JOHN MUIR HIGH SCHOOL

John Muir the naturalist visited Pasadena in 1913 and that same year the PUSD opened a new Junior High School on Walnut Street and named it after him. Muir died the following year without ever visiting. The ornate classical building would suffer severe damage from the 1921 Long Beach earthquake.

 In the fall of 1926 the new John Muir Technical High School was opened featuring state of the art industrial education facilities. 

Led by its one and only principal, Rufus Mead, the new school started with only grades 11 and 12. Though focusing on a wide range of trade classes, a solid academic program was developed. 

John Muir Technical High School adopted as its mascot the Terrier.  A wonderful student made sculpture depicting the “Tech Terrier” stood in the library on a pedestal. Today, it resides in the Muir Alumni History Museum. The last class of Tech Terriers graduated in June 1938.

John Muir Technical High School was renamed Pasadena Junior College – West Campus. Gone were the colors and mascot, replaced by those of Pasadena Junior College. 

World War II officially started on September 1st, 1939. While the United States of America was not directly involved, recruitment went into effect. With the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, male enrollment in Pasadena Junior College’s upper division declined to the point that there was no need for the “West Campus” on the old Muir Tech site. In 1942 the school was closed and transferred to the military.

We want to help anyone in need, not just those under the roof of our church. Our latest initiative is to reach those in Toronto, forgotten or diminished by the harshness of life in a big city.