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.