If you would like to post an obituary of a San Dieguito alumnus, please let us know.
22 February 1993
Eric G. Barham, 82, of Baywood Park died Monday, July 1, 2002, at a San Luis Obispo hospital. No services are planned.
Dr. Barham graduated from San Dieguito Union High School in San Diego County and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II. He was wounded in Okinawa and received the Purple Heart.
Dr. Barham first attended college under the G.I. Bill at San Diego State University. He later taught there as a professor of marine biology before joining the Navy Electronics Laboratory. He graduated from Stanford University and conducted his doctorate work at Hopkins Marine Station in Monterey.
Dr. Barham participated in the bathyscaphe Trieste’s underwater studies in the 1960s and was part of the team of scientists to discover the mysteries of the shifting false-bottom condition in the ocean known as the deep scattering layer. He made the discovery as a biologist at the Marine Environment Division of the Navy Electronics Laboratory in San Diego during a series of dives off Baja California. He later conducted similar studies off the coast of Puerto Rico and along the Atlantic Coast. Dr. Barham was later assigned to the Naval Underseas Warfare Center and then the National Marine Fisheries Service’s Southwest Fisheries Center in La Jolla.
After retirement, Dr. Barham was a public speaker and an award-winning fly fisherman.
He is survived by his wife Betty; daughters Christine, Cynthia, and Cecilia; five grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.
—The Tribune, San Luis Obispo, California, published July 5, 2002
30 July 1971
14 Aug 1920 – 11 Jun 1980
… A graduate of the high school in 1939, he returned from England after World War II ended and obtained a master’s degree in education from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Then he went back to his old high school in 1952 as an agriculture teacher and no-nonsense adviser to the Future Farmers of America club on campus…
…He served the district 43 years and five months. During the early decades, he was a stalwart of the agriculture program. Remember, in those early years, this was a small community. There were no houses around the high school like today. Many of his students went on to become horticulturists, veterinarians or teachers.
From the February 16, 2008 obituary by J. Stryker Meyer of the North County Times/Californian. You can read this obituary in its entirety here. More information on Mr. Cunningham also may be found here on this site.
12 July 2001
(Nov. 23, 1921 — Sept. 28, 2008)
ENCINITAS — Harley Denk, whose grandfather was one of the original founders of the Olivenhain colony, died Sunday at his home. He was 86 years old.
A well-known citizen of Olivenhain and Encinitas, Denk worked tirelessly over the years for the Encinitas Elks Lodge, the Olivenhain Water District and Rancho Santa Fire District.
His grandfather, Louie Denk, was a German immigrant cobbler who settled in Olivenhain in the 1880s.
In 1936, Harley Denk’s father, Bruno, was named one of the original trustees of the San Dieguito Union High School.
Harley Denk was the second of three children.
One of his proudest moments, his daughter Harleen Denk said, was on Dec. 6, 2003, when he served as grand marshal of the Encinitas Christmas Parade.
—”Remembering Harley Denk,” the North County Times,
September 30, 2008,
by Ruth Marvin Webster.
You may read the rest of this obituary here.
26 November 1976
9 Feb 1922 – 28 Dec 1991
Mr. Knorr passed away on October 15, 2018.
Submitted by Connie Day
20 August 1921 – 30 August 2002
1 Feb 1919 – Jan 1987
25 June 1923 – 2 February 2010
HOCKESSIN, Del. — Dr. Daniel Shelton St. John, 86, of Hockessin, Del., died on Feb. 2, 2010.
Daniel St. John was born in San Diego, Calif., and was raised with his two brothers during the Depression in Solana Beach, just north of San Diego. The three boys had a wonderful childhood living right by the cliffs overlooking Solana Beach.
He graduated from UC Berkeley in 1943 with a Bachelor of Science in chemistry. On June 6, 1943, graduation day, he married Rosemary Rowlands of Placerville and Berkeley. He worked a year in Long Beach for Shell Oil with the first commercial IR instrument that Beckmann made.
He was drafted in 1944 and sent to Los Alamos. There he worked on atom bomb components in a group under George Kistiakowski. After the war, he went to the University of Wisconsin, as his experience at Los Alamos had given him the incentive and contacts to pursue his Ph.D., which he received in 1949 in physical chemistry.
He then spent 1949-50 at Grasselli, Cleveland Ohio as a research chemist for DuPont. In 1950, he was sent for reactor physics training to Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago. The group he was in used John Wheeler as a consultant, and, when the learning was finished, he mentioned to John Wheeler that the group was now just “waiting around” before being sent to Savannah River. Wheeler then asked DuPont to borrow him and three or four others for a few weeks to calculate the energy of the hydrogen bomb. He remembers asking Wheeler once how he got such extraordinary work out of ordinary people. He loved Wheeler’s answer of “you have to care” and says it became a guiding moment in his life.
He spent 1953-58 as research supervisor, Theoritcal Physics Division at Savannah River, and 1958-64 as research manager of that division. He spent 1964-70 as president of Holotron Corp. in Wilmington, Del., a DuPont-Bateele subsidiary to study holography. From 1970 until his retirement in 1985, he was laboratory director of the explosives department at the Experimental Station.
Dr. St. John retired in 1985 and in 1986 became departmental research fellow in the Petrochemicals Department. As he became DuPont’s first departmental research fellow, it was noted, “An early expert in the use of computers, for scientific studies, St. John, during his 36-year career, has worked on nuclear reactor dynamics, explored the value of holography … and scrutinized a host of chemical reactions to uncover cost and production efficiencies.”
In retirement, he kept up with many interests – taking several drives across the country with Rose and many trips down to Florida where they especially loved Sanibel Island. A musician since early childhood, he continued to play his organ even into the last year of his life. He was always looking forward to more things he wanted to do. He never lost his interests, kindness, humor, work ethic or selflessness – and remained positive and upbeat.
He loved his property in Hockessin with its wonderful woods and also loved his little Papillon dog he adopted several years ago. Itsy turned out to be a clever and true friend and stayed alert to his every need. Ruth Harrison’s golden retriever, Tawny, also became a special friend as did the mini pony, Whimsy.
He is predeceased by his wife, Rose, who was the love of his life. He is survived by his four children – daughters, Penelope and Priscilla of Hockessin and Pamela Mosher of Chapel Hill, N.C., and son, Peter Howard St. John, presently of Chapel Hill, N.C. He is also survived by his brother, Gilbert, and Gilbert’s wife, Joy, of Eugene, Ore.
Special thanks to his doctors, nurses and staff both locally and at the University of Pennsylvania for their care and friendship. Special thanks to Dr. Hamilton and Dr. Kelly Spratt, both of the University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. James T. Hopkins and Mark Goddard, RN, both of the Delaware Heart Group. Thank you for your care, kindness and the special hope you gave him.
He would like to thank his sister-in-law, Joy, for the frequent letters and calls which he enjoyed greatly. You and Gil brought him great happiness just hearing your voices. Special thanks also to longtime neighbors and good friends, Ruth Harrison and John and Carole Neumer, as your friendship and visits meant so much to him, and you gave him great happiness, and he would have loved the recent letter from John St. John. His burial will be private.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to a charity of your choice. Arrangements by Chandler Funeral Homes & Crematory, www.chandlerfuneralhome.com.
21 February, 2010, Aikenstandard.com
1921-1985