Kingston Trio Helps Discovery Museum Net $25,000 : Discoveries

The Discovery Museum of Orange County was the site of a picnic fund-raiser Saturday night, highlighted by an alfresco after-dinner concert by the Kingston Trio. “Who’s that?” asked Bob Howard’s twentysomething children as he and his wife, Cleva, headed for the 11-acre museum compound in Santa Ana. Before your time, said Howard, a Newport Beach developer and museum board president. “Gosh, that made me feel old.” The Howards were among 300 guests who paid $75 each for a chance to bid on silent and live auction items, eat a barbecued chicken and warm berry cobbler dinner and sit back while the folk trio sang its vintage hits.

Memories

The casually dressed guests--many of whom became museum supporters through their children’s participation in educational programs and tours--got that distant, misty-eyed look when asked about the Kingston “Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley” Trio. Steve Gilbert, who poured free beer and wine under a trellis on the lawn, started snappin’ his fingers and tappin’ his toes during the Trio’s sound check. “Ain’t it hard, ain’t it hard, ain’t it hard-- great God! “ Gilbert sang along. “That’s worth the price of admission, just hearing the warm-up song,” he enthused. Dick Hoyal said he had been a Trio fan since high school. Ditto for event chairwoman Jo Corbett, whose husband, Bruce, outfitted himself for the party in knickers, argyle socks, seersucker jacket and a polka-dot bow tie. Pete Tyson, cruising the silent auction tables with his wife, Karen, had a Trio memory circa 1959. “I was studying business management at Arizona State,” he said, “and my fraternity brought them out for a concert. We sold 9,000 tickets, and paid them $10,000.”

Memories, Part II

Among the guests was Jan Kellogg, wife of the late Hiram Clay Kellogg III, whose grandfather designed and built the house that’s now home to the museum. The Kellogg House was moved from another location in Santa Ana several years ago and restored by a small army of museum volunteers. Gazing wistfully at the 1898 Victorian classical revival, Kellogg shook her head in amazement. “We used to visit (her husband’s) grandmother (in the house) when it was at 122 Orange St.,” she remembered. By the time the historic building was given to the museum in 1981, “it had been empty for years, and it was boarded up and vandalized. It was a mess,” said Kellogg, who now lives in Palos Verdes. “All the care and love put into it by the volunteers is just unbelievable.”

Money

With the help of underwriters C.J. Segerstrom and Sons, the Fieldstone Co., Fluor Daniel Inc. and Janet and Walkie Ray, the museum netted about $25,000 from its seventh annual “Picnic in the Park.” The money will be used to pay for hands-on historical tours conducted by museum staff and volunteers, Executive Director Karen Johnson said. Last year, Johnson said, more than 20,000 schoolchildren toured the museum and grounds.

Plans

While Johnson was thrilled with the cash infusion for ongoing programs, the big news around the museum these days is a proposed $35-million “major science center” to be built at the museum’s current address or a site with higher visibility and better freeway access. The project is the result of “a fair amount of research” that indicates “a declining number of kids interested in science and careers in science,” Johnson said. “We want to reverse that trend.”