Memorial Bench to Honor Longtime Fullerton Librarian Catherine Gordon

Fullerton Friends of the Library will honorthe late Catherine Gordon, longtime Fullerton librarian, when the group dedicates a redwoodbench placed just outside the front door of the public library.

“I think it’s lovely, a very nice thing for them to do,” said Betty Hergesheimer, daughter of the honoree. “I think she would be honored, and I’m very pleased to see that.”

A memorial plaque will be placed on the wall next to the bench, which is used by patrons waiting for the library to open. Librarian spokeswoman Judy Rohr said Catherine Gordon “was a much beloved woman at the library, and people have many fond memories of her.”

Mrs. Gordon, who worked 22 years as a Fullerton librarian, died in 1986.

Dedication of the bench will be at noon on May 13, during the annual spring luncheon of the Friends of the Library.

Anaheim Hills resident Dick Torre, president of the Torwest Cos., specialist in business mergers and acquisitions, has been named president of the City of Hope’s Professions and Finance Associates, the hospital’s principal fund-raising group in Orange County. Members are accountants, attorneys, bankers and other professionals who raise funds for the research and treatment facility in Duarte.

Professional communicator Debra Conkey, of the Santa Ana firm of Conkey Communications, won overall outstanding achievement and feature writing awards from the International Assn. of Business Communicators, an organization for managers, writers, editors and others in the industrial and organizational communications field.

In the same competition, Laura Min, an account executive for Costa Mesa-based Paine & Associates, won two awards of excellence, one for news writing on the challenges of senior housing. The firm won a total of five awards.

Rabbis David Jessel of Mission Viejo and Haim Asa of Fullerton will receive honorary doctor of divinity degrees from Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles on Monday in recognition of their longtime efforts for Jewish scholarship and learning.

“The award recognizes their contributions to Judaism and the Jewish people during the past quarter of a century as well as their distinguished service to the rabbinate,” college President Rabbi Alfred Gottschalk said.

Jessel’s congregation is Temple Eilat in Mission Viejo, and Asa is the spiritual leader at Temple Beth Tikvah in Fullerton.

Irvine High School senior Todd Lewis has been appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis and will report to plebe camp in July. Lewis, a varsity swimmer and water polo player, band member and Boy Scout, has a 4.0 grade point average.

Gary George, 31, who sustained severe head injuries during a mugging incident in 1982, was named Handicapped Person of the Year by the Western Region Insurance Rehabilitation Study Group at a ceremony at the Newport Beach Marriott. The Long Beach resident was given $500 in recognition “of his courage and perseverance in overcoming his disability.”

Dawn Didion of Dana Point, a registered nurse with a bachelor’s degree in health care administration and a master’s degree in business organization management, has been named administrator of Freedom Village Healthcare Center.

The village, a life-care retirement community in El Toro, is completing construction of a building to establish a separate health-care facility with 52 beds for skilled nursing care and 66 rooms for assisted-living care.

Garden Grove Elks Lodge No. 1952, which defeated 10 other lodges in the district membership initiation ritual team competition, will compete for state honors on May 18 in San Diego against 18 other district winners. Ritual team members are Art Barnett, Norris Wallace, Rod Butler, Neil Baker, Kevin O’Shaughnessy, Bob Crist and Eugene Scott. Chet Oliver will serve as the member candidate.

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