"Honoring the Past to Secure the Future" 

John Muir High School Alumni Commemorative Bricks
Displayed on the Campus Wall or Walk of Fame

     Create a lasting legacy at John Muir by making a contribution to the Arts Department when you order an Alumni Commemorative Brick that will be hand made by the art students at Muir and then placed either on the Alumni Wall of Fame or the Alumni Walk of Fame area - your choice of setting.
 

     Commemorative bricks are a great way to mark a special occasion, to memorialize an alumni or alumnae friend or relative, or just to emblazon your own name as a caring alumnus. These handmade ceramic bricks, which can be inscribed with a printed name and message, will be permanently displayed on the "Alumni Wall" or "Alumni Walk" in the M-Quad area near the Main Library. Donations for the Bricks will range from $75 to $150. Ordering instructions and other details are forth coming.

We Get Letters, Queries and the Blame

     The Alumni Association is constantly put on the "hot seat" for things we have no control. For the record, "We do NOT plan class reunions. We are NOT responsible for finding your classmates for your reunion. We CANNOT accept money for your class reunion. We do NOT decide which class events occur or when they do. We do NOT book the "Alumni Drum Corps" and are not affiliated with them (except we love their music).

    So, for all of you that send email demanding we resolve problems with your reunion plans or wonder when will "we" get started on your reunion - you'll have to take these issues up with your class reunion committee. What's that, your class committee dissolved? Well, now is the time for you to step up and start a new one!

     Now, all that said, we WILL GLADLY ASSIST any Muir class committee with its reunion plans. We have developed a "Reunion Manual" that is filled with suggestions, vendors and venues that have received our "stamp-of-approval" as a good vendor to use. The inclusion of a vendor or venue in this book is based on feedback provided by other's that have used them. Upon request, we will send it out to you. We will provide guidance and answer all of your questions about how to plan a reunion.

VICTOR WRIGHT RECEIVES LETTERMAN JACKET
David Rutherford
March 6, 2010

     Hall-of-Fame alumnus Victor Wright today was presented with a custom letterman jacket, paid for by his Muir High classmates and Pasadena Star-News readers who responded to an article indicating he had no such jacket to adorn his recently acquired honorary varsity football letter. Wright, who suffered a spinal injury as a sophomore during a game in 1976, has been paralyzed from the neck down for more than 33 years. He was presented with an honorary varsity letter at a Nov. 16, 2009 halftime ceremony at Muir's Walton Field during a game against Arcadia High, which the 0-5 Mustangs won, 27-7. The Star-News ran an article the next day, which revealed Wright had earned two other football letters at Muir and was a five-sport letterman at Eliot Middle School (football, baseball, track, gymnastics and volleyball).

     However, Wright admitted he had no jacket for the letters, which were in a bedroom dresser drawer. An out-pouring of support followed, as a half dozen readers sent in checks to the newspaper made out to Wright, totaling

$205. Victor's classmates, who held their 30-year reunion last November, which he attended, picked up the remaining cost of customizing the $373 jacket with a portion of the proceeds from their weekend activities.      Also discovered in Wright􀂶s drawer was another honorary varsity letter given to Wright in 1977 at a varsity football team awards banquet, attended by the late former University of Michigan Head Coach Bo Schembechler. The Wolverines were in town for the 1978 Rose Bowl game. Schembechler heard about Wright􀂶s story and came to the banquet at Brookside Golf Club to present him with a helmet and football, which still hang on his bedroom wall.

   Wright, who turns 49 next month, graduated on schedule with his class in 1979. Ten years later, he became one of the first quadriplegics to earn a college degree, through a program for students with disabilities at Los Angeles City College. He went on to co-found the non-profit organization Family of Friends International (www.familyoffriendsinternational.org), which provides relief to victims of natural disasters. For these efforts, Wright was elected to the John Muir High School Alumni Hall of Fame in 2007.