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Ron Dellums, 70, politician
For 27 years, Ron Dellums was the voice of the East Bay, representing the often-controversial views of his native Oakland and the rest of the 9th district in Congress. Described by Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-Calif.) as "revered on both sides of this aisle because of his integrity and his commitment to progressive ideas," Dellums honed his renowned coalition-building skills as a child in West Oakland. "I grew up in a multi ethnic society," he says. "It was a question of dealing with people as human beings."
Dellums didn't bring his diplomatic talents into the political realm until 1967, when he decided to forgo a Ph.D. in social policy from Brandeis and run for a seat on the Berkeley City Council. "I never had political ambitions, but this was the '60s, so the call to service was both powerful and compelling," says Dellums, who sought the position at the urging of local black leaders pressing for representational diversity. Three years later, he began the first of 14 terms in Congress. Before retiring in 1999, the gentleman from California left his mark as the first African-American member and chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, the driving force behind federal sanctions against South Africa's apartheid regime and the leader of several successful campaigns against Cold War defense projects.
Now, at 70, Dellums turns his attention back toward the local level, answering the call of his supporters one more time. "I come from the school that says the most honorable and extraordinary thing that any human being can do is to serve their community," says Dellums, who entered the Oakland mayor's race in October. "When people put life and death in your hands and say, 'We trust you to go forward with integrity,' that's powerful; that's awesome."
Maxine Hong Kingston, 65, writer
It was love at first sight for Maxine Hong Kingston. A childhood fieldtrip introduced the Stockton native to the East Bay, and when it came time to select a college, she sent out only one application. In 1958, Kingston enrolled in UC Berkeley and moved north, where she would spend 28 years writing and teaching and ultimately make her home.
Kingston began her famed writing career with the modern classic Woman Warrior. The novel, which former Poet Laureate Robert Hass has described as "the book by a living author most widely taught in American universities and colleges," went on to receive a National Book Critics Award in 1977. Kingston has produced other works--including China Men, Tripmaster Monkey and Hawai'i One Summer--all seeking to broaden conceptions of culture, race and the human experience. "I want everyone to have a wider sense of what it is to become an American," says Kingston, who is the daughter of Chinese immigrants. "I want to enlarge consciousness with my writing so that we can learn what we have in common with one another. I want people to appreciate the stranger."
Kingston's latest novel, The Fifth Book of Peace, begins when she lost her Rockridge home in the 1991 Oakland Hills fire. Destroyed with her possessions was her novel-in-process, The Fourth Book of Peace. Instead of rewriting the book, Kingston decided to explore concepts of war, peace and her own recovery process, aided by the experience of teaching a group of Vietnam veterans to write. It is with this novel that Kingston perhaps best fits her own definition of a writer. "I like to think of the poet or the storyteller as of this earth--that's Oakland," says Kingston, who rebuilt her home where it once stood. "The voice of the earth and the community come through me."
Dennis Richmond, 62, news anchor
Bay Area residents have met nightly with Dennis Richmond in their living rooms for the past 29 years. During these meetings, as the KTVU-TV, Channel 2, veteran anchor tells it, he has a conversation with his viewers, sharing the day's top stories the same way he would with a friend or family member. "It's always been my philosophy that the viewer is the most intelligent person out there and to treat them that way," says Richmond. "I don't like to talk at people-- I like to feel like I'm talking with them. That's why we're good friends and, hopefully, we'll stay that way until I retire."
Originally from Ohio, Richmond landed in Oakland in the late 1960s "totally by accident." "I just fell in love with the area," says Richmond, who worked on the campaigns of local candidates John George and Ron Dellums. "It all seemed so different and so important to me. I had never been in an area where African-Americans were making such a difference." In 1969, he answered an ad for a part-time clerk-typist at Channel 2, and later, at the suggestion of heavyweight journalist Belva Davis, Richmond applied and was accepted to the Ford Foundation summer journalism program at Columbia University. Channel 2 promised him a reporting position, if he was successful at the program. Thirty-eight years later, his resume includes coverage of virtually every major story in recent Bay Area history and Oakland's Humanitarian award.
Richmond's reign will come to an end in May 2008, when he plans to retire, move to Grass Valley and write his novel among the ponderosa pines. After his final newscast, Richmond hopes to be remembered as "a good journalist and a good person-- someone who cared about people and cared about the job."
Alice Waters, 61, restauranteur
In the East Bay (and around the world), the name Alice Waters is synonymous with California cuisine. Since opening Chez Panisse in 1971, Waters has helped to redefine the way America eats, placing an emphasis on the social and environmental importance of fresh, organic, seasonal meats and produce.
In 1994, the food guru turned her attention toward the children of Berkeley, collaborating with Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School to build The Edible Schoolyard--a one-acre organic garden in which students learn how to plant, cultivate and, later, prepare fresh produce. Waters, a New Jersey native who came to Berkeley in the 1960s for college and never left, created both the schoolyard and its primary donor, the Chez Panisse Foundation, to tackle the child obesity epidemic and teach children a new way of looking at food and the greater community. "I believe that we have the obligation and the opportunity to restore the daily ritual of the table and bring kids into a new relationship to food through the public school system," she says.
Now that she has conquered Berkeley (in 2004, the board of education voted to put a similar program in each of the city's 16 public schools), Waters hopes to introduce students across the country to a new relationship with food and the earth. "There should be gardens in every school, and there should be school lunch programs that serve real food," says Waters, who instituted a similar project at Yale University in 2003. "I've seen all this happen at King. I've seen the kids sitting around the picnic tables in the schoolyard, eating salads they've grown themselves and doing it with the greatest consideration for each other. They want these rituals of the table. They like them."
Al Davis, 76, Oakland Raiders Owner
Al Davis' philosophy on both football and life fits the phrase he coined for the Raiders' dynasty: Commitment to Excellence. While his contributions to the game are fabled, his impact is greatest in the East Bay, where fans of the silver and black regularly pack McAfee Coliseum to capacity.
Described by Dallas Cowboys coach Bill Parcells as "the smartest man in professional football," Davis formed his take on the sport watching the Dodgers and Yankees play baseball in Brooklyn. He got his chance to combine the "size, power and intimidation" of the Yanks with the Brooklyn squad's "speed, fundamentals and willingness to pioneer" when, at 33, he was named head coach/general manager of the Raiders in 1963. Davis turned the struggling team around, and a love affair was born. After a stint as AFL Commissioner, during which he engineered the historic merger with the National Football League, Davis returned to the Raiders as managing general partner, ultimately earning the best all-time record of any team in professional football.
In addition to introducing innovative strategies and techniques, Davis changed the face of the game as one of the first people to recruit from traditionally black colleges and hire Latino and African-American head coaches (Tom Flores and Art Shell, respectively) and a woman chief executive (Amy Trask). And, he took chances on "mavericks" and supposedly over-thehill talent, giving players like George Blanda, Jim Plunkett and Lyle Alzado a second chance. "The fire that burns brightest in me is the great love and enthusiasm that I have for the game of football and for everyone and everything connected with it," said Davis at his 1992 Hall of Fame induction ceremony. "I love the game, I love the league, I love my team."
