Jessica and Robert Ryan
Jessica Ryan was tall, handsome, bright, full of talent and humor, somewhat shy, spoke infrequently but always to the point. She came from a Quaker background, and found the first Director of Oakwood, Bryson Gerard, at a Quaker school in Pasadena.

Robert Ryan had a wry twist to his expression suitable for villainous film roles which he was reluctant for his children to see. He had no "actor's ego," was down-to-earth, intelligent and willing to work for any cause he saw as important. When Oakwood bought and built the Moorpark campus, the Ryans, Harmons, and Cabeens guaranteed the loans.

Elizabeth and Sidney Harmon
Elizabeth Harmon was small, gentle, and had attended Fieldston, a progressive school in New York where, in 1954 during an Oakwood crisis, she found Marie Spottswood and convinced her to become the third and most significant head of Lower Oakwood. Later Elizabeth Harmon made another decisive contribution: $50,000. as down payment on the present secondary school campus.

Sidney Harmon was an independent film producer. In his early twenties, he became a "boy wonder" when he produced Kingsley's "Men in White" on Broadway. At meetings, his meadering speech concealed a man who usually accomplished whatever he set out to do.

Wendy and Ross Cabeen
Ross Cabeen was a conservative among liberals, a Republican among Democrats, a businessman among artists, an open-minded gentleman who had fallen among friends with firm opinions about almost everything. A petroleum engineer with his own exploration company, his hair was red, his complexion ruddy, his expression nearly always amused, and he could sell ice to the Eskimos. It was visits from Cabeen and Ryan which convinced our Moorpark neighbors that what they most wanted next door was a school playground.

Wendy Cabeen looked like a tall, red-blonde, university homecoming queen, and gave endless energy to Oakwood.

Charles and Emilie Haas
Charles Haas, a film director, and his wife, Emilie, both of whom had gone to superb "progressive" private schools, along with Jessica Ryan and Elizabeth Harmon, were the only founders who knew exactly what they wanted, so they had a decisive influence on the kind of school Oakwood became. It was Charles Haas who found Ham Smith, first principal of the secondary school.

More about Charles Haas.

Other Important Members
Marian Doran knew shorthand and for years kept the minutes of all meetings. Mark Merrick took time from his accounting business to keep Oakwood's financial records. Sid Kuller, a writer of comedy acts, helped to create our earliest fund raisers. Heidi Edwards was often the office force, David Lipton of Universal handled publicity, Frances Lustgarten, professional pianist, was our music department.

Final Note
When the founding fathers finished cleaning the toilets and washing the floors of our first home on Chandler Boulevard, they built the cupboards in the front buildings at the elementary school. John Sturges, the film director, lent his table saw, and he and Charles Haas took turns supervising other fathers who had never built anything with their own hands. Already we were a "learning community."