Memorial Set Monday for Longtime Educator

Friends and colleagues will gather for a memorial service Monday to remember Celia Dougherty, the principal of Taft Elementary School and a longtime member of the Anaheim City School District Board of Education.

Dougherty, 59, died at home here Wednesday after a long bout with cancer.

Dougherty, a language development specialist, was a teacher and administrator in the Orange Unified School District before becoming principal of Taft, the district’s largest elementary school, in 1990.

The classroom remained the “love of her life,” recalled Meliton Lopez, superintendent of the Anaheim City School District. “Her fellow teachers remember that she was the only one whom they had seen teach high school-age kids how to read when no one had succeeded with them before.”

Dougherty also impressed her colleagues at Taft with her respect for the written word and a determination to prepare the school for the 21st Century, said Lori Morgan, now acting principal.

“She was instrumental in our school in bringing in technology,” Morgan said. “She brought instructional televisions and computers into the classroom. She wanted us all on the information highway.”

The Orange Unified School District Board of Education also paid tribute to Dougherty at Thursday’s school board meeting.

Dougherty is survived by William Dougherty, her husband of 39 years; her daughter, Marie Bartsch of Anaheim; her son, Michael Dougherty of San Clemente; grandchildren Katrina, Eric and Heidi; brothers, Dennis Putnam of Warren, Ohio, and Charles Putnam of Wellsville, Ohio; and her mother, Dorothy Grace Putnam, also of Wellsville.

Morgan will speak about Dougherty at Monday’s memorial service, which begins at 3:30 p.m. at the Evangelical Free Church, 1350 E. Taft Ave., Orange.

Funeral services were held at Anaheim Cemetery Friday.