A photo accompanying last week’s column showed Dr. J. Earl Longley, a Tracy High trustee, discussing the interior of one of the new 1956 buildings at the high school with the Rev. Loren Mee, pastor of First Methodist Church.

The photo, taken during an open house for the new buildings that changed the face of Tracy High 52 years ago, underscored the major commitment Earl Longley made to education in the 1950s.

Earl, a native of San Diego and graduate of the University of Tennessee School of Medicine, first came to Tracy, hometown of his wife, June, in the early 1940s. After serving as a medical officer in the U.S. Army during World War II, he returned to Tracy and renewed his practice of medicine. He was first appointed to the high school board in 1953 to take the seat vacated by the resigning Dr. Marion Weitz, a Tracy physician who had moved from town. Longley was elected to a full four-year term in 1954 and served two terms as a trustee of the Tracy Joint Union High School District.

As a high school trustee and leader in the medical community, he was a major factor in garnering community support for the $1,038,000 bond issue in 1954 that financed the construction of the 1956 buildings. The other four trustees — S.K. "Sud" Neal, Bob Kellogg, Les Krohn and Merrill West — all had strong rural ties, and Longley was the one with a constituency based within the city limits. The measure had no organized opposition, but the bond-election vote in October 1954 was much closer than predicted. The measure passed with only 69 percent approval, just above the required two-thirds majority for general-obligation bonds in those days.

In the process, Longley and other trustees had to field a number of questions and criticisms about the project being too extravagant — the carpeting in the superintendent’s office became a major issue — but he refused to back down. Those same buildings, many of which face demolition in the next couple of years, have served the community well over the past half-century.

In facing re-election to the board in 1958, two years after the new buildings were completed, the physician-trustee again responded to criticism about the new buildings. He wrote: "Nor do I feel serious apologies are in order for the distance we have come from the ‘Little Red School House.’ I am an advocate of economy, but not false economy, in supplying our students and teachers a healthy, safe and pleasant environment in which to work."

Earl Longley’s interest in education and community service in the 1950s wasn’t lost on his young associate at the original Eaton Medical Group, Dr. John C. Kimball, but John decided to stay away from elected office.

With a young family, he didn’t feel he could be away from home for the many evenings that being on a school board would require, so he decided to put his energies, outside of practicing medicine, in other directions.

Those other directions included providing pro bono medical support for Tracy High athletic teams for more than four decades and volunteer work in numerous community organizations, including the Tracy Rotary Club, Salvation Army and Hospice.

In recognition of that service, Tracy’s third comprehensive high school, now under construction, has been named John C. Kimball High School. The two schools — Tracy High and Kimball High — reflect the impact the two physicians have had on their community over many decades.

Naming the new high school for John isn’t the first time a public facility has been named for a local physician. Dr. Powers Park immediately comes to mind. I’m sure many newcomers, especially, wonder just who Dr. Powers was and why a park was named for him. I’ll have more on that next week.

• Sam Matthews, Tracy Press, publisher emeritus, can be reached at 830-4234 or by e-mail at shm@tracypress.com.