List of Berkeley High School (Berkeley, California) people

The following is a list of individuals associated with Berkeley High School (California) through attending as a student, or serving as a member of the faculty or staff.

Notable alumni

Activists

Bob Avakian, 1960, head of Revolutionary Communist Party
David Brower, 1928, president of Sierra Club; founder of Friends of the Earth
John Froines, 1957, Chicago Seven defendant, state track title team member, UCLA professor
Bobby Seale, 1954, co-founder of Black Panther Party^[1]

Actors

Raymond Burr, 1935, actor
Rafael Casal, actor, writer, producer
Justin Chu Cary, 2000, actor
Robert Culp, 1947, actor
Daveed Diggs, 2000, actor, producer, rapper (Hamilton)^[2]
Richard Gant, 1961, television and film actor
Nina Hartley, 1977, adult film actress
Timothy Hutton, 1978, film and television actor
Eli Marienthal, 2004, actor
Paul Mooney, 1959, actor, comedian
Rebecca Romijn, 1990, model, actress
Andy Samberg, 1996, actor, former cast member of Saturday Night Live
Akiva Schaffer, 1995, comedy writer and director, Saturday Night Live writer and director
Adivi Sesh, Tollywood actor
Jorma Taccone, 1995, comedy writer-actor, Saturday Night Live writer

Artists and photographers

Michael Heizer, 1962, specializes in large-scale sculptures and earth art (or land art)
Reuben Heyday Margolin, 1988, artist/kinetic sculptor
Galen Rowell, 1958, wilderness photographer; did much work for the Sierra Club
Bruce Ryan, 1971, production designer
Ariel Schrag, 1998, cartoonist/graphic novelist

Athletes

Chidi Ahanotu, 1988, football defensive end for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the NFL
Shooty Babitt, 1977, Major League Baseball player, Oakland A's
Don Barksdale, 1941, All-American basketball player at UCLA; first African-American on US Olympic basketball team (1948); first African-American to play in NBA All-Star game (1953)
Rich Barry, Major League Baseball outfielder for Philadelphia Phillies
Brittany Boyd, 2011, basketball player^[3]
Glenn Burke (1970 Athlete of the Year), Major League Baseball player^[4]
Phil Chenier, basketball player for the Washington Bullets in the 1970s
Je'Rod Cherry, football player; won three Super Bowls with the New England Patriots
Merv Connors, former MLB player (Chicago White Sox)
Bill Durkee, 1939, National Basketball League player for the Minneapolis Lakers
Jack Faszholz, former MLB player (St. Louis Cardinals)
Augie Galan, former MLB outfielder
Hal Gilson, former MLB pitcher
Jacob Grandison, 2016, College Basketball player for Holy Cross and Illinois
Chick Hafey, 1921, Major League Baseball player; won two World Series with St. Louis Cardinals; had first hit in All-Star Game history
Kamani Hill, 2004, soccer player; forward for Colorado Rapids
Helen Jacobs (1908–1997), tennis player ranked world #1
Ruppert Jones (1973 Athlete of the Year), Major League Baseball player; 2-time All-Star
Jack LaLanne, 1935, fitness educator
Ray Lamanno, former MLB catcher
John Lambert, basketball player at University of Southern California and in NBA
Billy Martin, 1946, Major League Baseball player; second baseman for five New York Yankees World Series teams in the 1950s, and manager of four playoff teams (Twins, Yankees, Detroit, A's), including one championship
Lawrence McGrew, 1975, football player, linebacker for New England Patriots, New York Giants 1980–1991
Walter Murray, gridiron football player
Hannibal Navies, 1995, football player
Steve Odom, football player, wide receiver for Green Bay Packers 1974–1977
Gene Ransom, basketball player for University of California, Berkeley
Jeff Ransom, former MLB catcher
Earl Robinson, former MLB player
Claudell Washington, Major League Baseball outfielder
Jason Young, former MLB pitcher

Authors, journalists, and poets

Miguel Almaguer, c. 1995, correspondent, NBC News
Peter J. Aschenbrenner, 1963, author
Anastasia M. Ashman, 1982, author
Alexandra Berzon, 1997, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for Wall Street Journal
Belva Davis, 1951, journalist
Philip K. Dick, 1947, author of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, on which the movie Blade Runner was based, and many other books
Aaron Cometbus Elliott, 1986, writer/publisher of Cometbus zine, musician
David Gordon, 1961, editor of Harvard Crimson, economist, syndicated columnist
Sandra Gulland, 1962, novelist
Shelley Jackson, author of Patchwork Girl
Ursula K. Le Guin, 1947, science fiction author of the Earthsea series, The Left Hand of Darkness, and many other books
Thomas Levenson, 1958, science writer, author of Newton and the Counterfeiter, Einstein in Berlin and other books
Leza Lowitz, 1980, author, poet, editor, journalist
Ariel Schrag, 1998, autobiographical graphic novelist
Joel Selvin, 1967, rock music critic and author
Frank Somerville, 1976, television news anchor, KTVU Oakland
Ricardo Sternberg, 1967, poet
Tess Taylor, 1995, poet and CNN contributor
Elizabeth Treadwell, 1985, poet
Shannon Wheeler, c. 1984, cartoonist, author of Too Much Coffee Man; published in The Onion, The New Yorker, and Mad magazine
Charlotte Wilder, c. 1915, poet, sister of Thornton Wilder
Thornton Wilder, c. 1915, novelist and playwright
Mark London Williams, 1977, author
Catherine Yronwode, 1965, author, editor, publisher, graphic designer

Educators

Shirley A. R. Lewis, c. 1956, former president of Paine College^[5]

Entrepreneurs

Paul Budnitz, 1985, founder of Kidrobot and Ello^[6]
Ben Horowitz, c. 1984, businessman, investor, blogger, and author

Filmmakers

Amir Bar-Lev, 1990, documentary director/producer
Gregory Hoblit, 1962, television and film director
Ian Inaba, 1989, music video/film director
Leah Meyerhoff, 1997, Student Academy Award-nominated filmmaker
Dave Meyers, 1990, music video/film director
Michael Ritchie, 1956, film director
Colin Tilley, 2006, music video/film director (including music videos for Chris Brown and Justin Bieber)

Mathematicians, scientists and inventors

Richard Bolt, 1928, physics professor at MIT with an interest in acoustics; created BBN ("modem" and "e-mail")
John Brillhart, 1948, mathematician, author of books on large-number factorization
Albert Gjedde 1965, neuroscientist, co-inventor of Gjedde-Patlak plot; McGill University Montreal Canada, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Andrew Gleason (graduated elsewhere), mathematician
Sam Ruben, 1931?, co-discoverer of C14, a radioactive isotope of carbon, in 1940; the isotope led to many advances in the fields of biochemistry and medicine as well as its use in carbon dating for archeology
Pei-Yuan Wei, 1986, (魏培源, pinyin: Wèi Péiyuán), created ViolaWWW, one of the first graphical web browsers
Bill Woodcock, 1989, developed anycast DNS, and built more than 100 Internet exchange points around the world

Media

Megan Greenwell, journalist and editor-in-chief of Deadspin and Wired.com
Sam "Kobe" Hartman-Kenzler, 2004, esports commentator
Dawn Monique Williams, 1996, theatre director

Musicians

Ambrose Akinmusire, 2000, jazz trumpet player
Peter Apfelbaum, 1978, multi-instrumentalist/composer of Hieroglyphics Ensemble
Will Bernard, 1977, guitarist
Steven Bernstein, 1979, jazz trumpeter, slide trumpeter, arranger/composer and bandleader
Stephen Bishop, 1958, classical pianist also known as Stephen Bishop-Kovacevich and Stephen Kovacevich
Kevin Cadogan, 1988, rock guitarist, formerly of Third Eye Blind
The Cataracs, indie-pop duo
Aaron Cometbus, drummer in punk bands Crimpshrine and Pinhead Gunpowder, author of Cometbus fanzine
DJ Fuze, hip hop DJ and record producer
Gabriela Lena Frank, 1990, classical composer and pianist
G-Eazy, 2007, rapper, songwriter
Benny Green, 1980, jazz pianist
Charlie Hunter, 1985, jazz guitarist
David Immerglück, 1979, multi-instrumentalist/guitarist for Counting Crows, Camper Van Beethoven and the Monks of Doom
Joe and Eddie (Joe Gilbert and Eddie Brown), folk singers
Greg 'Curly' Keranen, 1973, bassist, The Rubinoos, Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers
KSHMR, 2006, electronic musician, record producer
Stephen "Doc" Kupka, 1964, founding member/baritone saxophone of Tower of Power
Phil Lesh, 1957, Grateful Dead bass player
Jesse Michaels, singer of the East Bay punk band Operation Ivy, Common Rider; son of writer Leonard Michaels
Johnny Otis (1921–2012), musician, record producer, disc jockey
Jeff Ott, 1988, vocalist/guitarist of Crimpshrine and Fifteen
The Pack, some members attended Berkeley High School
Lenny Pickett, Saturday Night Live saxophone player
Julian Waterfall Pollack, 2006, jazz pianist
Thomas Pridgen, drummer for The Mars Volta
Joshua Redman, 1986, jazz musician
Alex Skolnick, 1987, guitarist of the thrash metal band Testament
Timex Social Club, contemporary R&B group
Geoff Tyson, guitarist and record producer
Evanora Unlimited, 2018, record producer, multimedia artist
The Uptones, ska band
Kyle Vincent, contemporary pop recording artist/singer-songwriter, producer
Donald Weilerstein, 1958, classical violinist, founder of Cleveland String Quartet, faculty member at Juilliard School
Kate Wolf, nee Allen, 1960, folk singer/songwriter

Politicians

Audie Bock, 1963, California politician and film scholar
Shirley Dean, 1950, Berkeley City Council member 1975–1982 and 1986–1994, and mayor 1994–2002
Matthew Denn, 1984, lieutenant governor of Delaware 2009–2014, Attorney General of Delaware 2015—
Elihu Harris, 1965, mayor of Oakland, California, 1991–99
George Livingston, first elected African American Mayor of Richmond 1985–1993^[7]
Aaron Peskin, 1982, former president, San Francisco Board of Supervisors
Nick Sinai, former Deputy Chief Technology Officer of the United States and gov-tech pioneer^[8]

Notable faculty

Pumpsie Green, first black player for the Boston Red Sox; coached baseball at Berkeley High for many years
Edgar Manske, member of the College Football Hall of Fame, former assistant football coach at Cal under Pappy Waldorf; taught biology at Berkeley High for 20 years (1955–1975)

Notes

^ "Seizing the Time with the Black Panther Founder". aalbc.com. Retrieved February 19, 2011.
^ Pereira, Alyssa (June 13, 2016). "'Hamilton' star Daveed Diggs says he 'throws up a W' for Oakland at every performance". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved July 5, 2018 – via sfgate.com.
^ "Cal's Brittany Boyd is a Naismith semifinalist". San Jose Mercury News. March 3, 2015. Archived from the original on June 14, 2015.
^ Zwikel, Toby (1977-06-09). "Basketball remains first love of Dodgers' Burke". The Valley News (Van Nuys). Retrieved 2007-01-29. ^{[dead link]}
^ Smith, Jessie Carney; Phelps, Shirelle (1992). Notable Black American Women. Vol. 2. Gale Research. pp. 408–411. ISBN 978-0-8103-9177-2 – via Google Books.
^ Ellen Lee, Special to The Chronicle (25 April 2010). "Monster toys are latest designer must-have". SFGate. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
^ Jones, Carolyn (2012-01-11). "George Livingston, Richmond's 1st black elected mayor". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2012-01-20.
^ "Nick Sinai".

External links

"Berkeley Alumni Association". berkeleyalum.org. Berkeley Alumni Association. Archived from the original on November 21, 2008.

[1] "Seizing the Time with the Black Panther Founder". aalbc.com. Retrieved February 19, 2011.

[2] Pereira, Alyssa (June 13, 2016). "'Hamilton' star Daveed Diggs says he 'throws up a W' for Oakland at every performance". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved July 5, 2018 – via sfgate.com.

[3] "Cal's Brittany Boyd is a Naismith semifinalist". San Jose Mercury News. March 3, 2015. Archived from the original on June 14, 2015.

[ZWIKEL-4] Zwikel, Toby (1977-06-09). "Basketball remains first love of Dodgers' Burke". The Valley News (Van Nuys). Retrieved 2007-01-29. ^{[dead link]}

[Smith-5] Smith, Jessie Carney; Phelps, Shirelle (1992). Notable Black American Women. Vol. 2. Gale Research. pp. 408–411. ISBN 978-0-8103-9177-2 – via Google Books.

[6] Ellen Lee, Special to The Chronicle (25 April 2010). "Monster toys are latest designer must-have". SFGate. Retrieved 8 May 2016.

[sfc-7] Jones, Carolyn (2012-01-11). "George Livingston, Richmond's 1st black elected mayor". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2012-01-20.

[8] "Nick Sinai".

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