Trailblazers, leaders among this year’s Alumni Hall of Fame inductees

For the past 25 years, San Francisco State University has recognized the outstanding achievements of its distinguished alumni during the Alumni Hall of Fame celebration. For 2019, the University has chosen four inductees for their extraordinary contributions to education, arts and culture and the social sciences. San Francisco State President Lynn Mahoney and the University community will celebrate their accomplishments at a Nov. 1 Alumni Hall of Fame induction ceremony and dinner at the Ritz-Carlton San Francisco. 

“Our alumni have made strides in educational equity, social justice and entertainment,” said Nicole Lange, interim executive director of SF State Alumni and Constituent Relations. “The Alumni Hall of Fame celebration is our way of recognizing their accomplishments while inspiring the next generation of educators, activists, archivists and entertainers.”

2019 Hall of Fame inductees

Robert Garfias (A.B., ’56) is a world-renowned ethnomusicologist. The San Francisco native is a professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of California, Irvine, where he also served as dean of the School of Arts.

Founder of the ethnomusicology program at the University of Washington, Garfias’ research focuses on Japanese court music and Turkish Ottoman classical music. He’s conducted field research in regions including Japan, Korea and the Philippines, and his vast collection of documentary films and sound recordings can be heard and viewed in the University of Washington Ethnomusicology Archives. He graduated from SF State with a degree in Anthropology.

Virginia P. Marshall(M.A., ’88) is a passionate award-winning educator and a 30-year veteran with the San Francisco Unified School District. Her motto is “we can change the world — one student at a time.” She received her master’s in Educational Administration from SF State.

Marshall is chairperson and founder of the African American Honor Roll (AAHR), which includes more than 1,200 students of African American descent in grades 3-12 who have excelled in school. She’s won several awards for her work with youth including the Jefferson Award, a prestigious national recognition honoring community and public volunteerism.

Juanita Tamayo Lott(B.A., ’70) has lectured and written on demographic changes for 40 years for public and scholarly audiences in the United States and abroad. She participated in the 1968 SF State campus strike and was instrumental in establishing the University’s College of Ethnic Studies and the Asian American Studies Department.

Lott built a career in the federal statistical system. She retired in 2008 after holding senior statistician, demographer, policy analyst and management positions with the U.S. Census Bureau, the National Center for Education Statistics, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, the Committee on National Statistics and the National Academy of Sciences. She graduated from SF State with a degree in Sociology.

John Stanley (B.A., ’62) has dedicated his career to preserving and reviving the fantasy, science fiction and horror genres. He worked as an entertainment critic at the San Francisco Chronicle from the 1960s through the early 1990s. During this time he hosted “Creature Features,” a popular Saturday night Bay Area television series, which aired for 14 years. He graduated from SF State with a degree in Literature.

In 1981, he established his own publishing company, Creatures at Large Press. He has written 18 books, including six editions of the long-running “Creature Features Movie Guide” series (1981-2000), reviewing thousands of horror, sci-fi and fantasy films.

Click here for more details on the Alumni Hall of Fame celebration.