Famous PALY Alumni Through The Years
This is the list of alumni that have attended Palo Alto Senior High School through the years.
Palo Alto High School Famous Alumni:
- Davante Adams (2011), NFL Wide Receiver
- Rink Babka (1954), Olympic discus thrower, silver medal at Rome 1960
- Joan Baez (1958), folk singer, voted “Most Radical”
- Tim Barnes (1964), Northern California football player of the year 1963, published Oregon poet and professor at Portland Community College
- Lisa Brennan-Jobs (1995), daughter of Steve Jobs and writer
- Charles Brenner (1961), APL implementer and forensic mathematics
- Ron "Money B" Brooks (1988), rapper (Digital Underground)
- Birge Clark (1910), architect and also a Stanford grad, designed local Spanish style buildings, including the Post Office and the Lucie Stern Community Center
- Whitfield Crane (1986), lead singer (Ugly Kid Joe)
- Aarón Díaz (2001), Mexican telenovelas actor
- Tim Dickinson (1992), political journalist (Rolling Stone, Mother Jones)
- The Donnas (1997), rock band (Brett Anderson, Maya Ford, Allison Robertson, and Torry Castellano)
- Margot Early (1982), romance author
- Gary Fazzino (1970), Palo Alto council member at age 24, twice mayor
- Dave Feldman (1983), sportscaster (CSN Bay Area)
- Karen Joy Fowler (1968), author (The Jane Austen Book Club)
- Dave Franco (2003), actor (Scrubs, 21 Jump Street, Now You See Me, The Disaster Artist), youngest Franco brother
- James Franco (1996), actor (Spider-Man trilogy, Pineapple Express, Milk, 127 Hours, The Disaster Artist), Golden Globe winner for best actor 2018
- Tom Franco (1998), artist and actor, middle Franco brother, founder of Berkeley’s Firehouse Art Collective
- Erle Stanley Gardner (1909), detective fiction author & creator of Perry Mason
- Charles Haid (1961), actor and director, (played Andy Renko on TV series Hill Street Blues)
- Jim Harbaugh (1982), quarterback and 49er coach in 2013 “Har-Bowl” Super Bowl against his brother, current head coach at the University of Michigan
- Peter Hansen (1997), defensive assistant/quality control coach of the San Francisco 49ers
- Douglas Hofstadter (1961), professor of cognitive science and author
- George Horine (1910), Olympic high jumper, set world record 1912 at 6’-6 1/8”, won bronze medal, beating Jim Thorpe who tied for 4th
- Allan Hoover (1925), financier, son of President Herbert Hoover
- Jon Huntsman, Sr. (1955), billionaire founder of Huntsman Corporation
- Ollie Johnston (1930), Academy Award-winning Disney animator (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia)
- Morris Kirksey (1913), gold medal-winning sprinter and rugby player at the 1920 Summer Olympics
- Bill Kreutzmann (1965), drummer (Grateful Dead)
- Francine Larrieu (1956), broke national high school in the 2-mile
- Ron Larrieu (1956), won NCS mile 1956, completed in 1964 Tokyo Olympics 10k 2
- Corey Lerios (1969), co-founder of band Pablo Cruise, songwriter, singer and keyboard player, later a television producer
- Jeremy Lin (2006), basketball player, drafted by Golden State Warriors but later starred with New York Knicks during “Linsanity,” currently with the Brooklyn Nets
- Jim Loscutoff (1948), basketball player, won seven NBA championships with the Boston Celtics, jersey retired in Boston Gardens
- John Markoff (1967), New York Times journalist and author
- Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (1963), musician (Grateful Dead) (didn't graduate)
- Rob Minkoff (1980), film director and animator (The Lion King, Stuart Little)
- Robert Lindley “Lin” Murray (1909), tennis, won National titles 1917-8, including beating Bill Tilden in 1918, in International Tennis Hall of Fame, elected 1958
- Sean Nolan (1990), Olympic water polo team, Sydney 2000
- Hank Norberg, football player on undefeated Stanford Wow Boys team, 1940
- Teresa Noyola (2008), soccer player who was the National Scholar-Athlete of the Year, led Stanford to 2011 NCAA championship and scored winning (only) goal
- Téa Obreht (2002), novelist (The Tiger's Wife)
- Luke Paquin (1996), guitarist (Hot Hot Heat)
- Joc Pederson (2010), Major League baseball player (Los Angeles Dodgers), 3 home runs in World Series, son of Stu Pederson
- Stu Pederson (1978), Major League baseball player (Los Angeles Dodgers)
- Bill Pidto (1983), sportscaster (ESPN, MSG Network)
- Keith Raffel (1968), technology executive, novelist, US Senate aide
- Tom Ritchey (1974), (Ritchey Design), cycling engineer and pioneer of the mountain bike
- Dave Schultz (1977), wrestler, Olympic gold medal winner 1984 in Los Angeles and world champion in Kiev 1983
- Mark Schultz (1978), wrestler, Olympic gold medal winner 1984 in Los Angeles and twice world champion wrestler 1985 and 1987
- Joe Sebok (1995), professional poker player, co-hosted a poker TV show for Fox
- Joe Simitian (1970), California State Senator (2004–2012) and former California State Assemblyman (2000–2004)
- Grace Slick (1958), lead vocalist of the Jefferson Airplane on the iconic 1960s hits, attended Paly as sophomore Grace Wing, eventually graduated from Castilleja
- Les Steers (1937) High Jumper who won CIF State Meet three years in a row from 1935-7, set world record 6’-11” in LA June 17, 1941
- Tom Stern (1964), Oscar-nominated cinematographer (Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River, Changeling)
- Dink Templeton (1915), multi-sport athlete, 1920 Olympic gold medalist in rugby and 4th in long jump, Hall of Fame Stanford track & field coach (17 years)
- Christopher Tin (1994), Grammy Award winning composer 2011
- Tad Williams (1975), author (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Otherland, and Shadowmarch science fiction/fantasy series)
- Kirk Wise (1981), film director/animator (Beauty and the Beast, Atlantis: The Lost Empire)
- Ron Wyden (1967), U.S. Senator for Oregon (1996– ) and former U.S. Representative of Oregon's 3rd congressional district (1981–1996), twice all-SPAL basketball
- Lily Zhang (2014), U.S. Olympic table tennis player, London 2012