Notes Acknowledgements A number of people provided great assistance in this project and deserve special acknowledgement. To Shelby Foster in the Ohlone College President’s Office for her general interest in this project and her help in locating historical documents, especially early Board minutes. Shelby also provided invaluable editing work. To Alma Collopy who worked in the President’s Office for a time and helped digitized Board minutes from 1966, 1967 and 1968. To Jenny Schmidt in the Ohlone College Library for her enthusiastic work to organize the college archive and make it accessible to all; and her great interest in and assistance with this project, which has been source of inspiration to finish it. And to three individuals who offered review and insight for this work. Gloria Fuerniss was a freshman student during the first year of classes. She later became a successful businesswoman at Fremont Bank and served on the Ohlone College Board for years. Jim Klent, Professor of Chemistry, was a member of the full time faculty at Ohlone during the first year of classes and went on to have a distinguished 40-year career at the college. Mr. John Weed, a lawyer and local businessman was a member of the college Board for 33 years, and lent his encyclopedic knowledge of Fremont and the college to this effort.
Research Notes The term “junior college” will be used almost exclusively here as this was the common name used over the period being explored. To this day, even though the term “community college” has been the official term for years, people still often use “junior college” or its shortcut nickname “JC.” The Primary Sources for this work are made up mainly of: local history publications, news articles, Board minutes and college archives. Considerable use of has been made of Newspapers.com, which has an easily searchable online archive of articles from The Argus from the inception of the paper in April 1960 (in Newark!) up through 1977. In those early years the Argus was a truly local paper and provided extensive coverage of local government and schools. The coverage of the efforts to form the junior college district, and the planning and operations once it was approved, was no exception. This was most helpful in compiling this history. Nearly 750 clippings related to the development of Ohlone up through the first year of classes have been found. These have been printed and organized into three binders that have been added to the college archives. Some use has been made of another local paper, the Fremont News-Register, but their archives are on old microfiche rolls at the Fremont Public Library, not searchable, and are very difficult to access and use. Once the Board of Trustees was formed and began meeting in January 1966, excellent minutes were kept and these were invaluable to this research. However, most of the attachments related to Board items in the 1966 and 1967 minutes have not been found. The quest to locate some or all of them continues. Often news stories in The Argus ran the day of Board meetings with a review of items of interest on the published agendas, followed by stories the next day or two on meeting highlights. These have been most helpful in providing details from missing documents and also providing information about the meetings that were not part of the official minutes. Related editorials in The Argus have also provided interesting and valuable perspective.
Author’s Notes My tenure at Ohlone College began in July 1994 as Dean of Occupational Education and Economic Development. The job transitioned to Associate Vice President of Instruction in 1998 and in 2002 I was named Vice President of Instruction. In 2006 the job became Vice President of Academic Affairs/Deputy Superintendent. I retired from Ohlone in August 2013. My time at Ohlone started two years after the 25th anniversary. I had the unique opportunity and pleasure of getting to know and work with many of the founding faculty, staff and administrators. I was also fortunate to experience the development of the second and third generations of Ohlone employees; not to mention many amazing students. Now as we near Ohlone’s 50th anniversary, my particular perspective helps me appreciate the dedication and passion of the founders and pioneers of the 60s and 70s, the commitment and determination of those who helped the college grow in the 80s and 90s, and the vision and energy of those in the new millennium to build the second campus in Newark and a new academic core on the Fremont campus. And I have witnessed the strong support and enthusiasm of the communities of Fremont and Newark for their community college. To me the story of Ohlone College is an inspirational one of an educational vision realized through five decades of excellence. The positive impact on the lives of thousands of students, and on the community in general, has been compelling. And the investments made by the people in the District will ensure this remarkable force, Ohlone College, will continue another 50 years. My personal affinity with Ohlone College led me to this attempt to document how this valuable community asset came to be and what took place during the first year of classes. As is the case with all histories, this is a continuing work in progress. Input and feedback from readers is encouraged. I further hope others will join in writing the history of Ohlone College from their own perspectives; possibly leading one day to a full history of this wonderful local college. Jim Wright, 9/2016