Obituaries : Arleigh Wayne McConnell; Longtime Educator

Memorial services for retired Buena High School principal Arleigh Wayne McConnell are scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday at Community Presbyterian Church, 1555 Poli St.

McConnell died March 7 of a heart attack while watching a basketball game at the school gym. He was 76.

He was born Feb. 26, 1920, in Tripoli, Wis. He moved with his family to Fresno in 1927 and graduated from Dos Palos High School in 1938.

McConnell earned a bachelor’s degree at Fresno State before receiving his teaching credential at the University of California Berkeley.

He took his first teaching job in the small mountain community of Westwood, before moving to Ontario, where he taught at Chaffee High School.

McConnell received his master’s degree in education from Claremont Graduate School. In 1952, he became a counselor at Fontana Junior High and became principal three years later.

In 1959, he became principal at Anacapa Junior High in Ventura and two years later assumed the top administrative position at newly completed Buena High School.

He remained principal for 19 years, retiring in 1980. During a yearlong sabbatical in 1976, he received his PhD in education from the University of Southern California.

Beloved by students and faculty alike, McConnell’s photograph hangs over the entrance to the auditorium named in his honor. He traveled extensively and spent half of his retirement years at his second home in Sweet Home, Ore.

His hobbies included tennis, fishing, boating, photography, writing, speaking and stamp collecting. He attended the East Ventura Kiwanis Club and could be seen every Sunday sitting in the fifth row of pews at Community Presbyterian Church.

Survivors include his wife of 53 years, Mary, sons and daughters-in-law Kim and Chantale McConnell of Laguna Beach and Mark and Katherine McConnell of Kissimmee, Fla.; and five grandsons.

Memorial donations may be made to the A.W. McConnell Scholarship Fund, Buena High School, 5670 Telegraph Road, Ventura, CA 93001.

Arrangements are under the direction of Ted Mayer Funeral Home and Ivy Lawn Memorial Park, Ventura.