Name/Title
Oral History of Ronald C. DethlefsonEntry/Object ID
2002.021.001TScope and Content
Ron Dethlefsen moved to Palo Alto with his parents in 1944, attending the San Antonio School and Mountain View High School before going to San Jose State University for his bachelor’s degree. After graduating he taught speech at Delano High School and Bakersfield College, becoming the instructor of the latter’s on-campus radio station, KBCC. Supplemented by his family’s multi-generational tie to Los Altos, Ron Dethlefson used his own experiences and photographs to chronicle Los Alto’s local history, preserving information of the city’s history dating back to the early twentieth century.
Having grown up in Los Altos between the 1940s and 1960s, Ron Dethlefsen witnessed the evolution of Los Altos and recounts many of the changes the city has undergone since his youth. His family’s roots in the city tie him to Los Altos’s transformation from a small agricultural town to a bustling city; his maternal great grandfather laid sidewalks for the city in the 1890s while his father was active in the Chamber of Commerce, was on the Board of Trustees during the construction of Los Altos High School, and successfully advocated for off-street parking in Los Altos. He describes the Los Altos that predated the Foothill Expressway, when the Southern Pacific Railroad still had a track running through Los Altos. He paints a picture of the Los Altos he grew up in, where he spent time working in apricot orchards, visiting the local ice cream parlors after school, and hanging out with friends, all of whom he still remembered the names of years later.
His personal account details a firsthand perspective of the evolution of Los Altos between the 1940’s and 1960’s while his family’s history and personal research provides a glimpse even further into the city’s past. His knowledge of the railroad is particularly vast; using old railway timetables and pictures he took on his Argus box camera, he demonstrates the influence the Southern Pacific Railroad had on Los Altos, laying the foundations for the city’s future as an expansive commuter city.Collection
Oral History CollectionOral History Details
Interviewee
Ronald C DethlefsonInterviewer
Schrader, WulfInterview Date
Jun 30, 1989