John St. Clair
After graduation from Chaffey High School, I attended Pomona College for two years, worked at the Sunkist factory in Ontario for about a year and a half, got married, served 2 years of alternative service working for a church running a tutoring program in Southeast Ontario, went back to school and graduated from UC Riverside. I did another year at UC Riverside taking education classes and student teaching.
I taught for 35 years in the Ontario-Montclair School District at Bon View Elementary School, Linda Vista School, and Vina Danks Middle School. I taught 13 years of kindergarten, 4 years of first grade, and 18 years of grades 6, 7, and 8 at Vina Danks Middle School in Ontario. In 1986 I was awarded Elementary Teacher of the Year award in the Ontario-Montclair School District. I taught 12 years of weekend and night computer classes for UCR Extension. In 1990 I became one of the founding members of the FrEdMail Foundation, which later became the Global Schoolnet Foundation, a non-profit educational foundation promoting online collaborative learning. I'm currently the Vice President of the board.
I retired from teaching in 2010 and I'm really enjoying retirement. My favorite hobbies include attending storytelling festivals, organic gardening, and hiking in the mountains. I'm a certified Sierra Club outings leader, leading hikes in the San Gabriel Mountains. I'm also the Outings Chair for the Los Serranos Group in the San Gorgonio Chapter of the Sierra Club and do the updates and maintenance on the Los Serranos web page. I'm a member of the executive committee of the Los Serranos Group. Besides going to storytelling festivals, I also am the leader of the Inland Valley Storytellers and enjoy performing as a storyteller.
I have been married to Chris St. Clair since 1971 and have 3 wonderful grown children and one grandson. Matthew, my oldest son (Chaffey class of 1993) is the Director of Sustainability for the University of California. Jason, my younger son (Chaffey class of 1996) got his PhD in Atmospheric Chemistry from Harvard and does NASA funded research at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. Katherine is an instructional aide in an autistic classroom at El Camino Elementary School.
Family Photo 2008
John on top of Mt. Baldy 2013
John holding sign at the junction of the Bighorn Peak and Ontario Peak trails July 2015
John and Sarge on top of Mt. Baden-Powell with Mt. Baldy in the background July 2015
Late June 2016 I did training hikes in the Sierras to get ready for hiking the Inca Trail in Peru. This is me and my friends on top of Mt. Dana, elevation 13,061 ft. Mono Lake is in the background.
July 13, 2016 my friends and I woke up early of the 4th day of hiking the Inka Trail in Peru and hiked up the hill next to our campground to see the sun rise. We are about 12,000 ft. elevation and it is cold. I am wearing the blue jacket with the black gloves.
8/17/18 I hiked with Lisa and Dawn on the Old Baldy trail starting at the Baldy Village Visitor Center, up Bear Canyon to West Baldy and then Mt. Baldy. This shows me on top of West Baldy, elevation 9,992 ft., with Mt. Baden-Powell in the background.
Monday Sept. 24, 2018 I led a Sierra Club hike to the top of Cucamonga Peak, elevation 8,859 ft. It was a 12.2 mile hike up and back in the Cucamonga Wilderness. This photo shows me standing on top of the peak. In the background on the left is the San Bernardino mountains with Mt. San Gorgonio being the tallest at 11,503 ft. Near the center right next to me is Mt. San Jacinto, elevation 10,834 ft. I hiked to the top of both of those peaks this summer but I didn't get any good photos.
August 15, 2020 I hiked to the top of Carson Peak, 10,912 ft. elevation. This was with a group of friends that had set up a mule pack camp at Clark Lakes and we did day hikes out of that camp. In this photo you can see Banner and Ritter Peaks in the background as well as Thousand Island Lakes.
August 18, 2022 I hiked up to Sam Mack Lake, which is 11,793 ft. elevation. Directly behind me is the Thunderbolt Glacier and to the left of that is a small part of the Palisade Glacier. This was with a group of friends that had set up a mule pack camp just above Fourth Lake in the Big Pine Lakes area, sometimes called Glacier Lakes. We stayed there 5 nights and did day hikes every day out of that camp.