Tom Damon

Hall of Fame Class of 1996

Tom Damon was an adult education administrator in Palo Alto, California for 24 years, first as principal and later as director. His legacy, despite a threat from Proposition 13, is a thriving adult education program 14 years after his retirement.

He served on the board of directors of the California Association of Adult Education Administrators and was a charter member of the Association of California School Administrators in which he served as a committee chair and vice-chair. During his term, he began an annual workshop for adult education administrators that continues as a major annual event 23 years later.

He was appointed to the Western Association of Schools and Colleges' (WASC) Accrediting Commission for Schools, a position that he held for 11 years until his retirement in 1982. During this time, he established a system for the separate accreditation of adult schools by the WASC.

He served for eight years as an officer of the National Association for Public Continuing and Adult Education (NAPCAE), becoming President in 1978-1979. Through NAPCAE, as International Adult Education Chair, and AAACE, as Educational Tours Chair, he established a German-American Exchange Program Fund to help defray the costs of hosting German delegations to the U.S.