Dynamic voice for teachers dies of cancer
LINDA MOOK
To many teachers in the Newport-Mesa School District, time is often
defined in two terms: before Linda Mook and after Linda Mook.
An accomplished editor and teacher of journalism, Mook was best
known in Newport Beach for pioneering a reorganization of the school
district that elevated teachers’ needs to the forefront of school
board policy.
Mook died at her home Thursday after a long battle with cancer.
She was 62.
“She was a very dynamic person, someone with a lot of charisma and
the ability to get things done,” Newport-Mesa school board trustee
Dana Black said.
A student of journalism at the University of Missouri, Mook worked
as a magazine editor and then an educator before becoming the union
president for the Newport Mesa American Federation of Teachers Local
1794 in 1994.
She served as president until 2003, when she was appointed to the
position of educational issues coordinator for the California
Federation of Teachers.
She often traveled to Sacramento to lobby for teachers’ rights.
Her husband of 41 years, Harland Mook, said his wife had battled
cancer her entire adult life, but in March she was diagnosed with a
fatal form of colon cancer.
In early December, she traveled to 27-year-old daughter Katie
Kraus’ wedding in San Antonio but suffered a stroke shortly after
arriving in Texas. Her husband said she recovered after three days
and was able to attend the ceremony.
Mook was born in Marysville, Mo., and received her teaching
credential from Chapman College in Orange before going on to receive
her master’s in communication from Cal State Fullerton.
From 1964 to 1969 she worked as editor, first for the Westminister
Herald and then the Leisure World News, before becoming a national
speaker for the National Journalism Education Assn., and then a
magazine journalism instructor for Saddleback College.
In her free time, she enjoyed raising West Highland terriers and
training quarter horses at her ranch in Oregon.
“She was always running at 110%,” Harland Mook said. “She always
had a million things going at once. She was quite a lady.”
Linda Mook will be buried in Missouri, where her family will have
private services.
The school district plans to announce sometime in the next week
where and when a public memorial will be held.
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