Famous Residents & Graduates from Alhambra

Famous Alhambra residents/graduates?
Yes, and there are more than a few of them...

Hank Aguirre (1931-1994) - A 1950 graduate of Alhambra's Mark Keppel High School, Aguirre was an icon in the sports world and a role model for Hispanic businessmen and women. He was best known for his outstanding professional baseball career as a pitcher for the Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Dodgers, and a coach for the Chicago Cubs; however, his greater mission in life was as an entrepreneur. He founded Mexican Industries, a firm that became one of the nation's most successful minority-owned companies with 1,500 employees, eight-plants and sales of over $150 million. Customers included General Motors, Chrysler, Morten, Delphi, TRW and Lear Corporation.
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Duane Allen (1937-2003) - Allen was born on Eighth Street in the family home in Alhambra and graduated in 1956 from Alhambra High School. In 1960, he joined the Rams Football team, but left after the 1964 season to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers and then the Chicago Bears. Afterwards, Allen went into coaching and voluntarily helped the football and track programs at Mark Keppel High School from the late 1960s through the early 1990s. Allen was also a talented musician, brightening up Main Street on many weekends when he teamed up with Dan Garcia as "The Kick Off Band" to play a variety of music. He also entertained as a duo with Mike Burke, a Mark Keppel High School coach. They called themselves "The Light and Dark of Soul." [more about Duane Allen]
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Gail Borden (1801-1874) - Gail Borden owned a home in Alhambra (site of our present post office). While some of his inventions resulted in great failures, ultimately he found great success through them. With assets worth some $100,000 in 1850 (a small fortune for his day), he risked and lost almost everything on a "meat biscuit," a dehydrated meat mixed with flour. After many years of effort, he abandoned the project so that he could work full time on another invention--a process to condense milk. This led to the successful Borden Milk Company. Interestingly, it was not until the outbreak of the Civil War, and the resulting demand for longer lasting condensed milk by the Union army, that his success was finally assured. [more about Gail Borden]
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Byron M. “Red” Cavaney - Cavaney is a 1960 Alhambra High graduate and the current director of the American Petroleum Institute (although he is set to retire in Nov. 2008). He has also been a director of The United States Energy Association and Buckeye Technologies, Inc. (NYSE), and former director of the boards of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), among others.  Cavaney served in the administrations of Presidents Ford and Reagan. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the Gerald R. Ford Foundation and Center for Excellence in Education. He is a 1964 NROTC graduate in Economics & History from USC, and served three tours of combat duty in Vietnam. He was honorably discharged with the rank of U.S. Navy Lieutenant in 1969. [more about Cavaney]
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Clive Cussler (B: 1931) - A world-renowned American adventure novelist and marine archeologist , Cussler grew up in Alhambra and attended Pasadena City College before joining the Air Force. He went on to have a successful advertising career, winning many national honors for his copywriting. Now a full-time bestselling author, he has explored the deserts of the American Southwest in search of lost gold mines, dived in isolated lakes in the Rocky Mountains looking for lost aircraft and hunted under the sea for shipwrecks of historic significance, discovering and identifying more than sixty. His books include Raise the Titanic!, Sahara, Treasure of Khan and many, many more.
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Victor Clyde Forsythe (1885-1962) – Forsythe,  first known for his illustrations and comic drawings, began easel painting around 1920. By 1922, he was living in Alhambra, first on S. Wilson Ave. (now Atlantic Blvd.), then two years later, on North Almansor Street, which was close to what became “Artists’ Alley.” About 1935, he moved some two miles northeast, into adjacent San Marino, first on St. Alban’s Rd., then on Ramiro Rd.  Forsythe introduced an unknown artist named Norman Rockwell to Saturday Evening Post and was a close friend of Frank Tenney Johnson, with whom he shared a studio and established the Biltmore Art Gallery in Los Angeles. Forsythe immersed himself in the lore of the West and often lived in ghost towns while on painting forays.	War poster created by            Victor Clyde Forsythe
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Sam Hyde Harris (1889-1977) - At age of 55, Harris divorced his wife of 27 years, Phoebe Mulholland, the niece of William Mulholland. He then married Marion Dodge, a UCLA librarian whom he met in an evening art class, and moved his home and commercial art business to the Artists’ Alley in Alhambra. In 1976, Harris had a one-man show at the San Gabriel Fine Arts Association and a one-man show in Alhambra in 1977 that opened just four days before his death. In his lifetime, Harris produced somewhere between 2,500-3,000 oil paintings. [more about Sam Hyde Harris]
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Eli Harvey (1860-1957) - Harvey, who was born in Ohio, went on to become an Internationally-known artist and sculptor who lived and worked in NYC until he moved to Alhambra in the late 1920s. He  built a home and studio in the infamous  artists' colony called "Artists Alley." Trained in art in Paris,  he is considered to be one of the finer American Western sculptors. He was a good friend of Norman Rockwell.	Sculpture by Eli Harvey
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Bradley Wayne Hughes - A 1952 graduate of Alhambra's Mark Keppel High School, Hughes founded and built the company Public Storage Inc. In 2006, the company announced the acquisition of Shurgard Storage Centers, Inc., resulting in a combined total market capitalization of approximately $18 billion, with ownership interest in over 2,100 facilities in 38 states and seven European nations. Hughes also owns and breeds thoroughbred horses that race and win at the major tracks, and he is an active philanthropist. The Hughes family has made large donations towards cancer research and treatment, especially children's leukemia. The Hughes donated $200 million to establish the Parker Hughes Cancer Center in St. Paul, MN, named for their late son.
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James Jannard (B: 1949) - Jannard graduated from Alhambra High School and attended the University of Southern California. He went on to become founder of the Oakley eyewear and apparel company, serving as chairman/ director since its inception in 1975. He is also the founder and principal backer of  RED Digital Cinema, a manufacturer of high-resolution video cameras used in cinema production. In 2007, Forbes Magazine placed him at # 239 on its list of  top 400 wealthy Americans. A keen photographer,  Jannard maintains a website of his photographs.
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Kenny Loggins (B: Jan. 7, 1948) - Loggins was raised in Alhambra and went on to have a successful career as a singer/songwriter/guitarist. After attracting the attention of Jim Messina, another singer/songwriter,  the two began a duo career as Loggins and Messina that lasted until 1976. Loggins then went on to produce his first solo album, Celebrate Me Home (1977), which included the hit "I Believe In Love," originally sung by Barbra Streisand. He has had hit records in each of four decades along with 12 platinum albums.
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Frank Tenney Johnson (1874-1939) - Johnson became one of the most famous early 20th-century painters of the Western genre. During the 1920s, Johnson settled in Alhambra, sharing a studio with Clyde Forsythe. From 1931-1938, he built a cabin and studio on the north fork of the Shoshone River in Wyoming, just outside the east gate of Yellowstone Park. During the summer months he would spend  much of his time hiking in the park and painting scenes of its unique landscapes.	"Morning Shower" created by           Frank Tenney Johnson
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Ralph Kiner (1922) - Kiner grew up in Alhambra and went on to make his major league baseball debut in 1946 with the Pittsburgh Pirates. In 1947, he hit 51 home runs - the highest total in the major leagues from 1939 to 1960, and the highest National League total from 1931 to 1997, making Kiner the first National League player with two fifty-plus seasons; Kiner also matched his peak of 127 RBIs. From 1947 to 1951, Kiner topped 40 home runs and 100 RBI's each season. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1975.
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Dan Larson - A graduate of Alhambra High School, was selected as a 1972 first-round draft  on the Cardinals Baseball Team.
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Mike McCormick - When Mike McCormick graduated from Alhambra's Mark Keppel High School in 1956, every major league club was after this overpowering 17-year old who signed on with the New York Giants. Scared and wild, he lasted just three innings in his first start. In 1957, pitching mostly relief, he became the youngest modern National League pitcher to record three wins. Although he gained increased success over time, he was plagued by arm trouble and was traded to Baltimore and then the minor leagues. After rebounding, he returned to the Giants. While he had lost his blazing fastball, he mastered his breaking pitches and developed a screwball. In 1967 he won the Cy Young and Comeback Player of the Year awards.  He finished up in the Pacific Coast League.
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Frank Pastore (B: 1957) - Pastore was born in Alhambra and went on to become a professional baseball pitcher.  He played for the Cincinnati Reds from 1979 until 1985, and for the Minnesota Twins in 1986. After retiring from baseball, he earned degrees in business administration, philosophy of religion and ethics, political philosophy, and American government from various universities. In 2004, Pastore became a talk show host on a Christian radio talk station, KKLA 99.5 FM in Los Angeles. [more about Frank Pastore]
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Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) - In 1930, Rockwell traveled to California to visit his old friend and studio mate, Clyde Forsythe. Forsythe had urged Rockwell to get out of New York for a while as Rockwell had been miserable as a bachelor and man-about-town. While in California, he met Mary Barstow, who he married on April 17, 1930 in Alhambra. The cover of the August 23, 1930 issue of The Saturday Evening Post features his new wife on its cover. During his 47-year affiliation with the publication Rockwell produced 323  Saturday Evening Post covers. Rockwell is known to have spent his summers painting in Alhambra. [more about Norman Rockwell]	Norman Rockwell & Mary Barstow
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Tex Schramm (1920-2003) -- Schramm graduated from Alhambra High School graduate in 1938, went on to play football with the Los Angeles Rams, and then served as Assistant Director of Sports for CBS for three years. In 1960, he joined the newly-formed Dallas Cowboys and groomed "America's Team" into one of the greatest dynasties in National Football League history. He was a significant force behind the merger of the AFL and the NFL in 1966, and continued to play a major role in the advocating rule changes to the game.  He finished his pro career as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the World League of American Football in 1989 and 1990. Schramm was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1991. [more on Tex Schramm]
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Jack Wilkinson Smith (1873-1949) - Smith studied art at the Chicago Art Institute and Cincinnati Academy of Art, and began painting Western scenes before he actually ever came out West. In 1906, he visited California, which he called "nature's own paradise of scenic splendor and variety." The coastal areas and the sea in its many moods was a favorite subject. His paintings of surf crashing among the rocks are unparalleled. In 1926, he and his wife settled in Alhambra, buying the property immediately south of Frank Tenney Johnson’s new home. It was there, on “Artists’ Alley,” that they dwelt until Smith’s death in early 1949, at which time he was widely praised as one of California’s leading landscape painters.	Oil on canvasboard painting by Jack Wikinson Smith; image courtesy of Harvey Clars Auction Gallery
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Marion Lee "Mickey" Thompson (1928-1988) -  Thompson was born in Alhambra and graduated from Alhambra High School. He became a championship American off-road racing legend and also raced in dragsters and land-speed record automobiles. He is credited with setting more speed and endurance records than any other person in automotive history, as well as designing and building the first slingshot dragster. In 1968, he redesigned his Funny Car vehicle which went on to win the 1969 NHRA Spring Nationals and Nationals for driver Danny Ongais. [more about Mickey Thompson]
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Cheryl Tiegs (B: 1947) Tiegs graduated from Alhambra High School in 1965 and attended California State University, Los Angeles. However, by the age of 17, she had already been published on the cover of Glamour magazine. She was later featured on the covers of Harper's Bazaar, ELLE, Time, and Vogue.She is best known for her long-running affiliation with the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, which featured her on the cover in 1970, 1975, and 1983. The 1978 poster of her in a pink bikini became an iconic 1970s pop culture image.
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Max West - 1934 graduate of AHS played baseball for the Boston Bees (Braves), Cincinnati Reds, Pittsburgh Pirates, Sacramento Solons, San Diego Padres, Los Angeles Angels. In 1954, together with  Ralph Kiner, he opened a sporting goods store in Alhambra, which he later stated made him more money than professional baseball.  [more]
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Don "Benito" Davis Wilson - (1811-1878) is the founder of Alhambra. He was the second mayor of Los Angeles and the grandfather of General George S. Patton, Jr.  Wilson fought to defend Los Angeles in the Mexican War of 1846-1847, was taken prisoner and almost executed. He became a powerful landowner whose properties included such areas as the present sites of Alhambra Westwood, UCLA, Pasadena, San Gabriel, and San Pedro, plus part of Riverside County. His Wilson College was the predecessor of the mighty University of Southern California. Many of the railroads he helped bring to Southern California still haul freight over the original rights of way that he helped determine. [more about Wilson]
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Verne H. Winchell (1915-2002) - Winchell graduated from Alhambra High School and attended Pasadena City College. He later went on to make a fortune by starting the Winchell's Donut chain. He sold his interest in the company for $600 million in 1984 and became chairman of Denny's Restaurants for several years. Winchell was also a successful horse breeder and owner. One of his colts, named "Donut King", was one of the favorites for the 1962 Kentucky Derby.
Additional Alhambra "Celebrities"
William Robert "Bob" Boyd - former coach at Alhambra High School, also was head coach at USC, Mississippi State University, Riverside Community College, Chapman University, as well as Assistant Coach at LSU and Utah State University.  Boyd is a member of USC’s Athletic Hall of Fame.   John Avila - A 1976 graduate of Alhambra's Mark Keppel High School, who went on to join the well-known rock bands, Oingo Boingo and El Chicano. He is currently a music producer.   Pete Mikkelson - A 1957 graduate of Alhambra's Mark Keppel High School, who went on to become a Major League pitcher.   Larry Burright - A 1956 graduate of Alhambra's Mark Keppel High School, who went on to become a Major League baseman.
John Avila - A 1976 graduate of Alhambra's Mark Keppel High School, who went on to join the well-known rock bands, Oingo Boingo and El Chicano. He is currently a music producer.   Dick Whalen - A contemporary of Duane Allen’s was a guy named Dick Whalen who was a spit end at Alhambra High around 1954.  Dick [#82] went on to star in football at UCLA.