IRVINE : Gaining Perspective on Honored Citizen

When Irvine’s new Citizen of the Year wants to gain some perspective about his life, all he has to do is take a look at the city he has lived and worked in for about 20 years.

“I still get a tremendous thrill when I drive around and see the villages and communities that I played a role in designing and building,” said Keith Greer, who as an Irvine Co. senior vice president is in charge of planning and constructing residential developments.

“I’ve been in the position of helping build (portions of the city) I live in,” he said. “I have seen communities go from the drawing board to real communities that people live in.”

Greer, 47, was named Citizen of the Year this week not only for his work with the Irvine Co., but also for the many hours he volunteers to help a variety of charitable organizations. The award was presented by the city and the Irvine Chamber of Commerce.

“My feeling and my wife’s feeling is that we owe so much,” said Greer, who also serves as president of the Irvine Co.’s community housing division. “We’ve been very fortunate . . . and we feel a responsibility to give back to the community,”

Greer and his wife, Elaine, moved to Irvine in 1974 and have lived in Woodbridge village ever since the development opened in 1976. He is a graduate of Cal State Fullerton and now serves on the university’s advisory board.

Greer has worked with the Lakeside Homeowners Assn., the Woodbridge Village Assn., the Irvine Children Fund, the Junior Olympics and the Irvine Boys’ and Girls’ Club, where he and his wife spearheaded a successful fund-raising drive last year.

Greer served as president of the Irvine Child Care Project, where he and others raised funds for parents with temporary financial problems to use for child care while they looked for work.

The Chamber of Commerce named two runners-up for the award:

* Ruth Fassett, a 25-year resident who is active with the Irvine Historical Society, Irvine Temporary Housing, St. Mark Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach and the Upper Newport Bay Naturalists.

* William Hsiang, an Irvine dentist who has worked with the Coalition for Community Ethics and the Safe Community Task Force.