3 County Residents to Be Among Recipients of Religious Heritage Awards

Religious Heritage of America has named philanthropist Athalie Clarke of Newport Beach, author Lee Ezell of Laguna Hills and Rabbi Henri Front of Westminster as recipients of its 1988 California Community Awards.

Those three and others selected from throughout the state were recognized for demonstrating what the group calls the highest ideal of America’s religious heritage. They will be honored Oct. 10 with national award winners at the group’s 38th annual National Awards program at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove.

National winners include Pastor Charles R. Swindoll of the Fullerton First Evangelical Free Church, Clergyman of the Year; Minister Raymond E. Beckering of the Crystal Cathedral, Gold Medal Award, and Mr. and Mrs. Vern Dragt of Fullerton, who will receive the Business and Professional Award.

Religious Heritage is an interfaith association based in St. Louis and selects people who daily apply their faith to act as role models.

Laguna Hills resident Richard A. Hales, a 1969 honors graduate of the Art Center College of Design, was elected president of the school’s Alumni Assn. The center, with campuses in Pasadena and Switzerland, is recognized internationally as a leading college of design. Hales is an independent design consultant and an instructor in the UC Irvine Extension program.

Dr. William Bunney, professor and chair of psychiatry and human behavior at UC Irvine, gave the presidential address at the 16th Congress of the Collegium International Neuro-psychopharmacologicum in Munich, West Germany.

Bunney, a Laguna Beach resident, is concluding a two-year term as president of the 1,000-member group, which studies drugs used to treat diseases of the central nervous system and the brain.

Cypress resident John D. Acampora has been elected governor of the 3,016-member Pacific Southeast District of Optimist International. The district is composed of 74 Optimist clubs in Orange, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Inyo, Kern and Riverside counties.

Currently a member of the Optimist Club of Cerritos, Acampora has been president of the Optimist Club of Uptown Long Beach and once served as lieutenant governor and secretary-treasurer of the district.

Optimist International has nearly 4,000 clubs and 165,000 members across North America and has the motto “Friend of Youth.”

Dexter Elliott of San Juan Capistrano, an executive of a leading volume buying club, has been named the 1988 Humanitarian of the Year by the Consumer Electronics and Appliance Industry chapter of the City of Hope.

Cal State Fullerton business student Corinne Suveges was named winner of the business department’s Spring ’88 Business Writing Portfolio contest. Michael Meagher placed second and Alison Saylor was third. More than 1,000 entries were received.

Eight county police officers are attending the 87th class of the USC delinquency control institute, the nation’s oldest training program in juvenile justice that is designed to prevent and control juvenile delinquency.

Attending the six-week course that ends Oct. 14 are Thomas Correll and Charles Granados, both of Anaheim; Michael McNeilly of Buena Park; Verne King of Fountain Valley; William Fleming and Richard McCutcheon, both of Mission Viejo; Jack Nanigian of Orange, and Holly Van Der Meer of Los Alamitos.

Nineteen teen-agers were honored by Fullerton for their 200-hour participation in the city’s summer recreation program at five different sites. Besides being honored by the City Council, they also received cash awards.

Lisa Cuthbert, Jennifer Rexroth, Rachel Cochrane, Kim Ford, Danielle Bird, Scott Denton and Melissa Clor each received $400 as second-year participants.

Yogesh Shroff, Jennifer Leight, Rachel Crespin, Chad Murray, David Byrd, May Dimasin, Daniel Vreeken, Mike Emery, Royce Liao, Don Gray, Christine Campbell and Brian McHorney each received $300 as first-year participants.