Santa Monica College’s ‘Father Figure’ Plans to Close Book on 36-Year Career

When the soft-spoken, silver-haired dean of student services at Santa Monica College retires this month, many believe an era of firsts will come to a close.

Alfred T. Quinn’s 36-year career as an educator dates back to a time when qualified blacks could not get jobs as teachers in Santa Monica, to a time when parents seeking to inspire their children with dreams of a better life had few role models.

First Black, Tenured Teacher

Quinn, whose academic career started in 1952 at Garfield Elementary School, was the first black, tenured teacher hired in the 110-year history of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. In 1964, after completing his doctorate in sociology at UCLA, he became the first black professor hired by Santa Monica College.

“He is a father figure,” Peggy Lyons, Santa Monica-Malibu school board president, said. “He has been very influential in Santa Monica for a long time.”

Over the years, he has accumulated numerous awards and honors, including Santa Monica teacher of the year. He not only enjoys his role as mentor, but Quinn, 65, says he pursues it as if he’s on a mission.

“I feel good about what I have been able to accomplish,” he said. “I have no regrets and there is nothing I would like to do over again. I just want to go on from here. I don’t even regret the negative experiences I have had in my life. I just want to go on.”

Quinn said some of those experiences actually fueled his motivation. In 1972, Quinn and his wife, Silvia Dorothy, lost their only child, Jill Rene, 14, who was murdered. Jill Rene had run away more than a month before her body was found in a rugged canyon not far from their Malibu home. She had been shot in the chest. The case was never solved.

“It made me realize that all of us are vulnerable to social problems regardless of our status in life,” Quinn said. “It was pretty rough after she died. My wife was not happy in Malibu, so we moved to Santa Monica.”

Robert Boswell, a retired school principal and longtime friend of the Quinns said scars from the tragedy remain.

Involved in Civic Matters

“The marks are still there,” he said. “They are still hurt, but they have carried it well, and they have not dwelled on it. They realized that they had to do something, so they became involved in civic matters.”

Quinn served as chairman of the Santa Monica Housing and Parks and Recreation commissions, chaired the Action Committee on Community Relations and was on the boards of directors of the Boys Club, the YMCA, the Salvation Army, Rotary International and the local chapter of National Conference of Christians and Jews.

Quinn is the son of the Rev. A.K. Quinn, who brought his family to Santa Monica 52 years ago when he became minister of Santa Monica’s First African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Quinn’s role of educator had its beginnings about 36 years ago on the playground of Garfield Elementary School, where he worked as the director of recreation while he was an undergraduate at UCLA.

One of the youngsters he met on the schoolyard was A.D. Williams, who is now a special education teacher at Olympic Continuation High School in Santa Monica. “Our parents would send us to the playground because they knew he was there,” Williams said. “When we went to the playground, whether we were playing football or doing square dancing, he taught us to be competitive. He would tell us that we could do anything anybody else did, but to do it with flash, a little style.

“He showed us that we could move out of our present environment to dream, to say we could do a little more,” William said.

Quinn himself moved on. From Garfield, he went to Lincoln Junior High School and then to Santa Monica College.

Scholarship Help

“He was responsible for me getting a scholarship at Washington State University, said TV producer John Forbes, 46. “I had just finished Santa Monica College. I knew my parents did not have enough money for me to go on, so I was planning on going to work.

“I told Dr. Quinn about my plans, and he told me to wait a few minutes while he made some phone calls. The next think I knew, he came back and told me that he had managed to get me a football scholarship.”

Dorothy Wardlaw, a telecommunications repair worker, credits Quinn with helping her survive the a hectic college career in the early ‘70s. “I was the first black student body president at Santa Monica College, and it was Dr. Quinn who encouraged me to run,” she said.

Wardlaw, Forbes and others organized a retirement party for Quinn last month and helped set up two $1,000-a-year scholarships in his name at the college.

“He called me his protegee,” Wardlaw said. “His advice and understanding helped me survive in college.”