FOUNTAIN VALLEY : Noted Poet Leaves City a Better Place

Poet Clara Peck Schultz has had a love for words since she was a child. She began writing prose, plays and stories almost from the time she could read.

“I wrote because I couldn’t help it--just like I breathe,” said Schultz, 72.

As a child, she said, “I was told I went about the house chanting in rhyme.”

Because of her accomplishments as a writer--her poems have been published in numerous anthologies and translated into 10 languages--Schultz was named Fountain Valley’s “poet laureate” in 1973 by then-mayor and now-Councilman George B. Scott. For the occasion, she wrote a poem about Fountain Valley.

“She came up with the poem for the city and everybody concurred it was great,” Scott said.

Mayor Laurann Cook said Schultz’s honorary title “gave the city a little bit of class.”

But as with many good things, the relationship will end this month when Schultz moves from the city after 28 years. She is moving this week to Grand Junction, Colo., to be near one of her daughters.

Schultz, a mother of three who taught for 22 years, said she is leaving the city “with a pain in my heart. I have given my life to this community.”

“I have the highest regard for her,” Cook said. “It will be Fountain Valley’s loss and Colorado’s gain when she leaves.”

Schultz, an award-winning writer who has lectured, taught and presented poetry for adults and children, was recently recognized again by the City Council for her many contributions to the city.

“It speaks better of Fountain Valley than of Clara Schultz,” Schultz said of being honored. “It’s great to live in a city where they put an emphasis on people.”

Schultz, who has a doctorate degree in language arts education and an honorary doctorate of literature, has written “many thousands” of poems, has published several books of poems and her work has appeared in more than 100 anthologies.

Her poems, which she described as “full of music,” have been read by people all over the world.

Schultz said when people read or hear her poems recited, her hope is that they “enjoy them first.”

“The first reason for reading a poem is sheer enjoyment . . . because poetry is supposed to lift your heart and put wonder in your life.”

Schultz, who also writes short stories and inspirational and historical articles, has been involved in numerous civic and community activities over the years.

She is president of the Fountain Valley Writer’s Workshop, a post she has held for more than 20 years. Schultz also has been involved in the Fountain Valley Friends of the Library, the Fountain Valley Women’s Club and Fountain Valley Historical Society, and was nominated three times for the city’s Citizen of the Year award. She also serves on the local, state and national board of the National League of American Pen Women.

In Colorado, Schultz plans to be involved in civic and church activities. She will also continue her work with the International Laureates for Children, a nonprofit group she founded last year to promote world peace through music and writings performed by international composers, poets and authors.

“This will build for understanding, friendship and peace in the world by sending the work of the laureates, and the laureates, throughout the world,” she said.