Bill Lynch: What’s in a name?

Recent commentary regarding the naming of schools and other buildings, including at least one in Sonoma Valley, has suggested that people who were slave owners, abusers of Native Americans, racists and bigots should be replaced with the names of people who are more deserving.

Sonoma Valley has, more often than not, named its schools, buildings and landmarks for people who deserved the honor and remain deserving by today’s standards.

Dunbar School in Glen Ellen was the first school in the Valley of the Moon named in honor of a prominent local citizen. Alex Dunbar and his wife Mary arrived here in 1848, donated the land and started the school in 1857. The Dunbars were well-respected, kind and generous citizens.

Prestwood Elementary School, built in 1950, was named after J.F. “Jesse” Prestwood, principal of Sonoma Grammar School from 1908 to 1950. Those who knew him described him as “...the last of the beloved members of the old school, a rugged individualist… stern, but fair man… a Victorian, an autocrat… tough but concerned about the education of his students.”

He was still principal at the grammar school when I was a first grader there. The thing I remember most about him was that he loved music and would come into the classroom and lead us in songs. The community thought enough of him and his service to local education to name its newest school in his honor.

Sassarini School, which opened in 1957, was named in honor of Calvin Sassarini, the first principal of Prestwood School, beloved by teachers, parents and his students. I remember him as a soft-spoken, warm and friendly man who successfully opened our only elementary school after seismic concerns caused the state to close Sonoma Grammar School and forced teachers and students into church halls, and storefront classrooms for over a year.

In 2001 the Sonoma Valley Unified School District named its newest middle school in honor of Adele Harrison, co-founder and longtime leader of FISH (Friends in Sonoma Helping), co-founder of the Care-A-Van service of Vintage House, coordinator of the Sonoma Valley Christmas Basket Project for the needy, a director of the Sonoma Valley Family Center and Home Care Connection Project and a church leader.

She and her husband, Paul, were active in so many worthy causes that the City of Sonoma named them co-alcaldes in 1981.

Altimira Middle School is the outlier and probably headed for re-naming because its name is linked to an early California missionary whose reputation for cruelty and abuse directed at Native Americans has become more widely acknowledged.

Our other public schools, Sonoma Valley High School, El Verano and Flowery Elementary have no names attached to them specifically.

However, several former teachers and principals of the high school have been recognized there.

Golton Hall in the main building was named in honor of Louis H. Golton, the school’s principal from 1918 to 1940.

Pfeiffer Gymnasium honors D.A. (Dave) Pfeiffer who began teaching at SVHS in 1925 and eventually became principal.

John Glaese Hall is named after John Glaese, a former teacher and principal at the high school who also became Sonoma Valley Unified School District’s first superintendent.

The Myron E. DeLong Library is named after one of the school’s most beloved teachers, who taught there for 35 years. Mike DeLong was also my journalism teacher and a truly great guy.

And, if you’ve ever parked in the school’s south lot and walked onto campus, you would have passed through Chet Sharek Plaza under the fierce stare of a dragon rising high above the paving bricks purchased and inscribed in his memory by many of his friends and former students. Chet served as vice-principal at Sonoma High for more than 30 years and was active in numerous community organizations and a volunteer for worthy causes.

We may not have a perfect naming record here, but in the case of Dunbar, Prestwood, Sassarini, Harrison, Golton, Pfeiffer, Glaese, DeLong, and Sharek, we got it right.

Bill Lynch is the former longtime editor and publisher of the Index-Tribune.