Mae Pendleton Cowan, a longtime Los Angeles...

Mae Pendleton Cowan, a longtime Los Angeles area educator, is this year’s winner of the Pasadena NAACP Ruby McKnight Williams award.

“Education: a Powerful Equalizing Force” is the theme of the award dinner, the NAACP chapter’s major fund-raiser. The dinner, to be held Thursday, is named in honor of the former president of the Pasadena NAACP.

Lew Allen, director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and vice president of Caltech, is honorary chairman.

Cowan spent 24 years with the Los Angeles Unified School District as a teacher and administrator before forming her own consulting firm. As a consultant, she has worked with the city of Pasadena’s Summer Youth Employment Program, the Los Angeles Police Department and the Kellogg Foundation. She now is director of teacher education and credential programs at Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena.

The dinner will be at 7:30 p.m. at the Pasadena Hilton Hotel. Tickets, at $100 to $300 each, are available at the Pasadena NAACP office, 595 N. Lincoln Ave. For more information, call (818) 793-1293.

Bob House of Diamond Bar was grand champion of the 1990 Los Angeles County Fair Weber Barbecue Cook-off. House won in the pork category. Among the other winners: Fred Pacheco of Walnut, master’s category of the lamb division; Raylene Sausedo of San Dimas, lamb division, and Theresa McGrue and Barbara Martin, both of Altadena, poultry division.

Victor S. Huey has been appointed chief deputy of Asian Pacific affairs for state Sen. Charles M. Calderon (D-Montebello).

Huey, 38, was introduced to the Asian communities at a recent reception in Monterey Park.

Previously he was deputy executive director of the Chinatown Service Center in Los Angeles. The center is a social service agency, with programs in job training, counseling, and health. Huey also has been an assistant to Los Angeles council members Gloria Molina and Gilbert Lindsay.

Barbara Johansen took over this month as 41st president of the College Women’s Club of Pasadena.

The 150-member organization was established in 1921 to provide scholarships for women, and over the years has awarded $253,000 to 346 students. Since last fall, 17 students from colleges throughout the San Gabriel Valley were given $33,500.

Johansen has done volunteer work since she retired in 1981 from Anderson Typewriter Co., a family-owned business in Pasadena.

Phyllis Mueller, former Culver City housing manager, has been named Pasadena’s new housing administrator. Mueller, 47, will recommend housing policies, oversee affordable housing construction and administer grant programs.