DIANE OESTREICH, FUHS 1964, HISTORY OF FUHS

Diane Oestreich will be signing her book at the Fullerton Public Library on Saturday, July 23 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The book costs $20 plus tax. For more information email: diane@fullertonhshistory.com  or go to http://www.fullertonhshistory.com/

Click on this link to see a preview of the book:
http://www.fullertonhshistory.com/About_the_Book.html


Article in the Orange County Register:
Published: July 20, 2011 Updated: July 21, 2011 11:35 a.m.
The Indiana Jones of teacher librarians
After losing her job to budget cutbacks, teacher librarian continues to be a resource through history book
By YVETTE CABRERA, COLUMNIST
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER ycabrera@ocregister.com

A few summers ago, when Fullerton Union High School decided to make space for a new office by moving the school's archives, Diane Oestreich decided to do a little digging.
The school's librarian since 1994, Oestreich was keen to find a place where the archives could be properly preserved. Eventually, she stored the more than three dozen boxes in the library's office and workroom.
Diane Oestreich will be signing her book at the Fullerton Public Library on Saturday, July 23 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The book costs $20 plus tax. For more information email: diane@fullertonhshistory.com or go to www.fullertonhshistory.com
But as she explored each box, Oestreich realized she had a treasure on her hands.
Club scrapbooks from decades past; minutes from student body meetings; yearbooks; newspaper photographs and stories starting in 1913 -- and all collected under the stewardship of Oestreich's predecessors, a string of school librarians.
"There were so many wonderful things that made the history come alive," says Oestreich, who graduated Fullerton Union in 1964. "It was like a little treasure hunt."
It was also an opportune discovery for Oestreich.
Ten years ago she began researching and writing a history of her alma mater to complement a book covering the first 50 years of the school's history (A History of the Fullerton Union High School and Fullerton Junior College 1893-1943 by former district superintendent Louis E. Plummer).
Oestreich's book project, along with her efforts to digitize the school's newspaper archives and the creation of a DVD about the school's history, was Oestreich's contribution to what she hoped would become a living resource for students, staff and alumni. She has spent her summers and off-time researching and interviewing those connected with the school's history.
"I just felt I wanted to leave a legacy," says Oestreich, a resident of Orange who grew up mostly in Fullerton.
But then Oestreich became a victim of school budget cuts.
Districts across Orange County have had to make painful decisions about what programs to pare down, and the unfortunate consequence for students has been the elimination or suspension of teacher librarian positions – the heart of the school library.
In Oestreich's case, her district informed her in the spring of 2010 that her job had been suspended. She then applied for one of two librarian positions the district created to oversee its six regular high schools. But Oestreich says she was told she wouldn't be "a good fit."
She was told this after working 16 years as a teacher librarian at FUHS, and more than two decades as a school librarian.
She was eventually reassigned to teach English, which Oestreich, a former German teacher, had never taught. But after doing the job last fall, and after a stint as a substitute teacher in the spring, Oestreich decided to opt for early retirement.
We rarely hear of educators like Oestreich because they typically work behind the scenes.
Yet teacher librarians are that crucial link between students and the wealth of knowledge that school libraries can provide.
"The information or technology - whatever it was - I was there to help them. I was their advocate," says Oestreich of her students.
"...I was like a coach to help them move forward and get their job finished."
So even though it took years to complete the book, Oestreich doggedly pursued her goal, using her own money and donations from alumni (like Newport Beach resident Penny (Hineman) McManigal, who was Fullerton Union's student body president in 1954) to publish it.
Last month, she received the first copy of "The History of Fullerton Union High School 1893-2011." In it, she details events that unfolded while she was on campus, such as the 1996 discovery of a long rumored fresco on the west wall of the school's Plummer Auditorium (the fresco had been painted over in late 1930s after complaints from the community), as well as highlights of notable alumni.
Russell Chambers, for example, was a 1932 graduate of Fullerton Union before a military career that inspired the naming of the destroyer escort, the USS Chambers. His story is chronicled by Oestreich. (Others who attended Fullerton Union include late baseball stars Walter Johnson and Arky Vaughn, guitar inventor Leo Fender, President Richard Nixon, and legal powerhouse David Boies, among others.)
As Fullerton Union's librarian, Oestreich saw how the multi-media version of school history that she showed to students was an inspiration for class pride. She hopes her book will have a similar effect.
Like her predecessors at Fullerton Union, she's proven that when it comes to finding the real treasure in a school library you don't have to look beyond the librarian.
Contact the writer: 714-796-3649 or ycabrera@ocregister.com , or twitter.com/ycabreraocr

From 1939 to 1997 this mural on the west wall of Plummer Auditorium was covered in layers of paint. Commissioned as a Public Works of Art project during the Great Depression and completed by Charles Kassler and an assistant, the fresco was controversial during its time. Fullerton Union High School's board of trustees decided to cover up the fresco with paint in 1939. In 1996, FUHS guidance counselor Cheri Hansen organized a study to test whether the mural was under the layers of paint and experts confirmed that the fresco was there. In 1997, the district launched a community restoration project, which revealed a fresco depicting early California and Orange County history, featuring Orange County settler Jose Antonio Yorba.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF DIANE OESTREICH

Former Fullerton Union High School teacher librarian Diane Oestreich with her recently published book "The History of Fullerton Union High School 1893-2011."
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF DIANE OESTREICH