Campbell High School was the first high school to open in the Campbell Union High School District. The school was established on September 14, 1900, in Campbell, California.

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 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.

National Register listing

The campus' three buildings, as the Campbell Union High School Historic District, were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. They are the only example of 1930s Works Progress Administration 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, Ph.D., computer scientist, one of the principal designers of the SQL database query language.
  • Steve Davis, Major League Baseball (MLB) player for the Chicago Cubs
  • Don Hahn, MLB outfielder, 1969–75
  • Dudley R. Herschbach Ph.D., Nobel Prize-winning chemist
  • Craig Morton, NFL quarterback, 1965–82
  • Emil M. Mrak, Ph.D., Chancellor, University of California at Davis
  • Larry Norman, Class of '65, pioneer of Christian rock
  • Ed Oates, 1964, co-founder of Oracle Corporation
  • John Oldham, MLB player and college baseball coach
  • 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

References