Finding the Radio Club for the 1950-1951 school year illustrates the difficulty of trying to find when clubs existed at Acalanes High School. Let’s take it step-by-step.
We have our trusty Handbook For Dons that was given to students at the start of the school year.
Under “Additional Activities” we have a listing for the Radio Club.
Now we go to the 1951 Aklan.
We go to the “activities” section… and find nothing.
Based on that, you’d think that they probably planned for a Radio Club, but it never actually happened. Not quite.
By the time you reach the 1951 Aklan, they began listing things seniors did during their time at Acalanes.
Enter Robert Slauson!
Enter Jack Wilent!
You’ll notice that both of them are listed as having been a part of the Radio Club during the 1949-1950 and 1950-1951 school years.
With all that laid out, we think we can safely conclude–for now–that a Radio Club did exist during the 1950-1951 school year.
We can be sure that Robert Slauson was in the 1949-1950 Radio Club because you can see him in the club photograph from that year. He is the one sitting in the middle and wearing white.
One last thing about Robert Slauson. It says next to his senior picture that he “came from Calif. School for the Blind.” If you do a search for him, you’ll find an obituary. He passed away in 2011. It appears that after graduating from Acalanes he went on to receive several degrees, including a doctorate in Educational Psychology from UC Berkeley. He was a participant in Ski for Light International. He was a co-founder of the group called Sierra Regional Ski for Light, which was a regional off-shoot of the international organization. According to their website: “Sierra Regional Ski for Light provides a cross country skiing experience for the blind and visually impaired.” He taught at numerous schools such Mendocino High School, Diablo Valley College, and Chico State University among others. It doesn’t sound like he went into radio, but he did teach Math and Sciences at one point, which are two underlying fields in radio.
That’s all the information on this part that we have at the moment. As with all these posts, please feel free to share information you might have.
For more on the Acalanes Radio Station KCEQ rabbit hole and other Lafayette History Rabbit Holes.
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