* Paula Menkin; League of Women Voters Leader

Paula Menkin, 82, educator and League of Women Voters veteran. Menkin was active in the league beginning in the late 1940s, serving as president of the Los Angeles chapter and vice president of the California State League of Women Voters during the 1950s. She developed a program to train discussion leaders, writing a manual that sold more than 50,000 copies. Through the 1950s and ‘60s she led training workshops for community groups such as the Girl Scouts, the Junior League, the Roman Catholic archdiocese and B’Nai B’rith. Menkin also was interested in adult education. In the 1970s she devised a workshop offered through UCLA Extension called the Learning Lounge, which she described as “a nonschool for adult learners.” The class helped curious adults develop a framework for gaining the knowledge they wanted, whether it was how to travel as a single person, learn more about solar heating or build a social network. She was a past president of UCLA’s PLATO (Perpetual Learning and Teaching Organization) Society, one of the nation’s first retiree learning associations. On Saturday at her West Los Angeles home.