AHS Loses Hall of Famer Dave Bourne – Class of 1957

February 2, 2015 by

D. BourneDave Bourne comes by his musical talents naturally. His father Ted Bourne was the instrumental music instructor for 27 years for the Anaheim City School District which at that time included Fremont Junior High and five elementary schools. Dave started piano lessons at 6 years of age and his father taught him trumpet, trombone, baritone, and string bass.

Dave was in the last freshman class at AUHS and while there he encountered former vaudevillian Red Hamilton who introduced him to ragtime. Red worked for the school district as a piano tuner, stage manager, and maintenance man. Red was a great ragtime piano player who also played the banjo, drums, and cornet. Red’s great granddaughter is Gwen Stefani of the group No Doubt.

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Filed Under: Hall of Fame, Hall of Fame 2012, In Memory Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

George Fraser – Class of 1970

November 24, 2013 by
George Fraser - Class of 1970

George Fraser – Class of 1970

George Fraser has the distinction of being Anaheim High’s first player in CIF history to make the CIF selection three years in a row, twice on first team. He was also on the 1967 Colonist football team that won Anaheim’s first outright CIF championship in the 4- A Division.

A natural athlete, Fraser was a stand-out player from the beginning. He played football, basketball and ran track as a boy in New York with a Catholic youth organization before moving to Anaheim in 1964. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Alumni Spotlight, Hall of Fame, Hall of Fame 2012 Tagged With: , , , , ,

Jerry Shipkey – Class of 1943

November 24, 2013 by
Jerry Shipkey - Class of 1943

Jerry Shipkey – Class of 1943

Legendary Hall of Fame athlete Jerry Shipkey has the distinction of being the only person to play in the Rose Bowl for both USC and UCLA. But his accomplishments as an athlete include much more. Shipkey went on to a standout career in professional ball with the Pittsburgh Steelers and was also a record-setting track and field star in high school and college. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Colonist Wall of Valor, Hall of Fame, Hall of Fame 2012 Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jo An Burdick Gottlieb – Class of 1951

May 26, 2012 by

Anaheim High Class of ’51 graduate Jo An (Burdick) Gottlieb credits living a life she describes as a “dream come true” to being at the right place at the right time. In one instance, the right place and time happened to be sitting on a curb in 1939 at age 5 with her parents and sister in front of Anaheim’s old Chung King Cafe on Center Street (now Lincoln) waiting for the Halloween Parade to begin.

“Looking to the east I saw the band approach with girls out front holding these shiny things.” The objects that caught her attention were batons being tossed and twirled by the band’s majorettes. From that day forward, Jo said her dream was to be the “best darn baton twirler ever.”

But she never imagined that from her humble beginnings, practicing with a bamboo pole in the alley behind her homeat500 N. Vine Street, that she would one day lead the nation’s top parades as a majorette, appear on stage and screen with entertainers like Frank Sinatra and own her own baton, dance and music studio. In Jo words: “It’s been one fabulous ride.” [Read more…]

Filed Under: Alumni Spotlight, Hall of Fame 2012 Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jan Harp Domene – Class of 1969

May 13, 2012 by

Jan Harp Domene was a life-long Anaheim resident who was married more than 40 years to her high school sweetheart Greg Domene, also Class of ’69.

Jan dedicated her life to her family and the community. From serving as the president of the National PTA to working in her three children’s classrooms more than 30 years ago, Jan’s life centered around advocating for children. Jan and Greg’s children are all Colonist graduates and include Christina, Class of 1988; Kevin, ’92; and Kyle, ’95.

She started as Edison Elementary School’s hamburger chairman and became president of the Anaheim High PTA. She moved on to higher levels of the PTA and ultimately served as president of the national organization with a membership of more than 5 million parents, teachers and students, including 155,000 in Orange County.

For several years she commuted from Anaheim to the PTA’s Chicago headquarters and to the organization’s Washington D.C. policy office to oversee a 28-member Board of Directors and 70 staff members. In addition, she traveled around the world and the United States to visit individual school sites and PTA’s and to speak in front of governmental bodies, including the U.S. Congress. She later joined the AHS Alumni Association as board president and was elected to the AUHSD Board and served as a trustee until her passing.

Jan (Harp) Domene - Class of 1969

Jan (Harp) Domene – Class of 1969

Filed Under: Hall of Fame 2012, In Memory Tagged With: , , , , , ,