Tutor to the teens

Andrew Edwards

Costa Mesa’s Don Mahar enjoys sharing knowledge with his city’s

youth.

Maher, 72, began volunteering at the Westside’s Save Our Youth

Center in 1992, hooking up with the organization when his wife Nora

helped start the center, which was created to keep Costa Mesa teens

away from drugs, gangs and trouble.

So, Mahar has tutored at the center since it opened its doors.

“It was such a neat organization,” Maher said. “We had 450 kids

coming -- or youths, I call them; they’re not kids -- and we became

very close. I became very interested in helping them develop their

skills.”

He kept on volunteering after his wife died in a car accident last

year near Watsonville.

“That took a lot of courage and strength,” said Trevor Murphy, the

center’s executive director.

Most of the teenagers served by the center live on the Westside,

Maher said. As a tutor, he volunteers on the center’s academic side

of the house. The center also offers athletic and recreational

opportunities.

Mahar believes that most people -- both young people and adults --

are reluctant to ask for help, and he said he enjoys being able to

help teenagers feel comfortable in seeking aid. A former aerospace

engineer, Maher was not new to teaching when he started volunteering.

In 1955, his last year as a graduate student at USC, Maher taught

engineering courses at the university, and for the next three years,

he taught at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., he said.

His favorite subjects to teach are math and physics, but since

teenagers using the center have homework in many subjects, he has

been called upon to help out with subjects ranging from foreign

languages to history to English.

“You’re just jumping from student to student,” he said.

One of the teens served by the center, 16-year-old Christina

Torres, said Maher often provides a lot of background information to

explain the subjects she studies.

“He doesn’t just give you the answer,” she said. “He really helps

you.”