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On Tuesday, eight exceptional individuals will be honored for achievements in areas including science, philanthropy, sports, the arts, and politics during this year's California Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
The new inductees are joining 113 other inspirational Californians in the Hall of Fame for embodying the California spirit of innovation.
What: 12th annual California Hall of Fame induction ceremony
When: Official state ceremony on Tues. Dec. 4 at 7 p.m.
All-new artifact exhibit opens Wed. Dec. 5 at 10 a.m.
Where: The California Museum
Who: The 12th class of inductees includes musician Joan Baez, mountaineer and scientist Arlene Blum, journalist Belva Davis, chef Thomas Keller, former San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, public servant Nancy McFadden, Hollywood icon and environmentalist Robert Redford, and former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela.
How to watch: Members of the public can watch a live webcast of the ceremony on Tues., Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. at http://www.californiamuseum.org/webcast/12-hof.
About the inductees
Joan Baez
Baez made her major performance debut at the 1959 Newport Folk Festival, soon earning gold records and landing on the cover of Time magazine. As a singer and activist, she marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and sang at the March on Washington, organized resistance to the Vietnam War, helped establish a fledgling Amnesty International on the West Coast, and stood in the fields with Cesar Chavez and the migrant farmworkers. She was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2017.
Belva Davis
As the first black female television journalist in the West, Davis has won eight Emmy Awards for reports on many of the most explosive stories of the era, including the Berkeley student protests, the birth of the Black Panthers, and the assassinations of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. For more than a decade, she was the National Equal Employment Opportunities Chair for AFTRA, where she advocated for women, minorities, and people with disabilities in the television industry.
Thomas Keller
Keller is renowned in the culinary arts and is the only American-born chef to hold multiple three-star ratings from the Michelin Guide. He is among the most decorated chefs in the world, with accolades including The Culinary Institute of America’s “Chef of the Year” Award and the James Beard Foundation’s “Outstanding Chef” and “Outstanding Restaurateur” Awards. In 2011, Keller was the first American male chef to be designated a Chevalier of The French Legion of Honor, the highest decoration in France.
Ed Lee
San Francisco’s first Asian American mayor, Lee presided over the greatest economic recovery and investment in housing in the city’s history. As mayor, he helped spur tremendous economic growth, revitalizing the Mid-Market district and investing heavily in small businesses and neighborhood commercial corridors. While backing the businesses that fueled the city’s booming economy, Lee focused on raising the minimum wage, creating affordable housing, and helping the homeless.
Lee passed just last year and will be honored posthumously at this year's ceremony.
Arlene Blum
Blum is a biophysical chemist, author, mountaineer and executive director of the Green Science Policy Institute and a Research Associate in Chemistry at UC Berkeley. Blum’s scientific research and policy work with the institute has contributed to preventing the use of flame retardants and other harmful chemicals in products worldwide.
Blum also is famous for leading the first American — and first all-women’s — ascent of Annapurna I, one of the world’s most dangerous and difficult mountains.
Nancy McFadden
McFadden was a top advisor to two California governors as well as President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore. She worked on Bill Clinton’s campaign, and when he was elected President, became Deputy Associate Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice. A senior member of the Clinton Administration for eight years, she finished her tenure as Deputy Chief of Staff to Vice President Al Gore. McFadden finally served as Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr.’s Chief of Staff from 2011 until her death in early 2018. She was a driving force behind every major achievement of the administration and a dedicated public servant.
Robert Redford
Redford is acclaimed as an actor, producer, director, and environmentalist. He has won numerous Academy Awards for his work in film as both an actor, and director, and his performance in “All Is Lost” (2013) garnered a New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor and a Golden Globe nomination. His latest film, “The Old Man and the Gun,” was released in October 2018. Redford has served for more than 40 years as a Trustee for the Natural Resources Defense Council. In 2015, he participated in the COP21 Climate Conference, calling for action on climate change.
Fernando Valenzuela
Opening day of 1981 launched “Fernandomania,” a phenomenon first in Los Angeles and then in the nation, named after the Mexican-born pitcher. Valenzuela won his first eight starts on the pitcher’s mound, with seven complete games and five shutouts. Nicknamed “El Toro,” Valenzuela remains the only player to win both the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young awards in the same year. He was so influential in Mexico and in other Latin American countries that, in 2015, he accepted an appointment from President Barack Obama as a Presidential Ambassador for Citizenship and Naturalization.
Take a look back at the 2017 inductees to the Sacramento Sports Hall of Fame: