The Web site

Roger Carlson

Many of the treasures of Heritage Hall at Newport Harbor High once

lie strewn in a Dempsey Dumpster, but the Sailors’ original coach and

athletic director, Ralph Reed, rescued the material, stowed it in his

garage and hoped for better days to come.

It was in the ‘70s that Daily Pilot Sports viewed Reed’s

treasures, stacked from floor to ceiling in his garage, packed away

like so many bales of cotton, and he told of his treasures and the

need to hold on to the past.

By 1980 when the Sailors had their school’s 50th anniversary,

Fabian Giroux came to the forefront and began “Little Heritage Hall,”

featuring Coach Reed’s teams, and a couple of years later a math

teacher, the department head, Webster Jones, emerged and began taking

inventory for Giroux.

“One day (in 1984) Mr. Giroux was showing the place to some

people,” said Jones. Jack Koll (a former Newport Harbor student) was

there and he noticed some sketches and asked, “What are these? Plans?

Jack Koll picked up on the idea and went to his dad, Don Koll, of

building reputation, and in a very short time, a check for $25,000

was presented.

Walkie Ray did the contracting and Rolly Pulaski designed Heritage

Hall.

“We thought it might take $25,000,” said Web Jones, “ but the

costs came to $50,000.

“Our alumni association raised $10-12,000, and the (school)

district paid for the rest of it.”

Heritage Hall became two rooms with a small work office in between

which preserves the rich history of the school through photos and

memorabilia.

“It’s the jewel of Newport Harbor High School,” said Jones.

Also very significant was the presence of Betty and Charlie

Beecher, who pulled in a lot of other alumni.

“If it hadn’t been for the Beechers,” mused Jones.

Another figure who deserves note, custodian Orville Lloyd, who

saved various original tables and chairs, furniture which was

otherwise doomed.

The hall is used to accommodate alumni at reunions and is a place

for special meetings.

The alumni association has grown to 1,100 graduates.

The Beechers have passed on, but their legacy, too, continues.

Web Jones, a teacher at Newport Harbor for 32 years, has ensured

the future with assistants Chet Malek and Diane Jones.

Presently they are trying to cope with plans which apparently will

bring in a conference room within Heritage Hall in the near future,

which will give the Hall an opportunity to expand in terms of usage

with the walls adorned with some of the more notable plaques and so

forth, while other treasures will be displayed more compactly.

Jones is seeking the high road on the possible space shrinkage,

looking for ways which will improve the anticipated changes. Others

would be happy with the status quo.

As for the future, most likely in some corner at some point in

time, it would seem there will be another honored Sailor, that of Web

Jones, whose travels began as a senior at Evanston High in Illinois,

the U.S. Navy, a year at John Middlebury College in Vermont, a year

at Stanford to obtain his master’s and a year at Lower Lake Union

High, near Clear Lake, which he still recalls as “The end of the

world.”

“I had three students in advanced math and nine in physics,” said

Jones. “One of my students asked, ‘Mr. Jones, what are you doing

here?’ ”

What he was doing was waiting for a call -- and it came from

Newport Harbor Principal Sidney Davidson in 1949.

For the next 33 years he was Newport Harbor’s math department,

from a staff of three to a staff of 18 in the late ‘70s, almost all

of that time as the head of the department.

A Costa Mesa resident since 1950, Web and wife Eunice are the

proud parents of four successful Newport Harbor graduates -- Tim (in

communications), Larry (an electrician), Tom (an engineer) and Joyce

(a public health nurse).

Perks include two granddaughters.

Web Jones retired in 1982, and for the past two decades has been

the hall’s congenial historian and gatekeeper.

Perhaps they’ll call his corner “The Web site.”