The Weekly Newspaper of El Segundo
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 110, No. 45 - November 11, 2021
Inside
This Issue
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.....................14
Classifieds............................4
Coloring Contest.........12-13
Community Briefs...............2
Crossword/Sudoku.............4
Entertainment......................5
Legals....................... 10,11,14
Obituaries.............................2
Real Estate.......................7-9
Sports.................................3,6
Weekend
Forecast
We Celebrate the Retirement of
PSO Larry Harrington
Police Service Officer Larry Harrington has been with the El Segundo Police Department for 30 years and has worked a variety of assignments including Jailer, Parking Enforcement, Animal Control
Officer, Range Master. He last worked in the Detective Division as the Court Liaison Officer. Larry is a highly respected member of the department and due to his work experience and knowledge, he has
trained many of his co-workers. Larry is looking forward to retirement and enjoying more family time. Congratulations PSO Harrington. You will be missed. Photo courtesy El Segundo Police Department.
Generations of El Segundo High
By Kiersten Vannest
“We can’t go in the gym and have PE
today because they’re still filming.”
El Segundo High School has been a staple
of the city since it opened its doors nearly a
hundred years ago. Providing an academic
haven for generations, alumni of the school
share their experiences throughout its history.
“Everything revolves around sports and
going to the beach,” says Michael J. Matthews,
See Generations, page 5
Introducing Matt Knox
and His ‘Wonderful Life’
By Duane Plank
Matt Knox is the CEO and partner at
the El Segundo-based Wonderful Collective.
He and his brother/partner Johnnie
Munger’s company design digital products,
ranging from apps to websites to creating
successful e-commerce customer experiences
and designing fully customized
business platforms.
In this ever-expanding digital age, you
could say the entrepreneurial Knox is
living a “Wonderful Life,” a life a bit
fast-forwarded from the iconic character
George Bailey, magnificently portrayed
by Jimmy Stewart in the 1946 holiday
classic film of a similar name.
Ed Jaeger is the founder of RainMaker
Solutions, Inc, an El Segundo-based
start-up company, who has known Knox
and his company for four years. He said
that Knox and his company were recommended
to Jaeger by “a mentor of mine.”
Jaeger said that he values collaborating
with Wonderful Collective because Knox
has the talent of “getting situated in the
shoes of the person he is developing with.
Matt dives deep to make the best products
in the business. “Wonderful has helped
legitimize our data and company profile
by designing a world-class website and
app,” Jaeger said. “Matt is down to earth,
always truthful, and be available for his
clients. It has been a wonderful experience
See Matt Knox, page 6
graduating Class of 1970. Captain of
the basketball team, Matthews was involved
in many of El Segundo’s premier sports.
Though pegged as a sports guy because of
his talent and activities, Matthews said his
classmates didn’t see that he was becoming
an environmentalist.
Matthews sets his high school experience
against the backdrop of the Vietnam war,
the assassination of JFK and Martin Luther
King, and major air pollution in Los Angeles.
“We’d surf and swim and hang out with
the girls,” he says, amid a heavier feeling of
change in the air. Matthews went on to get
a master’s degree and has been counseling
individuals for over thirty years as an LFMT.
Graduating the same year was Cynthia
Robinson Bryan, who describes her time at
the school in part as a sort of double life,
being one of the only Jewish families in the
city at the time and attending synagogue in
Westchester.
“My favorite teacher of all time was Mr.
Peterson,” she says, “He was the English
teacher, who was married to Mrs. Peterson,
the English teacher.” She describes a graduating
class of about two hundred students
and says about half went to college like her.
After school, many residents describe
going “uptown” to shop and eat. Uptown
was downtown El Segundo, up the hill from
the high school on Main Street. A common
theme was also eating breakfast at places
like Fantastic Cafe before school.
“The big place to go was Leonard’s, which
was on Mariposa and Sepulveda,” says Bryan,
describing how she would catch the bus with
some friends for a shopping excursion. After
ESHS, Bryan went on to get her bachelor’s
in child development and psychology, making
a career in human resources and management
training.
Vanessa Lancaster, Class of ‘98, drew inspiration
from her teachers at ESHS, becoming
a teacher herself. Lancaster’s brother, Class of
‘93, used to have a fascination with drawing
and would draw the same character over and
over. Thirty years later, in her classroom in
Eastern Washington as a technology teacher,
Lancaster just had her students animate her
brother’s high school drawing.
“There was a slushy machine out front,”
she remembers, “and nine times out of ten,
you put your fifty cents in, and you didn’t
get a slushy.” Lancaster now has teenagers
of her own, and as she reflects on her high
school experience, she praises the small class
sizes and closeness of teachers and students.
Friday
Sunny
85˚/62˚
Saturday
Sunny
81˚/60˚
Sunday
Sunny
77˚/59˚
Rob (‘99) before his high school prom with Alexis (‘14).