GCCCD Grapevine 

Contents:

1. Banquet for Retirees a Sellout (Picure Story)
2. Retiree Benefits at Grossmont College
3. Interim GC President, Voice of Experience
4. Editor's Comments
5. Biblio-files
6. Travel Tip: Be a Courier
7. Obituaries: Remembering Our Own
8. Editors/Credits
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Banquet for Retirees a Sellout 

It was a packed house at the Bali Hai on May 8. That Friday evening, 155 district staff and retirees honored the latest district retirees with a Hawaiian banquet. The weather was a bit cool for the Hawaiian motif but the upbeat crowd didn't seem to mind. The buffet was excellent, there was plenty of opportunity to socialize and the kahunas had put together an entertaining program of slides and 'testimonials' honoring the new retirees. Several attendees felt it was the best such banquet ever.

Chuck Seymour emceed and Barry Winn served as a kind of Queen Hameamea, showing slides and commenting on each of the new retirees. Special credit is due the committee who worked so hard to make this banquet such a success. Committee members were: Yvonne Board, Karen Bishop, Lori Carver, Gloria Claesson, Sirkka Huovila, Alba Orr, Chuck Seymour, Jackie Winn, Barry Winn, Tony Zambelli and Maria Zarcone. John Dixon helped with the slides.

The accompanying photos were mostly taken by Lisa Scott with some help from Lori Carver and Bob Claesson.  Caption identifications are all left to right.

   
 Terry Volz, Joanne Prescott,    Queen Hameamea    Robert Holden & Board Member
Toni Mueller and Shirley and    (aka Barry Winn)      Rick Alexander
George Jones

  
 Barbara & Joe McMenamin, Pamela      Pat Fleming,Susan Keller, Kathy Norris & 
& Ben Newkirk                                         Nick Nichelson

  
Barry Winn, Marilyn Marshall &          Jacqueline Winn, Alba Orr & Lori Carver
Chuck Seymour                                    (Joe & Barbara McMenamin, background)

  
Charles & Jeannie Hyde & Sharon         Peter & Peg Hovde, Dana & Robert
LaFollette                                               Quittner

   
Chuck Seymour, emcee       Lisa Scott & Lori            Alba Orr & Barry
(Listen Up, People!!)           Carver                            Winn

  
Ismo & Sirkka Huovila, Maria Zarcone    Peggy Harmon, Bill Bornhorst, Wayne
& Mario Baeza                                          Harmon, Tom Scanlan & John Carter

 
                                                       The Chow line. Yesss!!

  
Randy Pogue, Mariann Nagel, David        John Shue & Trudy Bratten
Laughlin, Tari Nagel, Nick & Sally           (Dancing til' Dawn!)
Nichelson

  
 Juanita Ahlee, Janet Cohn & George    Charles Fraser, Yolanda Guerrero, Eve Lill
Washington (1st faculty retiree, 1976)   Rosemarie Scanlan, Judy Barkley, &
                                                               Katherine Faulkoner
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Retiree Benefits at Grossmont College: How Do They Compare? by Tom Scanlan

The Grossmont Cuyamaca Community College District approved a package of benefits for all retirees in July, 1989 which currently provides the following:

• A "gold" identification card which lists the benefits
• Free staff parking
• Free library card
• Tuition reimbursement for retirees and their spouses taking regular classes
• A 50% discount on Extended College classes
• Bookstore discounts, except texts
• Discounted non-litigious attorney service
• Use of campus athletic facilities (must enroll in applicable class)
• Invitation to retirement activities
• Professor Emeritus/a status for qualified certificated retirees.

In previous years, discounts were available to on-campus theater productions. district traditionally hosts a breakfast for all retirees during the week preceding fall classes and a luncheon for all emeriti during the spring semester. The district also pays for the production and mailing (each April, July and November) of the retiree newsletter, the GCCCD Grapevine, also available at the college website. The URL is http://www.gcccd.cc.ca.us/grossmont/Publications/Publications.html.

Free internet access and e-mail is available from home dial-up to retired faculty through the district and they can set up their own web page on the college server.

These benefits are comparable to benefits available in several other community college districts which I've contacted. For example, Cerritos College (only a few years older than Grossmont College)in the Los Angeles area has a retired faculty organization, founded in 1982, with 120 of their 175 retired faculty as dues- paying (only $5/year) members. They receive most of the same benefits listed above, although these benefits were mostly acquired over time at the rate of one or two new benefits each year. For their dues, members receive a newsletter and other mailed announcements. They have two non-hosted (you pay) luncheons each year, mostly for socializing but with a brief business meeting, announcements, etc. They have elected officers and a constitution and voting representatives on some committees with some campus office space available. The membership works with the district to obtain and maintain retiree benefits.

Pierce College, also in the Los Angeles area, is fifty years old and has a retiree organization called PEP, Pierce Emeriti Professors, with elected officers and a constitution. There are approximately 100 dues-paying ($10/year) members. The organization is only a few years old, but now has two luncheons each year, partly subsidized by dues. They produces a newsletter which includes a directory of members.

There is currently no retiree organization in our college district. In 1991-92 a small group of retirees attempted to form a Certificated Retiree's Organization but a mail poll showed there was not enough interest at that time. A small number of special interest groups were formed in 1990 in areas such as writing, but I'm not aware of any such groups still meeting now. No group of retirees is specifically assigned to such matters as sympathy or support to deal with illness or bereavement. Retiree matters are presently handled through the college district's Risk Management/Benefits office.

Interested retirees recently began meeting at 9 am the first Tuesday of every month at Coco's near Grossmont College for breakfast or coffee and informal conversation and camaraderie. With a growing number of retirees in our district (nearly 300), and a new chancellor and GC president soon to be selected, it may be time to once again consider forming some type of retiree's association. If you have suggestions or opinions on this topic, please send them to the Grapevine by letter, e-mail or phone.
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  His is Really Voice of Experience

Want to win some money? Just get some colleagues into an argument about which community college president in California has the most varied experience. Then put your money on Dr. John (Jack) Ranadall, Grossmont College Interim President.

Randall came to Grossmont in May and will occupy the president's office until next May.

He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees at Long Beach State, got his doctorate in education at USC, then began his professional career as a mathematics instructor at Cerritos College. He was at Cerritos for eighteen years, the last five as Vice President of Instruction. He then spent fourteen years as Superintendent-President of Mt. San Antonio College.

He retired from Mt. San Antonio in 1991, but didn't quit working. He served as Interim Superintendent at Napa College, then Interim Superintendent-President of the Chabot-Las Positas Community College District, Interim Provost of the Moreno Valley campus of Riverside Community College, and just before coming to Grossmont, Vice President of Instruction at Mt. San Jacinto College.

During his tenure at Mt. San Antonio, he took a nine-month leave of absence to serve as Interim State Chancellor of the 106-college California Community College System.

He also got international experience as a visiting professor for the University of Southern California in Korea, and as consultant/instructor for the American College of Switzerland.

Dr. Randall told the Grapevine he sees Grossmont as a very good college, and he has to plan for major change. He thinks the commitee system can stand some fine tuning and he hopes to forward campus facility plans, including the schedule for the construction of the Learning Resource Center in the library building.

He prizes his academic experience and honors, but probably his most cherished recognition is his election to the national Softball Hall of Fame. That followed eight years as a pitcher with the fast pitch Long Beach Nighthawks who won championships in the World International Fast Pitch Congress. Those glory days behind him, Dr. Randall contents himself with racquetball and golf, without eyeing the Hall of Fame in either sport.
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Editor's Notes
                            by Tom Scanlan                                                                                             As co-editor, one of my responsibilities is to alternate the writing of our editorial with the other co-editor, Pat Higgins. I checked the back issues and was surprised to find I haven't written one since the November, 1994 issue. How time flies!

It's been great having someone as competent as Pat produce and edit this newsletter for these past years. It will take some getting used to now that I have all these deadlines to face again, but with two of us the work is only half. After this year, quien sabe? Anyone out there secretly desirous of producing a newsletter? Fame and glory only a few typestrokes away! You could bring in the new millennium and our tenth anniversary issue at the same time (the first Grapevine was produced April, 1990).

Aside from the fact that I'm co-editing the Grapevine, this June is kind of special for me. I turned 65, which has meant lots of paperwork_Social Security, Medicare, loss of district life and health benefits, etc... But there's some good stuff, too. My youngest daughter Alison graduated from Cal State Fullerton on June 1 with an MS in Environmental Studies. I'm especially proud of her because she completed the entire degree program while working full time in the field of environmental auditing and assessment. And, only minutes before this issue goes to press, my oldest daughter, Karen, gave birth to her first child, Shelby Alison Frazier, at 3:14 am on June 22. Wow!!! My first grandchild_so now I'll be a 'grandpa'. A grandpa?!! (I wonder if smoking a pipe is still 'p.c.'? Time for a beard, maybe?) Because I retired at a relatively young age, I expect that most of you out there reading this are chuckling and thinking 'been there, done that'. Tell me_is this another one of those 'passages'? I'm still having trouble dealing with the previous ones.
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Biblio-files
                           by Tom Scanlan 

Rating Scale:                                                                  I

*   poor --Don't read it! Why did I waste my time?
**   fair-- So-so; read it only if you really like the author.
***   good-- Worthwhile, average; read it if you have time.
****   very good-- Read it; you'll really like it.
*****   outstanding --A must read; turn off the TV and get started now!

Comparisons. It's often enlightening to compare two novels by the same author which were written at different times or under different circumstances. I enjoyed F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby when I first read it years ago but had been told it wasn't his best. In this column I compare his first novel with the novel many consider his best.

I've also been told that William Trevor is one of the best living writers in the English language so I chose a 'double novel' which he wrote rather recently.

And finally, for comparison, I include a review of an American version of much of what Depak Chopra was espousing in two of his books which I reviewed in the previous issue of Grapevine.

This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1920) ***
This was Fitzgerald's first novel, published when he was only 24 years old. Fitzgerald had quit Princeton as an undergraduate and joined the Army. He worked on the manuscript while waiting to be shipped overseas. When armistice was declared he focused on completing the novel in the hopes that he'd then be able to marry Zelda Sayre. The novel was an instant success and he married Zelda eight days after it was published.

Although not his best known work today (The Great Gatsby has that honor), nor his best writing (Tender is the Night is usually considered his best), it was a timely novel about what would become known as 'the lost generation', that generation of young people who were disillusioned and disoriented by the horrors of World War I and the inability of governments to resolve their conflicts in a more expeditious and humane way.

The story is largely autobiographical. The protagonist is an undergraduate at Princeton, Amory Blaine, who's not sure what he wants to do with his life. Lessons learned in prep school no longer seem adequate. There's lots of partying and drinking. This was, after all, the time of Prohibition, which seemed to make drinking all the more fashionable, especially among college students. Amory experiences several failed romantic relationships along the way and eventually his drinking becomes his undoing.

It's not a very uplifting book but then few 'coming of age' novels are. Still, it has the appeal of revealing and reflecting a period of history in our country which still influences much of our national culture. If you've read The Great Gatsby, this little novel will give you some insight into the author of that memorable story.

Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald (Scribner's Sons, 1993) *** This novel, considered Fitzgerald's best, was published in 1933 (my birthyear, incidentally). The story is mostly about a brilliant and charming young psychiatrist, Dick Driver, who marries one of his patients, Nicole_a beautiful but schizophrenic young woman. Nicole's mental health is quite fragile in their early years so she is dependent on Dick as both husband and therapist. To others, though, they seem to 'have it all'.

A rising young starlet meets the couple at their home on the Riviera and becomes infatuated with this charming psychiatrist. The plot revolves around this threesome and how their lives are shaped by one another. With sometimes distracting flashbacks, each of the three tells a part of the story from their point of view.

As the story develops, it becomes clear that all three characters have serious psychological problems and that this story is not going to have a simple or necessarily happy ending. There are no heroes or villains, just the complications of vulnerable people seeking love and fulfillment within a sub-culture that is often shallow and cynical. There is a classic role-reversal, wherein Nicole becomes independent and happier, and Dick becomes dependent (on alcohol) and depressed.

Two Lives, William Trevor (Viking Penguin, 1991) ***
This book, which was nominated for the Booker Award, is in fact two separate novels, even though it was published under the single title of Two Lives. The separate novels are Reading Turgenev and My House in Umbria. What they have in common is that they are the stories of two women, each marked by the loss or absence of love, who escape into literature.

In Reading Turgenev, an Irish country girl Mary Dallon is pressured into a loveless marriage with a shopkeeper twice her age. He lives above his shop with two sisters who disapprove of his new wife. Unable to consummate the marriage, he begins to drink and his sisters make Mary's life even more miserable. She falls in love with a sickly cousin who reads her Russian novels during their secret meetings. When he dies, she is institutionalized for 'madness' when it appears that she might be attempting to poison the sisters and the husband she does not love. There's a delightful surprise ending which reveals the true nature of her 'madness'.

The second novel is set in Italy, where Emily Delahunty, a woman who was abused in childhood and later became a prostitute now writes formula romance novels in a countryside villa, which she also rents out as a pension. She is injured while riding in a train bombed by terrorists and befriends the other survivors of the explosion while recovering in the hospital. They all move to her pension to convalesce and a number of surprises soon develop.

I much preferred the first story, but each one entertains because Trevor has pulled you into the story and made you care about his characters.

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff..., Richard Carlson, Ph.D. (Hyperion, 1997) ***
As I was with Chopra's books, I was at first very skeptical about this little gem (it's still a best seller). Just another New Age, self-help, feel-good book which already fill too many shelves in bookstores today. I probably would never have read it if my wife hadn't been so insistent (thank you, Rosemarie)_and that would have been my loss.

The book consists of 100 two-to-three page 'chapters', which can be read at random and at any time when you have a few minutes free. The chapter titles give you a pretty good idea what to expect. Make peace with imperfection. Surrender to the fact that life isn't fair. Choose being kind over being right. Think of what you have instead of what you want. Get comfortable not knowing.

Advice or suggestions that we've all heard before, but Carlson has a way of stating them simply and in very practical terms. It's especially good advice for the 'A-types' among us who sometimes forget to stop and smell the roses. There's plenty of wisdom and compassion in this little book_and it's served up in a manner that many of you might prefer to Chopra's.
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 Travel Tip: Be a Courier
                                          by Ray Resler

Gene Britt and I have found an economical way to get to the Orient_as couriers! There are several companies you can find going to various destinations; we use IBC Pacific (1-310-665-1760; ask for Yolanda).

For $495 round trip you can fly from LAX or San Francisco to Bangkok, or Manila, via Tokyo. If you can fly on less than a week's notice, it will cost $200. You must pay to get yourself to L.A. or S.F. All they require is that you travel with carry-aboard luggage only . (They use your luggage allowance.) You deliver their packages to Tokyo and_if any_ your destination. You usually can stay at your destination for two weeks, but this is flexible.

From Bangkok it's an easy hop to Burma, Cambodia, Laos, or Vietnam. From Manila, it's possible to fly domestic to many Philippine islands or to Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, etc. No expenses are paid by the courier company.

This has worked very well for us several times. You fly Northwest, and accumulate about 14,000 frequent flier miles.

Southeast Asia is a great bargain for U.S. dollars. In Vietnam you become an instant millionaire_$100 U.S. gets you a million dong!
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Remembering Our Own...

Shirley Acheson 

Shirley Acheson succumbed to a long period of illness at her home in La Mesa early in March, 1998. She was one of the original staff that launched Grossmont College in 1961 on the Monte Vista High campus. At that time she was the fledgling college's only counselor. When the new college campus opened in 1964, she joined the Department of Behavioral Sciences where she taught psychology until her retirement in 1984.

She was a very private and soft-spoken person who nevertheless liked the company of other people. She often hosted TGIF at her home during the college's early years. After retirement she continued to enjoy people contacts at her boutique in Borrego.

Walter Whitmann, Jr.

Walter Whitmann, Jr., died on September 15, 1997, following an extensive period of rehabilitation. He was also one of the original staff which launched Grossmont College in 1961. He taught biology and botany in the Department of Biological Sciences until he left the district with a disability retirement in 1984. He chaired that department for most of his tenure.

Although many of us were unaware of the fact, Walt was largely responsible for the landscaping design of the Grossmont College campus, which to this day is in an inviting place to stroll. In addition to his expertise in plant biology, he was an accomplished pianist and was very knowledgeable in the field of popular music.

Willard Dellegar

Willard Dellegar, known as 'Dell' to all his friends, died on May 21, 1998 in Lillian, Alabama after a long illness with leukemia. He taught atGrossmont College from 1965 to 1987, serving as chairman of the Biomedical Technology Program for much of his tenure. He developed numerous certificate programs in the field of health sciences technology and worked actively to see that graduates were placed in jobs.

Dell's first career was a hitch in the Navy from 1936 to 1956. He was stationed at Pearl Harbor during the attack of December 7, 1941, at which time his own ship was sunk. After retiring from Grossmont College, he moved to Alabama, where he and his wife Charlotte published a monthly newsletter, The Spanish Cove Informer .
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The Grapevine is a free newsletter for retirees of Cuyamaca and Grossmont Colleges Co-editors: Pat Higgins, Tom Scanlan Desktop Production and Layout: Sirkka Huovila Photography: John Dixon Biblio-Files Column: Tom Scanlan 

The Grapevine is published in November, April and July. Deadline for submission is the 10th of the month before publication. To submit news items, articles or photographs of interest to GCCCD retirees, mail them to: The Grapevine Grossmont College 8800 Grossmont College Drive El Cajon, CA 92020 

GROSSMONT COLLEGE 8800 Grossmont College Drive El Cajon, CA 92020-1799 Phone: (619) 465-1700 GOVERNING BOARD MEMBERS: Richard Alexander Dr. Timothy Caruthers Rebecca Clark Gary Kendrick Ronald Kraft STUDENT MEMBERS: Michelle Vicari David Parsons

 
web-authored June 22, 1998 by Tom Scanlan    
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