Underneath roughly sixty four layers of paint on a checker-patterned walkway in the middle of Redwood’s main campus lies the original campus colors that decorated Visalia Union High School almost seven decades ago. The colors on top serve as not only a tribute to a revolutionary coming-of-age shift in school identity, but also as a memorial to a woman who lived her life keeping the revolution alive.

In 1910, Visalia Union High School opened its doors for Visalia’s high school students. Decked in maroon and white, VUHS students would establish the campus as a force to be reckoned with until 1952 when Mt. Whitney High School would open down the street. What followed in the next two years would mark the historic beginning of one of Visalia’s oldest rivalries: Whitney would take with them the original school colors and mascot Redwood would be born from the remnants of the old campus. In a symbolic declaration of identity, the students of Redwood High School would lay the first layer of blue and white paint over a maroon-checkered walkway in the middle of the campus, and the tradition is carried on today in continuation of the legacy of not only the origins of Redwood, but also of a woman who continues to touch Redwood more than a decade after her death: Doris Lowe.

Doris Lowe taught at Redwood for over thirty years until her death on Valentine’s Day in 2008. Known nationwide for leading Redwood’s Future Business Leaders of America to both state and national competitions, Ms. Lowe is remembered today for her dynamic personality, intuitive teaching, and the passion she poured out for the students of Redwood High School.

In a tribute page to Ms. Lowe in the 2008 edition of The Log, former chapter president Joseph Ringhofer, ’08, would reflect upon Lowe’s role as FBLA advisor, saying, “FBLA owes its success to Ms. Lowe and all the lessons she has taught us.” Reflecting upon Lowe’s role in leading FBLA to fifteen consecutive national appearances in years prior, Ringhofer would continue: “Without her dedication to this club, there is no way we would have the amazing reputation that we have.”

Jacob Avila is Redwood’s current FBLA advisor and has continued Ms. Lowe’s legacy of excellence since her passing in 2008. Avila got to know Lowe personally in the semester prior to her death and remembers her legacy fondly. “The service aspect of our campus came from people like Doris Lowe,” said Avila, “and if we didn’t have people like her setting the foundation, Redwood wouldn’t have the culture that we have and it wouldn’t have the service aspect that we have.”

Avila also described the transitional period between Lowe’s role as advisor and his own. “It was tough, to be quite honest, because she [led] the institution here at Redwood,” he said. “It’s kind of like taking over for Mr. Coon or Mr. Bettencourt; someone that’s been here for a while that’s a legend. She was like that plus more.” Avila continued to reflect on the transitional period and how he had been helped by a parent group that had been close with Ms. Lowe, and how their support helped him continue Lowe’s legacy of success within FBLA and at Redwood.

Nick Miller, an AP Literature teacher, former activities director and personal friend of Ms. Lowe, described the icon as a “dynamo.” “I used to get here, sometimes, at four in the morning, and I would leave, sometimes, at midnight, and I could almost always guarantee that Ms. Lowe’s Honda would be parked outside the Business Building right by the finance center,” he said.

Miller went on to reflect upon the many achievements of Ms. Lowe both within Redwood and throughout her community, including projects involving the reconstruction of the Fox Theatre and the composition of a book of Visalia’s history. At Redwood, Lowe was passionate about the repainting of Spirit Lane, the checkered walkway outside the Business Building; Miller recalled the months before her death when Ms. Lowe reached out to him to make sure the tradition stayed alive.

“She fell ill in the fall of 2007,” he remembered. “She was up at Stanford for treatments and she wasn’t making it home very often….she was on campus briefly in September or October and she sought me out.” Miller, who was the activities director at the time, recalls Lowe’s request to him to repaint Spirit Lane: “She said, ‘I don’t want this tradition to die’ and ‘will you make sure this tradition gets taken care of?’”

“I promised Doris,” Miller continued, “that I would always make sure Spirit Lane gets painted right.” Each year on the weekend before Cowhide, Miller arrives early in the morning with a pressure washer and a thermos of coffee and begins prepping the walkway for students to paint over.

“For the campus, we paint Spirit Lane because it’s all about us versus them and painting over Whitney’s colors, but for me, personally, it’s because I made a promise,” says Miller, “and I know that as long as I’m working here I’ll do my best.” When it’s time to pass the baton, Miller continued, “the next person isn’t going to know Doris, but they’re definitely going to get an earful about her from me.”

Every year over the weekend before Cowhide, Redwood students gather to paint Spirit Lane, but the action of painting over each square with blue and white is more than a simple coat of paint. Each coat represents a reflection of the core values on which Redwood was founded on and the movement that brought them to life. Each coat also represents a woman who dedicated her life to remembering those core values and contributing to Redwood’s legacy of excellence and who, even beyond her lifetime, continues to touch every student at Redwood with the standard of dedication and passion she established during her lifetime.

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Colin Watamura
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