Part 4 of 5
The second year opened with an increase in enrollment from the original ten to eighteen and the number of teachers to ten. Full time teachers received $2,500 per school year and part time teachers $3 per hour – three times what Felix had to pay his brick makers. In addition volunteer help would always be a strong tradition at Happy Valley. As school directors, Dr. Ferrando, followed by Rosalind, never accepted a salary and many other key persons such as Nell Ragan, the business manager, followed suit. The school would not have survived without this support from so many friends.
In June of 1948, due to ill health and an extended stay in Europe, Dr. Ferrando resigned from administrative responsibilities. The foundation appointed Nell Ragan, Rosalind, and David Young to an administrative committee. By November of 1949 a permanent director had not been found and Rosalind suggested that she search for someone to fill this position on her upcoming trip abroad. In her absence the school board appointed Howard Pattee, general secretary of the independent secondary school system of California, as general counselor to the school board. Mr. Pattee had already given invaluable practical advice over the past few years and would continue to do so.
By the spring of 1950 the much sought after school director had still not appeared.
It was unanimously agreed to appoint Mrs. Rosalind Rajagopal as “Acting Director” of the School for the school year 1950-51 with the understanding that there will be a Headmaster the following year.24
No director appeared the following year either. Eventually Rosalind would be appointed director and the “acting” would be dropped from her title. Rosalind was stepping into a role for which she had no specific training. But she had strong supporters in, among others, Louis and Robert who had no doubts about her capacities. The next decade would prove that they were right. The school flourished and before long was nationally and internationally recognized in educational circles. The emphasis which the Happy Valley School continued to place on creative activities had demonstrably enhanced rather than diminished its scholastic standards. There was a high percentage of National Merit Scholars alongside the drama productions and folk-dance exhibits. The school was turning out graduates who were all the founders had hoped for.
Rosalind with students, mid-1950s, Mary Myers, Jodi Parry, Raymond Neutra, Fritz von Fleckenstein, Kim de Steiguer, Rodman Casselberry, Dennis Poplin, Nancy RidenourIn spite of the evident success of the school, the Happy Valley Foundation still had to contend with a range of queries, criticisms and challenges on the basic curriculum of the school and proprietorship and proper uses of the Happy Valley land.
Some of these queries had come from Theosophical headquarters to which Louis Zalk gave candid replies based largely on Dr. Besant’s own words:
June 30, 1959
My Dear Friend,
I take this opportunity to sketch briefly the story of the Happy Valley Foundation since its organization approximately 30 years ago…
The original announcement by Dr. Besant under the date of January 11,1927 is very familiar to us, and the Happy Valley Foundation is devoted to carrying out her ideals and purposes in the most effective way possible, striving to avoid serious mistakes by determining a practical TIMING for each advance. In 1946… the Happy Valley School was started. This school seemed to us to come first. I quote from Dr. Besant’s pamphlet:
“For all this our Centre must have a school for the training of future members of the Centre, sowing into them gradually the ideals of the New Order with thoughtful care.” She very definitely recites the educational qualities necessary for our school. We have faithfully tried to follow these ideals in education with every modern educational technique which has since been developed. The ideals of the New Order do not need a denominational name. Being of intrinsic value in their own quality, they will attract the right people of all denominations. Dr. Besant stated in her announcement:
“Settlers need not belong to any special organization, but they must accept the following ideals which will be the bond of union between all the residents, to whatever Faith they may respectively belong. Such an ethical and profoundly religious bond is imperatively necessary for success.” I think the full significance of this paragraph should not be overlooked. We are far from being ready for settlers. This requires large outlays of capital and careful planning. We therefore started with our School. This School has been so far a very great success due to the ever-continuing devotion of many people who have given their time and utmost effort for its success (no member of the Board of Trustees has ever received any compensation whatever… The Trustees of this Foundation, remembering Dr. Besants’ incalculable services to the Theosophical Society, to the world and to them as individuals, are dedicated to justify the great risk she so gladly took and her good faith to those who contributed. But in an equal measure, the splendid ideals she set forth for a future and nobler civilization in themselves are a most worthy goal… without distinction of race, creed, caste, sex or color. Do not these objectives harmonize perfectly with the three essential purposes of the Theosophical Society itself?
Very sincerely yours,
Louis Zalk, President, The Happy Valley Foundation
Trustee George Hall added his validation to the above letter:
I was Dr. Besant’s agent in the purchase of the Tucker ranch and later in the organization of the California Corporation to which she transferred her title to the property and which assumed her debts in connection with said purchases, amounting originally to $90,000. Based upon personal knowledge of the entire history of this enterprise, it is my firm conviction that neither the Theosophical Society not any other organization or individual has any legal or moral right to the properties owned by the Happy Valley Foundation, which is a self-perpetuating California non-profit Corporation, governed by a Board of Trustees originally appointed by Dr. Besant herself.
Robert Logan died in 1956, leaving a third of his estate to Happy Valley. The loss of his presence, with his unobtrusive but esteemed wisdom was deeply felt.
By the early 1960s the board began to look toward the Happy Valley School graduates to perpetuate itself. Rosalind’s son-in-law James Sloss, who had attended the school in its first two years, joined the foundation in 1960. Jorge Uribe, a 1960 graduate of Happy Valley School and now a lawyer in Los Angeles, joined the foundation in 1968 and has remained to the present, sometimes as counsel, sometimes as trustee, and at this writing, as president. Jorge with his legal skills has dealt with the increasing number of complex issues and proposals set before the foundation as well as clarifying foundation policy on both practical and ideological levels.
Austin Bee, who had met Annie Besant as a twelve year old in 1926 and had been managing the Happy Valley ranch as well as serving as business manager for the school, was elected to the Happy Valley Board in 1974 and succeeded Rosalind as chairman in 1989.
Austin with his practical experience in the business of construction helped to materialize within realistic and achievable goals the dreams and hopes of the previous fifty years to establish the school on Happy Valley land. The pressure to move the school from Meiner’s Oaks intensified when the county condemned the lower school campus in order to build a freeway (which was never built). However, this proved to be a helpful nudge in the right direction. Bit by bit, the school would shift eastward onto Annie Besant’s promised land. It would arrive without seas parting, trumpets blaring, walls crumbling or a commandment fixed in stone (the latter case would lead to a paradoxical problem in itself).
Jorge A.Uribe, c. 1978In 1962 plans for a complete campus were being developed by the prestigious architectural firm of Welton Beckett, funded by some of the endowment left by Robert Logan. (The scope of these plans turned out to be far beyond the reach of Happy Valley resources, and eventually they had to be abandoned in their entirety). But before that happened, a discussion began at a Happy Valley Board meeting that was to escalate into a major policy issue. In order to raise funds from outsiders to construct the Welton Beckett plans,
the board was seeking a unanimous agreement on a philosophical policy that could be presented coherently to a funder. Yet there was still mindfulness of avoiding the crystallization that this formulation could incur. Money had seldom been sought outside the Happy Valley community. Logan and Zalk had met crucial deficits for the past sixteen years. To compound the difficulty of this task, one of the trustees interjected a criticism that the name of Krishnamurti was not used with more regularity and more emphasis in the school. The nonsectarian nature of the school, without emphasis on any individual or ideology, had long been accepted as an inviolate principle. Krishnamurti’s ideas had been transmitted by osmosis rather than regurgitation, by the character and behavior of individuals to whom his ideas had significance. He had been actively present in the founding years of the Happy Valley School and had lent his approval to the teaching methods as well as to the subject matter and the staff, while claiming he wished no formal association with it. Following Aldous Huxley (See: Appendix B), the existentialist Douwe Stuurman, from the University of California, Alan Watts and numerous other guest lecturers and teachers whose backgrounds were not necessarily Theosophical or tied to Krishnamurti had been attracted to Happy Valley because of its nonsectarian nature.
Over the next decade, acting on increased interest of the Krishnamurti circle and others in establishing themselves on Happy Valley land, the board was prompted to draw up a general agreement that would apply to any group wishing to develop a project on Happy Valley land. The main points were that there be no disagreement with Dr. Besant’s statements regarding the purposes of the foundation. Several amendments were added to clarify and extend the Articles of Incorporation, including a restated policy on the husbandry of animals:
To do all and everything necessary, suitable or proper… or anything which the Board of Trustees may from time to time deem proper, except the growing or commercial exploitation of animals for purposes leading to their cruel use for experiments, or for their purposeful slaughter, is to be totally avoided.
A further development of policy was adopted by resolution which describes the foundation
as non-sectarian, and cautious against fixation to any one person or ideology. The object is to cause the Foundation to be flexible, to keep the Foundation relevant to “new generations”, able to look to the future in order to make contributions, consistent with its guiding spirit in a changing society….The work of the Foundation should be developed with great integrity and should be concerned with those aspects of human endeavor that help to alleviate suffering and bring hope for the future of mankind.25
The Krishnamurti group did not pursue their interest in Happy Valley. There were other groups, however that did approach from time to time, drawn by the exceptional beauty of the land and an assumed compatibility with the principles of the foundation.
Among these was the World Institute of Avasthology. This group appeared to be in harmony with Dr. Besant’s ideals and with Theosophical principles. But they had problems and delays in presenting a clear plan of exactly what they wanted to accomplish. After a few years of discussion and rather vague proposals a plan for a pyramidal structure was presented to the Happy Valley Board. The pyramid was to be 90 feet high and seat 2,000 people. It is difficult to imagine how the necessary one million cubic feet could accommodate this number without its base being close to an acre, unless this crowd was so enlightened that they could stack themselves in levitating tiers. Jorge Uribe expressed the foundation’s concerns in a letter to the W.I.A.:
…The Board of Trustees also has very serious reservations regarding the pyramid… The Board has not been persuaded that such a structure can be properly located on a suitable building area within the Foundation’s property in a manner which is consistent with the various considerations that the Foundation has adopted for the proper utilization of all of its land by all of the people that use it. But what is to the Board at this time far more troublesome is its knowledge, based upon many years of experience in dealing with local regulatory agencies, that the likelihood of gaining approval for the construction of such an edifice is at the very best remote.
Sometimes regulatory agencies serve a good purpose! No more was heard of pyramids or the World Institute of Avasthology.
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Louis Zalk died in 1964, leaving Rosalind chair/president of the Happy Valley Foundation. Under Rosalind’s aegis there would never arise the type of divisiveness on the Happy Valley Board that had caused such confusion in the Felix Greene era. Devoting her full time to the foundation, Rosalind was able to establish a consensus before the board meetings through her discussion of issues with individual board members prior to each meeting. This had the advantage of reducing the meetings to a maximum of two or three hours in which the meeting itself served mainly to “implement Rosalind’s will.”26 If this administration was viewed by some as a “benevolent matriarchy,” it nevertheless steered the foundation and the school through some very bumpy times. In her doggedness combined with unwavering faith in her own good luck, Rosalind displayed certain similarities to George Washington crossing the Delaware. Neither ice nor high water would stop them.
Meeting on Happy Valley, 1968, Franklin Lacey, Harriet Von Breton, Douwe Stuurman, Austin Bee, Joseph Margon, John Rupp, Rosalind Rajagopal, Joseph LodgeRosalind had never entirely given up hope of getting herself replaced as the school director, and coping with the duties of president of the foundation made that issue all the more pressing. New directors were found – and then lost – to be replaced, one by one. Some left valuable contributions and others a weakened structure that was miraculously shored up again. (Aldous Huxley once quipped that Rosalind rode a new director into battle like a cavalry general his horse until the poor creature dropped from exhaustion or was shot out from under her.)
On her tour of America in 1926, Annie Besant had met another boy of twelve in Wheaton, Illinois, Franklin Lacey in whom she had recognized a very special spark. Franklin joined the Happy Valley Board in 1959, two years after the opening of The Music Man, which he had coauthored with Meridith Wilson. In that decade, with the school in its darkest period, Franklin was persuaded to be the director and he forthwith attempted to keep afloat what was a very leaky craft indeed. Perhaps his own line from The Music Man served him well at this time. When Professor Hill had flim-flammed the whole town into buying costumes and instruments for the school band and the moment arrived to play, one voice cried out, “but we don’t know how.” The professor said, “FAKE IT” and it worked! Floating between two makeshift campuses, in serious deficit, down to seven students, the school continued, with very little substance, to project the impression of itself as a school.27
Franklin Lacey, c. 1958The 1960s and 1970s were challenging decades for all educational institutions in the re-evaluation and oftentimes rejection of old principles and theories. The Happy Valley School suffered from many of the difficulties of this era but
the essence of its philosophy was to remain uncrystalized and open to the new; vigilant as well as prudent in looking for and welcoming change – and of course change there was.
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Acquiring funds for the new campus now became a major concern. Before he left Felix Greene had built another adobe house – High Winds – in the upper valley on land east of Happy Valley, for Mary Clark. By 1953 Mrs. Clark had not found a use for the house and put it up for sale. Louis and Rajagopal, who was then the treasurer of the Happy Valley Foundation, urged the board to add this property, which included about seventy-five acres, to Happy Valley. A few years later Austin Bee, then a part-time realtor in Willie Weidemann’s office, noticed that an eightyacre parcel between High Winds and Happy Valley was for sale. Austin offered to drive Louis and Rajagopal up to see it. They approached by an old dirt track, much like the track on which Frank Gerard had first taken Krishna and Raja from the east side of the valley thirty years before. The board agreed that this parcel should be acquired as a valuable link between High Winds and Annie Besant’s original land. High Winds could be looked upon as a long term investment “for the future.”
Austin Bee, c. 1955Not too surprisingly “for the future” became “now” very suddenly when Rosalind perceived High Winds as a means to raise funds for the new campus. The terms of the sale, however, precluded acquiring funds for that purpose. A large down payment was forfeited in lieu of a high interest mortgage. This income helped to finance the operational expenses of the foundation for many years.
Oil rights had never ceased to be a concern and with the pending move onto the Happy Valley land and the building of a campus, it again became a hot issue in the mid-1960s.
After frustrating attempts by various board members to negotiate with Atlantic Richfield, owner of these rights, Rosalind one day impulsively phoned Mr. Bradshaw, the current president of Atlantic Richfield, and was able to announce at the next Board meeting:
The gift to the Foundation of the mineral and oil rights on the 270 acres of Happy Valley land by the Atlantic Richfield Company and that the deeds were in the process of being executed.28
Happy Valley School, 1997All these negotiations had failed to provide the funds needed to build the new campus. A relationship, however, still existed with Atlantic Richfield. Rosalind reported at a 1968 board meeting that in view of a freeway, rumored for construction in that area, the oil company was considering the sale of 2.6 acres of its upper valley land. This parcel included an office building, appropriate for classrooms until the campus on Happy Valley land could be funded. The property was being offered at $125,000, considerably below the appraised value (but a high price to the Foundation). Unfortunately the zoning was not suitable for school purposes. These obstacles were soon swept aside. Jorge Uribe pointed out the potential tax advantages to Atlantic Richfield of donating assets to the foundation as a means of reducing the purchase price. The board was assured that the zoning could be changed, and fortunately the freeway never materialized. In that same meeting a planning committee was formed to guide – if not propel – the board forward in plans to construct the new campus on Happy Valley land.
Within a few days of this meeting Jorge received in his law office a phone call from Rosalind announcing that they had an appointment with the regional head of Atlantic Richfield in Los Angeles the following day. She added that she would pick Jorge up and drive him to the meeting. They were unfortunately running late as they approached the underground parking ramp which also unfortunately said FULL. Undeterred by this trivial obstacle, Rosalind advised Jorge to hang on and proceeded full speed wrong way down the exit ramp to be greeted at the bottom by an outraged parking attendant. Quickly assuming her “innocent old lady” cloak, she said, “Oh dear,” and handing over the keys, she hustled Jorge up the elevator, while reminding him that it was his job to explain to Atlantic Richfield why they wanted to make a substantial gift to the Happy Valley Foundation.
At the next board meeting the successful negotiations were reported, culminating in a purchase price of $98,000 with $60,000 down.
During the twelve years that followed this acquisition, (it was sold in 1980 for more than four times the purchase price) real estate deals would take up a considerable portion of the board’s time and almost all of Rosalind’s. The Meiner’s Oaks campus was eventually sold, repossessed and sold again until little by little, through sales and donations and a rare inheritance, sufficient funds were gathered together to make the new campus possible.29
Unfortunately, the 270 acres that comprised the High Winds property, the adjacent tract spotted by Austin, and an eastern portion of the land originally bought by Annie, on which the oil rights had been granted, were not a part of the designated site for the new campus, which was still under an oil rights cloud. In true Happy Valley style, this did nothing to derail the plans. A discussion with a representative of ARCO was deemed sufficiently reassuring to allow the building project to proceed. Over the years, oil rights continued to be contributed by other holders such as the Lagomarsino family. Occasional oil prospectors came scouting about but so far, for better or worse, depending on whose rights are involved, nothing has come of it. Perhaps, ultimately, Frank Gerard’s words will hold true “the land will be there for centuries to come, while oil is not likely to be an issue for many years more” (See: Appendix E).
In 1972 Rosalind gave to the Happy Valley Foundation a piece of property left her by Robert Logan. (The house called Saro Vihara, built by George Hall as a guest house for Arya Vihara, which Robert and Sara had bought for their California residence.)
The sale of this property enabled the foundation to build a house at Happy Valley, designed by Paul Hoag, that would be for Rosalind’s lifetime use. It would also serve as the foundation headquarters for the three board meetings each year and other appropriate purposes. A large living room was designed with all this in mind.
Saro Vihara, c. 1930, Ojai home of the LogansRosalind’s close friend Beatrice Wood, the noted ceramist, had lived across the street from Arya Vihara for over twenty years. Beatrice, a longtime admirer of Annie Besant and Krishnamurti, had followed the development of the school with great interest, and also taught ceramics there.
Beatrice Wood (Beato) and James Sloss Ojai, 1967Rosalind now suggested that Beatrice sell her McAndrew Road house and with those funds build a house to be for her lifetime use adjacent to the one for Rosalind. Beatrice later remarked that her trust in Rosalind was great enough to follow her to the North Pole had Rosalind recommended it. So Beatrice sold the house she had built and loved and without hesitation moved herself and her work to Happy Valley.
This would be another step toward developing a Happy Valley community, alongside the school, which was inching its way onto the land. It also fulfilled Annie Besant’s vision that there be artists in the Happy Valley community who would exemplify for young people an aesthetic regard for beauty. No one could have predicted that twenty-five years later, Beatrice’s inspiring presence would still be a force on the land in her 104th year.
Logan and Wood Houses, 1997Annie Besant had adamantly refused to be concerned about such issues as lack of water or other resources. When they are needed they will come, she asserted. The Casitas Water Project did just that, and while Happy Valley lost a few acres condemned by the water company around the old Logan well on McAndrew Road, it gained pipelines and accessibility from municipal water in exchange for easements. The same deal was struck with the gas company.
Rajagopal had once observed that the right people are the most valuable resource, and nothing could succeed without this human factor. With the generous support of its friends, old and new, the school campus was well established by the early 1980s. A faculty house was designed by Paul Hoag to be built behind the old adobe. Within a few years a school director’s house was built. The growth of a viable community was now afoot.
Beato and Rosalind, c. 1982***
Sean Wellesly-Miller at Bio-shelter foundation, c. 1979In 1974, a friend of the foundation and former art teacher, Liam O’Gallagher had been invited to chair the board’s planning committee as he was knowledgeable about so-called “new age” ideas and it was hoped he might find a compatible project for Happy Valley. Liam drafted a policy statement intended to present Dr. Besant’s basic goals in language that might appeal to those with scientific leanings as well as sharing the same humanitarian ideals.
Because Dr. Besant foresaw this period of crises in which man would reach both his greatest potential for creative change and its opposite, total destruction, she set aside this land known as Happy Valley to inspire and provide new models of community which would encourage and provide human beings at this evolutionary crossroads opportunities to identify with the evolution beyond the present human stage, a community based on the same priority of values, not based on Good and Evil, but on good and better.
To pursue such a policy entails the caring for life in all its forms in a responsible way, the development of an ecological architecture that would utilize, in our climate, the solar systems that produce power, water and food, provision of an education that starts with an awareness of the crises in consciousness; and the seeking of solutions that speak to us through the new physics, biology and psychology that do most to release the human potential, the Brotherhood of Man, to which Dr. Besant dedicated her life.
Liam O’ Gallagher
Chairman, Planning Committee
Happy Valley Foundation
Liam eventually found a group that came to be known as Human Dimensions West, a “non-profit organization exploring the interface between science and spirituality.” In 1975 the Happy Valley Foundation granted a lease for about forty acres for a token sum on which to develop their programs. An architect/inventor from M.I.T., Sean Wellesly-Miller, obtained a grant to build a structure that would be self-sufficient in its use of energy that presumably might be the model for a whole community. Unfortunately for various reasons including the usual personality malfunctions and financial shortfalls, this enterprise was abandoned and in 1979 Human Dimensions West invited Dr. Joan Halifax, an anthropologist, “
to lead the organization (renamed the Ojai Foundation) in a new direction.” The Ojai Foundation established several successful programs and developed the land in a gentle and ecological manner, using yurts and solar energy. When Joan was succeeded by Jack Zimmerman, an educator and psychologist, the practice of “council” was emphasized and taught to a broad spectrum of adults and children. Even under changes in leadership, the two foundations have managed over the years to establish a relationship under which new leases and agreements, joint projects and planning, can be undertaken with sufficient clarity and trustee cohesiveness to avoid the misunderstandings that had beset the Greene project.
Joan Halifax and Virginia Coyle of the Ojai Foundation, Happy Valley, 1988 Radha Sloss, centerThe presence of the Ojai Foundation at Happy Valley has offered an interesting, sometimes challenging and for the most part successful experiment in the coordination and cooperation process of like-principled but separate communities.
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Happy Valley Foundation meeting, 1988, (front) Rosalind, Raymond Neutra, Helen Bee, Diana Dunningham, Emily Sellon, (back) John Gorsuch, John Rupp, Joy Mills, John Kern, Austin Bee, Jorge UribeThe relationship between the Happy Valley Foundation and the school would, by 1980, undergo some drastic transformations and re-evaluations. The school had become a serious financial enterprise that in certain years, far from being a burden to the foundation, had actually added financial stability to the parent organization. Not always the case – and when the reverse happened usually Louis or Robert and after them Rosalind (who along with Happy Valley was Robert Logan’s beneficiary) would rescue the school from its budgetary shortfalls.
The composition of the Happy Valley Board was also changing gradually, perhaps at the time, imperceptibly. Rosalind no longer had the will or the energy to assume the amount of responsibility that her style of leadership had demanded of her. In the previous decade the school board had been abolished, and the school was run entirely from a foundation level. This had seemed the only feasible way to handle the extreme pressures of enforced relocation, insufficient funds to achieve this and a decreased enrollment, to say nothing of an alarming turn-over rate of directors.
Trustees at lunch, Logan House, 1988 John Kern, Raymond Neutra, Radha Sloss, Jorge Uribe, John Rupp, Ken TennenRosalind, since her sister Erma’s death in 1970, had reduced her living expenses to a bare minimum in order to use her inherited income to cover the school deficits. It took Jorge’s best persuasive powers, as well as her intrinsic trust in him to convince Rosalind that she must desist from this thirty- to forty-thousand dollar annual-bail of the past decade or she would ultimately destroy the school. Together with Helen Bee, (Austin Bee’s daughter), a Happy Valley School graduate who had joined the foundation in 1979,
Jorge Uribe reconstituted the school board, established new bylaws and a governance committee which would give the foundation sufficient control over philosophical principles while allowing the school board to assume the function of running the school. In explaining this to Rosalind, Jorge equated the new set-up with the papal see, in which the pope was infallible when speaking “ex cathedra.”
Rosalind with Molly, Happy Valley, c. 1988 It was the natural time to stop and redefine the original spirit of the school. It had come of age, and now it must have a new form of independence and also allow the foundation the independence to undertake other projects. From that point, the school began to grow again, to revitalize and extend the early concepts of its founders in seeking to be in the forefront of excellence in education.
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Rosalind was in the habit of walking her dog around the campus every morning. Sometimes she would be joined by a young teacher, Dennis Rice-Leary, who was to become the next Happy Valley School Director.
Dennis chose a staff and school board who would support him in implementing the new policy. Equally important, thanks to Helen and Jorge, the school was finally forced onto a sound financial footing, upon which the tenure of the director’s employment would depend. Contributions to the school budget would be allowed only as clear annual contributions, to be used within that year so as not to cause instability. At the same time Helen should be credited with helping Dennis to re-establish a sound academic structure, adapted to a very different age from that in which the school had begun.
Dennis Rice, 1997In the late 1970s the school board had been charged by the foundation to:
1)
get the school back on the philosophic track,
2) deal as effectively as possible with the financial management of the school so that it could be on a sound footing,
3) get the rest of the campus built.
Director’s House, 1997By 1989 these charges were considered accomplished and discussion proceeded to setting the goals for the next five to ten years:
(1) To maintain and enhance the fundamental philosophy of the school in all aspects of the school’s life, 2) to find all ways to recruit the very best faculty that we can possibly have, 3) to continue to enhance our financial stability by all possible means, 4) to pursue improved balance in our curriculum and 5) to move toward a greater sense of an actual community, not only an improvement in relations of all the constituents of the school (alumni, parents, board, faculty, etc.) but also to move to a community on this land that would include teachers, staff, trustees of the foundation… to create a school and foundation community which will enhance our interaction with one another in a shared way… this was exciting because it was so much in keeping with Mrs. Besant’s vision and goals.30
Arrow House, 1997Jorge Uribe, Happy Valley School commencement talk, 1988In 1987 the qualifications for prospective Happy Valley Foundation trustees was clarified. These include a willingness to accept as guideposts, those principles outlined in Appendix C.
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Austin Bee after his Happy Valley School commencement talk 1982When in 1988 Rosalind resigned as chair/president, she was succeeded by Austin Bee as chairman and by Jorge Uribe as president, the office being split for the first time into two categories. Austin, as chairman, had the highly sensitive task of maintaining a board of consensus, while keeping in check the potential for divisiveness. This took enormous patience and the willingness and insistence to table issues that could not be agreed upon without lengthier consideration. Efficiency of time was sacrificed and board meetings started to last as much as nine hours, sometimes requiring two days in a row. But with the help of committees many projects could be carried out between meetings.
Rosalind had spent nearly fifty of her eightysix years working for Happy Valley. She had felt for some time that it was appropriate for her to resign entirely from the foundation. She now had confidence that a strong board was in place. At the end of a 1989 meeting, Rosalind left the board with a few parting remarks:
While I am still alive, I think I owe to the members of the Happy Valley Foundation some of the ideas I heard Dr. Besant express. Clearly she did not know what the future generation would think or want….The type of school she envisioned was one in which members would be held together by an ethical and profoundly spiritual bond, regardless of individual backgrounds and beliefs, free from rigid or authoritarian control, in which the physical, emotional, and intellectual development of each one would be fostered in all aspects of daily life. I think it very important we never become rigid or dogmatic, so hard for well meaning people to escape. Dr. Besant has even said that for some people it was important they make mistakes as that was the only way they learn. She also said it was good for people to pursue what attracts, otherwise, not using energy for experimentation, they become lifeless and dull. My own thinking is that so far we have tried, to the best of our ability, to follow these concepts and I think each one of you will carry on to the best of your ability. My thoughts and love and best wishes will always be with you.
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In the late 1980s serious discussions on faculty housing were brought by the school to the Happy Valley Board in answer to the expressed hopes of many of the faculty to be able to live on the land. The concept of co-housing was investigated and under the initiative of Raymond Neutra, (another Happy Valley School graduate on the board) a class of architectural students at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo was invited to apply Happy Valley co-housing to a student competition. Many valuable ideas and concepts evolved from this endeavor but as always money was the determining factor and nowhere in sight were the millions that it would take to embark on such an ambitious project.
Although Paul Hoag’s original plan had included an assembly/theater, funds had not been sufficient for that structure. A yurt (a round Mongolian style tent) was set up for morning assembly – always a core activity of the school which, for want of a proper place to hold it, had been abandoned for the past few years in the move from the lower campus. While the yurt was perceived as a temporary stop-gap, the need for a proper assembly/theater was strongly felt.
Yurt, 1997Happy Valley School dormitory fire, 1990In 1990 a fire destroyed the dormitory. Rather than slowing the growth process, this disaster ignited and fueled the determination to complete the campus and provide all that was missing as soon as possible. It also united the foundation and the school in the necessity of rebuilding the dorm in record time. A school staff member, Mike Adams saved thousands of dollars by pitching in to reconstruct the septic system, and a graduate of the school and now a foundation board member, Ken Tennen, contributed valuable time and effort in dealing with the complex insurance and contractual issues involved.
When Rosalind retired from the foundation in 1989, James Sloss, now a professor of mathematics at UC Santa Barbara returned to the board after an absence of twenty-three years; and when Austin retired as chairman in 1993, James was elected to that office. Meanwhile, between 1992 and 1996 Jorge, as legal counsel to the Happy Valley Foundation, had been compelled for insurance reasons to resign as trustee. Therefore the office of chairman and president was again consolidated until Jorge was able to return as president in 1996. All these transitions did not cause serious ripples in the operations of the board. This was thanks in large part to the steadfast and long term presence of John Gorsuch who had been the secretary-treasurer of the board for nearly twenty years. He had lived for much of this time in Adobe House and had offered daily support and assistance to Rosalind throughout this tenure. The foundation suffered a loss when in 1994 John had to retire for family reasons, and moved to Colorado. This necessitated a search for his replacement in a job both complex and imprecisely defined. Stability was temporarily shaken but not destroyed. New residents were found for Adobe House, a couple with a small child, who provided a link between the foundation and the school – Wendy, a teacher, and John Morgando, a land manager for Happy Valley, finally full-filling the original purpose for which Adobe House was built. The new secretary/treasurer, Kate Mack, has had a long affiliation on the land, first with the Ojai Foundation and then with Rosalind.
James Sloss with Sindhu, 1988, Happy Valley School gazeboIn the midst of these changes a major and emotionally wrought issue confronted the new chair/ president almost immediately. Since 1927 the walnut orchard had been an ongoing source of income and the sole foundation operation outside of the school. It gave beauty as well as nuts. Under Austin Bee’s ranch management a new grove had been planted and this was still thriving, but the old grove was unquestionably dying, slowly but surely, and the crops had fallen off.31
Helen Bee and John Gorsuch Logan House, c. 1988Walnut trees gone, 1995Because the growing of walnuts in the region had been all but abandoned, there no longer existed communal processing facilities for even a limited crop. The proliferation of ground squirrels had become a major problem. They were thriving on the walnuts, unharvested due to their poor quality. Killing animals, even pests, created a moral dilemma for the board but allowing the squirrels to multiply and enjoy a fulfilling life on Happy Valley land created strained relations with the farming neighbors and possible health hazards to the school.
Like a final gift to Happy Valley, burls had been discovered on many of the trees. Their value was great enough (far outweighing any other value the trees might have) to pay for the removal of the orchard – if undertaken in time. In order to optimize the value obtainable for the burls, James Sloss contacted Rolls Royce in England, Mercedes Benz and BMW in Germany, and Lexus in Japan, as well as burl users in the U.S. The whole process of the removal of the trees and the land preparation for new crops took the better part of a year under his intensive supervision.
James Sloss, as ChairmanThe demise of the old walnut orchard was mourned by the students, the faculty, residents of the land, and the community at large. Meanwhile the beautiful acreage lay fallow, waiting for a new approach to farming that would be consistent with the Happy Valley vision.
VII. The Time Has Come,the Walrus said,
To talk of many things:
Of shoes—and ships—and sealing-wax—
Of cabbages—and kings
From time to time we should reassess our reasons for existence. To what extent are we still in harmonious pursuit of the aims and visions of our founders? We have been left remarkably free from generation to generation to follow our own interpretations and understanding of these visions. But surely we might pause and ask what Annie Besant and the early trustees would feel about our efforts so far.
The school has existed and (most often) flourished for over fifty years. The generosity of trustees and friends have enabled the school to grant scholarships every year and, through the generosity of the Kern Foundation, to establish a course in ethics and the Theosophical world view.
The campus completion project was formulated as a unit in which a classroom, a thirty-two-bed dormitory, and an assembly/theater were to be built. In the past, the financing for school buildings had been undertaken solely by the Happy Valley Foundation. This completion project, however, required resources beyond the scope of the foundation. Happy Valley School has never focused on a wealthy base of benefactors and is still too young to have inherited endowments from numerous alumni. A few have given large donations for the theater and many have given as generously as they were able. It soon became clear that if the completion project were to depend exclusively on donations, it would not be realized for many years, if at all. A delay of many years would not address the pressing need for all three of these buildings. An additional source of funds had to found.
Assembly/Theater foundation, December, 1997In a study made by Ken Tennen and Jorge Uribe it was determined that a disproportionate increase in students of high school age could continue for some years, creating a demographic bubble that was beginning to bulge. For years there had been a concern that the dorms in the ranch area were no longer suitable for students but could be remodeled for faculty. If a dormitory was built to house the dorm students plus an additional increase in student population, the increase could help finance the new dormitory. James Sloss devised a scheme for borrowing money from the Santa Barbara Bank and Trust whereby trustees and friends of the Happy Valley Foundation individually bought certificates of deposit to guarantee the loan.32
Happy Valley School dormitories, 1997 The classroom was completed in 1996 just in time to accommodate an exceptionally large student body. And the new dormitory was ready just in time to house the arriving students in the fall of 1997. The theater construction officially began October 13, 1997, although $221,000 from donations in plans and ground work had already been spent.
Thanks to the project manager, Rolf Eriksen, a long-time friend of Happy Valley, there is the strong likelihood that the project will remain on budget, a vital factor in the ultimate materialization of this cherished dream.
Dedication and selfless service have been hallmarks of our endeavors from Annie Besant’s moment of vision to the present. Much of the development could not have transpired without the force of this commitment on the part of so many.
The ancient walnut trees that contributed beauty as well as income for so many years will soon be replaced with new growth in the form of innovative and ecologically oriented farming practices, and interest is rapidly gathering momentum both for economic and educational projects in agriculture.
There is the germ of an artist’s center beautifully established by Beatrice Wood with a folk art collection and an art library as well as her private collection of ceramics.
As a self-perpetuating board the Happy Valley Foundation now has eight of its eleven members who are graduates of the Happy Valley School. This in itself is a significant sign that the school has fulfilled its primary purpose, that of inspiring in its students a commitment to substantiate and share the ideals for which it was founded.
Beato, 1985VIII. Losses and Changes"The time to talk”, as the Walrus said, moved dreams and hopes along the path to reality. Sometimes one might wonder what forces propel events on Happy Valley.
Although the full funding for the theater had not been raised, an unexpected windfall had supported the groundbreaking. In November of 1995, we received a call from a Philadelphia bank, searching for the Happy Valley Foundation and Rosalind Rajagopal, regarding the estate of Deborah Logan, Robert Logan’s only child, who died in 1939. The story of Deborah’s marriage and untimely death is not relevant here except to note that she had left her trust income to her step-daughter and then the trust was to follow the path of Robert’s will, providing this stepdaughter, whose existence had long since faded from the memory even of Rosalind, died, as she had, without issue.
That meant that Rosalind and the foundation would each receive $144,000. On the advance of these funds, theater and new dormitory construction could begin and it was hoped that if costs remained within budget, the dormitory could still provide the payback.
Rosalind died January 24, 1996, leaving her house, as she always intended, to the foundation. She was 93 and had served Happy Valley in various capacities for over 50 years. The morning after she died her family looked down toward the school and watched students and teachers gather in a circle on the field where the walnut orchard had once stood. We were witnessing a blessing of the land by an old Native American friend. Even the most skeptical among us could not ignore the significance in the sequence of events over the past two months.
The Logan inheritance was instrumental in obtaining generous donations from several alumni, particularly from Louis Zalk’s family and as Louis had been the first President of the Happy Valley Foundation and had devoted to it nearly forty years of his life, it was appropriate that this most significant building be named Zalk Theater.
Yet, in spite of widespread and deep generosity from Happy Valley alumni and friends, by 1998, the theater construction budget was exceeded and funds had run dry. There was considerable gloom over the land. The suggested recourse was to lock up the theater and wait a year or two, while raising the necessary money to fulfill the county requirements for occupancy. There was no serious development strategy to implement such a plan. The foundation’s resources were strained to the limit and the school budget could not further support the building program.
On March 3 of that year, Beato celebrated her 105th birthday. It was whispered that she had been a role model for both the young Rose and particularly the older Rose, in James Cameron’s film, Titanic. A few days after her birthday, she entertained Cameron and his leading actress, in her home for lunch. It was to be Beato’s final performance, which she carried off with her usual grace, even gifting Cameron a ceramic boat that she had made some years before. Then, she went to bed, saying she loved her bed and would not be getting up again. She died March 12, 1998.
For the last twenty years of their lives, Rosalind and Beato had planned together that their adjacent houses would implement the intentions of the founders – to further the pursuit of creative activities and continual learning on Happy Valley.
In this spirit, Beato had left the preponderance of her estate to the foundation, including her ceramics, her folk art collection and a 1500 volume library of art books. She had not been involved in the exigencies of the theater in her last years, although she was excited by the potential it would create for the school and Happy Valley community. But the foundation was confident that nothing would have pleased her more than that the final resource to complete Zalk Theater without interruption, would come from her legacy.
The theater made possible new activities for the school as well as re-instating a program that had been basic in the school’s curriculum from the beginning. For many early students the distinguished guest speakers and performers were a strong source of inspiration throughout their lives. In support of this concept, the foundation established, in 2000, the Happy Valley Cultural Center that would strive to bring to the school these programs. The vision was thus stated:
The Happy Valley Cultural Center provides a venue for all the arts as well as for dialogues on social and scientific issues that will be of interest to the community at large and that will introduce the students of the Happy Valley School to diversity in both traditional and non-traditional spheres of human endeavor.
A council of forty friends lent their names and interest to the cultural center. And to give it a solid footing, two long-time friends of the foundation, Liam O’Gallagher and Robert Rheem donated a tea-set that Beato had made for them thirty years before.
In the first four years over twenty events, in the fields of drama, dance, music, and lectures were offered (See: Appendix G).
IX. Through the Looking Glass“Well, in our country,” said Alice, still panting a little, “you’d generally get to somewhere else—if you ran very fast for a long time as we’ve been doing.”
The past thirty years have seen the school relocate, in several stages, from Meiner’s Oaks to the Upper Valley. Dormitories, classrooms, library, labs, dining hall and theater were completed. The governance of the school was organized and revitalized under policies established in 1988 by the Happy Valley Board. There was a well-spring of energy and cooperation that had made all of this possible.
The loss of Rosalind and Beato in the late ‘90s, even though for several years they had not been active in foundation or school affairs, nevertheless contributed to subtle changes in the Happy Valley ethos. In this same period the board lost Austin Bee, who died in July 2001 and Jorge Uribe who, after 32 years of devoted and valued service to the foundation, resigned in January 2000. Both Austin and Jorge were great contributors to keeping the school on course during its transition years to the Upper Valley.
Shortly afterwards, a temporary misconception formed in the school community. There were references to “two institutions” and “two boards” in a context that was contrary to the foundation by-laws. Despite the foundation board’s effort to clarify the proper interpretation of governance documents, the misconception led to further miscommunications and finally action on the part of a few members of the school community to attempt to incorporate the school as an entity independent of the foundation. The foundation board finally resolved the issue by establishing a closer governance structure between the foundation board and the school. This included replacing the existing school “board” with the School Governance Committee, as a committee of the foundation.
At the same time that the school governance restructuring was being considered, the trustees recognized that a process of board evaluation would be helpful and decided that an independent consultant, offering an objective evaluation would aid in the process. Therefore, in consultation with the Santa Barbara Non-Profit Center, a selection process was followed and a consultant chosen. The consultant conducted individual interviews with trustees and meetings with the board as a whole, which then led to extending the process to include staff and faculty of the school. The results of the consultant’s many findings were shared, on a no-name basis, with Foundation Board members and the school’s non-student constituency.
At or about the time that the consultant’s findings were shared with the Happy Valley community and the school governance restructuring was being considered, Dennis Rice, Happy Valley School Director for over twenty years, tendered his resignation. For some time, the board had recognized the need to identify a potential Interim Director in the event of a sudden departure of the Director of the School. Accordingly, David Anderson, a Happy Valley School teacher for the past seventeen years with previous head of school experience, was selected and agreed to act as Interim Director.
David Anderson, Interim Director 2004-2006Among the important tasks facing the Interim Director were the need to provide reassurance for the future and continuity of the school in line with its founding principles, and the need to achieve a balanced budget. David also exemplified the value of frugality as a way of life beyond budgetary considerations, that had made the existence of the Happy Valley School viable and that resonated with a commitment to care for the environment and the community.