The Sunnyvale Sun
News
Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
As Homestead High's team headed onto the Fremont High School football field Sept. 1 for its matchup with Saratoga, the new scoreboard, dedicated to the former Fremont High team physician, was in the background. Dr. Howard Diesner is also the namesake of Diesner Field.
Team doctor honored with fitting tribute
By ERIN HUSSEY
With two broken arms, a dislocated shoulder and a near-broken neck, the Danforths rushed their 10-year-old son to the Sunnyvale Medical Clinic and called on the only man they knew could help: Dr. Howard Diesner.
"At one time in my past, my future life rested in his hands and skill," said Jack Danforth, a 1949 graduate of Fremont High School.
"I managed to fall 50 feet off a cliff over at Half Moon bay. Dr. Diesner was one of my childhood saviors."
In addition to healing Danforth and countless other Sunnyvale citizens from the '30s through the '50s at his Sunnyvale Medical Clinic, Diesner was the medical director for Westinghouse Electric Corporation, district surgeon for Southern Pacific Railroad, a member of the Fremont Union High School District Board of Trustees and the team doctor to the Fremont High School football team.
"You would have called him a workaholic in today's time," daughter Helen Diesner Kuckens said. Kuckens is the middle Diesner child, between boys Harvey and Kurt.
"But we were very, very proud that Dad was the team doctor and served on the school board. His medical career was his vocation, but his secondary interest was always education."
In October 1956, the Fremont High School football field was designated Diesner Field in tribute to Diesner's 20 years of service on the FUHSD Board of Education and the hours he volunteered for the football team. Today, approximately 50 years later, the school held a ceremony Sept. 9 to honor Diesner again and dedicate the new scoreboard in his name.
"I think it is fitting that he was honored in that way," said Jerry Hitchman, FHS football player and 1954 graduate.
Hitchman, who has been coaching football for more than 40 years, admits he wasn't quite aware of just how important "Doc Diesner" was until he himself became a coach.
"As you get older and especially if you stay in the school business, you realize how important the lay people are in the community that step forward and serve on the school board and volunteer their time and show up at games," he said.
Hitchman remembers Diesner as a stoic figure on the sidelines whom he always respected.
"You had the coaches who tended to rant and rave, and then there was this pillar of stability," he said.
Although Diesner attended only the home games, if a player was injured at an away game, the first stop on the way home wasn't the hospital; it was Diesner's home.
"I can remember one night I was home alone with a girlfriend, and at about 11 p.m. the doorbell rang and it was the football team," Kuckens said.
"I was a little scared to go to the door because it was so late at night."
And even with his long work and volunteer hours, Diesner always found time to be a dad.
"I can remember days when I was feeling sick and I didn't want to go to school, but he always made us go," Kuckens said. "We didn't get to stay home for anything." Mary Beth Allmann, assistant principal at Fremont High School, believes students today can learn how to better their community by following Diesner's example. "Dr. Diesner embodied the true spirit of giving," she said.
Diesner died in 1984 at the age of 75. "I still have people who will talk to me about Dad," Kuckens said. "I have never heard anyone that didn't just love my dad.
"He found a way to serve his community by following his passions and doing what he loved most. His kindness and generosity is a legacy that continues."
