El Toro Man Honored for Helping to Save Life

The Orange County chapter of the American Red Cross has presented Ron Hoyman with its Certificate of Extraordinary Personal Action for his “immediate utilization of life-saving skills” when he helped to save the life of a 29-year-old motorcycle accident victim.

While watching television in his El Toro home last Aug. 5, Hoyman heard the squeal of brakes and a thud. He jumped over his fence and saw Rod Cunha, whose motorcycle had collided with a car, lying in the street, his right leg almost severed below the knee.

“I yelled to my wife, Julie, to call the 911 number,” Hoyman said, “and ran to see what I could do.

“I had been trained as a hospital corpsman in the Navy, and all my training immediately came back . . . . I knew the first thing I had to do was to stop the bleeding.”

Hoyman removed his shirt to make a tourniquet.

“My next door neighbor, Dick Kurth, broke off a limb from a tree to help make the tourniquet stronger,” he recalled. Paramedics later took Cunha by helicopter to UCI Medical Center.

“I visited him in the hospital once,” Hoyman said, “and I heard from a neighbor that he now has a prothesis and is working again on a full-time basis at his Newport Beach Mercedes Benz repair shop. As I understand it, he’s had a truly remarkable recovery.”

The American Red Cross certificate is awarded to individuals who use their first-aid knowledge and skills in saving or sustaining a life.

Hoyman is chief life underwriter with Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Co.’s individual division.

Richard Conley, a senior at La Habra High School, won an impromptu French speech contest and will travel to Paris for a two-month, all-expense-paid trip. Conley, a fourth-level French student, participated in the annual French-speaking competition at UC Irvine, sponsored by Laguna Beach’s Alliance Francaise (a group of French-born people dedicated to promoting the language and culture of France).

For the competition, the high school and first-level college French students were given their speech topic upon arrival, then were allowed one hour to prepare speeches in French. A panel of native French speakers served as judges. Conley was the overall winner out of 11 students in the impromptu category.

Pat Kubis, a writing instructor at Orange Coast College, and Bob Howland, a senior editor for Reston (a Prentice Hall subsidiary), received the first-place award in the Instructional Text category for a book they wrote on writing and publishing at the 1985 California Press Women’s Convention.

Their book, “The Complete Guide to Writing Fiction, Nonfiction and Publishing,” is a sort of writer’s encyclopedia, according to Kubis. Howland, who taught publishing at OCC, said he wanted to write a book that would teach a new writer all about the publishing business.

Western Fairs Assn., a professional trade organization for the fair industry, has elected Norb Bartosik president. Bartosik is general manager of the Orange County Fairgrounds and Exposition Center in Costa Mesa. He previously managed the Antelope Valley Fair in Lancaster for three years, and the DuQuoin State Fair, DuQuoin, Ill.