Costa Mesa Pilot Is Winner of Earhart Memorial Scholarship

An Amelia Earhart memorial scholarship for advanced-training flight instructors was presented to Pamela C. Hengsteler of Costa Mesa by the Ninety-Nines, an international organization of female pilots.

Hengsteler obtained her private pilot’s license in 1985 after taking a ground course at Orange Coast College.

The scholarship will help her add a flight instructor rating to the instrument and commercial ones she already has. Earhart was the first president of Ninety-Nines. In 1932, she became the first woman to fly the Atlantic solo.

Automobile salesman John Fitzgerald of Fountain Valley was named Business Person of the Year by the Fountain Valley Chamber of Commerce. This is the first time the chamber has selected a car salesman for the award, according to Marilyn Denison, chamber executive director.

Fitzgerald’s achievement was also recognized by the Southern California Assn. of Chambers of Commerce Executives. Fitzgerald, who has a master’s degree in broadcasting from UCLA, works at Connell Chevrolet in Costa Mesa.

Laguna Hills resident Albert Wong, president of AMKLY Systems Inc., an Irvine computer firm, was named Orange Coast College Outstanding Citizen of 1990. Wong, a member of the South Coast Symphony board of directors, attended Orange Coast College after moving to the United States from Hong Kong in 1969.

Dr. Frank L. Meyskens Jr., director of the UC Irvine Cancer Center and chief of Hematology/Oncology there, has been presented the Year 2000 Award by the National Cancer Institute in recognition of his support of its goal to reduce the cancer death rate by 50% by the year 2000.

Meyskens is a 1972 graduate of the UC San Francisco School of Medicine.

He is the author of more than 200 scientific articles, president of the International Assn. of Vitamin and Nutritional Oncology and chairman of the Cancer Prevention and Control committees of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the Southwest Oncology Group.

Michael Hayde, president of Drug Use Is Life Abuse, a nonprofit group whose goal is to increase public awareness about the perils of drug abuse in Orange County, received a $7,100 donation from Pacific Bell of Orange. The money will be used to buy a computer system to link schools.

Capistrano Valley senior Anna McKay received a $500 academic scholarship from the Capistrano Valley High School Scholarship Fund Assn., through a grant from Home Savings of America. McKay also received a $200 grant from the International Spanish Institute of Ensenada for a week’s study there. McKay plans to attend UCLA, where she will continue her Spanish and Latin American studies.

Dr. Robert Freeman, UC Irvine professor of obstetrics and gynecology, has been named senior vice president of the 109-bed Memorial Women’s Hospital at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center. Freeman is a director of the women’s hospital. Freeman is said to be one of the world’s experts in interpreting fetal heart tracings.