Bill McBride:
CLASS OF 1967
Seaside High SchoolClass of 1967
Seaside, CA
Bill's Story
My Life in a Nutshell!
I have been living in the Santa Cruz area since 1974 and my wife and our 2 daughters(18 and 14) . Our oldest is in college and our youngest is a high school freshman. We live a couple of blocks away from New Brighton State Beach in Capitola with 1 dog and 2 cats.
After I left SHS, I went to MPC and graduated in 1969. I did a year at San Jose State before joining the Air Force in 1970. I got to see such exotic places as San Antonio, Texas, Anderson AFB, Guam, Vandenberg AFB, Travis AFB before being discharged in 1974.
I moved back to the Monterey Peninsula and went to work for Monterey Airport Ramp Services (servicing private jets owned by people like Merv Griffin, Eileen Feather!). That was a fun job!
I left there and went to work at the Moss Landing Power Plant as an apprentice boiler operator and stayed there for 2 years.
I got interested in the field of electronics and computers during my stint with PG&E and that experience took me in a whole new direction.
I went to work for Hewlett Packard in a Sofware Development group and eventually got into IT and worked in HP's data centers across Silicon Valley. I ran into fellow '67 SHS grad Chris Elpedes, who worked at HP as an electrical engineer.
Eventually got my B.S. degree and attended the Stanford Univ. Onsite Electrical Engineering program for a time (very hard!!!)
I am no...Expand for more
w semi-retired and work for a software company as an IT Engineer here in Capitola. I can walk to work!
Now the fun stuff:
I got hooked on soccer when my kids started playing and have been coaching in various clubs and schools around the Santa Cruz area for 12 years. It is one of my passions! It is just a blast to work with young kids and watch them develop. I've been coaching a girls' team for the past 6 seasons and have watched these girls grow from 10 yr olds to young women in high school! It's a rewarding experience.
I got introduced to Martial Arts in the service and continued my training here in Santa Cruz and was awarded a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. I also was awarded a broken thumb, dislocated finger, torn knee cartilidge, cracked ribs, chipped knee cap, and tons of bruises and large hematomas during all this! Yes, the injuries of youth DO come back to haunt us!
I played in a few popular bands in the Monterey area during high school and college with the likes of SHS alumni Charlie "Duck" Williams(organ) , Tom Duncan(drummer SHS '66) singer Joe Cullers, Stevie Dault (guitarist and SHS '67 grad) Jimmy Bautista (Question Marks organ player and '67 SHS grad). Lots of great memories and bad behavior-mostly from Joe!
I still get a chance to sit in with a few local bands here in the Santa Cruz area and that keeps my musician dream alive(barely!).
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