A Roast-and-Toast Send-Off for Fuller

Five guests gave speeches laced with sarcasm. Others tossed quips like confetti. But the man they came to badger--community activist and volunteer extraordinaire Ted Fuller--took it all with a smile.

The occasion was a roast and farewell party for Fuller, senior vice president and Orange County branch manager of the New York-based insurance brokerage firm, Johnson & Higgins.

A California native who has lived for seven years in Newport Beach with his wife, Joan, and their five children, Fuller is moving his crew to Philadelphia next week, where he will become an executive vice president with Johnson & Higgins.

His departure also leaves vacancies on the boards of 27 Orange County civic groups, including the Orange County YMCA Federation and the United Way of Orange County. Fuller also served as secretary for the Orange County Business Committee for the Arts and chairman of the Newport Harbor Area Chamber of Commerce.

So it was no surprise that about 270 friends and associates gathered Friday at the Anaheim Marriott for the evening affair.

For anyone who wonders how a man can work full time, raise five children and participate in 27 community organizations, attorney Tom Malcolm, who worked with Fuller on the YMCA board, provided an answer: “He’s cloned.”

Malcolm joked that he wasn’t worried about Fuller’s move to Philly “because there will still be four or five Ted clones running around Orange County. Whenever I see Ted, I always check his back to see if there’s any wiring hanging out.”

Looking tanned and relaxed, Fuller--who had no loose wiring in evidence--mingled with guests at the cocktail hour and called his upcoming move “a great adventure for the whole family. We’re all really up for it. Of course, Ariane, our 15-year-old, had been planning to go to Princeton before; now she’s talking about going to USC.”

Joan Fuller, for whom the news of their move came as “a total shock,” said she is looking forward to living “in a city with so much culture and history.”

But she added that they have thought about the people and community they are leaving behind. “Ted told me, ‘Even when I retire, it won’t be as good as this (party),” she said. “This community is so small, and he’s been so involved--you just can’t be that involved in a place like Philadelphia.”

Man of Year Award

After dining on duck consomme, tossed salad, lamb chops and chocolate mousse cake with Grand Marnier sauce, guests turned their attention to roasters David Carroll, campaign chairman for the Orange County chapter of United Way; Allan Shaffer, president of the YMCA of Orange County; Dolph Seidensticker, vice president of Johnson & Higgins in Costa Mesa; Tom Fuentes, Orange County Republican party chairman, and local entertainer Jim Villers.

Fuller’s tan turned crimson several times during the 10-minute speeches, as he heard himself called everything from short to cheap and pushy.

When all was said and done, Clyde Gossert, chairman of the board of the YMCA of Orange County, presented Fuller with the YMCA’s 1987 Man of the Year award.

Also attending the ceremony were honorary chairman Tom Nielsen, vice chairman of the Irvine Co., and his wife, Marilyn; state Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach), and her husband, Garth, and Orange County Supervisor Don R. Roth and his wife, Jackie.