Why East Bay Alumnus Tom Hanks Likes Obama's Free Community College Plan

By Autumn Johnson (Patch Staff)

Eating french fries and looking at girls was all part of the community college experience that actor and Bay Area native Tom Hanks fondly recalls in a thoughtful New York Times op-ed about President Obama’s proposal of free college for Americans.

The Concord, CA born actor, estimated to be worth close to $400 million, graduated from Skyline High in Oakland in 1974 and says the things he learned in his classes atChabot Community College in Hayward made him the man he is today.

The community college left such an impression on the actor, that the 2011 movie “ Larry Crowne,” a story about a man going back to community college, written and directed by Hanks, references his time spent at the Hayward college that still educates students in the Bay Area today.

Read the full New York Times op-ed here.

Photo of Tom Hanks courtesy of Creative Commons.