Harry Ells High School

Harry Ells High School in Richmond, California was a major public high school serving the community from 1955 to 1985 with a gap of 3 years (1967-70) when it served as the temporary South campus of Richmond High School. It was named for Harry Leander Ells (1854-1943), a pioneering resident who served as Richmond's postmaster, a member of its first school board, and an assemblyman representing Contra Costa County.

Ells originally opened as a middle school in 1944, as Richmond grew from the influx of World War II manufacturing and shipyard workers and their families. Ells was changed to a high school in 1955 and graduated its first class in 1958. In the Fall of 1967, it became Richmond High School South Campus while Richmond High's main campus was rebuilt and the new John F. Kennedy High School opened one mile away. In 1970, Ells reopened as a four-year high school, but by then had lost part of its student base, its Eagle mascot and red-and-white school colors to the new Kennedy High School. The reopened Harry Ells returned with new colors of purple and white and new mascot, the Falcon. After 15 more years as a separate high school, Ells closed forever in 1985, the result of declining enrollment and the discovery of asbestos in many of its buildings. After the Ells campus was torn down, LoVonya Dejean Middle School was built and opened on the same site in 2001. A plaque marks the place where Ells once stood, and a section of 33rd Street has been named Harry Ells Place.

After graduating its first four-year high school class in 1958, Ells rapidly achieved prominence on several fronts. For example, its marching band was selected to play at the opening ceremonies at the 1960 Winter Olympics, held in Squaw Valley, Lake Tahoe, CA; the Ells basketball team won the prestigious iNorthern California Tournament of Champions in 1964 and placed three players on the All-Tournament Team, and debate and forensics teams excelled in regional and state competitions throughout the decade of the 1960s, earning Ells a National Award for Excellence in Speech for the years 1961-1967 from the National Forensics League.

In its short history, Ells produced prominent graduates in science, the professions, public service and the arts. The Hon. Kent N. Brown, nominated by President George H. W. Bush to be the first U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Georgia, was a 1961 Ells graduate.<ref.>Presidential Papers, July 2, 1992: www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid+21196</ref> The late Patricia McKinley, a member of the Class of 1967, was appointed by California Governor Jerry Brown to the Bay Municipal Court at the age of 33, making her the youngest and the first African-American woman ever appointed to that position, and three years later she was named presiding judge. Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-CA), Ells Class of 1961, has represented California's 53rd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2001. Her sister, Eleanor (Alpert) Palk, Class of 1959, served more than three decades as judge and Commissioner of the Orange County Superior Court.

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