Santa Cruz, CA
Here are the remembrances for two former teachers at both Santa Cruz High School and Soquel High School.
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Eugene William HARLAMOFF
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Obituary
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Sunday 25 December 2011 Santa Cruz Sentinel
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1929 - 2011
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Resident of Soquel
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Eugene, a native and life-long resident of Soquel, passed away in his home on December 8th after a lengthy illness. He was 82 years old.
His maternal grandparents had come to Santa Cruz County in 1890, and his mother was born in Soquel in 1900. His father was an immigrant from Russia, coming to Soquel in 1926.
Gene was a very bright and mechanically-minded student; he attended Soquel Elementary, Mission Hill Junior High, and graduated from Santa Cruz High School in 1947. He was a Boy Scout and attained the rank of Eagle Scout. He attended UC Berkeley for two and one-half years. He was a founding member of the UC Hiking Club, made the first winter ascent of a major Sierra Nevada peak, and would trek, often alone, throughout the high Sierras. In 1950, he volunteered for the Army, trained at Fort Ord, and served sixteen months with the Combat Engineers in the Korean War. He was Honorably Discharged in 1953 after 3 years, reaching the rank of Sergeant First Class. He attended San Jose State and graduated with Teacher's and Master's Degrees. It was at San Jose State he met his future wife, Glenna Gitschlag, and married her in 1955.
His first teaching position was at Santa Cruz High School, but when Soquel High School was built, he transferred and taught there for the rest of his 36-year career. He was a master teacher of science, physics, electronics, math, and driver education. He ran a well-disciplined class and was wont to say that if students didn't meet his expectations, he would "snarl and breathe fire." It apparently worked, for he was so much admired that that many of his students would visit him long after they had graduated and started their own careers.
Gene, with his father's help, built the home that he, his wife, and children lived in, and it was there he died. He was deeply fond of classical music and always had something playing on his superb audio system. He continued backpacking and hiking long into his retirement. His hobby was touring the United States, with Glenna on board, on his BMW touring bike, camping along the way.
He is survived by his wife, Glenna, his sister, Barbara McCrary, two sons - Craig (and wife Vivian) and Brian; two daughters - Gail Harlamoff and Laurel Granados; two granddaughters - Paige and April Harlamoff; and two grandsons - Evan and Elias Granados. He is also survived by three nieces - Susan Huff, Ellen Rinde, and Janet Webb; three grandnieces - Katie Webb, Agnes Huff, and Aleksey Huff; and grandnephew - Dennis Webb. He was pre-deceased by his mother and father. All of his surviving family members live in Santa Cruz County.
There will be no public services. Donations in his name may be made to Cabrillo College Foundation for benefit of student scholarships. Send to California Retired Teachers, 130 Siesta Drive, Aptos, CA 95003. You're invited to visit his memorial Facebook page, and feel free to post photos and/or comments. https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Eugene-Harlamoff/287315467977980
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James J. SIMPSON
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Obituary
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Monday 25 April 2011 Santa Cruz Sentinel
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James J. Simpson, long-time Santa Cruz County resident, passed away April 11, 2011. Jim, known as "Coach" to scores of people, died in Aptos at age 84.
Born in Denver, CO, Jim and his family moved to Fresno in 1943. While in Fresno, Jim attended Fresno Technical High School. At Fresno Tech, Jim excelled at basketball, earning his varsity letter.
After graduating in 1944, Jim enlisted in the Navy, serving as a radio operator on the submarine, USS Plaice. At the end of the war, Jim returned to California and attended Visalia Junior College, where he played center position on the basketball team which won the championship for the state in 1948. His basketball prowess led to a scholarship at USC, where he received his Bachelor of Science Degree in 1950.
After receiving his Bachelor of Science Degree, Jim returned to the central valley, teaching there for two years. The prospects of great golfing on the coast lured Jim to Santa Cruz County in 1953, and he took a teaching job at the Live Oak School District. Jim then accepted a position at Santa Cruz High School, teaching history and social studies; while there he coached junior varsity basketball and football.
When Cabrillo College was established in 1961, Jim became the first basketball coach there. Jim moved from Santa Cruz High to Soquel High School when that school opened in 1962. He was varsity basketball coach there for many years. He retired from teaching in 1981, and pursued a career as a financial planner.
Jim is survived by his sister, Barbara Weatherson [Bob], his wife of 55 years, Sharon, and his six children, Lisa Armstrong, Mark Simpson [Sue], K.C. Espinoza [Pete], Chris Martin [Jim], Tony Simpson [Brenda], Stephanie Willhoit [Alex], 13 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren.
Friends are welcome to attend a celebration in Jim's memory at DeLaveaga Golf Course at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 30. A private ceremony will be held by the family in which and Honor Guard will celebrate Jim's life and service with the U.S. Navy.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Alzheimer's Association , 1777 Capitola Rd, Santa Cruz, CA 95062 or to Hospice of Santa Cruz, 940 Disc Dr., Scotts Valley, CA 95066.
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I was a student in Gene Harlamoff's physics class during his first year of teaching at Santa Cruz HS during the 56/57 school year. Since electronics was my hobby at the time, his class was one of my favorites. After graduating from San Jose State I spent three years in the army, which included a 13-month tour in Korea. After I returned from the army I obitained a teaching credential and taught for a year at Bishop Union High School, mainly to be near good fishing and backpacking spots; but I quit after a year of teaching six periods of English, my minor, because none of those teaching in my major field, mathematics, seemed ready to "kick off" any time soon. [The head of the math department at BUHS was Ron Smith, who along with Gene helped found the UCHC (University of California Hiking Club).]
When I returned to Santa Cruz in 1967 I happened to meet Gene in the Santa Cruz Library parking lot. He told me that Soquel High School needed someone who could teach math and English. I replied, " I can do that."
Gene sat in on my interview with the late Bob Soderholm, Soquel High School's first principal. At the end of the interview, Bob appologized for having to ask such questions, but queried, "Do you have an urge to wear the same dirty sweatshirt for three weeks?" and "Or not shave for that length of time?"
Before I could say anything, Gene piped up and said, "No, he's square -- like the rest of us!"
While I was teaching math and English at Soquel High during the 66/67 school year, I believe Gene told Ron Dameron, principal-in-waiting for Harbor High School, that I was interested in electronics while in his physics class and should be able to teach that subject as well.
The electronics program at Harbor High was a mirror image of Gene's at Soquel High with the same text, the same test equipment, and the kit of electronic components with one exception -- the instructor was not quite as knowledgeable as Gene. When the test equipment arrived after the start of the school year, some of Gene's 3rd- & 4th-year students helped assemble them along with Jim Berlin (son of KSCO's founder/owner/operator C. Vernon Berlin), several local hams, and "yours truly." When I told former SCHS Chemistry teacher Earl DeVore, who is still an active radio amateur [aka, ham], of the late arrival, he surmised that I had to start teaching a lot of theory.
Unfortunately, yes. But once the test equipment was built, we began doing what I enjoyed most about electronics: building things such as crystal sets, power supplies, etc. Then the theory returned when we examined how some of the things the students built worked. And, as Gene did in his SCHS physics class, I eventually had the kids build projects. On my last day at Harbor High in June 1971, I also repeated something Gene had done: I showed the kids the slides I had taken while in the army and stationed in Korea.
He and I rode to several meetings of the Northern California Electronics Instructors, which included high school, junior college, and college electronics instructors. Of course, we talked about backpacking in the Sierras rather than electronics. He had been virtually every place I had been; the only other backpacker I've ever met who had an even wider acquaintance with the Sierras was the late Bob Hope, a retired PG&E manager who for many years took groups from the Presbyterian Church on long backpacks.
When I told Gene that I was doing a web site on the genealogy of the faculty & staff of Santa Cruz High during the 1950s, he asked if it would include any Soquel High teachers. He was disappointed when I said no, but there is now a small text-only (ie., World Connect) site on some of the Soquel High School teachers c1970. [Links to both sites are below.]
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While I didn't know Jim as well as Gene, mainly because I was never in one of his classes or on any of the teams he coached, we both quit teaching in order to enter the financial arena. I can't remember if he was in the teachers investment club/group which I advised from time to time with what some called "gloom & doom" forecasts, but we did talk via phone several times about markets and market gyrations.
When I started working on genealogy and doing research in the Santa Cruz Sentinel I occasionally ran across articles on the Soquel High Basketball Team. In one game against Santa Clara, his team got the ball in a close game with very little time left and one of his players called a time-out; but because they were out of time-outs, they got a technical instead. Afterward Jim groused to the Sentinel reporter, "We shouldn't even have had the ball in the first place."
Don't know which basketball coach at Soquel HS holds the record for the most technicals, but Jim certainly wasn't shy about expressing his views.
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I may add more to my recollections of Gene and/or Jim; suggest you check back later. Also, I plan to add more genealogy info on both of them to the websites whose links are below. [The World Connect (text-only) sites are more current since they require much less work to update.]
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Links:
- Genealogy of the Faculty & Staff of Santa Cruz HS in the 1950s
- World Connect Site for the SCHS Faculty & Staff
- World Connect Site for Soquel High School in 1969
- Wikipedia article on Soquel, CA
W 28 Dec Actual Route: PA VA Hosp - Mountain View - Santa Cruz - Pinto Lake
Th 29 Dec Actual Route: Pinto Lake - Aptos - Capitola - Santa Cruz - Pinto Lake
F 30 Dec Actual Route: Pinto Lake - Santa Cruz - Pinto Lake
Sa 31 Dec Actual Route: Pinto Lake - Aptos - Live Oak - Pinto Lake
Su 1 Jan Actual Route: Pinto Lake - Aptos - Santa Cruz - Pinto Lake
M 2 Jan Actual Route: Pinto Lake - Palo Alto - Santa Cruz
T 3 Jan Actual Route: RV Service Center of Santa Cruz - Aptos - Freedom - Pinto Lake
W 4 Jan Actual Route: Pinto Lake - Santa Cruz - Hitching Post Motel
Th 5 Jan Actual Route: Hitching Post Motel - Campbell - MLK Branch Lib (SJ) - Campbell - Santa Cruz
F 6 Jan Route: Santa Cruz
Finding Campgrounds:
- RV Campgrounds from TrailerLifeDirectory.com
- Family Camping Directories from Woodalls.com
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