Woman Who Rescued Man in Crash Wins Heroism Award

Her efforts to pull an unconscious driver from a burning car earned Tustin resident Pat Deger, 38, a $2,000 heroism award from Pacific Bell. The Theodore N. Vail award is presented to employees who have performed heroic deeds on or off the job. The award is named for the first president of AT&T.;

Deger, a service representative, was on vacation in December, 1988 at her mother’s home in Pawcatuck, Conn., and had been getting ready for bed around midnight when she heard a car hit a nearby power pole. She dashed out in the 5-degree air and pulled the car driver to safety.

“I was ready for bed and had on my nightgown and a pair of socks,” she said. “I didn’t realize what I was wearing or how cold it was until my adrenaline stopped pumping.”

Police credited her quick thinking with saving the man’s life and for preventing serious burns in the crash.

Colleen Hinker of Anaheim has received the Luther Halsey Gulick Award, the highest honor for Camp Fire volunteers. Hinker has been a Camp Fire club leader for 10 years.

The Orange County Council of Camp Fire Inc. also presented awards to Michael Harris, Orange; Dirk Wakeham, Irvine; Michael Michalske, Newport Beach; Helen Walley, Santa Ana; John Tujague, Tustin; Halina Osinski, El Toro; Keri Barnett, Huntington Beach, and Andrea Karabenick, Long Beach.

Haiyen Hoang, a senior at Ocean View High School, Huntington Beach, has received the $2,500 Ardis Claire Know Scholarship. Haiyen was chosen as the Huntington Beach Union High School District student “who best exemplifies the qualities of scholarship and community service.”

Haiyen will attend Yale University in the fall.

The award is named after the Orange County community activist and Huntington Beach resident who died of cancer in 1989.

Newport Beach resident Mary Petropoulos, a sociology instructor at Los Angeles Southwest College, is the recipient of the school’s Outstanding Faculty Award.

Brent Austin, a senior at El Modena High School in Orange, has received an appointment to the Air Force Academy and is scheduled to report there June 27.

Bonnie Sharp, Columbus Tustin Middle School English teacher, has been named Teacher of the Year. Sharp will represent the Tustin Unified School District in the 1992 Orange County Teacher of the Year program. She has worked for the district 20 years, 13 of them at Columbus.

Huntington Harbour residents Katherine and Edward Morton, volunteers at Golden West College in Huntington Beach, have been named 1991 Outstanding Citizens at the campus. It is the first time a husband-and-wife team has been selected for the award.

Melody Hause of Cypress, a supervisor at the Pitney Bowes Credit Corp.’s Costa Mesa regional headquarters, was presented $1,000 in the company’s Best Customer Care Campaign.

Jolene Felkner, 14, a freshman at Esperanza High School in Yorba Linda, has been named Miss Teen California USA. Jolene will represent the state at the national Miss Teen USA pageant Aug. 1 in Biloxi, Miss.

Jolene, the youngest contestant ever to win the state title, competed against 49 other girls. She received a $30,000 prize package that included vacation trips to Hawaii, Florida and Alaska.

Jolene is a lifelong 4.0 grade-point student and a volunteer for the Orange County Burn Assn. and the March of Dimes.

Shirley Pucelli of Stanton, Krista Jenson of Garden Grove, and Peggy Pery of Laguna Beach have received $625 Alice Paone Nursing Scholarships from St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, where the three are nurses. Paone was a chief nursing officer at the hospital before her death in 1986. The three will use the money to further their educations.

Jane Wood of Fountain Valley was named Outstanding Graduate Student at Cal State Long Beach.

Robert Bein, William Frost & Associates of Irvine is the winner of the Grand Award of Excellence from the California Council of Civil Engineering and Land Surveyors for its work on a South County pipeline project.

The project was directed by Henry Miedema, a company vice president. It consists of about 26 miles of pipelines, a pumping station and a reservoir for the Santa Margarita and Metropolitan Water districts.

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