Praise for Dr. Herman Ohme, from Torrance, California

A teacher's description of how a staff member became inspired to develop and implement changes is documented in the following unsolicited letter from a teacher at North High School (North HS) in Torrance, California, where Dr. Herman Ohme had been principal for two years, prior to becoming principal of Cubberly High School in Palo Alto from 1970-1979.

June 11, 1970

Dear Dr. Ohme,

I want somehow to communicate to you the enormous respect and admiration I feel for you. In the almost two years you have been at North, you have made such a lasting, beneficial impact on the entire faculty and especially me. I've always had the good fortune to work for strong administrators, men whose convictions were based on the way they valued human beings. But until I experienced your leadership I never realized the missing ingredient, whose absence maintained the status quo even when it was vital for things to change. This was the trust you extended to each and everyone of us -- students, faculty, and non-teaching personnel -- there was no one I spoke to who didn't feel the strength of that trust. And its results were fantastic -- the total revision of the English program to a realistic, relevant, vital part of the curriculum, the new courses that kept tumbling forth, and the myriad of other items. But most meaningful of all to me, was that you created and catalyzed an attitude in everyone that was so positive it neutralized former and present hostility and frustration, and allowed new ideas to burst forth. As I spoke to friends who teach at other schools about the changes evolving in my school, it thrilled me to hear them say, "Wow, I'd like to work for a man like that. Your school is coming alive."

Gosh, dozens and dozens of warm wishes for a super experience in Palo Alto and all the coming years.

(signed)

Myrna Gay Specktor

Copyright 2005-2008: Herman Ohme