Alumnus of the Year 2014
The Orland Alumni Association is proud to honor Fred as the 2013 Alumnus of the Year! Additional recognition:
Founder and former president of the OAA.
Inducted into the Glenn County Educator’s Hall of Fame.
Named Teacher of the Year in 1986.
Life member of the Orland Kiwanis Club.
Member of the California Retired Teachers Association.
Life member of the National Education Association.
Elected trustee for the Butte-Glenn Community College District.
The Road Not Taken (Article submitted by Fred Perez in 2014)
My class graduated in May 1952. In July of that year I enrolled at Heald’s Business College in Oakland in an accounting degree program and lived in a mortuary in order to finance my education. Can you imagine a 17 year old leaving home and being on his own? Well, I did.
Let’s go back to 1908, Father arrived in New York from Spain, worked his way to Sacramento; Mother and family arrived in NY in 1911 and arrived in Sacramento via train. My mother and father married in February of 1912. My father had met my grandfather on a couple of trips to Cuba and later met in Sacramento. My father was an adventurer and was looking for a better way of life. California appeared to be his place to settle.
All six of us, I’m the youngest, graduated from Orland High School. Education was top priority in our family. Spanish will be spoken at home, you learn English at school. My brothers and sisters have to be grateful that we had such caring parents providing us the best that they were able to provide with what little they had. We were taught the difference between right and wrong, respect for your teachers, authority, etc.
My brother Pedro in Idaho has told me stories about his younger years and how he wanted to quit high school and work earning his way. My father said no way. Finish high school and then do what you want. As a soldier during World War II he was grateful, because many of the soldiers were not able to read and write. He wrote letters for them and answered them.
As I look back, realizing that few knew how to read and write in the early 1900’s especially those from small villages where my parents originated from. My grandparents were not able to read or write Spanish but my parents could.
I was determined to obtain an education at all costs.
As I mentioned previously, I lived in a mortuary and stayed for two years. I worked for a CPA typing income tax and did janitorial for Heald’s College. Graduated in 1954, returned home and worked that summer in maintenance at Chico State. Enrolled for the semester, rent free, doing janitorial work at the dorms.
In order to receive the GI Bill I enlisted with three others in the US Air Force. After completing three and a half years, I enrolled once again at Chico State majoring in Spanish. My goal was to travel and study in Spain for a year, meet family and perfect my Spanish language skills. I met family, lived in my parents’ villages and studied at the University of Seville for a year.
After completing studies, was offered a job in Oroville teaching 7th and 8th grade students Spanish. Three years later was offered a job at Orland High, returning to my alma mater. Over the years involved in student activities, an active Spanish Club, and involved in the local community, being a member of Kiwanis for over 45 years.
Mr. J.A. Russell approached me in 1969 and told me that he wanted me to help him start the Orland Alumni Association. The class of ’68 left money to do so. In 1970 we chartered the Orland Alumni Association – my being elected President of which I served for two years. At the same time a committee formed which was to be called the Orland Community Scholarship Committee of which I originally sat on that Committee.
In conclusion I would like to finish with Robert Frost’s:
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence;
Two roads diverged in a wood, and
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
