Carl Ernest Pohlhammer

Carl Ernest Pohlhammer was born at Mills Hospital in San Mateo, California. His mother, Dorothy Irwin Pyle, born and raised in San Francisco, was descended from a California gold miner and Pony Express rider and his father, Ernest William Pohlhammer, was born and raised in Kansas. Carl graduated from Sequoia High School in Redwood City, California in 1949. In that year, as part of a world government caravan to the capitol, he traveled to Washington, DC and met Vice-President Alben Barkley, beginning his life of public service. He went to get a B. A. in History from San Jose State College in 1954.

Carl joined the Army and married his college friend, Anita Constance Arellano, in 1955. After a brief stint on the East Coast, the newlyweds spent many months in Orleans, France. Thus began a partnership that lasted 53 years and three weeks and included travel to many countries. In 1957, he graduated from the University of California in Berkeley with a Master’s Degree in History. He was immediately asked to teach at San Jose State College. He also applied for a direct commission in the U. S. Navy as an intelligence officer and was accepted.

In the 1960’s, Carl was very close to his in-laws, Elias (Al) Arellano and Connie Arellano. The four of them traveled together, socialized and built a cabin in the Sierras. That lasted until Connie died in 1968. During those years, Carl held various teaching jobs, culminating in his activation of his Navy commission to teach at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He “never looked back”. After three years, he was hired by Monterey Peninsula College, where he taught until 2008.

After 1966, Carl held many leadership roles on the Monterey Peninsula. He was President of the Fort Ord Flying Club, Chairman of the Pacific Grove Repeal Committee (otherwise known as “Bourbon Renewal”), President of the World Affairs Council of the Monterey Peninsula, Director of the Ventana Chapter of the Sierra Club and, later, President of the Carmel Music Society.

Carl served as President of the Academic Senate of the California Community Colleges in 1973 and 1974, when he was also Social Science Division Chair at MPC (and hired one Sandra). Later he was a founder of the Monterey Peninsula College Teachers’ Association and served as the Vice-President of the community college unit of the California Teachers’ Association.

In the following years, Carl became more active in the Democratic Party, becoming Chair of the Monterey County Democratic Central Committee in 1999. He served in that capacity until 2006. His last public office came about when he was elected to the Monterey Peninsula College Board of Trustees in 2007. He was the first (and last) faculty person to serve in that role.

Carl and Sandy Kahn, who had known each other for years, created a new family in 2010, including Stephen and Tamara Kahn, Robert and Celine Kahn and granddaughters, Rachael, Hannah and Lauren Kahn.