City College Commemorates Late Instructor And Firebrand Ellen Wall

At the base of City College of San Francisco’s soccer field, some 15 people gathered around an unassuming retaining wall on Wednesday morning to commemorate late faculty member and community activist Ellen Wall.

The air turned to mist as the plaque, engraved with a dedication and portrait of Wall, was delivered to the site. Across the top of the plaque, read the new official name of the retaining wall: The Ellen Wall.

Wall’s wall allows for a direct path to divide the athletic fields, connecting the eastern parking lots to the heart of the college’s main campus. The decision to carve the path was championed by Wall, who spent all 34 years teaching English to countless students and fighting for what she believed in.

“I'll see Ellen's fingerprints on everything, going as far back as the ‘80s,” said Madelin Mueller, City College’s longest-serving faculty member. “Things that were passed, resolutions that were brought up, and as I said, she was not shy. She had a kind of Texas twang to her voice, and when she got excited, the twang would come right through her nose.”

The costly endeavor required some convincing before it was approved, and the walkway happened to be the last of her many advocacy campaigns before she passed away in March of 2022.

The resolution to dedicate the wall, passed by the college’s Board of Trustees in 2021, recognized Wall for having “championed the need for a walkway,” which invited new pedestrian access to City College’s main campus from the Balboa Park BART station.

Frederick Teti, a dean at the college who helped propose the dedication, organized the ceremony and read aloud the resolution as well as his own remarks. Teti, who served with Wall on the academic senate, spoke of what an inspiration she was to people across decades and through all the work she did through the various committees she was involved with. “She was really just woven into the fabric of the college,” he said.

Teti then read City College Chancellor Kimberlee Messina’s prepared statement, who was not able to attend the ceremony.

“Ellen loved that she could walk from her home to the college each day, and she was a strong advocate for the walkway between our athletic fields. The walls that stand here — now bearing her name — exist because of her vision and persistence,” wrote Messina.

Various people stepped forward to share their memories of Wall, all of whom laughed over how bragadocious she was about her ability to walk to work. As the unaware pedestrians continued to march past the memorial down Wall’s walkway, her friends and colleagues swapped stories about the soirees at her home and how she took anyone and everyone under her wings.

Mueller reminisced about the community activism that was organized in Wall’s home during what she referred to as the “Reservoir Wars” of the early 90s. Mueller was one of five activists who fought in a series of political campaigns for City College to take ownership of the land west of Frida Kahlo Way, which now houses some of the college’s latest additions, such as the Harry Britt Building and STEAM Building.

“Ellen was, how should we say, a political human. It was a team effort, but she was always the fighter,” Mueller said.

Prominent among the speakers on Wednesday was Wall’s younger sister Joyce Cauthen, 80, who travelled with her husband, Jim, up from Alabama for the dedication.

“I couldn't believe how generous she was, and that generosity came to all her students,” Joyce said, with her familiar Texas twang. “I've heard so many people say how she changed their lives. And she thought City College was the place to be.”

Joyce said she thought of her older sister as being solitary growing up, from having few friends at school. At City College, Wall had seemingly thousands of friends — and everyone loved her.

“She could be dogged, she could be persistent, and she could get on your nerves, but it was always worth it. You would realize later that she was right,” Joyce said.