| Like most high schools, Chaffey High School has its share of famous
graduates.
Los Angeles police detective turned author Joseph Waumbaugh graduated from
Chaffey. So did former professional football players Anthony Munoz and Jon
Keyworth.
Robert Shaw went from a 1955 Chaffey grad to direct the Atlanta Symphony.
Hobart Alter (Class of '51) developed the Hobie surfboard.
Chaffey High School has managed to churn out its share of community leaders
as well.
Assemblyman Jim Brulte is a Chaffey alum. So is San Bernardino County
District Attorney Dennis Stout. Assemblyman Fred Aguiar attended school for
three years before transferring to Chino High School his senior year. Ontario
Police Chief Lloyd Scharf graduated from Chaffey, too.
Then there's the current Ontario City Council. The mayor and three councilmen
all are Chaffey grads.
Was there something in the water?
"I like to think it is because the pride we had developed in our school
spilled over to pride in the community," said Councilman Gary Ovitt (Class
of 1965).
Ovitt's council colleague, Jim Bowman (Class of '63), thinks it is natural
progression from the high level of involvement by Chaffey students in school and
civic activities.
"That led into future involvement into the community," Bowman said.
According to Mayor Gus Skropos (Class of '75), many current community and
regional leaders are over age 50. It makes perfect sense that most either
attended or graduated from Chaffey.
"Chaffey was the only game in town," he said.
Most of the other high schools -- Upland, Ontario High, Fontana, Chino,
Rancho Cucamonga -- were not around then.
If you look at most of the current local and regional leaders, Councilman
Jerry DuBois said, most of them graduated within four to five years of each
other. Most had long-term roots in the community by then. It was comfortable to
stay in the community, he added. Involvement soon followed.
They took to hear the value leaned at Chaffey, said DuBois, who graduated in
1967.
Unlike some community leaders and politicians, Chaffey graduates became
involved based on a high school tradition, rather than college traditions,
DuBois said.
|
