Gary Bianchini
But we all knew Gary. Gary was Student Body President in our senior year. After high school he became a history teacher, a vice prinicipal at Fremont High School, a Major in the National Guard. He was a father, a husband, a classmate, an officer, and a friend. His death was a senseless tragic event, and immeasurable loss. It will be a wasted vain sacrifice unless, by his death, those who knew him can somehow be reminded that no one has the right to drive after drinking too much.
GARY BIANCHINI At nine years of age I moved from Welby, Colorado to Cupertino. I was sad to leave my Italian boyfriend who lived next door to me but to my surprise when we came to Cupertino, I discovered that my next door neighbor was another Italian boy and that was Gary Bianchini. His parent’s owned Bianchini’s Nursery and my father had the strawberry ranch adjacent to it on Highway 9. Gary and I played on the ranch where we would find all kinds of things to do. We would go to the reservoir and catch tadpoles, play baseball, and make secret hiding places in the barn which stored apricot boxes twenty feet high. Even then he would organize a club, be the President and other kids in the neighborhood would be other officers. During the summers we would help Carol Regnart sell corn in the corn stand on Highway 9. We would help her with her horses and get to ride them too. He had a lot of parties in the late 50’s at his home and there was always dancing, spin the bottle and a lot of kids making out. That was as wild as it got in those days. He always loved to participate in sports and student council activities. I participated in some of those and at one time he was the President of the class and I was the secretary. Funny that our childhood days carried over. I was so proud of him as he was very popular and became the Student Body President. He was great at everything he did and was well liked by students and teachers. His tragic early death was such a tremendous loss to his wonderful parents, his family and friends. He was a person you could look up to and count on for anything. Having Gary in our lives was a special privilege and we will always miss him. Irene Takemoto |
On
Tuesday evening, May 8, 1984, Gary Bianchini was killed by an
outrageous act – drunk driving. Each year, over forty thousand
people like Gary are killed on American highways by this
same outrageous act. Fifty percent of all fatal automobile
accidents involve drinking and driving. Those statistics,
and others like them, usually don't mean juch to us.