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Notable Classmates

Wilson's Hall of Fame

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Woodrow Wilson Classical High School

School of Olympians

February 1, 2013, Wilson celebrated "A Great Night To Be A Bruin!"  They honored all of our Olympians since Helsinki 1952.  We have had at least one summer Olympian in every Olympiad, that's 16 Olympiads and 34 Olympians.  More that any other high school. and that includes Polly High.

Paul Williams, 1958

Singer, Songwriter, Actor

Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe winning songwriter, Paul Williams is recognized as one of America's most prolific and gifted lyricists and composers.  A 'Hall of Fame' songwriter and recipient of the National Music Publishers President's Award, Williams standards have been recorded by such diverse musical icons as Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Barbara Streisand, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, David Bowie, Tony Bennett, Sarah Vaughn, Johnny Mathis, The Carpenters, Luther Vandross, REM, Mel Torme, and Diana Ross. His songs have also found favor with Country legends including Chet Atkins, Garth Brooks, Kris Kristofferson, Charlie Pride, Crystal Gayle, Anne Murray, Lynn Anderson, The Oak Ridge Boys, Diamond Rio and Neil McCoy

Melvin Dumar 1962

Laura Baugh 1972

Paul Goydos 1981

Bobby Grich 1967

Jeff Burroughs 1969

Sean Burroughs 1998

Swen Langeberg  / Nater 1968

Dr Art Costa

Malcom M. Lucas 1945

During his tenure, the California Supreme Court issued landmark decisions on reapportionment, insurance law and employment law, among other issues. Widely heralded for bringing order and efficiency to the entire judicial system and restoring confidence in and respect for the Supreme Court, he was responsible for numerous administrative reforms in the high court's internal operations that have improved procedures and streamlined the decision-making process.

Bruce Brown 1955

With The Endless Summer, Brown broke the mold. Born in San Francisco, Brown grew up in Southern California. He started surfing at 11 on the green rollers that formed in the entrance channel to Alamitos Bay before the Long Beach breakwall was completed.

Astronaut Bruce McCandless 1954
 

Jeff Severson 1967

Bob Bailey 1961

Bob Lemon 1938

Camryn Manheim, 1979

Don Coscarelli  1972

Tony Azevedo, 1999

During his four years at Wilson Classical High School in Long Beach, California, his team won four California Interscholastic Federation championships and he was named MVP all four years. Azevedo led Stanford's men's water polo team to two NCAA championships (in 2001 and 2002), and he represented the United States at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. At the 2004 Olympics, Azevedo was second on the tournament’s goals scored list with 15. He set a school freshman scoring record (68 goals), a single-season school record as a sophomore (95, or 3.4 goals a game) and, scored a school record 332 career goals in four years at Stanford. For each of his four years in college, Azevedo was honored as the most outstanding male player of the year with the Peter J. Cutino Award – water polo’s version of the Heisman Trophy.

In 2004 after graduating from Stanford University with a degree in International Relations, Azevedo signed a professional water polo contract with Bissolati Cremona (Italy) placing him among the top 10 paid players in the sport. Playing with Team Bissolati for his third season in 2006, he scored 63 goals with a 2.62 average per game. Azevedo will rejoin the rest of the US men’s national team at the 2007 Melbourne World Championships.^[1]

Sandy Jones Hutchinson 1973

Richard Bach 1954

Dr Andrew Ordon 1968

Gabriel Iglesias 1994

Bradley Nowell 1986

Barbara Barry 1970

These clean fresh fragrances are named for the rooms of the house because this is where we return to be restored and renewed everyday.  With living room, dinning room, power room, and bedroom Barbara takes us on an evocative tour through the home.  Making our familiar surroundings feel fresh and alive.=, and while she named the line after specific rooms, Barbara hopes that you "let your intuition guide you, and that you use the fragrances where ever you like.

Jerico Poppler 1970

Huntington Beach International 
Surfing Museum.

Kate Schmidt 1970

Joan Lind 1970

In 1976 Joan Lind became the first American woman to win an Olympic medal in rowing when she finished second in the single sculls in Montreal. Lind was also a member of the 1980 Olympica team, which boycotted the Moscow Games, and the 1984 team, which boasted the first American quadruple sculls teams to win an Olympia medal (a second silver for Lind). Ranked the No. 1 single sculler in the United States from 1973 to 1980, Lind has won 14 national titles. She was inducted into the National Rowing Hall of Fame in 1985. She married Olympic Rowing Coach John Van Blom in 1984. A part of the CENTURY CLUB'S best moments in the City of Long Beach in February, 2006.

John Dykstra 1965

Jon Jerde 1957

Stuart Rosen 1957

Stu on Dusty's Treehouse

Stu Rosen

Title

Professor, Film/Electronic Arts Dept. at California State University, Long Beach

Demographic info

Broadcast Media | Greater Los Angeles Area

Current:

Adjunct Professor, Film/Electronic Arts Dept. at California State University - Long Beach

Education:

California State University-Long Beach.

Actor in "Dustys Treehouse" and many other movies as sound director and various crew positions

Chuck Bittick 1957

He was born in El Reno, Oklahoma and died in Yorba Linda, California.

Bittick was a member of the American water polo team which finished seventh in the 1960 tournament. He played five matches and scored three goals.

Chuck also held the World Record in the 200 M Backstroke and held and broke 35 American records in various swim events including the 100 and 200 backstroke and relays

Bob Ctvrtlik 1981

After a successful college volleyball career, Bob followed his Pepperdine coach, Marv Dunphy, to the United States national team where Ctvrtlik quickly earned a starting position. In the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea, Ctvrtlik, playing opposite of volleyball legend, Karch Kiraly, earned a gold medal by defeating the Soviet Union in the finals. For several years, Ctvrtlik played professionally in Europe, including winning the well-respected Euro-professional league championship. He returned to the United States Olympic team in preparation for the 1992 Summer Olympics during which time he was awarded the most valuable player in the world on two separate occasions. Competing as team captain in Barcelona, he became one of the colorful "bald eagles" as all of the U.S. men's team players shaved their heads in protest of alleged officiating misconduct. The U.S. team defeated Cuba in the consolation match to take home the bronze medal.

Tom Wilkes 1957

Tom Wilkes and his Grammy Award, taken a few weeks
before his death in
Pioneertown, CA.

Born in Long Beach, California and raised in southern California, Wilkes attended Long Beach City College, UCLA and the Art Center College of Design in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Graphic designer Tom Wilkes created some of the most iconic and influential images in pop music history, masterminding covers for landmark recordings including the Rolling Stones' Beggars Banquet, Janis Joplin's Pearl, and Neil Young's Harvest. Born in Long Beach, CA, on July 30, 1939, Wilkes funded studies at Long Beach City College, UCLA, and the Art Center School in Los Angeles by painting elaborate illustrations on friends' cars. He initially entered advertising, and was running his own agency in 1967, the year he designed his first album covers, including the Rolling Stones' Flowers and Sagittarius' sunshine pop classic Present Tense. Wilkes' design for the Mamas & the Papas' debut, If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears, introduced one of his recurring motifs -- a lavatory (cropped out on re-pressings of the LP) -- and also brought him into contact with band frontman John Phillips and producer Lou Adler, then in the early stages of planning the Monterey International Pop Music Festival. Wilkes went on to create all the graphics and print materials for the festival, including a celebrated psychedelic promotional poster printed on aluminum foil stock. "Most of the artwork in that particular culture was coming out of San Francisco, and what Tom did was he took a San Francisco look, or niche, and made it international,"

Scot A. Breithaupt 1975

Scot Breithaupt is the founder of BMX Bicycle Motocross, a sport which made its introduction in the Olympics in Bejing, China.  A little known fact is that BMX started at the corner of 7th and Bellflower in 1970

The pressures placed on Scot as a young entrepreneur, led to addiction and a host of problems for Scot.  Scot now appears to have that part of his life under control and is using his reputation and influence to encourage young kids to avoid the mistakes he made -- Good work Scot.

Carol White Breithaupt 1947

Carol Faye White Breithaupt is the first Miss Long Beach in the Miss America Pageant of 1950.  Carol is the mother of Scot Breithaupt who founded BMX Bicycle Motocross listed above. Carol has many accomplishments and recently received her teaching credential in 2008.  Carol was a founding owner of Century 21 Sparrow in Long Beach and is currently a retired Realtor living in the Palm Springs area.  She plays the piano and tap dances for exercise

John Kahler, 1967

John Kahler, Football 
John Kahler was one of the outstanding football players in 49er history. A three-year letterwinner (1969-71), Kahler was a standout on the defensive line. He was a two-time first team All-Pacific Coast Athletic Association selection (1970 & 1971) and after his senior season he was named the the Kodak All-America Coaches' College Division second team. He was drafted in the 1972 NFL Draft by the Kansas City Chiefs in the sixth round. Kahler led the 49ers to a 9-2-1 mark in 1970 and a first place finish in the PCAA. The 49ers played in their only bowl game in school history in the 1970 campaign, a 24-24 tie to Louisville in the Pasadena Bowl, a game which was played in the Rose Bowl. The 49ers finished second in the conference in 1970 in total defense, anchored by Kahler on the defensive line. In 1971 the 49ers were 8-4 and finished first in the PCAA at 5-1, but the league's council selected 4-1 San Jose State to represent the league at the 1971 Pasadena Bowl. Including an 8-3 mark in 1969, Kahler's sophomore season, the 49ers were 25-9-1 (.735) during his three years, the most wins over a three-year span in school history. He played in the East-West All-Star Game as a senior, leading the West to victory and finishing second to DB Willie Buchanon for Defensive Player of the Game honors. Kahler played one year at Long Beach City College before coming to the 49ers.

George Chakiris, 1952 est.

George Chakiris, American dancer, singer, actor

Chakiris made his film debut in 1947, in the chorus of Song of Love. For several years he appeared in small roles, usually as a dancer or a member of the chorus in various musical films. He was one of the dancers in Marilyn Monroe's "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" number in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), and appeared as a dancer alongside Rosemary Clooney in White Christmas (in the "Love, You Didn't Do Right by Me" number). He can also be seen in the "Chop Suey" number in the musical film Flower Drum Song and the funeral dance in the MGM musical film Brigadoon.

His biggest success came with the film West Side Story (1961), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Bernardo, leader of the "Sharks". Prior to the film, he'd appeared as "Riff," leader of the "Jets," in the West End (London) production of the same musical. He starred as a doctor in the film Diamond Head (1963) opposite Charlton Heston and Yvette Mimieux, and appeared alongside Gene Kelly in Jacques Demy's French musical Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (1967).

Akira Endo, 1960 est.

Akira Endo - Conductor 

Arira Endo is a Japanese-American conductor and music educator.  He studied under Nicolas Furjanick at Wilson High School in Long Beach and went on to earn a Bachelor's and Master's degree from the University of Southern California.  Maestro Endo has held conducting posts with the American Ballet Theater, Westside Orchestra, Long Beach Symphony Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, Austin Symphony Orchestra, San Antonio Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony and the Hamilton Philharmonic in Calgary, Canada

Gene "Skip" Rowland 1945

Skip Rowland was a student, coach and teacher at Wilson

Skip Rowland starred as a multi-sport star athlete at Wilson in the 1940s, and served as a highly successful coach in the decades after that. It’s difficult to measure the impact of his life Rowland in just his on-field accomplishments, though they were many.

He played football, basketball and baseball for the Bruins in the 40s, and would coach multiple sports at the school, most notably baseball, where he helped establish Wilson as one of the premier baseball programs in the country. 

Rowland is a member of six different Halls of Fame for his accomplishments, including three located in the city of Long Beach. He had been inducted into the Wilson, Long Beach Century Club, UCLA, UCLA Baseball, Long Beach Baseball, and CIF Halls of Fame. 

As a player, he was All-City, All-League, and All-CIF in both baseball and football, and was All-City and All-League in basketball. In 1943, he captained Wilson’s football team to their first-every victory over rival Poly, and earned Long Beach Football Player of the Year honors.

Geoff Sheppard 1962

Geoffrey C. Shepard:  Lawyer, Author, Political Historian

Geoff Shepard is a retired corporate lawyer, whose avocation is preserving the legacy of President Richard Nixon.  After graduating from Whittier College in 1966 and Harvard Law School in 1969, Geoff was one of fifteen young Americans to be selected to spend  a year in Washington, DC, as a White House Fellow.  He then joined the White House Domestic Council, the counterpart of the National Security Council, where he stayed for almost five years--serving as Associate Director for General Government for both Presidents Nixon and Ford.  He also worked as principal deputy to J. Fred Buzhardt, President Nixon's lead Watergate defense lawyer--an effort that ended rather badly.   

Since 1977, Geoff has arranged and hosted annual reunions of the policy planning staff of the Nixon/Ford Administration.  He authored a book, published in 2008, on the politics behind the Watergate scandal.  Since 2009, he also has produced over twenty Nixon Legacy Forums, which feature Nixon alumni discussing various policy initiatives of our 37th President--many of which have been broadcast on C-Span's American History Channel. 

Herb Halling
1962

A. Herb Halling: Engineer, Businessman, Author, Skipper

John Vittal 1965

John Vittal was a computer programmer working at the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute. He was responsible for transforming the old email system into the highly user-friendly tool of today. MSG was the first modern email program.

There is a whole range of functions that have been added to email since Tomlinson's first version. Vittal improved on the older version called BANANARD and later called the new program MSG. MSG has powerful features like message forwarding, a configurable interface, and an Answer command that automatically created properly addressed replies.

To countless users, the Answer command was revolutionary. It resulted in an outburst of email use over a 6-month period. Another highlight is that email changed from just sending independent messages into having a real conversation.

Shortly after the development of ARPANET and the Unix program the first email program was developed. Since that there have been many successful attempts to upgrade the early email program to increase its functions and technology.

Carl Peterson 1961

Carl Peterson was a 20 year coach and General Manager of the Kansas City Chiefs and is currently the Chairman of USA Football

A successful football scout, coach and NFL team executive for more than 40 years, Peterson holds a key leadership role within the independent non-profit organization.
    Peterson, best known as one of the NFL's most successful team executives with the Kansas City Chiefs (1989-2008), cut his teeth in the game as a high school coach before advancing as a coach on the college Division II and Division I-A levels from 1966-75. After serving as receivers coach at his alma mater UCLA (1972-75), Peterson followed Bruins head coach Dick Vermeil to the Philadelphia Eagles in 1976 to become the team's director of player personnel. Peterson helped the Eagles earn their first Super Bowl berth in 1980.
   In 1982, Peterson was hired as the general manager and president of the United States Football League's Philadelphia Stars, where he led the team to a 7-1 postseason record and two league championships before joining the Chiefs in December 1988. The Chiefs had made just one playoff appearance in the 15 seasons prior to Peterson's arrival. Under his leadership, the team enjoyed 13 winning seasons, advanced to the postseason nine times and earned four AFC West divisional championships.
   Peterson presides over USA Football's Board of Directors and offers insight toward USA Football initiatives.

Ken Overman
1965

Back in the USA, Ken became Area Director of a tri state CBN ministry center.  Earning his MBA in international business.  Ken joined the international pleasure boat industry. Over thirteen years, he developed distributors throughout the world for five manufacturers. visiting or working in 91 countries.

In 2010, Ken joined USAID and served 14 months in Afghanistan.

In 1991 he and a friend published Never Give Up: a 31 day Career Search Advisor.  Recently Ken released A Lion in Spring in 2014 while being a full-time biographer, penning legacies for businessmen and women. www.biographymasters.com

Ken's life les  sons: Trust God.  Don't waste time. Make it happen.

Edward Lovell 1936

Tim Shaw
1975