State Organization Places Orange Library Volunteers at the Top of the Shelf

Friends of the Orange Public Library was selected from 450 similar organizations statewide to receive the prestigious 1987 CALTAC Friends Award.

Given by the California Assn. of Library Trustees and Commissioners, it is the only statewide recognition given for library volunteer work. Group officers Nora Jacob and George Gorham accepted the award on behalf of the the 52 volunteer members.

In winning the award, CALTAC noted that the group had volunteered 3,285 hours of service in the last 1 1/2 years by helping the library’s homeward-bound service, renovating an old garage for a book center and raising funds for the library.

Bertha and Murray Durlester of Anaheim celebrated their 68th wedding anniversary Christmas Day and will be honored Sunday when 50 friends and relatives honor him on his 90th birthday and his wife for her 86th birthday, which will be Feb. 22. Then the couple will take their monthly bus trip to Las Vegas.

“The Night of the Solstice,” a fantasy for young adults that takes place in Villa Park, is the first published book by Lisa Smith, 29, a 1976 graduate of Villa Park High School and kindergarten teacher in Concord, Contra Costa County.

“In Orange County at least,” said her mother, Kathryn Smith, who still lives in Villa Park, “the teachers are doing their job. She received great encouragement from them.”

She noted that the newly published book incorporates actual Villa Park landmarks such as the schools, Irvine Park, a library and a shopping center.

Charlotte Mousel of Tustin will be honored by the California Federation of Republican Women at its meeting Jan. 15 in Ontario to recognize her “as our most famous member,” said June Wallin, president. “It’s really to let her know how great we think she is.”

The award is the first of three that will be given this year as part of Wallin’s program to honor women of achievement to coincide with her theme of “Leadership Is the Key to Membership.”

Mousel, the second vice president of the National Federation of Republican Women, is also secretary of the California Republican Party, was once a county planning commissioner and is a former court reporter, executive secretary and office manager.

Sonora High School senior Tamra Knizel, 17, of La Habra, winner of the Miss Drill Team USA Northern California, will compete in March for the next level of competition at Redondo Union High School in Redondo Beach. Besides a drill routine, contestants were graded on a speech. Her talk was titled “A Little Girl’s Dream.”

Police Sgt. Joe Klein and payroll technician Carol Neuman were named employees of the year, and real property agent Terry Swindle and finance accounting manager Glenn Steinbrink shared the manager of the year honor, for the City of Fullerton.

Orange County chefs Fred Mensinga, Irwin Dorsch and Maku Yaichi won first place in team ice sculpting at the Pikes Peak Culinary Arts Show and International Ice Sculpting Contest in Colorado Springs.

They used chain saws and chisels to turn six blocks of ice into a sculpture that depicted three elegant carrousel horses, each with a cherub riding on its back. The three are chefs at the Anaheim Hilton & Towers.

Walter P. Blass, of Laguna Beach, chief executive officer of Shearson Lehman Mortgage Corp. in Newport Beach, has been named 1987-88 chairman of the $400,000 fund-raising drive of the Orange County/Inland Empire chapter of Junior Achievement, which teaches the basics of business and the free-enterprise system.

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