The Cupertino Courier

Community

Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer

Still Growing: Although he no longer plants tulips at Fremont High School, former facilities manager Bob Stahl continues to grow flowers, fruits and vegetables at his home in Sunnyvale.

Bob Stahl and his tulips continue to blossom

By Erin Hussey

The rows of colorful tulips that lead up to the steps of Fremont High School have the power to capture almost anyone's attention. While the delicate purple, pink and gold flowers at the school are among the most photographed scenes in the community, the story of their inception isn't well known.

According to Bob Stahl, the man who planted the first bulbs, the story has two parts.

"I always thought the appearance of the school was really beautiful so when I was in a position to add something to it, it was very meaningful to me," says Stahl, who retired as the school's facilities manager in 2005.

"There was another thing that was going on that was really significant in my life. I was beginning to realize that I had become an alcoholic, and I didn't know what to do."

In 1982, during Stahl's second year working on the maintenance team for Fremont High, a new principal was hired and seemed determined to fire him because of a back injury.

"She was doing everything she could to get me to quit, and one of the things she did was attack my pride," says Stahl. "She knew I liked flowers and so she said, 'Can't you do anything to beautify this school?'"

In response, Stahl created a $1,000 requisition for bulbs and flowers he wanted to plant in the front of the school. The principal told him that the school couldn't afford it, but instead of giving up, Stahl went around to all the clubs on campus asking for donations.

"It just snowballed from there," says Stahl. "It was really neat because it gave people in the community a feeling like they were participating in this thing, and it wasn't something the school was doing on its own."

At the same time, Stahl was fighting a more personal battle against the bottle.

"The more I thought about it, the more I realized how sad I was," says Stahl, who had started drinking and smoking in college. "I had a beautiful wife. I had four children--two of them were my two sons that had just been born--and I had a job that allowed me to do things that I liked to do. And here I was drinking.''

Stahl decided it was time to quit and turned to the Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church.

"I knew I needed to be in church because I wasn't going to get help anywhere else," says Stahl. "I listened to a sermon that Dr. Coleman gave about the prodigal son and how sins can be forgiven and how you can change your life if you ask for the Lord's help, and I did. From that point to this point I haven't had a drink or a cigarette."

By the end of the 1982 school year, Stahl received a positive evaluation from the principal and felt like his life was back on track.

Every year thereafter, he and the rest of the Fremont maintenance crew continued to hold flower fund drives and plant the tulips.

"It was my salvation, really," Stahl says. "It helped me all year long. More than once I was out in the rally court with the storm drains backed up in the middle of a rainstorm with water coming up to my knees, and I'm thinking, 'I wonder, if I plant this at this time or do something else differently, how can it make a different end result.' It picked me up out of my doldrums."

In 2005 Stahl was told he might not live long enough to see the next batch of tulips bloom. Two years prior Stahl had been diagnosed with lung cancer. The doctors removed the bottom lobe of his lung and because they were 99 percent sure that the cancer wouldn't recur, he did not undergo radiation or chemotherapy.

But in 2005, the cancer had returned, completely filling his right lung and parts of his neck and back. He was diagnosed with stage IV metastasized cancer and given less than a year to live, even if the cancer was treated.

"I'm in remission right now, which is really incredible," he says.

Stahl underwent chemotherapy and took a few different medications that were prescribed to him by his Russian brother-in-law, who is a doctor.

"I was only given six to eight months to live, and here I am a year and half later, and I've been to France, Germany, Russia and the Ukraine and we're planning on going back this summer."

In addition to traveling with his wife Valentina, Stahl continues to enjoy gardening.

"I've enjoyed gardening since I was 12 or 13-years old,'' he says. "Back in the Midwest, we lived out in the countryside and we had a quarter-acre vegetable garden."

The Stahl family moved to the Sunnyvale area when he was 12. Of six children, Stahl was the only one to graduate from Fremont High (class of '63). His siblings all graduated from Homestead High School. He was also the only one who truly loved gardening.

"I've had a plot in the San Jose community garden for 30 years. I go down there a couple of times a week.'' Stahl's 20-by-60-foot garden is home to 20 tomato plants, as well as onions, beets, radishes, Kentucky green beans, plum and apricot trees and Armenian cucumbers. He is known for his homemade salsa and canned fruits and vegetables, a talent he inherited from his mother.

As for the Fremont tulips, he did order this year's 6,000 bulbs, but says he doesn't foresee the maintenance staff needing much of his help in the future.

"I really think people have given me too much credit," he says. "I took a personal interest in it because I enjoyed it, but it really was a team effort from the custodial and grounds staff. Carlos Ramos, who took my position, is committed to it and maintaining the appearance and even improving it."

If for some reason, the tulips do fail to appear in the spring, Stahl has an idea of what will happen.

"There was one year, I don't know why, but we decided to not plant the tulips. The office never got so many phone calls from people wanting to know, 'Where are the tulips? Where are the tulips!''' says Stahl.

"The appearance of the school has always been special in the community, but it will always have a much deeper meaning to me--to thank God for giving me control back over my life."