• Fellow at UC Santa Cruz and member of the UC Board of Regents
Achievements:
Gregory Bateson’s legacy of ideas resonates across many fields,
including anthropology, psychology, and biology.
His first contributions were in anthropology, for which his
fieldwork led to new understandings of cultural processes.
Next, he helped develop cybernetics, a formal approach to the
study of complex natural and artificial systems.
Moving to California in 1948, Bateson studied schizophrenia and
family dynamics. He and his colleagues developed the
“double bind” explanation of schizophrenia and launched the field
of family therapy.
Bateson next began studying animal communication, and also began
to think about looming crises in our relationship to the
environment. In 1972 he took a teaching position at UC
Santa Cruz, and later served on the UC Board of Regents.
Awards/Recognition:
• The Bateson Building in downtown Sacramento, California is
named for him.
•Lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Annette Bening, and their
four children
Achievements:
A star since his first film in 1961, Warren Beatty’s longevity in
movies exceeds that of any actor of his generation. Few people
have taken so many responsibilities for all phases of film
production as producer, director, writer, and actor, and few have
shown so high a level of integrity in a body of work. Many
of his films are considered classics, including Bonnie and
Clyde, Shampoo, Reds, Heaven Can
Wait, Dick Tracy, Bugsy,
Bulworth, Splendor in the Grass, All Fall Down,
McCabe and Mrs. Miller, and The Parallax View. Only Beatty
and Orson Welles have been nominated for an Academy Award as an
actor, a director, a writer, and a producer for the same film – a
feat Beatty achieved twice. Beatty has been nominated fifteen
times in these categories and eight pictures he has produced have
earned 53 nominations.
Politically active since the 1960s, Beatty campaigned with Robert
Kennedy in 1968. That same year he traveled the U.S. speaking in
favor of gun control and against the war in Vietnam. He was a
founding board member of the Center for National Policy and of
The Progressive Majority, a member of the Council on Foreign
Relations, and has participated in the World Economic Forum. He
has addressed campaign finance reform, the increasing disparity
of wealth, and universal health care.
Selected Awards/Recognition:
• Academy Award, Best Director for “Reds”
• Irving G. Thalberg Award
• Kennedy Center Honors
• American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement Award
• Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Hollywood Foreign Press
Association
•Ray Eames was born and raised in Sacramento, CA; both Charles
and Ray lived and worked in Los Angeles, CA from 1941
Achievements:
Among the most important American designers of the 20th century,
Charles and Ray Eames made groundbreaking contributions to
architecture, furniture design, industrial design and
manufacturing, toys and the photographic arts.
Artist Bernice “Ray” Kaiser and architect Charles Eames merged
their lives and careers in 1941. Using new materials in
innovative ways, they produced influential and enduring
designs. During WWII they designed and successfully
proposed to the Navy the production of molded plywood splints and
stretchers to better serve the wounded. After the war, they
returned to their design of furniture; the resulting molded
plywood chair was called “the design of the century” by Time
Magazine in their Millennium Issue. In the 1950s, the Eameses
continued their work in architecture and modern furniture design,
and pioneered innovative technologies, such as the plastic resin
and wire mesh chairs designed for Herman Miller.
Their groundbreaking Eames House is a milestone of modern
architecture and National Historic Landmark. Their film
Powers of Ten is on the National Film Register — and continues
to be used in schools. Their exhibit Mathematica is still
considered a model for science exhibits and has been on
continuous display for over 50 years. Most of their furniture
designs remain in production today.
Selected Awards/Recognition:
• U.S. Postal Service stamps
• Royal Institute of British Architects Royal Gold Medal
• Raised in Stockton, CA; has lived and worked in California ever
since
Achievements:
One of the most famous Latinas in the Unites States, Dolores
Huerta has played a major role in the American civil rights
movement as a community organizer and social activist for over 50
years. She is perhaps most widely known as co-founder of
the United Farm Workers (UFW). A staunch advocate for
women’s rights and reproductive freedom, Huerta is a founding
board member of the Feminist Majority Foundation and serves on
the board of Ms. Magazine. She is a former UC Regent and has
earned nine honorary doctorates from universities throughout the
country. She frequently speaks at universities and organizational
forums on issues of social justice and public policy. She
continues working to develop community leaders and advocating for
the working poor, immigrants, women and youth as President of the
Dolores Huerta Foundation.
Selected Awards/Recognition:
• Presidential Medal of Freedom
• U. S. Department of Labor Hall of Honor
• Smithsonian Institution – James Smithson Award
• National Women’s Hall of Fame
• American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Roger Baldwin Medal of
Liberty Award
• The Eugene V. Debs Foundation Outstanding American Award
• The Ellis Island Medal of Freedom Award
• Icons of the American Civil Rights Movement Award
Nearly a century after his death, the man known as Ishi (meaning
“man” in his native language) remains the most famous California
Indian. In 1911, starving and in mourning, Ishi ventured into the
town of Oroville in search of food. He became an overnight
sensation, with newspaper headlines across the country trumpeting
the discovery of the man they called the “last wild Indian.”
Up to that point, Ishi had spent his entire life in hiding with a
few other surviving members of the Yahi People, most of whom had
been wiped out in the preceding decades by disease, starvation
and acts of genocide by white settlers. He would spend the rest
of his years teaching the world about his culture. Given a
home at the University of California’s anthropology museum, he
adapted with grace to his new life, spending his days making
arrowheads – which he often gave as gifts to museum visitors – or
demonstrating fire-building and other Native traditions.
The UC anthropologists learned much about the Yahi culture from
him as he demonstrated tool-making and hunting, and shared his
ancestral stories and songs.
After coming into contact with tuberculosis, Ishi died in 1916.
Ishi’s ashes were placed in a San Francisco-area cemetery, while
his brain was separated and preserved, against his spiritual
beliefs and traditions. In April 2000, Ishi’s brain, which
had been sent to the Smithsonian in Washington, DC., and his
remains were reunited and returned to his closest relations,
members of the Redding Rancheria and Pit River tribes. His
long-awaited traditional service in his homeland began the
healing process for all his relations.
• Played 14 seasons for the San Francisco 49ers, lives in the San
Francisco Bay Area
Achievements:
Widely regarded as one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time,
Joe Montana led the San Francisco 49ers to four Super Bowl
victories. Nicknamed “Joe Cool,” Montana exhibited grace under
pressure that translated to a remarkable 31 fourth quarter
come-from-behind wins in his career.
Montana passed for more than 300 yards in 39 games, including
seven in which he passed for over 400 yards. He won the NFL
passing title in 1987 and 1989, and his six 300-yard passing
performances in the post-season are an NFL record. He also holds
the career playoff record for attempts, completions, touchdowns,
and yards gained passing. In 1994 Montana became just the fifth
quarterback to pass for more than 40,000 yards in a career.
He led his team to the playoffs eleven times, captured nine
division championships and four Super Bowl victories. The only
player ever to win three Super Bowl Most Valuable Player honors,
Montana also holds the record for most Super Bowl pass
completions.
Named All-NFL three times and All-NFC on five occasions, Montana
was voted to the Pro Bowl eight times, which was then a league
record for a quarterback.
Awards/Recognition:
• Pro Football Hall of Fame
• National Football League Most Valuable Player Award (1989 and
1990)
Sons of Jewish Polish immigrants, Warner brothers Harry (born
Hirsz, 1881 – 1958), Albert (born Abraham, 1884 – 1967), Sam
(born Schmuel, 1885-1927) and Jack (born Itzhak, 1892 –1978) got
their start in the new business of movies by opening a theater in
Pennsylvania in 1903. After a time, they moved into movie
production, with Sam and Jack moving to California to capitalize
on the burgeoning movie business there.
Profits from their first hit, My Four Years in Germany
(1918), helped the brothers purchase a studio in Hollywood. Sam
and Jack produced the pictures, while Harry and Albert handled
finance and distribution in New York City. In 1923, following the
studio’s successful film The Gold Diggers, Warner
Brothers, Inc. was officially established. Though it had the
popular German shepherd Rin Tin Tin as a star, the studio was in
dire straits by 1926 when the brothers decided to gamble on
sound.
In 1927, the first feature-length “talking picture,” The Jazz
Singer, broke box-office records, established Warner Bros.
as a major studio, and single-handedly launched the talkie
revolution. In 1929 the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and
Sciences recognized Warner Bros. with a special Academy Award for
“revolutionizing the industry with sound.”
The studio’s successes included cartoons – the ever-popular Bugs
Bunny – and unforgettable movies such as Casablanca
(1942), the Dirty Harry films, and the Harry
Potter series. Today the company is a leader in the
entertainment industry. The company’s vast library consists of
more than 6,650 feature films, 50,000 television titles and
14,000 animated titles.
