Distinguished alumni speak to MCHS students
The newly inducted Mira Costa distinguished alumni, from left to right, Elka Worner, John Jackson, Barbra Fontana, and, representing Walter Turk, Peggy O’Reilly Bibee. Photo by Ralf Stier
An educator, a journalist, a volleyball player, and a war hero were recognized as distinguished alumni at Mira Costa High School Sept. 21 in a daylong celebration that included a breakfast and luncheon, two student assemblies, and a cheer for the alums during halftime of the Mustang football game that night.
The alumni inducted into the MCHS Hall of Fame were John Jackson (Class of 1977), the beloved school administrator who just retired as principal of Manhattan Beach Middle School at the end of the last school year; Elka Worner (Class of 1980), a journalist who wrote for United Press International and now is a producer for Fox News; Barbra Fontana (Class of 1983), a pioneering volleyball player who later starred at Stanford, was on the first beach volleyball Olympic team, became a lawyer and then a top-ranked professional beach volleyball player; and Walter Turk (Class of 1953), who served 37 years in the U.S. Air Force and was awarded a Silver Star for gallantry after piloting a helicopter in the rescue of five downed men during the Vietnam War and who later became an aircraft designer.
In his prefatory remarks before a student assembly in the MCHS auditorium, Principal Ben Dale said that students could learn from the life stories of these distinguished alumni “that’s something I’d like to do, or that is somebody I’d like to be like.”
“Maybe,” said Dale, “it’s the start of your own story.”
But Dale also asked the students to note the unexpected twists and turns the lives of these distinguished alumni took and remembered his own experience in high school when he felt bad because he didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life.
“What you will hear from their stories today, is that you will figure it out,” Dale said. “…Because the power of becoming is a unique power of humankind.”
Chuck Currier, a Mira Costa alum (Class of 1972) who just retired after teaching history at the school for the three decades, said 50 years ago this month he was a freshman “making every effort to seem like I had it all together” when in reality he had no idea what he was going to do.
“We are all someone like that in high school,” Currier said.
Currier introduced the four alumni, beginning with Jackson, who was a principal at several Torrance schools before taking the helm of Manhattan Beach Middle School in 2005. Over the next decade, Jackson would help remake MBMS from an already strong school to a truly exceptional one, overseeing the implementation of a STEM program focused on female students, a Writer’s Workshop, and a school-wide iPad program. In 2015, he was recognized by the Association of California Administrators as Middle Grades Principal of the Year.
Jackson, ever the comedian, launched into a skit, pretending to be surprised he only had three minutes to speak, rather than 30, tossing notecards from the podium as he supposedly abbreviated his speech on the fly.
“Okay so here we go,” Jackson said, to laughter from the assembly. “…I just want to say I wasn’t always this cool. When I was in high school, I was pretty much a band geek.”
Jackson also touched on the theme of the day — that his career didn’t result from a plan he started out with in high school.
“I was in advertising for 13 years, and then teaching, and then administration,” he said. “I loved every minute of it. The only thing I wish I’d done differently is I really wish I’d taken my Spanish class a little more seriously.”
Fontana likewise testified to the unexpectedness of her life after Mira Costa. She was a four-year starter playing volleyball at Stanford University, where her teams made the NCAA Final Four each year. She started college as a pre-med major, then switched to political science to prepare herself for law school.
“And no, I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I grew up,” Fontana said. “Sure, I had some ideas, but my strengths and passions changed as I grew up.”
She attended Santa Clarita law school, where she discovered a passion for human rights law. “That was an amazing goal of mine; one that did not come to fruition,” she said.
Instead, after graduating from law school, she decided she wanted to stay in California and focus on paying off her student loans. Before preparing for the bar exam, “just for fun” she played in a professional beach volleyball tournament with a friend. She did well and realized she had an opportunity to do it for a living.
“Thinking I was only going to play professional volleyball for a few years, I kept my law profession going, but let’s face it — being a professional beach volleyball player is a lot more fun than being a lawyer,” Fontana said. “Well, that little decision led to an 18-year career, traveling the world, representing the United States in beach volleyball. I was able to go to the Olympics and made a nice living and even bought a house in Manhattan Beach, which was where I decided to live.”
Fontana, in fact, became among the first women to earn $1 million on the AVP tour. Along the way, she also got married and had two kids, and as her playing career wound down, still intended to pursue her legal career when another unexpected opportunity presented itself — coaching volleyball. Along with two other MCHS distinguished alums, Eric Fonoimoana, and Holly McPeak, she now owns her own business, a beach volleyball academy that helps young women pursue their own dreams.
“I love what I do,” she said. “And I may not be negotiating treaties, but I’m helping make the world a better place, in my own way. So you be you, and make life what you want it to be.”
She also praised her experience at Mira Costa.
“There is something for everyone here if you continue to search,” Fontana said. “High school doesn’t have to be the best thing ever, either. Take my advice: please, do not peak in high school.”
Turk was unable to attend the ceremonies, but his classmate Peggy O’Reilly Bibee gave some remarks on his behalf after speaking with him by phone.
“He still claims he is a Mustang today,” she said.
Turk, in fact, used “Mustang” as his call sign during his illustrious career as a USAF pilot. Turk flew 15 missions out of Thailand as a rescue crew commander and received 23 commendations, including the Silver Star and two Bronze Stars. MCHS alum Gary Hartzell, in a brief bio for the Hall of Fame inductions, wrote of Turk, “National service is a high calling; particularly distinguished when it involves saving the lives of others. Graduating in 1953, Walter Turk enlisted in the Air Force, launching a 37-year career defined by competence, innovation, and bravery.”
Worner, a journalist who has covered wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the O.J. Simpson trial, Tupac and Snoop Dogg, Steve Jobs and Silicon Valley, recalled that she was somewhat missing in action during high school — that is, she studied abroad in Argentina her junior year and returned to MCHS too late to go to prom, have a senior class photo taken, or even apply for colleges.
“I have to be honest with you, when I was here at Costa, I had no idea what I was going to do with my life,” she said.
She knew she liked English and World History, and her year abroad gave her a broader perspective on herself, other people, the world and her role in it. So without a clear plan, after graduating MCHS she attended school in Paris and discovered a love for journalism, then returned to do a masters program in print journalism at Boston University. Soon she was traveling to the far-flung corners of the world. She eventually transitioned to broadcast journalism. As a national and international producer for Fox News, Worner — who speaks five languages — did two tours covering the war in Afghanistan and reported on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Pointing to her daughter, current MCHS student Micah Worner, she said her decision to turn to business reporting had to do with motherhood.
“I kind of realized I can’t go to those places and get blown up,” Worner said. “I’d be a bad mom.”
But as it turned out, the career and life pivots she experienced — from print to broadcast, from international affairs to Silicon Valley, from Mira Costa to Argentina — ended up forming key and treasured aspects of her journey. She urged the students to be open to the unexpected and to travel far and wide.
“When I look back, I didn’t have a total career path set for myself,” Worner said. “I kind of was hoping to figure it out on my own, and that is what I want to convey to you — don’t worry, you are going to get to where you need to go. I want to say: do your own thing.”
Currier, in his opening remarks, recalled the life story written by Mira Costa alumnus Spiros “Steve” Mikelatos, who won Easy Reader’s annual writing contest in 2016 with an essay titled “Mira Costa.” In it, Mikelatos recounted how he enrolled at the campus in 1952 as a sophomore freshly arrived from the small Greek isle of Kefalonia. He barely spoke any English, but the entire campus took him under its wing and three years later he graduated to attend UCLA, where he’d eventually obtain his medical degree.
“If you think about it, we all come from islands,” Currier said. “And we venture out into the new world, which we call college, jobs, family, professions. This morning, we have the opportunity to hear from our people that have ventured off the island of Mira Costa and have returned to share their experiences with us. We owe them a huge thanks.”