More random thoughts:

The K in Ursula K LeGuin is for Kroeber, as in the UC anthropologists, her parents, who “discovered” Ishi.

MoveOn founder Wes Boyd, BHS ’78. His wife and MoveOn co-founder Joan Blades may also be a BHS alum from a few years earlier.

KTVU anchor Frank Somerville, BHS ’76.

Jacket editor Andy O’Hehir, BHS ’79, Editor of pre-NewTimes SF Weekly and senior writer at salon.com

SF PR man extraordinaire Sam Singer, BHS ’76. Anytime there’s a scandal in the Bay Area, Singer is called in to do cleanup.
http://www.singersf.com/

Raymond Burr attended Willard but not BHS.

I’ve seen several elementary school pictures of Daphne Zuniga on the Berkeley Grade School Photos facebook group, but she didn’t go to Berkeley High. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=50779711365&ref=ts

I think “Nina Hartley” (a.k.a. Marie “Mitzi” Hartman), BHS ’77, who is in the Wikipedia list and has a long Wikipedia entry at that link, is probably secretly familiar to more Americans outside of Berkeley than anyone else mentioned so far in this discussion.

http://www.dailycal.org/article/102527/

From viewing that play and from what I read about BHS these days, I can see that precious little has changed there from the earlier epoch in which I attended Berkeley High.

It also bears the logo “Non sibi” for which the proper translation is “You ain’t in this game for yourself” and the vulgar: “we’re all in it together, so buck up and act like it.” As a matter of practice, the school and its graduates have a considerably uneven record in living up to this principle.

It was chartered from the beginning as an endowed school to “educate youth from all quarters”. In the earlier years, “youth from all quarters” meant “young white males” and “educate” meant board and teach mainly Greek and Latin.

At one point, fairly early on, the school became notably over-endowed and spun-off a more practical school next door, teaching whatever practical arts seemed appropriate. Eventually the two merged.

G. W. attended the boys school and is somewhat famously recorded in his yearbook as a popular member of the cheer-leading squad.

In the 1970s, amidst rumors among some of the faculty (spread by the young progressives, heard by the old elite) that the boy’s were engaging in too much buggery, the school merged with the Abbot girl’s academy down the street.

By the 1980s, the school’s endowment was rather impressive and its scholarship programs had expanded considerably, although I think that the current feeling of the administration is that they were not, during that period, administered fairly. The school, during that period, reflecting a slightly more progressive younger faculty, began to create ancillary outreach programs for minority students. Feeling the mighty weight of its legacy, it also began international outreach programs.

Of late, under the direction of the latest headmaster (excuse me, the term is now “head of school,” I guess) — there has been considerable effort to expand the endowment and commit to needs-blind admission and performance-blind continuation of scholarships (e.g.: don’t flunk out and your scholarship isn’t cut, even if your grades suck like G.W.’s did).)

Most recently, at least per the alumni magazine, the faculty (led by relatively newly joined members) has begun to address the classism and racism and other notable “-isms” that have characterized the place for years by, amazingly enough, embarking on programs of self-examination among the faculty and staff.

The school has very, very many deep flaws. I resent the place. On the other hand, I also appreciate the place. It has lessons to teach BHS about faculty cohesion, trimester schedules and bell schedules, frugality [in some regards] and more. It is also my understanding that Phillips Andover has, of late, started some outreach programs to schools with academic program troubles like BHS. Which might be worth looking into, while carrying some large grains of salt in one’s pocket.

In my day, it was a school where I suspect the drinking and getting stoned (and coke) problems were on par with BHS so they have some experience in that area as well (doubled or halved, depending on how you view it, by being a boarding school). My impression from afar is that those problems have considerably diminished since then.

I do not know for sure about Timothy Hutton.

• Aaron Peskin . Contentious former S.F. Board of Sups president, known affectionately as the “Napoleon of North Beach.”

• Daniel Duane. Novelist and journalist. His Berkeley childhood influences and inner psyche were explored at length in this recent NY Times magazine piece:

Dan was raised in Berkeley, Calif., by VW-bus-driving lefties who were so utterly committed to their own romance that Dan sometimes felt left out.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/magazine/06marriage-t.html?_r=2&ref=magazine

• Aya de Leon. Acclaimed “slam poet” (East Bay Express Readers’ pick for “Best Slam Poet.”) She was way ahead of the curve in the whole marriage definition controversy when back in 1997 she described her decision to “marry herself” in this well-known essay:

http://www.ayadeleon.com/selfmarriage.html

To juggle full-time work, school and self-care, I needed commitment in my life. So I decided, hey, I can’t wait for someone to notice how fabulous I am. I’m going to marry myself.

I bought a silver band and wore it on my ring finger to symbolize my growing self-love. I told my friends that I was marrying myself, showing off my ring as proudly as I would an expensive diamond.

• Officer Andrew Cohen, well know through the years’ long video gate controversy in the SFPD:

He is one of the three children of the late Barbara Cohen, a former copy editor and reporter who he says instilled in Cohen not just progressive politics and a commitment to public service but also an irreverent sense of humor.

“I’m a liberal Berkeley Jew with two biracial children, who was raised by a very strong liberal woman,” he said. “I’m not going to be the victim of someone else’s weird notion of political correctness.”

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/12/09/MNGHEG5GMB1.DTL#ixzz0hjDja35Y

p.s. Can someone actually verify that Timothy Hutton graduated from BHS? “When he was 16 Hutton sought out his father, living with him in Los Angeles while attending Fairfax High School. There, while playing Nathan Detroit in a school production of Guys and Dolls, Hutton realized he wanted to become an actor. With encouragement from both of his parents, Hutton carefully built himself a career in television.”

As far as I know, few acclaimed childhood actors actually graduate from high school (although some nominally did via “correspondence courses.” ) When you add up how few acclaimed actors graduated from high school or, especially, college (almost none of them has any graduate degrees), one begins to question why many of us seem to accord so much significance to their political pronouncements or endorsements of a cause. We all (rightly)snort with contempt when we read that more Americans trust the actor who played Marcus Welby MD to dispense medical advice than AMA guidelines, but many of us seem to take seriously the political endorsements of star actors who are (mostly) high school dropout. What gives?

Here are some more BHS alumni luminaries!

http://wapedia.mobi/en/List_of_Berkeley_High_School_(Berkeley,_California)_people