Bellarmine College Preparatory has announced that three alumni and one athletic team will be inducted into the Bellarmine Hall of Fame on August 24, 2024. These distinguished individuals embody Bellarmine’s motto of being men for and with others through their extraordinary personal and professional accomplishments and significant contributions to the community.
The following alumni will be honored in their respective categories for their achievements and for exemplifying the Ignatian tradition in their service to others:
John A. Sobrato ’56 (Business). John A. Sobrato is the founder and Board Chair Emeritus of the Sobrato Organization, one of the most successful private real estate firms in California. His career in real estate dates back seven decades to when he began selling homes in Palo Alto at age 18 while attending Santa Clara University. After graduation, he founded Midtown Realty, specializing in the resale of Eichler Homes and eventually expanding into commercial development. In 1974, he sold his interest in Midtown Realty to concentrate on developing industrial properties for the emerging technology industry. Since its founding, the Sobrato Organization has developed over 20 trillion square feet of office buildings and 10,000 apartment units. In 1998, John and his family created the Sobrato Family Foundation, which provides philanthropic support for Silicon Valley nonprofits. John was especially drawn to education and healthcare as he emerged as one of the most prolific philanthropists in the Bay Area, making generous gifts to Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, El Camino Hospital, and Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, as well as Bellarmine College Prep, Santa Clara University, USF, Cristo Rey San Jose Jesuit High School, Sobrato High School, and many more. In addition, the Sobrato Centers for Nonprofits currently provide free office space to more than 100 Bay Area nonprofit agencies. In 2007, the Sobrato Family Foundation was named the Foundation of the Year by the National Association of Nonprofits. In recent years, Sobrato Philanthropies has increased its focus on sustainability and economic inequality, working to partner with local organizations to meet immediate needs in the community, address systemic barriers, and pursue social justice. Each year for the past decade, the Sobrato Family has been named the number one or two most generous corporation in Silicon Valley by the Silicon Valley Business Journal.
Frank Bergon ’61 (Humanities & Fine Arts). Through the publication of 12 books and 36 years of dedicated teaching at Vassar College, Frank Bergon has enhanced our understanding of overlooked ethnic communities in the American West, including that of his own Basque American heritage. His nonfiction book, Two-Buck Chuck & The Marlboro Man: The New Old West, and his memoir, The Toughest Kid We Knew: A Personal History, show his dedication to bringing attention to the extraordinary lives of ordinary people. His translations have brought American awareness to neglected Spanish poets, and his photographs and journalism of the 1990s Zapatista revolution advocated for social justice for the Maya of Chiapas. His aid to Indigenous students enabled them to attend La Universidad Maya. His environmental writing extends his activism to the greater good of the natural world. In 1998 he was inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame, and in March 2019, the Center for Basque Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno, hosted a two-day conference, Visions of a Basque American Westerner: An International Conference on the Writings of Frank Bergon, to honor his commitment to illuminating the neglected lives of Native Americans, Trappist monks, Nevada environmentalists, Dust Bowl migrants, and many races and ethnicities in the rural and small-town American West. His novel, Jesse’s Ghost, represents one of the greatest contributions to Western American literature since John Steinbeck, and in March 2024, The New York Times named it among the 40 Best Books About California of the last 125 years. The four decades Frank spent teaching at Vassar College were as inspiring as his writing. He served as a director of American Studies and a founding member of both environmental studies and the faculty committee on racial diversity, along with participation in Latin American and women’s studies. He also generously served as a teacher and advisor for inmates in New York’s Green Haven maximum security prison.
John Glaspy, MD, MPH ’71 (Science & Medicine). After attending Santa Clara University, Dr. John Glaspy went on to simultaneously attend the UCLA Schools of Medicine and Public Health, graduating both in 1979 with MD and MPH degrees. He received the prestigious Stafford Warren Medal for finishing first in his medical school class. He completed six years of postdoctoral training in internal medicine and hematology oncology and then joined the faculty at UCLA where he has remained for his career rising to the tenured research full professor rank. Specializing in cancer and blood diseases, Dr. Glaspy has authored more than 400 scientific publications. Over his career, he has applied the rapid advances in molecular biology and genetics to cancer research and has thereby developed new approaches to cancer management that continue to change practice and improve outcomes for patients with malignancies, particularly breast cancer and melanoma. In his role as Simms/Mann Family Foundation Chair in Integrative Oncology, he has helped grow the UCLA cancer science programs to become the largest and highest rated on the West coast, establishing 21 sites spread over six counties. Over the last forty years, Dr. Glaspy has also focused on mentoring dozens of young researchers and physicians. Recently he befriended a Syrian medical student with an expiring visa, provided employment that made it possible for him to remain in the United States, complete a residency, and return to UCLA for a fellowship in hematology and oncology. Dr. Glaspy assisted with the founding of Stand Up to Cancer, an organization that has raised over 800 million dollars for cancer research to date. For this work, he was named a People’s All Star by Major League Baseball and honored at the 2007 All Star Game. In 2022, he arranged for 10 million dollars in donated cancer pharmaceuticals to be sent to Ukraine in partnership with Project Hope.
2001 Wrestling Team (Athletics). Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Bellarmine’s wrestling team solidified itself as the dominant program in the West Catholic Athletic Conference. Heading into the 2000-01 academic year, the BCP wrestlers had won six consecutive WCAL team championships and 11 in 13 years at the varsity level. But despite their dominance, the Bells had been unable to reach the mountaintop at the section level, and a CCS title had eluded them. That changed in the early Spring of 2001 when, following an undefeated season in league competition, Bellarmine grappled its way to a thrilling first place finish at the Central Coast Section championship meet. It still stands as Bellarmine’s first and only CCS title in Wrestling, and the team’s exemplary performance did not stop when they left the mat. In a tremendous example of the Ignatian principles of cura personalis and producing well-rounded graduates, the 2001 Bell wrestlers were truly outstanding student-athletes. Not only did the squad capture the CCS Scholastic championship, becoming the first wrestling team ever to claim a CCS title the same year as a CCS Scholastic title, but for the second year in a row, Bellarmine had the highest team grade point average in the state of California.
Team members: Nick Crane, Roman Dibiase, Richard Faiva, James Lejsek, Chris Lonero, Mike Lowell, Adam Mayer, Armando Palomo, Bobby Ralston, Chris Ralston, Steve Rechenmacher, Thomas Rogerson, Carlos Rosario, Jeff Smyth, Eric Stein, Brandon Taylor, Jason Yago Coaches: Tim Kerr, Scott Benson, David Cobb
The Bellarmine Alumni Hall of Fame event takes place on the school campus on Saturday, August 24, 2024, with the induction ceremony at 5:00 p.m. in the Sobrato Center for Humanities and the Arts, followed by dinner on the Leo J. and Mary G. Lucas Quad. Register online at: https://www.bcp.org/bhof