer. The Palo Alto Unified School District board, requiring an infusion of cash, determined Cubberley could be sold at more contemporary rates. Later it was discovered that it could only be sold to a non-profit organization. That has resulted in part of the campus being converted into the Cubberley Community Center, on an annual lease from the school district to the City of Palo Alto.^[2]

The Cubberley Cougars competed in the SPAL of the CIF Central Coast Section. The school won its only CCS Championship in track and field in 1979, just days before it would close forever.^[3]

Cubberley was the scene of The Third Wave experiment by teacher Ron Jones in 1967, which was an elaborate social experiment to better understand fascism.^[4] The experiment was later portrayed in a film and television.

A KQED special program from 1970 features a three-day teaching conference at Cubberley High School that focused on ecology and population issues.^[1]

Numerous societal tensions played out at Cubberley from 1967 to 1969 that were the subject of Sylvia Berry Williams' 1970 book Hassling, which gave the school national attention.^[5]^[6]^[7]

For many years the use of the Cubberley location has been subject to local community debate.^[8] According to local news in 2011, enrollment projections done by Palo Alto Unified School District suggested Cubberley may need to be reopened as a fourth middle school by 2015 and ultimately be reopened as a third high school by 2021.^[9] However these plans were delayed by the city, and the city and the school district have been in discussions.^[8]

Notable alumni

This is listed in order by occupation, and listed in alphabetical order by last name.

Athletics

Bill Green (class of 1979), Olympic sprinter^[10]
Art Kuehn (class of 1971) Football Center^[11]
Tom Melvin (class of 1979), NFL coach^[12]
Tom Ritchey (class of c.1974), mountain bike pioneer and founder of Ritchey Design^[13]^[14]

Arts and entertainment

Donny Baldwin (class of 1969), drummer with Elvin Bishop, Jefferson Starship, Cold Blood, Jerry Garcia Band
Michael Finney (class of c.1973), ABC 7/KGO television and radio consumer reporter ^[15]^[16]
Željko Ivanek (class of 1975), actor^[17]
Jon Jang (class of 1972), jazz musician
Gregg Rolie (class of c.1965), musician, founding member of both Santana and Journey
Dusty Street (class of 1964) radio disc jockey

Authors and journalists

James Gurney (class of 1976), illustrator and author
Neil Howe (class of 1969), author
Michio Kaku (class of c.1964), theoretical physicist and author
Wendy Lesser (class of 1969) critic, novelist, and editor

Business

Brendan Eich (class of 1979), creator of JavaScript, co-founder of Mozilla.^{[citation needed]}

Law

Bruce Fein (class of 1965), constitutional law attorney.^{[citation needed]}

Religion

Gerrit W. Gong (class of 1971), member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.^[18]

Science

Michio Kaku (class of 1964) Theoretical physicist, futurist, science speaker/presenter.^{[citation needed]}

Notable faculty

George Hurley, NFL offensive lineman, Cubberley football coach, taught wood shop, and driving.^{[citation needed]}
Ron Jones, author and creator of The Third Wave social experiment.^{[citation needed]}

References

^ ^a ^b "Teach-In at Cubberly (1970) - San Francisco Bay Area Television Archive". The San Francisco Bay Area Television Archive. San Francisco State University (SFSU), Academic Technology, DIVA. 2014-03-28. Retrieved 2017-06-28.
^ ^a ^b Bowling, Matt (2007). "Archived copy "The Cubberley Closing: A Tough Call"". The Palo Alto History Project. Archived from the original on 2011-07-20. Retrieved 2011-07-15.
^ "Bill Green was more than just a remarkable sprinter". Palo Alto Online. Retrieved 2017-06-28.
^ Klink, Bill (1967-04-21). "'Third Wave' presents look into Fascism". Cubberley Catamount News. Retrieved 2017-06-28.
^ "HASSLING: Two Years in a Suburban High School". Kirkus Reviews. November 19, 1970. Retrieved 2020-02-28.
^ Frzedenberg, Edgar Z. (1971-04-11). "How to Survive in Your Native Land". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-02-28.
^ Kenrick, Chris. "Cubberley High, 30 years later". www.paloaltoonline.com. Retrieved 2020-02-28.
^ ^a ^b Sheyner, Gennady. "New Cubberley plan sets stage for tense debate". www.paloaltoonline.com. Retrieved 2020-02-28.
^ Kenrick, Chris (2011-08-26). "School district opens doors on new year". Palo Alto Online. Retrieved 2017-06-28.
^ "Bill Green was more than just a remarkable sprinter". Retrieved 2017-06-29.
^ "Art Kuehn Statistics on JustSportsStats.com". Retrieved 2017-06-29.
^ "Tom Melvin - The Pro Football Archives". www.profootballarchives.com. Retrieved 2017-06-29.
^ "Home". ritcheylogic.com.
^ "How cycling pioneer Tom Ritchey got back in the saddle". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2017-06-29.
^ "Michael Finney | ABC7 KGO News Team". ABC7 San Francisco. Retrieved 2017-06-28.
^ Somers, Janet (29 July 2005). "Michael Finney is rolling along, right by 'Your Side'". The Chronicle.
^ "Around Town". Palo Alto Onlie. 1996. Retrieved 2017-06-29.
^ Hong Kong After 1997: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific of the Committee on International Relations, House of Representatives, One Hundred Fourth Congress, First Session, July 27, 1995. Vol. 4. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1996. p. 45. ISBN 9780160521966.