A 'Great Gathering' As Analy Turns 100

Sebastopol's Analy High School turns 100 this year, and alumni are preparing a gala that will include solemn remembrances, class reunions and fireworks.

The May 17th anniversary celebration will be "a great gathering of everybody who's been a part of this place," said Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Jim Bertoli, an alumnus and the son of a former Analy educator and school board member.

Bertoli is the chairman of the centennial event's committee.

Analy fans undoubtedly will harken back to notable alumni, including Willard Libby, a 1960 Nobel Prize winner in chemistry for his work on carbon dating, and actress Karen Valentine, class of 1965, who in 1969 joined the cast of TV's "Room 222."

The older alumni also will recall Analy's 1958 football team, the only one in school history to post an undefeated season. When the Tigers beat regional-powerhouse Novato 26-18 that year, by some accounts 5,000 people ringed Karlson Field in Sebastopol.

"We're hoping that a majority of the football team is actually going to come," said Louis Sanchietti, who played offensive and defensive end for the team. A member of the reunion committee, Sanchietti graduated the next spring in 1959 and still lives in Sebastopol.

His class is holding their 50th reunion a year early in connection with the centennial. The classmates say the reunion will be a high point of the weekend, offering them a chance to catch up on one another's lives.

"Even the guys who live in the county we haven't seen that often," said Terry Walker, a teammate of Sanchietti and a member of the Class of '59.

Alumni spanning the decades are seeking to locate and invite old classmates and to help raise about $40,000 to produce the anniversary event.

"One hundred years is worth having a good celebration for," said Greg Jacobs, a retired county prosecutor and member of the class of '66. He is part of the group seeking sponsors, often approaching local business people who "I've known all my life."

The day's schedule includes a street dance and a car show; reunion performances by past members of the school's bands and choirs; remembrances of the school's military veterans; and a recognition of the faculty.

On the special day, Karlson Field will contain tents, categorized by different decades, so visitors can gather more information about the various graduating classes.

Bertoli, whose father, Adolph "Bert" Bertoli, was a teacher and later a school board member, said the celebration also will kick off a new Analy Alumni Association.

"It's going to create a network for Analy alumni so we can help the school," he said. The association also will become "a repository for everything Analy."

Among those involved in the effort is Della Miller, class of 1941, who in 1960 became the school's first full-time nurse. She retired in 1984, and she still has many friends from those days as a student and school staff member.

Like many alumni, Miller said she is looking forward on the special day to "seeing people that I haven't seen, and then trying to remember who they are."

You can reach Staff Writer Robert Digitale at 521-5285 or robert.digitale@pressdemocrat.

com.