Thursday, December 9, 2010

Our district: once were prayerless*

Walther in 2008 ~
     Earlier today, I came across an old article about the SOCCCD (then called the “Saddleback Community College District”). It appeared eighteen years ago, almost to the day. It reveals that the “prayer” issue is an old one in our district, and that, at one point, reason prevailed!

Los Angeles Times ~ December 10, 1992

Without a Prayer:

Jerry Hicks and Dennis McLellan and Steven Herbert

     Trustee Harriett S. Walther has finally won her fight to cut the invocation at meetings of the Saddleback Community College District, a 25-year-old tradition. Walther has long worried about the potential illegality of mixing prayer with government meetings. . . . "We should err on the side of caution in dealing with the Constitution, which we have been sworn to uphold," she says. The vote was 4 to 3 on Monday—after that meeting's opening prayer.


     At the time, I do believe that the board comprised Iris Swanson (who died in 1993, replaced by Teddi Lorch), Joan Hueter, Marcia Milchiker, John Williams, Steve Frogue, Lee Rhodes, and Harriett Walther.

     *An allusion to the book (and movie) Once Were Warriors

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Harriett had spunk.

Roy Bauer said...

Hmmmm. I wonder if Walther's "no prayer" policy was ever actually rescinded?

Anonymous said...

Harriett has passed away. She was one of the good ones.

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/latimes/obituary.aspx?n=harriett-s-walther&pid=198140738

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...