PLACENTIA / YORBA LINDA : Hall of Fame for Grads Established

A Hall of Fame to honor graduates of the district’s four high schools has been established by the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District.

The first two inductees, Olympic gold medalist Janet Evans and GOP state Sen. John Lewis, will be honored at a ceremony Jan. 22 in the district’s new Board of Education facility in Yorba Linda.

Evans attended El Dorado High School from 1985 to 1989. As a swimmer, she won three gold medals at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. This year in Barcelona, Evans added a silver medal and a gold medal to her collection.

Lewis, whose district includes Placentia and Yorba Linda, graduated from Valencia High School in 1972. He was elected to the state Assembly in 1980 at the age of 26 and was elected to the Senate in 1991.

Lewis said he hopes the Hall of Fame will inspire even average students to see themselves as capable of great achievements. Lewis noted that when he was a student at Valencia, he did not stand out in any way. “I was not high up on the list of students voted most likely to succeed,” Lewis said.

The Hall of Fame was started by Supt. James O. Fleming to acknowledge graduates who have achieved success in their fields.

Honorees will be chosen from a field of candidates nominated by faculty at Esperanza, El Dorado, Valencia and El Camino Real high schools. Each high school can nominate two graduates each year, and a maximum of four per year will be chosen to be inducted.