The funds listed below have been established by family and friends as a memorial to their loved ones. Each year the counselors, with the help of department chairs at SRHS, select recipients who will be honored at the Senior Awards’ Program at the end of the school year.
James Fleck, who graduated from Santa Rosa High School in 1946, at his passing left the Foundation with a very generous gift to pass on to the students. The amount of this gift exceeds two million dollars. Fleck’s will specified that income generated from this gift be given to graduating seniors in the form of scholarships to assist them with a post-high school education. It also directed the Foundation to invest the gift and to distribute the income. The Foundation Scholarship Committee worked to establish a meaningful process and criteria that will honor Fleck’s wishes and will appropriately identify students to receive the awards. The plan honors seniors nominated by eleven departments at SRHS. The nominees are reviewed by the Scholarship Committee and selections are made. Each year the number of scholarships will vary related to the funds generated by the investment. For the year 2015, twenty-two scholarships of $5,000 each will be awarded.
This scholarship is to be given on a yearly basis to a college bound, graduating student focusing on Fine Arts; drawing, painting and/or sculpture. Mr. McKinney was a leading North Coast modernist painter and sculptor Born in CA, his family moved to the Midwest where he accomplished his primary education. He received his BA from Univ of the Americas in Mexico City and a Fine Arts degree from the Univ of Missouri. In 1962, he moved his family to SR to accept a reference library position with the Public Library that included responsibility for an extensive art book collection. Conci recalls her father a “very caring and loving man, always passionate about color and the aesthetics of things. He really enjoyed outdoors, and he was always surrounded by his paintings.”
Amount: $500
Select one senior going into the Public Service area of the SRJC for this scholarship. First consideration is the Fire Technology Academies. If there is not a student going into that area, then consider Administration of Justice Academies, and Emergency Medical Care Academies. This scholarship was originally given to a Forestry student. Bruce was a student who died in a forest fire in the 1968, the year he graduated from SRHS.
Amount: $675
Select one senior from the Instrumental Music Department for this scholarship. The department chair will make this selection. The next year the award will go to a student from the Ag Department. Ag and Music Departments will alternate each year.
Amount: $500 each
Berta Wiggins graduated from SRHS in ’55. She became an avid and accomplished golfer in the years following her retirement as a secretary in the Bennett Valley School District. Her interest soon became a passion as she became more successful. Her family felt it fitting to honor a senior girl who shared her passion for golf, who is member of the SRHS Golf Team, and who might continue with her golf interest in her life after high school.
Amount: $500
Lisa K. Nilsen was an Ag Booster member and Advisory member who passed away early in 2007. She was instrumental in the development of the vineyard and expansion of the farm on Alba Lane as well as a huge supporter of students and the agriculture program. The Ag Boosters and Ag Advisory Board established a scholarship in Lisa’s name. The Boosters and the Advisory group will select an agriculture student who is not only active, but is also academically talented as well as a program completer.
Amount: $500
Jack J. Kellar was a 1939 graduate of SRHS, where he particularly enjoyed his music classes and playing in a dance band. He had a lead (opposite Verona Lindau Tate) in the 1939 operetta “The Lucky Jade.” Jack’s daughters would like the scholarship named The Lucky Jade Scholarship for that reason. The recipients must be seniors who will be continuing their education in music at a 2 or 4 year college or university, or a music conservatory. While a particular GPA is required for admission to some schools of higher education, none is required for the award of these scholarships. Jack’s daughters said that their father’s life proved that grades are not necessarily an indicator of success.
Amount: $1,250 each
Santa Rosa High School over its many years has enjoyed benefits from the services of many dedicated people. Perhaps the most dedicated of these, a man who truly loved SRHS and his work, was head custodian Lorenzo Solis. Every administrator, teacher, staff person or student who asked for his service saw Lorenzo respond immediately and satisfy the request completely. Lorenzo had other opportunities, less demanding and better paying, but he chose to remain at SRHS, and for many years he was the centerpiece, the linchpin of daily operation no matter how mundane or complicated.
Sadly, SRHS lost Lorenzo September 18, 2007. He suffered a fatal heart attack on his early morning drive to begin his work day. He had complained to his family that he wasn’t feeling well. His wife urged him to stay at home and to see his doctor, but Lorenzo replied that he was needed on campus. Retired SRHS staff Tony Negri, Nadine Smedshammer, Will Dunn and Mike Daniels decided to keep the spirit of Lorenzo alive by creating a perpetual scholarship in his honor to award to a deserving student.
Amount: $500
Emmett O’Neil passed away on New Year’s Day, 2011. He was one of the most inspiring and respected social studies instructors ever to serve SRHS. He had retired in ’99 and was a man of many, many accomplishments, perhaps the most notable of which was his curricular development of Asian Studies, an influential class for seniors. Part of his ability was to students to think and to question. This scholarship will be awarded to a senior in the Social Science Department who intends a social science major in college; high four-year GPA; demonstrated campus and community leadership; demonstrated broad range of interests in world at large.
Amount: $500
Pete Richmond is a 1982 graduate of the SRHS Ag. Program and further graduated from Fresno State with a degree in Ag Management. Pete worked with several vineyard management companies before starting his own company in 2001, Silverado Farming Company in Napa and has created a community foundation in Napa to assist non-profit organizations providing health, education and housing for individuals and families in need. Pete is very interested in advancing agricultural study and with this in mind, he and his wife have created this scholarship by funding a $5,000 annual scholarship split between two graduating Ag Program seniors going on to an Ag Program at a four year college or university.
Amount: $2,500 each
The following funds have been established by family and friends to honor their loved ones. The earnings from these funds are earmarked for use in many ways as requested by the original donors. They benefit programs and students at large at SRHS.
Marsha & Jessie Carney Memorial Fund: Mr. Carney works with the staff to award various scholarships each year.
Albert Clapp Memorial Fund: All of the earnings are used for Panther Projects at the committee’s discretion.
Joe Espinosa Memorial Fund: The earnings from this fund are used for Panther Projects to help in the Automotive Program.
Nancy Fisher Memorial Fund: Half of the earnings from this fund are placed in the Boys’ Soccer Program account for use as needed. Our president meets with the soccer people in June to let them know how much they will have for the season.
Pamela Griffin McMahon Memorial Fund: The earnings from this fund are directed for school program needs as determined by the Foundation Board. This Fund is unrestricted.
Edna Parker Memorial Fund: The earnings from this fund are used to support the Student of the Month luncheons at the family’s direction.
Dayle Puckett Memorial Fund: The earnings from this fund are placed in the Baseball Program account in the fall for use as needed.
Irene Scott Memorial Fund: The earnings from this fund are used for Panther Projects as decided by the PPF committee. This Fund is Unrestricted.
Colombe “Coke” Zuliani Memorial Fund: The earnings from this fund are used for Panther Projects as decided by the PPF committee. This Fund is unrestricted.
Kathleen Sorenson Memorial Fund: The earnings from this fund are used for Panther Projects as decided by the PPF committee. This fund is unrestricted.
For more information on scholarships or how you can help, please contact us.