Dignitaries, alumni, faculty and students — dressed in shades of navy blue and gold — gathered at Dos Pueblos High School Friday night to celebrate the school’s 50th anniversary.
Dos Pueblos rolled out the red carpet for alumni to mark the school’s anniversary during nightlong homecoming festivities.
Kristi Anderson Lammer was the school’s first homecoming queen, crowned in 1968.
Smiling and waving from the back of 1969 cream-colored convertible Mustang, she was joined by her husband, Tom Lammer, who scored the school’s first touchdown and started on the first three varsity teams from 1967 to 1969.
“It’s an honor to be here,” said Anderson, who was also a high school song leader. “Everyone has a smile on their face and worked hard to put this together.”
Twenty former queens and 15 kings were invited to participate in the homecoming parade by decade.
The royal group sat in the back of a truck and cheered towards the crowd before the school’s homecoming game against cross-town rival Santa Barbara High School started.
“I’m bursting with pride,” Principal Shawn Carey said. “It’s a milestone accomplishment for the school. We can recognize the past achievements, and also look forward to the beginning of new opportunities in the future. Go Chargers.”
The event engaged alumni and featured the rich history of visual and performing arts, athletics, thriving programs and school spirit.
The schools gymnasium was filled with 50 years worth of yearbooks, newspaper articles, photographs and sports memorabilia.
Two sisters were sitting at a table, laughing, and flipping through a yearbook before the game started.
Karen Flodquist Steward, a member of the graduating class in 1972, and her sister Beth Flodquist Rowe, a 1974 graduate, visited from their homes in Goleta for the anniversary celebration.
The sisters recalled the school’s first Earth Day celebration in 1969, the 1971 basketball championship, selling candy bars to raise funds for the school, and when the dress code allowed girls to wear both pants and skirts in the 1970s.
“It’s a kick watching everyone look at old yearbooks and photographs,” Rowe said. “It’s fun to remember major events that happen during high school and see people reconnect with old friends.”
Fifteen members were inducted into the newly created Dos Pueblos “Hall of Fame.”
The inaugural class included the late coach and athletic director Scott O’Leary, the late softball and basketball coach Jennifer Moreland, longtime track and cross country coach Gordon McClenathan and 1988 Olympics volleyball gold medalist Doug Partie.
The other Hall of Famers were DP’s first principal Henry “Denny” Baylor; investigative journalist Yvette Cabrera; astrophysicists and UC Berkeley professor Alexi Filippenko; Amy Foose, who was diagnosed with Progeria as a student; noted car designer Chip Foose, longtime music teacher Ike Jenkins; Robin Lim, founder of Healthy Mother Earth Foundation; Susan Montgomery, a driving force behind the Save DP movement in the early 1990s; Howard McGillin, a Tony Award-nominated stage, screen and TV actor; Ben Rattray, founder and CEO of Change.org, and Steve Meister, a long-time vice principal and activitie director at DP.
The celebration was a collaboration between school officials and the Dos Pueblos High School Foundation, non-profit organization to fundraise for the school.
The school opened its doors in the fall of 1966.
In 1967, the student body numbered 1,029 students in grades 9 through 11, and 63 faculty members on campus.
Over the span of five decades, the school has been designated a California Distinguished School and a National Blue Ribbon School, and has been acknowledged by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.
Dos Pueblos has received accreditation for its academic performance from the National Merit Scholars, six-year accreditation by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, California Interscholastic Federation ranked championship titles, advanced placement exam rates, and its graduates attending college and standardized test score results.
The school offers students the International Baccalaureate Program, the Dos Pueblos Engineering Academy and the exemplary Academy for Success and Career Technical Education Pathways.
“It went from being known as ‘hippy high’ in the 1970s to one of the top performing academic high schools in California with world-renowned programs,” Assistant Principal Bill Woodard said. “I could go on and on. I’m very proud.”
Today, the 40-acre site, nestled adjacent to the foothills on the edge of the Goleta Valley, prepares more than 2,000 freshmen through seniors for future success annually.
“This marks the coming of age,” Woodard said. “Fifty years seems like a great time to reconnect as a community to honor our roots, celebrate the students and adults who made this school what it is and reflect on how much this school means to people.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Brooke Holland can be reached at bholland@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.