NEWBURY PARK : Student Awarded $1,000 Scholarship

A Newbury Park college student has been awarded the Shane Kilgore Memorial Scholarship, named after a Navy firefighter from Simi Valley who was killed in 1991 after rescuing two shipmates trapped in a fire aboard the USS Midway.

Julie Spiker, 19, a sophomore at UC Santa Barbara, was named recipient of the award last week by the Ventura County Professional Firefighters’ Assn. The association, the union representing 375 members of the Ventura County Fire Department, makes the annual scholarship available to firefighters and their children from agencies throughout the county.

Spiker, the daughter of county Fire Department engineer John Spiker, was chosen from about a dozen applicants for the award. She will be presented the $1,000 scholarship in a ceremony at 2 p.m. Friday at Simi Valley City Hall.

“She is a straight-A student and was awarded the scholarship because of her academic record,” said Gillian Herson, administrator for the Camarillo-based firefighters’ union.

Kilgore’s parents, Ron and Jackie Marzola of Simi Valley, created the scholarship fund in 1990 after their son was killed in an explosion aboard the USS Midway. In June of that year, the aircraft carrier caught fire about 125 miles off the coast of Japan. Kilgore was killed while rescuing injured and exhausted firefighters battling the blaze.

He was 22, and his goal was to become a Ventura County firefighter, Herson said.

“When Shane died, people contributed money in his memory to his parents,” Herson said. “They met with us and decided to use the money to create a scholarship fund that would perpetuate Shane’s name and be something meaningful.”