You probably remember a lot of the issues we faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, and you might recall there was a shortage of rapid tests and working equipment.
The Valley Health Foundation sure hasn’t forgotten and honored Bloom Energy founder and CEO KR Sridhar at its Tribute to Heroes gala in San Jose for his part in helping Silicon Valley stay healthy.
“In this vibrant heart of Silicon Valley where innovation thrives, one name stands out as the beacon of hope and progress,” said Muhammed Chaudhry, Valley Health Foundation’s board chair. “He has this innate ability to integrate innovation with a purpose of supporting Silicon Valley.”
When employees at valley companies were using COVID tests that took 3 to 4 days to get results, Sridhar negotiated for technology that brought a rapid test — with results in just four hours — to Silicon Valley. Bloom workers also tackled a tough engineering problem to fix broken but desperately needed ventilators, and Bloom helped provide a mobile vaccination clinic that served about 80,000 people.
And when Carl Guardino, then a vice president with Bloom Energy, pitched Sridhar on the idea of being the lead sponsor of an Independence Day-themed 5K/10K run to support the Valley Health Foundation in 2021, Sridhar was all in and the Stars and Strides run was born.
Sridhar showed a rare humility for a valley CEO when he accepted the award, deflecting praise from himself to Bloom Energy’s employees.
“They’re the ones that make it happen; I’m the spokesperson, so let me accept this on their behalf,” he said.
The Sept. 21 gala at Hayes Mansion in San Jose was attended by more than 450 people and brought in about $500,000 for the foundation, which supports the Santa Clara County Hospital System.
NOTES OF GRATITUDE: The Rev. Julia McCray-Goldsmith retired at the end of September as dean of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in downtown San Jose, a position she held for two years, following three years as priest in charge.
As she stepped down, McCray-Goldsmith shared a recent experience that she felt illustrated the reconciliatory place a church can be. She concedes that she’s about as much a California liberal as you can get, living in Berkeley, driving an electric car and voting blue up and down her ballot.
But one recent afternoon when she entered the grounds of the downtown church, she encountered an agitated person camped outside the side door who screamed at her and threatened to assault her. She called the police and sank into a chair in the office of the cathedral administrator, who happens to be Shane Patrick Connolly, chair of Santa Clara County’s Republican Party.
Connolly is someone who she couldn’t be farther apart from politically, but she said they share a common purpose at the cathedral and have become friends as a result.
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“For we Episcopalians, policy and ethical practice are simple on the corner of Second and St. John. We learn our neighbors’ names. We welcome them to join our beautiful worship. We strive to bind up their many wounds with whatever band-aids we have,” she said.
One key to that work has been the partnerships McGray-Goldsmith has fostered, including with Front Door Communities. The nonprofit held an open house Sunday for its new boutique on the lower level of the cathedra’s Fellowship Hall, providing vulnerable women with low-cost or free clothing and other essentials.
A NEW ‘LINCOLN’: Don Hood and Harry Reed, who were San Jose High School classmates in the 1960s, have collaborated on a new musical, “The Other Mr. Lincoln,” that will have its world premiere Oct. 10-12 at the Hammer Theatre Center in downtown San Jose.
The show spans decades in the life of Robert Todd Lincoln, President Abraham Lincoln’s son, who was present for or associated with several historical events.
“I suspect if people have heard of Robert Lincoln, they don’t know anything about him. And he had a remarkable life,” said Hood, who wrote the book and lyrics and is directing the show.
The younger Lincoln was there for the Confederate surrender at Appomattox, turned down an invite to Ford’s Theater the night his father was assassinated, served as Secretary of War for President James Garfield and was present at his assassination, and in 1901 — when he was president of the Pullman Palace Car Co. — pulled into Buffalo on a train just after President William McKinley was shot and mortally wounded there.
“It was remarkable when I was doing the research that he experienced all of that, and he was the only man in history that ever did,” Hood said.
To illustrate the passage of about six decades in roughly two hours, San Jose State music professor Reed’s music dances through different genres — opera, rock, ragtime, salsa and even honky tonk — and many of the actors play several different characters. Brian Adams, Bellarmine College Prep’s vice president of advancement and a former TV guy with KICU, will help the audience keep things straight as the show’s historian narrator.
Ticket are available at www.hammertheatre.com, and there’s a catered reception for the audience after each of the four performances.