Public memorial will celebrate life of local educator

It is easy to trace the line of Paul Berger’s efforts to help

students and improve educational standards.

You could go back to 1963, when Berger--who passed away last month

at 82--received his doctorate in educational administration from UC

Berkeley. You could go to his founding of Fountain Valley High. You

could fast forward to 1987, when he began his four-term run on the

Coast Community College District board of trustees. He was several

months into that last term when he died from complications of lung

cancer.

Along that line, Berger earned many friends and admirers among the

students he taught and the teachers he worked with.

“I have never met anyone who knows more about how life works and

knows what motivates people than Paul,” Estancia High Principal Tom

Antal, who worked with Berger at Fountain Valley, told the Pilot. “He

had the ability to say profound statements in three words.”

He also had the ability to cut to the chase when it came to

handling budgets, a key part of the relatively quiet workings of a

college district. Still, though quiet, those decisions have affected

thousands of students in Newport-Mesa who attended either Orange

Coast College or Golden West College in Huntington Beach.

Both schools’ track records for sending students on to four-year

colleges, especially OCC’s, is a measure of the success of Berger’s

efforts.

Another step in the line of Berger’s endeavors will come at a

public memorial of his life at Fountain Valley High School. It is

scheduled for 4 p.m. on Feb. 28.

Don’t be tardy if you plan to attend.