Ron Genini’s 50
year journey!
When I left St
Mary’s I went to Laney for a year and then transferred to USF where I stayed
until 1969, earning both my BA (1968) and MA (1969) in history. While doing
this I worked on the Oakland and San Francisco waterfronts during my vacation
times as a longshoreman and in their lumberyard in Oakland. I got a good education at USF but the best
thing I got at USF was my wife, Roberta Tucker. I had been dating her roommate for a few
months when I met her and there it was. She
was from Fresno, having been born in Ecuador in 1943 where her parents were the
administrators of the American School of Quito,
founded through the auspices of the American government to counter Nazi
strategy in South America during World War II. She found a job in Fresno before I had found
one in the Bay Area so, as agreed, I moved to Fresno in 1969 and we were
married that December. That was one of the best moves of my life. She became my wife, partner and helper in
every possible way and has remained so.
In Fresno I got
a job at Central High (after a bad year at another district) and was there from
1970 until 2004, when I retired, which is something I always believed I had
been born to do. I taught history. I had people whose parents I had had, it was
that kind of stable agricultural district, in an almost “Mr. Chips” fashion. At the same time Roberta got a job in Fresno
Unified and remained the same years, after she had had a bad year in another
district. As a teacher, I received several civic and professional honors
ranging from the Jaycees’s “Outstanding Young Educator”, “Marquis’ Who’s Who in
Education”, “Marquis’ Who’s Who in the West”,
and from the State Legislature, among others. I was amazed at the popularity and respect
with which I retired, primarily because I had always treated kids as young
adults and not as kids. Currently I’m
teaching a class every other semester on California or Western history for the
OSHER program for senior citizens at Cal State University Fresno.
Our family grew
with the addition of three sons, Thomas (1972), Justin (1976) and Nick (1979).
Tom and Justin still live in Fresno, Nick has moved to Maryland where his
fiancée lives. Tom became a computer
station manager for Community Hospital, Justin a school nurse in Fresno Unified
and Nick works for RiteAid . Tom and Justin married and Tom and his wife have
three kids, Jordan (1996), Brendon (2004) and Kimberly (2010).
While I was working for Central I
put my desire to write history articles to work and over the years produced 13
articles for professional journals ranging from The Californians and Journal
of the West to American Heritage, among
others. I was asked to review books for the California Historical Society’s
publication. I wrote three books, all biographies connected to California
history. One was a biography of a 19th century California governor,
published by the Book Club of California in 1985. Another was assisting with an
autobiography for Butch, the mean kid in the old “Our Gang”, and the last was
about the silent screen star Theda Bara. I have almost finished one on the history of
California, based on the class I taught for many years at Central. All of these have received very good reviews.
The Theda Bara book was expanded with a documentary film that I was part of produced
by Time-Line Films, and sponsored by Hugh Hefner. I was hired to edit two books
for the Canadian newspaper publisher Conrad Black, who became a good friend. One
book was on Nixon and the other on a strategic history of the USA.
During our
working years we had traveled to New Orleans, Mississippi and Florida several
times and certainly enjoyed those locations. One of the beauties of retirement
is travelling for about three weeks every year or two, primarily by Amtrak,
although planes, cars and ships have moved us as well. In this way we went to the East Coast when we
were invited to attend the dedication of the new library at Mt Vernon and we
went from LA to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC and Savannah
before returning home; even though I had been a history teacher I had never
been to these places until I had this opportunity. Two years later we entrained
to Boston and then down to New Orleans and again visited friends in Mississippi
and to Chicago before returning home. Another time it was Kauai and then it was
a small-ship cruise to Alaska, going as far north as Fairbanks by train. This
last year it was to Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto, my first time in eastern
Canada although there had been several trips to Vancouver. How these opened our
eyes. For me they also opened my taste buds to make note of special restaurants
which we make a habit of visiting at least once upon our returns. At the same time we have been involved in our
parish, St Anthony of Padua, supported such national civic organizations as the
Smithsonian, Preservation, George Washington’s Mt Vernon and Smile Train and
local ones such as the Fresno Philharmonic and Roger Rocka’s theaters.
In the last 8 or 9 years my health has had some ups and
downs, between a small stoke, neuralgia and Parkinson’s, but with prayer and good
medical care, I am doing much better now.
I am glad to
attend our 50th. God, it seems hard to believe it’s been fifty years!
I’m sorry to see
that so many classmates, including good friends, have died, but glad the rest
of us can be there to celebrate.
Ron
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