ORANGE COUNTY 1990 NEWSMAKERS : HELLO

Carl St. Clair, 38, the new music director of the Pacific Symphony, who signed a three-year contract after an extensive search by the orchestra’s board of directors.

New Cal State Fullerton president Milton A. Gordon, 54, a mathematician and former vice president of Sonoma State University. The fourth black president in the CSU system, Gordon has pledged to continue efforts to increase minority students and faculty at the 25,000-student Fullerton campus.

Assemblyman Tom Umberg, 35, Orange County’s sole Democrat in the California Legislature, who defeated Curt Pringle (G-Garden Grove) in the 72nd Assembly District.

Jan Mittermeier, 50, manager of the new and expanded $310-million John Wayne Airport. Previously second-in-command at the airport, she now holds one of the most politically sensitive jobs in county government. Her predecessor, George Rebella, quit because of stress and illness, a week after the new airport opened.

Placentia Police Chief Manuel Ortega, who left his post as police chief in Bell in Los Angeles County to become the only Latino in charge of a police department in Orange County.

Brig. Gen. Wayne T. Adams, who took over command of the El Toro Marine Corps Station and of the greater Marine Corps Air Bases Western Area, which oversees operations at El Toro, Tustin, Camp Pendleton and Yuma, Ariz. Adams, 50, replaced Brig. Gen. David V. Shuter, 53, who retired.

GOODBYE

Chang-Lin Tien, UC Irvine’s popular executive vice chancellor, who was appointed chancellor of UC Berkeley, the first Asian-American to head a UC campus.

Jewel Plummer Cobb, who retired after nine years as president of Cal State Fullerton. Affectionately dubbed the “Queen of Concrete,” she presided over the longest period of construction at the campus since it was built in 1959.

Orange’s veteran mayor Don E. Smith, who retired after 25 years on the City Council, making him the longest-serving elected official in Orange County.

The old Huntington Beach Pier, which is being torn down to make way for a new $11.9-million pier, expected to be completed by mid-1992. The 76-year-old structure, a landmark to surfers worldwide, has been closed since July, 1988, because of storm damage.

The 16-foot megamouth shark, accidentally snared in a gill net off Dana Point, that was released 39 hours later after researchers videotaped it and implanted transmitters in its back. The massive fish was only the fifth of its kind to be brought ashore in the world and the first one to be seen alive by scientists.

DEATHS

Daniel G. Aldrich Jr., the founding chancellor of UC Irvine and the only person in the University of California’s history to head three of its campuses, died April 9 at 71, after a prolonged battle against cancer.

Orange County aviation pioneer Eddie Martin, 88, who founded Orange County’s first airport in 1923 when flying was still a daring pursuit, died March 27 after a long illness.

Tommy De La Rosa, 43, a veteran Fullerton police officer, was killed June 21 in a bloody ambush by suspected cocaine traffickers in Downey during an undercover operation.

Vincent Chalk, an Irvine teacher who made national headlines when he won his court fight to stay in the classroom while battling AIDS, died Oct. 2 at 45 of complications from the disease. His lawsuit against the County Board of Education brought a landmark ruling protecting job security of government employees.

Curtis Emerson LeMay, the tough bomber general who directed the aerial assault on German and Japanese cities during World War II and then built the Strategic Air Command into a powerful nuclear strike force, died Oct. 1 of a heart attack. The four-star general, 83, had lived in Newport Beach for nearly 20 years before moving to a retirement community for Air Force officers near March Air Force Base.

The Rev. Lewis Whitehead, founder of the Orange County Rescue Mission and one of the most vocal advocates for Orange County’s homeless in the 1970s and early 1980s, died Feb. 17 of complications from diabetes. He was 63.

Former Santa Ana Police Chief Edward J. Allen, who himself was arrested after his retirement when he became an anti-abortion activist, died Jan. 6 at 81 after suffering a heart attack.

Quadriplegic Jeremy Miller, 19, who established a legal landmark for the handicapped in 1978 by winning the right to attend regular school with able-bodied first-graders, died April 27 at a La Habra medical center after his respirator hose became disconnected as he slept.

Carl Callaway, 56, who was technical director of the Laguna Beach Pageant of the Masters for 37 years, died of a heart attack Aug. 28, two days after the last day of the last pageant of this year.

Times librarian Mary K. Lewis helped research this story.