Long-time educator Minard Duncan will join 60 other outstanding Colonists in the Anaheim High Hall of Fame when he is inducted March 4 at a reception in the school’s library. Duncan was selected for his decades of work as an educator and for his role as an activist who has made a significant impact in his community.

Duncan has been highly involved in the North Orange County community for more than 58 years, serving children in the Fullerton School District. An educator who never left a child behind even before it was a national mandate, Duncan created programs that increased test scores and parent involvement and also founded a free children’s dental clinic with the help of Anaheim dentist Dr. Harris Done.

A home-town boy who attended Lincoln Elementary and Fremont Junior High before attending Anaheim, Duncan went on to Santa Ana College where he earned an A.A. degree in 1952. His education was interrupted when he joined the U.S. Army in 1952 to serve in Korea through 1954. As soon as he returned home he enrolled in CSU Long Beach and earned his B.A. in elementary education in 1957. Shortly thereafter, he began his 41-year career with the Fullerton School District, where he taught elementary school for eight years and served as a principal for 33 years.

During that time he earned his master’s degree from CSU Long Beach in elementary education with an administrative emphasis, as well as a master’s in governance from the California School Board Association. He retired from the District in 1998, but continued working in education for CSU Fullerton until 2002, when he was elected to the Fullerton School District Board of Trustees, a position he held for eight years.

Duncan made a major impact in the lives of the children he served by recruiting the help of local business owners. When he took on the principalship of a low performing school, he recruited 50 small businesses to provide incentives to increase parent participation which, in turn, helped increase test scores from a 22 to 80 percent pass rate.

Another example of his town-and-gown efforts included starting the first free dental clinic in the City of Fullerton for children without dental insurance. He still is involved by securing funding for the clinic.

Duncan has received numerous awards for his work in education and the community, including the PTA Golden Oak Award, the highest PTA award presented; the Orange County Department of Education Outstanding Contribution to Education Award; the CSU Fullerton Honored Educator Award; and the Spirit of Volunteerism Award from the Volunteer Center of Orange County and the Orange County Register and the Leon Owens Foundation Making a Difference Together Award for Education Services.

Still an active community member, Duncan continues to participate in numerous organizations, including serving on the board of Pathways of Hope (formerly known as the Fullerton Interfaith Emergency Service); the Rotary Club of Fullerton; and on the board of the Museum of Teaching and Learning (MOTAL), an organization whose purpose is to educate people about education with traveling exhibits on subjects including the Mendez vs. Westminster School District court case that consequently desegregated schools in the United States

In his spare time, Duncan enjoys golf, reading, water volleyball, camping and travel and, of course, spending time with his family, including son Phillip Duncan, daughter and son-in-law Denise and Richard Godhardt, three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

A founding member of the Anaheim High School Alumni Association, Duncan is also busy supporting his alma mater by participating in alumni events and serving as one of his class leaders who have helped plan reunions for several decades.

Click here to view photos from his March 4, 2016 AHS Hall of Fame Induction.

Longtime Anaheim Union High School District educator and noted author Louise Hitt Booth left a legacy of literature upon her passing at age 95 in 2012.

Mrs. Booth taught English, history, drama and speech at Anaheim High between 1949 and 1969. She then joined the AUHS District to develop and teach advanced placement classes and a highly successful team teaching program. Mrs. Booth retired from the District in 1977 to begin a second career writing on a variety of historical topics. A graduate of Indiana State University and the University of Southern California, Louise established herself as an author with many documentary works, including One To Twenty-Eight, an in depth history of the AUHS District from 1898 through 1980.

In addition to this chronicle, Louise published six historical monographs, three of them on the Civil War.  In 2001, Fulfilling A Dream – The History of Chapman University, was published. Louise devoted many months to the research and writing of the book. A remarkable document, it continues to serve as the most comprehensive, as well as the most interesting story of Chapman’s history. The book won the 61st Annual Western Book Exhibition (2002) Award sponsored annually by the L.A.-based Rounce and Coffin Club. This award was for books judged to be the best examples of printing, design, and publishing in the western United States.

But her first love was teaching, which tremendously benefitted the children of Anaheim. She inspired many of her students to pursue higher educations and to achieve all that they could be, always instilling in them a love of the English language, literature and poetry. As the school’s drama teacher, she wrote and directed many of the plays.

Louise returned to Anaheim High in 1998 to serve on the school’s Centennial Committee, working tirelessly to create displays of photographs and facts on the founding, construction and operation of the school’s 100-year history. Louise also chaired the Orange County Historical Society Centennial Committee, working four years in planning a large array of public events. The profits funded publication of The Centennial Bibliography of Orange County, California. As managing editor, Louise received the Donald F. Pflueger Award for distinguished research and writing on local history of Southern California.

Louise was a complete and vital partner to her husband Don, a longtime professor of economics at Chapman University. The couple hosted Chapman’s famous Artist-Lecture Series. She also served for a number of years on the archives committee of the Leatherby Libraries.

For her dedication as an Anaheim High teacher and her literary legacy, Louise Booth was inducted into the Anaheim High School Hall of Fame March 4, 2016.