UCI Student Activities Director Will Take Time Off for a Semester at Sea

Randy Lewis, UC Irvine’s director of student activities, has been named assistant to the administrative dean for the University of Pittsburgh’s Semester at Sea program.

The itinerary for the semester voyage includes Europe and Asia, with stops in Russia and China. Academic credit is granted to students for the global program, according to Lewis, who will return to UC Irvine in the spring.

The January-through-April voyage drew 450 students from colleges and universities from throughout the United States, along with faculty and administrative staff that represents a variety of higher educational institutions.

For the third time in 14 years, Shirley Commons Long of Huntington Beach has been named Realtor of the Year by the Huntington Beach/Fountain Valley Board of Realtors. She is the only person to receive the recognition three times.

Placentia Recreation Supervisor Kathi Wahl, a past president of the Orange County Municipal Athletic Assn. and recipient of its 1987 Outstanding Achievement Award, was named 1988 city of Placentia Employee of the Year.

The 1988 Harold Hirsch Award for Outstanding Ski Writing was presented to Newport Beach resident David Lansing by the United States Ski Writers Assn.

The award was presented to Lansing, an editor with Sunset Magazine, by former Canadian Olympian downhill skier Ken Read in a recent awards program in Los Angeles. The award came in the form of a silver-plated antique typewriter.

Lansing was honored for his coverage of the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary and other skiing stories. He was selected over 33 others.

Irvine resident Nikolaos J. Kourassis was selected as the 1988 outstanding student in engineering for Saddleback College by the College of Fellows of the Institute for the Advancement of Engineering.

He will receive a $100 scholarship and a plaque at an awards dinner Jan. 27 in Pasadena.

Kourassis, a native of Greece, works as a helicopter technician in Long Beach and serves as a tutor in math, physics and chemistry at Saddleback.

Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo named students Cyndi O’Connor, Keith Ameele, Alice Hada, Jeff Ferrell, Kerry Knopf and Jenny Gunther as winners of their school essay contest entitled “What It Means To Be Healthy.” Each received an engraved plaque.

Michael Baldridge’s daring attempt to apprehend a hit-and-run driver, which included a high-speed ride in the back of the suspect’s truck, earned him Villa Nova restaurant’s Outstanding Citizen Award.

Irvine resident Baldridge was able to telephone police with a license plate number. Police later arrested the suspect, who was held on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and is awaiting arraignment. Police said the suspect, who struck a passing motorcyclist, was fleeing from a fast-food store to avoid paying an $11 food bill.

The Newport Beach restaurant frequently gives awards to people in recognition of their good deeds.

Orange resident Bernhardt C. Hertz, first vice president and vice president of development for the Arthritis Foundation/Southern California chapter, was named Outstanding Development Executive of the Year at a recent national meeting in Atlanta of the Arthritis Foundation.

Hertz was recognized for his achievements in fund raising and was credited for helping the Southland group to become the leading fund-raising chapter of the national organization.

Hertz also serves on the board of directors of the National Society of Fund-raising Executives/Los Angeles chapter.