He takes out a small brown folder of dog-eared newspaper articles, some freshly cut while others crumpled, from one of the metal file cabinets in his classroom. 

He smiles as he shows his collection to interested eyes.

“You can’t just see Stagg as a current group of students. You have to see the generations of people who have been preparing for their lives here.”

Stewart Jacoby has been gathering snippets of information about Stagg graduates for the past five years. Having left Stagg 44 years ago to pursue a liberal arts education, he returned in 2002 to teach classes on American history and psychology. 

Now Jacoby devotes part of his time to his new mission: he wants to establish an alumni association that will preserve the triumphs of past graduates. 

Franklin High School earned publicity after one of its graduates, Jose Hernandez, was launched into space as a NASA astronaut. Stagg graduates have also been making differences in today’s society, remaining down-to-earth as they do it. 

Besides the famed musician Chris Isaak, many celebrities have passed through these bare-walled hallways and busy classrooms to make names for themselves. 

A notable graduate of the Class of 1961 is William R. Brody, a Delta King who went on to become president of John Hopkins University. 

In addition to earning a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brody earned the honor in 2004 and again in 2007 of being the highest-paid university president in the nation.

Not to be outdone, Heather Fargo, former mayor of Sacramento, studied at Stagg and went on to the University of California, Davis, to gain a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Planning and Management. 

Fargo helped form and was the first secretary of the Sacramento Tree Foundation and was named “Best Elected Official” by the readers of Sacramento Magazine.

Starting pitcher for the Oakland Athletics, Dallas Braden, returned to his alma mater’s homecoming parade as grand marshal over fall break. Graduating in 2002, he played baseball and ran cross country for Stagg.

These are some of the many graduates who leave Stagg to continue work in other locations, but there’s another class of alumni that return to this school to become teachers. These students turned faculty members now prepare new generations for success.

Having been a volunteer for the Peace Corps, a college professor, and a factory worker, Jacoby came home to Stagg in the fall of 2002 after realizing that he had a desire to take up teaching again. 

Only recently, he has been advocating for the creation of an alumni association and a hall of fame, all to address one central problem he sees in the student body.

“Stagg has Alzheimers. It has no memory.”

Jacoby says that many current students lack a connection to their high school’s hallowed history and have no idea of the many achievements accomplished by its graduates. He remembers how during his first year teaching here, students would come to him and ask, “Has anyone left Stagg and done anything?” This same mentality seems to be prevalent in the present generation.

“If nobody’s ever left here and done anything then it must be hard,” he said, “but if a lot of people have done things then people can feel that the doors are open to them.” 

After scanning over his newspaper clippings and meeting alumni personally, Jacoby has seen a trend in the career paths Delta Kings tend to choose. 

“Stagg is a school with a sense of obligation.” He said that since Stockton is not one of the wealthiest cities, the environment makes people want to make a difference. 

Students have more of a willingness to better the community because they experience most of the faults in society than others. 

Jacoby is proud of this legacy and praises the work of many graduates who are involved in solving social issues.

“If somebody gets Ms. California how valuable is that? Is Stagg a better place because of that?”

As the day slowly winds down, Jacoby cleans up his classroom, whose walls are filled with student posters about having pride in their cultural heritage.

He plans to continue gathering alumni articles because he wants “to give students a sense that people have left Stagg and done things, that the world is open to them.” 

In the meantime, he puts back his small brown folder back into the file cabinet, always eager to gain new information on a Delta King working for the betterment of the community at large.