Countdown to 2000: Schools

Danette Goulet

The 1940s were a tremendous time of growth for schools in the area. Not

only were schools in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa popping at the seems

with students, but Orange Coast Community College was born.

During the mid-1940s, Supt. Everett Rea announced record enrollments year

after year, and in 1946 voters faced the ever-present question of a

school bond.

“Enrollment of the Costa Mesa Elementary School has swelled to the 1,100

mark,” Rea was quoted as saying in the Costa Mesa Globe Herald, as he

advocated a bond issue to expand the schools.

In January 1947, just a year after the community voted to expand Costa

Mesa and Newport Harbor high schools, it approved another measure to

establish a community college.

Founding president Dr. Basil H. Peterson was hired by trustees on July

28, 1947.

During the next 13 months, Peterson would assemble the administration and

a faculty of 33 professors and teachers.

His first hires were that of Dr. James Thornton as OCC’s first vice

president, and William F. Kimes as assistant superintendent in charge of

business.

In January 1948, OCC was given 243 acres of land, which was once the

Santa Ana Army Air Base, by the War Assets Administration in Washington,

D.C.

Fran Alber was the carpenter hired to transform the base into a college.

When he arrived, it was surrounded on three sides by wild barley and bean

fields, he said.

“For the next eight months, I worked 10 to 12 hours per day or more,

seven days a week, including holidays,” Albers said. “I had a job to do

-- to get the campus ready for 500 new students.”

The first student body, 533 students, reported for class on Sept 13,

1948.

The first student body president, Bill Turner, was one of those students.

“We could live in an OCC campus apartment for just $28 a month,” recalled

Turner, now 71 and living in retirement in Costa Mesa. “We were poor, but

that was a wonderful incentive.”

Sources:

Costa Mesa Globe Herald.

Orange Coast College spokesman Jim Carnett.

“50 Golden Years: The Story of Newport Beach,” Samuel A. Meyer.