After four years as President of CCRFA, I think I am finally getting the "hang of it." The year 2000 has been extremely gratifying and fun for CCRFA. We have had four successful events and are planning several more for next Spring.

We started the year off with a get-together in Palm Desert, which attracted our members who not only live and vacation in the Coachella Valley, but some who drove out for a few days of fun in the sun. Our Spring meeting at Cerritos College benefited from the Palm Desert party, as many arrived still enthusiastic from the earlier get-together. This fall, Fran and Jack Newman hosted fifty-one at their home in Newport Beach. Fran showed all of us how to put on a party. It was a beautiful summer afternoon at the Beach and we took full advantage of it to visit and consume a lot of food. Fran showed that she hasn’t lost the "administrative touch," as everything was very well organized.

As we look forward to 2001, I hope we can be of greater service to faculty who are considering retiring. Many have questions and feel we have the answers they are looking for. Some can’t wait to retire, and others are afraid of retiring. I think we can help both.

The CCRFA Board will be meeting in early December (we usually have a very nice get-together to discuss plans for the next year). If you have ideas for activities, please forward them to someone on the Board. My E-mail address is jhfults@juno.com and my telephone number is in the Roster.

Please note the Roster changes for your 2000 roster on the next page. We were saddened to learn Gladys Mays, Olga Vatcher, Nellie Incorvaia and Paul David Kamanski have passed away. We heard from Gladys’ husband (Roger), Joe, Kathleen McDannel and Dave’s wife (Joan) and have included their letters in the Newsletter.

We are still looking for an Editor for the Newsletter. It isn’t a difficult job and has it’s own built-in rewards. Interestingly, the pay is the same as the CCRFA President. We have intentionally kept it from taking on a "life of its own." Please let me know if you can help us out.

Tony Rodriguez wife is Sandra

Evelyn Bibb is now Evelyn Bibb-Angel and husband is Richard

Austin Lundgren’s wife is Betty

Gladys Mays passed away September 3, 2000

Paul David Kamanski passed away October 16, 1999

Nellie Incorvaia, Joe’s wife, passed away August 23, 2000

Olga Vatcher passed away (see K. McDannel’s letter).

It's been a beautiful summer and fall in the Northwest – warm days and cool nights. Bill had gall bladder surgery in mid-May, which slowed things down for a while. Three of our grandkids from Southern California came to Sunriver, Or. and spent ten days with us in late-July. Sunriver is a great place for kids - and retirees.

In August we pulled the fifth-wheel down to California - a great place to visit. We spent the month of September in Hawaii. This winter we are going to try snowbirding in Southern California and Arizona in March for spring training.

Last winter was relatively warm in Sunriver, but it snowed a lot. The blower wouldn't move the wet snow. Two hours a day shoveling the stuff off the driveway is not Bill's idea of fun.

We continue to work on a series of historical travel books on U.S. 20, one of two highways that travels coast to coast. U.S. 20 begins in Boston and terminates in

Newport, Or. We've been told that 50% of the U.S. population lives within 50 miles of either side of U.S. 20. If any of you have lived near that route, or have any input regarding it, we would love to receive it. We have the first book written and are nearing completion of the re-write. It's an interesting and absorbing project.

Since we will be south this year, we'll try to make the Spring luncheon.

Jon: Why do you always pick meeting times when I have another commitment? I would love to attend the meeting of October 25th but unfortunately, I have a meeting of the Association here in our park that same day and as a member of the BOD I cannot miss it.

Norma and I had two trips this last summer that were nice. In July, we traveled to New York to Niagara Falls and then to Palmyra, NY and then followed the path of the Mormon migration on to Ohio, Missouri, Illinois and Ohio/Nebraska. We did not choose to make the walk from Nebraska to Salt Lake but we are still walking a couple of miles every morning.

In August we took a cruise to Alaska on the Princess line. We took our two girls and their husbands and we all had a great time. I got a digital camera just before we left and took 160 pictures and still had room for that many more. Now we have to make a slide show for everyone.

I am still teaching each winter at the local community college here in Yuma. Also I stay active in a computer club that we have here in our park.

We plan to get over to Orange County one of these days when we can break free. I still have a brother in Santa Ana and Norma has her cousin in Buena Park and so we are over due over there. (I bet we could put that to music).

Say hello to anyone who might remember me. Sometimes, I think we should still be in that house we had just off the campus.

About twenty-eight judges from the Judicial Courts send me students as part of their probation. (That’s punishment enough!). I counsel them into classes and help expose them to a new environment.

Supervisor Don Knabe has donated $10,000 from the County for books, supplies, and transportation to help these students. This is a population not represented in our system.

At this time we have enrolled fifty students in the program called Access First.

On another note, I am golfing three or four days a week, sharpening up my skills to take on Tiger Woods in a World Classic competition event. Having fun doing what I want to do.

We continue to enjoy living in North San Diego County in Solana Beach having been here two years now after almost forty years in Whittier. Ann and I spent two weeks in Virginia and New England last year in October and November. We then visited Oahu and Maui in Hawaii last April. In June we traveled to South Carolina to visit our son and

help him move into his newly purchased home. We continue to make use of our second home in Twin Peaks near Lake Arrowhead, stopping to see our two daughters and their families who live in Upland and Chino Hills.

Dear Jon, Sorry to inform you of the death of my wife, Nelly Incorvaia, August 23, 2000 in Escondido, CA.

Photography Exhibition of my China 2000 Series October 21 at Malibu Civic Center, photographed during our three weeks in China in June and July.

Five weeks adding to photo impressions of New York and Martha’s Vineyard with a few days in Chicago on return in August and September. Sue-Carol also spent some time in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

Daughter, Diane Desfor Stalder, became a partner in the Newport Beach law firm of Scott and Whitehead.

Daughter Dr. Laura Desfor Edles, a sociology professor at the University of Hawaii has transferred to Cal State Northridge to be with husband Mike who is women’s tennis coach at UC Irvine. Laura’s second book, Cultural Sociology in Practice, is being published by Blackwell. Her first sociology book, a study of Spain, was published by Cambridge.

Our 2001 plans include a cross country trip to New York, Boston, Florida, North Carolina and New Orleans to photograph the Society of American Magicians convention.

Tentative extended stay in Tuscany and to visit friends in New Zealand.

Year as President of the Malibu Bay Club Board of Directors expires thankfully.

The big happening this season, as far as I’m concerned, was receiving a postcard from Joan Licari (ex-office partner - Earth Science). It was waiting for me one month ago when we returned from a month of poking around back corners in the Northwest with our campervan. Originating in Tahiti, the picture on this postcard was relabeled "Native Sand Sampler" and showed the backsides of a curvaceous Wahine who had recently sat on the beach.

The card has been lying on the coffee table in front of me so I could try to memorize each sand grain. Oh, the pleasures of Geology; and you thought I was brain dead - hah!

Had a wonderful seven-day cruise to Mexico in June to celebrate our 50th anniversary and our daughter and son-in-laws’ 25th anniversary. In addition, it was the 50th anniversary of Don’s niece and her husband and their son’s 25th anniversary. All of the children went too, so we had a happy group of thirteen.

In August, we drove through Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota to Wisconsin for our first family reunion. There were sixty-two in attendance.

After the reunion, we drove up to Winnipeg and then across Canada on the Transcontinental Highway, dropping down through Washington and Oregon to visit a week with our family and finally home.

The first of September, we joined thirteen of our friends and drove to Solvang for a three-day stay.

Enjoying life and family. Have been going on car cruises and investigating new and different places to retire to. Had a great time at the CCRFA Beach Party - Thank you Fran and Jack Newman for your hospitality. See you on the twenty-fourth.

You may already know, but Paul David Kamanski, Track and Field and Cross Country Coach for over thirty years, passed away last October 16, 1999. Many of his athletes paid him the highest honor of visiting him, attending his funeral and eulogizing him in the highest manner and words any coach could think of, as did his fellow coaches and many friends at Cerritos, and throughout the Southland. We were overwhelmed and very proud. He was a wonderful husband - father and brother, as well as teacher and coach (and referee PAC 10 and NFL).

Olga Vatcher, 1965 retiree from the Business Division, passed away a few months short of her 100th birthday. Olga was a graduate of Stanford University; she taught in the Los Angeles Unified School District before she joined the first group of Cerritos College instructors when the College offered evening classes at Artesia High School. Olga was an avid bridge player; she also swam daily; and she inspired (or insisted) that her colleagues serve as active members of the College’s many committees, particularly the Sabbatical Leave Committee.

Kathleen McDannel enjoyed a recent trip to Ireland. She participated in a reunion of the HANLY clan in Athlone. Kathleen reports that Ireland is no longer a poor country. Jobs are abundant; the people boast a literacy rate of 98%. Technical schools and community colleges have full enrollments. On this visit, she spent time with the Hanly cousins in the Limerick area and was interested to see a new primary school in Caherconlish, County Limerick. The original school, where her brother and she had spent a year (1925-26) is now a very modern facility. The "luck of the Irish" was with her as the weather was just perfect -- nice and cool, a welcome change from our Southern California September hot spell.

And sent Lois Jean and me an Irish blessing:

May you always have

a sunbeam to warm you

Good luck to charm you

And a sheltering angel

so nothing can harm you

Laughter to cheer you

Faithful friends near you

And whenever you pray

may heaven hear you!

I am sorry I will not be able to attend the Fall Luncheon meeting. I am Chairperson for a fund raising project for the North Long Beach Women’s Club, and we are meeting on the same day as CCRFA. I look forward to the CCRFA meetings and enjoy seeing and visiting with old friends. Have a good meeting and I’m looking forward to the next meeting.

Gladys Mays passed away on September 3, 2000 in Twin Cities Hospital in Templeton, California. The details of the cause of death are unclear, but it appeared to be the result of some type of gastrointestinal bleeding; according to the doctors, unknown etiology.

No news is supposed to be good news, so that’s what I’m sending. All I could report is a medical update, which is no news to my former colleagues, who can match appointment by appointment. For those who are bouncing along through the ages – more power to you!

Sir Oscar deLittleton will probably tell you all about his new driveway, so I shall not spoil the only good news I know at the moment. Cheers to all.

I always enjoy reading everybody’s news in the semi-annual report. I’ll miss the October meeting because I’ll still be up here in Vancouver, British Columbia, where summer is still hanging in for a bit longer. Spending a half-year up here and a half-year in San Marino is proving to be a nice way of life. But I do seem to miss the luncheons this way. I talked to Fran Newman at the time of the party at her Newport Beach house. I would have enjoyed that, I know! I have finally joined the computer age. I bought a laptop to carry back and forth. It should help ward off dimentia better than working crossword puzzles. So far I have not smashed it with a hammer, but the temptation is there. Where is Wes Nance when you need him? I need a class, quick! And my "keyboard skills" leave a bit to be desired, too. But the hours do fly by quickly. I’m sure the newness of this adult gadget will wear off soon, and then I’ll get to bed before midnight again. Best wishes for good health to all former co-workers from andrewhallum@yahoo.com.

Still golfing with a Senior Men’s group, still doing aerobic exercises twice a week at the Irvine Senior Center. Still playing the horses and visiting Las Vegas on occasion. Still introducing my six year old grandnephew, who lives with me, as "the reason I got a vasectomy."

Spent two weeks in Italy touring many of the places I visited in 1978 and 1983. Italy is much cleaner now, though very crowded during the jubilee year.

Am carrying on a lively E-mail correspondence with Oscar Littleton, who has lot none of his charm or wit. We both agree that civilization is in decline and that George W. Bush is "the evil of two lessers." We’ll be voting Democratic this fall.

Jean and I are still enjoying retirement. Beside our continuing interest in Church, family, Rotary, and some of the Cerritos College athletic games, we have done the following fun activities this past year:

1. We both volunteer with the Toshiba Senior Golf Classic in Newport Beach. Funds raised go to the Hoag Hospital Foundation.

2. We both volunteer with the Laguna Beach Festival of the Arts and Pageant of the Masters.

3. In September, we went on a tour of Italy starting with Rome, Pisa, Florence, Venice, Assisi, Pompeii, Sorrento, Capri, Naples, Messina, Ennz, Agrigento, Palermo, and back to Rome. Great trip, with an excellent tour director and great bus driver.

4. Our daughter, granddaughter, and grandson have been actively involved in the Chino Children’s Community Theatre and we have enjoyed several CCCT plays.

Marge and I have no new experiences to report to the meeting. The Brain Stroke for me and the Diabetes for Marge leave us in the same condition as we reported to the previous meetings we were unable to attend.

My newsletter will show some incidents that haven’t been shared with you good friends from CCRFA including those who were so good to me in the Business Education. If you wish to leave some out, please do so. (Editor’s note: All is included)

I borrowed some of the report from my grandson who is getting ready for college and wants to get into history stories of the Great Depression and World War II.

Grandpa’s father couldn’t make payments on the mortgage and had to settle for a share cropper deal of 50/50 and we could continue to live on the farm. Grandpa’s assignment was depressing. He worked in the hog houses as mid-wife at midnight protecting little new born pigs from the big hogs, usually an all-night job. But a load of hogs on a freight train was not depressing because they were headed for the stockyards in Chicago and Grandpa was moving to a new life in the big city in the Caboose of their train, where he studied shorthand and court reporting at Gregg College, an extension college of Chicago Northwestern.

Grandpa’s first assignment in WWII was Court Reporter and Secretary for the Chicago Infantry Division at Ft. Monmouth, Tennessee. Grandpa did some work for the Commanding General of the Division, who took grandpa as his part-time secretary. Both jobs paid extra money, enough to let Grandpa see a lovely girl in Nashville and to purchase an engagement ring. The General was friendly and asked Grandpa if he knew there were only two soldiers in the Division who had AB blood, and he then confessed he had AB and Grandpa was the only other one, but not to worry and gave Grandpa a good raise in wages. Both jobs took away the feeling of the Great Depression.

After WWII, my wife Marge and I returned to Chicago and were offered a job with the Senior Federal Court Judge. He was stern, but had a good humor. Our first baby was born and I went into his office to ask if I could have the rest of the day off and he said, "yes, of course, Denny, by all means you should see her twice – when she is born and when she is conceived!

My USC Higher Education Professor required "thought papers" at the beginning of each class, a good idea for College Instruction. My grandson helped arrange this one!

"Grandpa’s Strife Principle:" When the world seems to be against you and you need more happiness in your life, don’t waste your time fuming and fretting but rise above the strife. Avoid the unnecessary confrontations, read the positive literature, become involved in rewarding causes or worthy endeavors, compliment, congratulate, and show the friendly smile. Rise up to view your world from the higher, smoother plane. Stay above the banal cesspools of life as if you were a soaring bird on a holiday flight. But don’t forget to come down to earth frequently, to land on your feet and stay in touch with your reality.

Dear John: Thanks for being editor and for contributing to the retired teachers of Cerritos. This letter is from Oscar Littleton, proud member of CCRFA, prouder than KCET.

CCRFA Newsletter October 2000

("Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall." Some quotations take the joy out of life.)

Activities: trying to balance my checkbook; (I'm $672.73 off, their favor); pretending to make my bed; putting off doing the dishes; enjoying the artistic pattern of the spots on the carpet; figuring out where I left the latest copy of Science News, not reading Science News. Etc.

Interests: Avoiding television, the newspapers, and telephone solicitations, especially for worthy causes.

Travels- Mostly to the trash can to throw away important letters that say Open Immediately, Urgent, Last Chance, You Are a Winner of $2,000,000,000, Lose 500 Pounds Overnight, Lose Money the Easy Way, Cheap Plane Tickets w/ Free Life Insurance and a Sweet Message to Your Loved Ones. Etc.

Interests: Books with print an inch high; food with no salt, no sugar, no fat, no flavor, and no calories, cocktails with no alcohol-, friends with cars and generous hearts; women between the ages of 85 and 110; dogs that don't bark; the easiest way to kill mosquitoes; electric wheelchairs; support hose; antibiotics that work. Etc.

Projects: Learning to spell; changing my bed; washing last week's linens; watering anything still living; stopping leak under the sink with bicycle tape (it really works); throwing away stuff I haven't used for 50 years; deleting my memoirs from the computer; writing one single, solitary, really good paragraph. Finding some sack cloth and ashes. Locating e-mail addresses of CCRFA members. Being less long-winded. Keeping my mouth shut in public places. Showing more respect to people I envy. Having lunch at Arbey's. Avoiding fine restaurants. Forgetting the PMLA manual. Sleeping through wannabe presidential debates. Discovering the meaning of nothing and the square root of zero. Not reading Wealth of Nations, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; Capital; Federalist Papers, Leviathan; Principia Mathematica, Peter Rabbit. Avoiding rock & roll, country & western, rap, and all national anthems except France's. Not playing bridge, poker, chess, football, or spin the bottle. Etc., etc., etc.

This is in addition to my President’s message. We continue to travel and enjoy the freedom retirement provides. Since our Spring meeting, we spent three weeks in Maui, led a two-week long gem and mineral trip for our Gem and Mineral Society (we collected material in Nevada, Oregon and California), went on a Huntington Harbour Yacht Club cruise with friends, cancelled a trip to Alaska, spent three weeks going to Florida, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois. It’s good to be home.

Our trip to Florida included one week in Orlando for the Sweet Adelines International chorus and quartet competition. We learned that when you take the best choruses and quartets from Europe, the United States, New Zealand and Australia you hear some wonderful entertainment. Our oldest daughter sings in the Chicago Melodeers and our middle daughter sings with the Toast of Tampa. Both choruses won gold medals in their regional competition and qualified to be in Orlando. As it turns out both choruses made the final top-ten competition and the Chicago chorus took the gold, while Toast of

Tampa came in 9^th. This was all very exciting. Next year the Chicago Melodeers will be the featured chorus at the International competition in Portland, Oregon

Sorry I can’t make it on the 18^th, but Dorothy and I are celebrating our 57^th wedding anniversary.

Sorry I can’t attend but we will be up North. Don Siriani and I got together and it was great.