Local News In Brief : Costa Mesa : OCC Names Four to Alumni Hall of Fame

Orange Coast College announced the names of four new members of the community college’s Alumni Hall of Fame.

They are Will D. Gillett, an associate professor of computer science at Washington University in St. Louis; Franklyn L. Hruza, a professor of urban affairs and public administration at the University of Puget Sound in Washington state; Patricia A. Krone, an Orange County community activist, and Susanne S. Shaw, an Orange County Municipal Court judge.

Orange Coast annually names distinguished former students as choices for its Alumni Hall of Fame. Those chosen have permanent plaques in the college’s library.

This year’s award ceremony will be held Sept. 16 at 5 p.m. in Orange Coast College’s Fine Arts Hall. The ceremony will be followed by a reception.

College officials said Gillett, who has been a professor at Washington University since 1983, graduated from Orange Coast in 1965. He earned his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Illinois, and he was a member of the computer science faculty at that university for 11 years. The author of several textbooks, Gillett now is conducting research in image understanding and language translation.

Hruza, who has been a professor at the University of Puget Sound for 15 years, was Orange Coast College’s first student body president in 1948, according to college officials. He received his Ph.D. in urban planning from the University of Washington. He was a senior planner for the Central Planning Council for Eugene, Ore., for five years and taught at the University of Washington for five years.

Krone, who was graduated from Orange Coast in 1968, has been with Pacific Bell for 37 years. She is vice-chair of the Orange County Chamber of Commerce and chairs the Orange County Community Relations Council. A resident of Newport Beach, Krone is a member of and former chair of the city’s Civil Service Commission. She also is a board member of the Orange County Conference of Christians and Jews, and a founding sponsor of the Orange County Minority Business Council.

Shaw, who lives in Capistrano Beach and attended Orange Coast in 1965, earned her law degree in 1972 from the California Western School of Law in San Diego. She was an Orange County deputy district attorney from 1972 through 1984 and was appointed by Dist. Atty. Cecil Hicks to head the county’s first rape task force. In 1984, she was elected a judge for the Harbor Municipal Court. She was named “Judge of the Year” by the Orange County Narcotic Officers in 1985-86.