OCC History Prof Retires After Spending 56% of Life on Campus

Costa Mesa resident Henry A. Panian has called it a career and retired after teaching history at Orange Coast College for 34 years.

“It’s time for me to go,” he said. “I’ve spent 56% of my life on this campus. I leave thoroughly happy and fulfilled.”

He was named the college’s Outstanding Instructor in 1972 and was honored as Man of the Year by the Costa Mesa Chamber of Commerce in 1981. In 1985, he was selected the college’s Citizen of the Year.

Boy Scout Eric C Boroughs, 18, an Orange resident and Villa Park High School senior, won his Eagle Rank at a Court of Honor at Good Shepherd Moravian Church in Yorba Linda.

Arroyo and Helen Estock elementary schools in Tustin were selected as National Distinguished Schools in the 1989-90 Elementary School Recognition Program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education.

Judges used a variety of criteria, including school leadership, teaching and learning environment, exemplary programs in geography and fine arts, and parent and community support.

Representatives of the school accepted the honor along with plaques and flags in a ceremony in Washington. There were 497 schools nominated, but only 221 schools were selected in the nationwide program.

Roger Johnson, an employee of Saddleback Community Enterprises for the Developmentally Disabled in Mission Viejo, was named Worker of the Year. He works in a group thrift shop.

Los Alamitos resident and cartoon animator Clair Weeks was named Alumnus of the Year by Dakota Wesleyan University in South Dakota. He is a 1934 graduate of the school.

After a missionary upbringing in India and a college education on the prairies of South Dakota, Weeks embarked on a 50-year career in the animated arts.

He attended the defunct Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles and answered an ad for an animation artist at Walt Disney Studios. In 1986, he won the Golden Award from the Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists for his service to the craft.

Marikay Lindstrom of Anaheim has been named Woman of the Year by the California Optometric Assn. It is the group’s highest award.

She is past president of the association’s auxiliary and has served on the board of trustees for 15 years. She is also a past president of the Orange County Optometric Assn. Auxiliary.

Lindstrom is also a member of Angel Flight, American Medical Support Flight Team, a charitable group of volunteer pilots who provide free flights to people with health care problems.

The $10,000 accumulated by the Placentia Rotary Club through fund-raising events was presented to Placentia students in the form of $1,000 and $500 scholarships. The recipients were Justin Bechtol, Christopher M. Huerth, Maria Tade, Hunng Pien Le, Jung Kim, Robin Mencher, Kathleen McGuinness, Nathan Rogers, Julie Warner, Elda G. Gonzalez, Amy E. Magee, Nicolie M. Troxler, James Jamieson, Anna Equsquiza and Lorena J. Perez.

Yorba Linda resident Mira Ingram, 22, a free-verse poet who volunteers at a literacy organization, has won Fullerton College’s $1,000 English scholarship. Ingram, a recent graduate of the college, was cited for excellence in writing in criticism.