Chapman’s ‘Ella’ Jazz Festival Also a Tribute to Couple’s Generosity

When you fork over a million dollars from your own pocket to help out your favorite school, you ought to have some say in how the whole thing gets celebrated.

So Chapman University in Orange asked Dick and Hyla Bertea of Newport Beach if there was anything special they would like to see happen to commemorate such a generous gift to its music school. Yes, they said--but not anything to toot their own trumpet. They wanted something unique that the public could enjoy.

The final decision: to honor the work of Ella Fitzgerald, who died last year.

The Berteas, you see, are huge jazz fans. Hyla was spending weekend nights at the old Lighthouse jazz club in Hermosa Beach long before she married her husband 34 years ago. Dick has been listening to jazz since childhood. And Ella Fitzgerald was his favorite; he heard her in concert many times.

The result of their interest is a “Tribute to Ella Fitzgerald” jazz festival on campus Sunday. Most of it is free and will take place on the lawn in front of Memorial Hall, beginning at 1 p.m. and running the rest of the afternoon. At 5 p.m., a life-sized bust of Ella will be unveiled just outside the music building, Bertea Hall. (The couple have made many other endowments to the campus. One led to the creation of its jazz program.)

The bust depicts Ella in full song at the height of her career, pearls and earrings swinging as she sways to the music.

And it is marvelous. I had a chance at a sneak peek when I did a column on the sculptor, Miriam Lodder of Corona del Mar. Chapman President James Doti had asked her to do a bust of George Washington for the campus. He loved that one so much that he asked her to sculpt Ella. Lodder listened to Ella jazz records to help her capture the mood and adapted the bust in part from an old album cover.

The Berteas have yet to see the bust. But Dick Bertea says he can hardly wait.

“She is the first lady of song in America,” he said. “I just think it’s great that we have so many young people today who have the same interest in jazz I had as a young man.”

Dick made his fortune in the aerospace industry. He is not a Chapman graduate, nor were any of the four Bertea children. He was recruited to join the Chapman board in the 1960s and remains a life trustee.

“I’ve just always thought Chapman was a great asset for Orange County, particularly with what it does in music,” he said.

William Hall, Chapman music dean, calls the Berteas’ contributions to the university staggering.

“Really,” he said, “I just can’t say enough about them. It takes people with vision to understand that art needs support in every way.”

The jazz festival ends with performances at 6 p.m. in Memorial Hall (tickets $10-$25).

Sunny Times: Education writer Jay Matthews says in Newsweek magazine this week that comparing schools is a tough task: “Nearly every professional educator will tell you that rating one school against another is unscientific, dangerous and mean.”

Nevertheless, in a new book called “Class Struggle,” Matthews plunges ahead anyway. He comes up with his own Top 100 schools in the U.S. that are willing to open the tougher courses to a wider number of students. Among them: three from Orange County.

Too many schools, Matthews theorizes, are not willing to take a chance on less advanced students in tough courses, for fear that they cannot make it or that these students will drain the energy of already overworked teachers. But Matthews believes schools with a more open attitude are better serving their communities. His choices are basically based on those schools that offer the highest ratio of advanced placement tests compared to class size.

University High in Irvine ranks 17th on Matthews’ scale, Sunny Hills High of Fullerton 19th and Fountain Valley High School is rated 61st. All were delighted to be listed.

“What it says is, we have an attitude at our school that every child has the ability to learn,” University Principal Diana Schmelzer said.

Junior in Rank? People who attend or work for community colleges hate the stigma sometimes attached to their schools by others. Rita Cepeda, a vice chancellor for California Community Colleges, related this story at an education conference in Irvine that I attended on Friday:

An educator from a school in the state system questioned whether its efforts were propelling it upward, toward the UC system level, or downward, to the community college level.

Cepeda’s audience was all community college educators, so the gasp was audible.

“And here we were the co-sponsor of the meeting where he said that,” Cepeda said. “You can tell I’m still upset. Hardly any family in California has not been affected in some way by our community college system.”

Among the statistics she listed, this one surprised me: More than 500,000 residents are taking non-credit adult courses through a California community college.

Wrap-Up: If you love nice surprises, here’s one I got a kick from . . .

Chapman University student Jessica McKinney-Morales of Santa Ana had a big night Tuesday: She was introducing the Rev. Martin Luther King III, son of the slain civil rights champion, who was speaking on campus. This was special for McKinney-Morales, a junior, because she had chaired the Distinguished Lecturer committee that had brought him there.

But first there were a few comments from Chapman President Doti, who was introducing McKinney-Morales. By way of background, he mentioned that she was a finalist for a prestigious $30,000 Truman Foundation scholarship, given to just 75 students nationwide. Pausing for effect, the president added: By the way, he just found out today--she won.

A shocked McKinney-Morales said she had never even dreamed of making it to college: “My parents cleaned toilets and worked in factories, places that don’t even require literacy. My family never discussed college.” Now she’s on her way to a doctorate in social ecology.

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Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711, or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com