Column: This aging Pirate worked with some fine people at OCC

The improbability seemed breathtaking.

Several weeks ago, my good friend of more than 30 years, Doug Bennett, called me. Doug is Orange Coast College’s gifted — no pun intended — foundation director.

He asked me if I’d be willing to sit for a video interview. The college is celebrating its 70th anniversary and is producing a retrospective. I told him I’d be delighted.

I enrolled as an OCC student in 1962, when the college was celebrating its 15th anniversary. I was hired as community relations director during its 25th anniversary year.

I chaired the planning committees for the 40th, 50th and 60th anniversaries. And now, OCC is observing No. 70.

Time flies when you’re having fun.

In preparation for the 50th — 1997-98 — former OCC public information director, and later journalism and history professor, Don Jacobs and I produced the 50th anniversary video.

We interviewed 24 former faculty, students and staff members on camera, wrote the script and cobbled together the video. We had great fun paring 20 hours of footage down to 20 minutes of video.

Going into that project the one person I was certain I wanted to interview was Thelma Harwood. She had been secretary to the college’s founding president and knew where all the bodies were buried.

That interview took place 22 years ago. I was in my 25th year as OCC’s director of community relations. Thelma was 82 and had retired 18 years earlier. Suffering from Parkinson’s disease, she lived in a care facility in Fountain Valley.

She was the first Parkinson’s sufferer I ever met. At the time, she’d been diagnosed for 16 years. Though virtually paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair, her approach to life was remarkably upbeat.

She, in fact, proved to be an inspiration to me. Little did I know that my own journey would closely track hers.

Thelma was secretary to OCC’s founding president, Basil Peterson, from 1951-64. Her last assignment was as secretary to then-District Chancellor Norman Watson. She was with the college for 27 years.

Thelma died in 1999 at 85. When I was hired as OCC’s PR director in 1971, Thelma scared me. As the chancellor’s secretary, she wielded considerable power.

But she was a dear lady.

At the time of my visit to her care facility in the spring of ’96, she was in the final stages of her battle with Parkinson’s.

Her room was immaculate and colored in pinks and purples. Paintings decorated the walls, and crocheted pillows and stuffed animals were everywhere.

She sat in her wheelchair, her head drooping to one side and her speech slurred, exuding an indomitable spirit. She told me about Parkinson’s. It turned out to be my primer.

My diagnosis came a decade later.

In the fall of 1996 she visited campus for an on-camera interview. She was enthusiastic and perky and gave a great interview. Her memory was spot-on.

Two weeks ago my mind hearkened back to that 1996 interview as I sat in front of a camera in a brightly lit studio. It was my turn to field a flurry of OCC questions.

The irony was rich and not lost on this aging Pirate.

As I responded to questions, Thelma’s courage seemed to lift me. I wanted to honor her memory.

Thelma retired from OCC and the Coast Community College District in 1978. I retired 30 years later. She was diagnosed with Parkinson’s two years after retiring. I’ve now had it for a dozen.

For Thelma, the disease advanced steadily and made a mess of her retirement. I’ve been luckier. She and her husband, Woody, had to scuttle travel plans.

“My life changed drastically,” she told me during the 50th anniversary interview. “Woody and I had planned to travel but because of my condition we were unable to do so. We had so many places we wanted to see.”

To the end, she carried with her warm memories of OCC.

“The crew that I worked with at Coast was the most wonderful — most loyal — group of people I’ve ever known,” she told me. “They enriched my life immensely.”

As she enriched mine.

JIM CARNETT, who lives in Costa Mesa, worked for Orange Coast College for 37 years.