Susan Faessel, a resident of Anaheim since 1960, is an alumnae who serves as a shining example to today’s Colonists of  a citizen who gives back to her community. Susan has worked with numerous service organizations, especially those helping spread literacy and improving library services for Anaheim citizens.

In 2002, Faessel was appointed to the Anaheim Library Board, serving as its chair for six of the seven years. Concurrently she served on the Santiago Library System Board as a representative for Anaheim.  She’s past president of the State of California Association of Library Trustees and Commissioners. During that time, Susan was involved in the planning and execution of a number of Anaheim Library capital projects.

Faessel also worked to establish relationships between various Anaheim City Departments that resulted in enhance Library facilities and operations, such as the final funding component of Anaheim’s second Bookmobile. She also belongs to Friends of Anaheim Library.

A graduate of CSU Fullerton, Susan received her Master’s in Educational Technology from Azusa Pacific University in 2001. She retired in 2009 from her 34 year career with the Orange Unified School District as a Speech Pathologist. In July 2011, Susan was appointed to the Anaheim Public Utilities Board and currently serves as its vice president.

Susan continues serving on boards and commissions for the City of Anaheim, including the Anaheim Historical Society, Mother Colony Household and Anaheim Museum. She is a founding member of Anaheim’s MuZeo Cultural Arts and History Center.

She is also an active member of the Kiwanis Club of Greater Anaheim, serving as the club’s president for two terms. The club has honored her with its Rookie of the Year and the Kiwanis Formula Award.

In addition, Susan is a member of Anaheim Ebell Club and Anaheim Beautiful. Along with her husband, Stephen, Susan supports Anaheim Fall Festival, Flag Day, Paint Your Heart Out and Anaheim Beautiful programs such as Green Ribbon Week, Neighborhood Clean Up, Memorial Tree and Holiday Lights Tour.

Faessel also participates on the Anaheim Redevelopment Downtown Design Task Force, the oversight committee of the Anaheim Redevelopment Agency. She was involved in planning Founders’ Park.  In June 2009, she served for two years on the Anaheim Community Service Board that studies and makes Federal Community Development Block Grant funding recommendations to the City Council for various Anaheim not-for-profit social services programs.

She was honored to have her name placed at the Canyon Power Plant and at the Anaheim Water Recycling Demonstration Facility. She was also honored by the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce Women’s Division with its Annie Accolade Award.  For her tireless service to the Anaheim Community, Susan and her husband are being honored as the 2016 Cypress College Foundation American Citizens of the Year.

In his book Echoes of Anaheim – Memories of a Once-Upon-A-Time Small Town,  Danny Dunton provides an oral history in published form of Anaheim in the 1940s. Published in 2010, the book is endorsed by the Anaheim Historical Society as “relevant to the preservation of local history.”

Born and raised in Anaheim in the 1940s, he lived at 610 South Clementine Street and attended all Anaheim schools. He now resides Meadows Place, Texas, located 18 miles south of Houston.

One of the nation’s most renowned Western Frontier artists, Larry Zabel’s work has been displayed in many prestigious venues, including the White House, the Smithsonian and the Pentagon. His art also appears in his self-published book Trails Less Traveled.

He has won numerous regional and national awards and has served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts. After leaving Anaheim High, he attended Long Beach State and worked as a commercial artist for more than 30 years before moving to Montana and beginning his career in Frontier artistry.

Daniel Edwin “Dan” Barker, born June 25, 1949, is an atheist activist who served as a Christian preacher and musician for 19 years but left Christianity in 1984. He has written numerous articles for Freethought Today, an American freethought newspaper, and is the author of several books including Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist and his latest, GOD: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction.

Barker received a degree in religion from Azusa Pacific University and was ordained to the ministry by the Standard Community Church, California, in 1975. He served as associate pastor at a Religious Society of Friends (Quaker) church, an Assembly of God, and an independent Charismatic church. To this day, he receives royalties from his popular children’s Christian musicals, Mary Had a Little Lamb (1977) and His Fleece Was White as Snow (1978), both published by Manna Music. A successful musician, Barker has composed over 200 songs that have been published or recorded.

In 1984 he announced to his friends that he was an atheist, and appeared on AM Chicago (hosted by Oprah Winfrey) later that year on a show about “kicking the religion habit.” Barker met his wife when both were guests on the show. They began dating six months later and married in 1987. They have a daughter, Sabrina Delata.

He is a member of the Lenni Lenape (Delaware Indian) Tribe of Native Americans, and in 1991 edited and published Paradise Remembered, a collection of his grandfather’s stories as a Lenape boy in Indian Territory.

He is the current co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, an American Freethought organization that promotes the separation of church and state. He is also co-founder and a board member of The Clergy Project.

Barker, along with his wife, host a weekly one hour radio program Freethought Radio that is nationally broadcast. He has appeared on dozens of national television and radio programs to discuss and debate issues related to atheism and the separation of state and church. He has discussed nativity scenes on government property, the campaign against a Mother Teresa stamp, prayer in public schools, and has appeared on Phil Donahue, Hannity & Colmes, Maury Povich, Good Morning America, Sally Jessy Raphael, among other shows. He was featured in a New York Times article about the growing of atheism in Southern states, has given addresses on his own de-conversion across the United States, and has participated in more than 120 debates around the world.

Books

Maybe Yes, Maybe No: A Guide for Young Skeptics. (1990)

Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist. (1992)

Just Pretend (2002)

Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America’s Leading Atheists (2008)

The Good Atheist: Living a Purpose-Filled Life Without God (2011)

Life Driven Purpose: How an Atheist Finds Meaning (2015)

Music

Mary Had a Little Lamb (1977)

His Fleece Was White as Snow (1978)

Music Albums

Night at Nakoma (2008)

Friendly Neighborhood Atheist (2002)

Beware of Dogma (2004)

Adrift On A Star (2013)