An earthquake registering 5.5 on the Richter scale hit Australia's southeast coast at 3:28 PST on Wednesday, December 27, 1989. Newcastle, Australia's fifth largest city, suffered the majority of damage as 11 were known to have died. A city of 500,000, Newcastle has the largest concentration of heavy industry in the country.
Long-time resident J. Lyle Cunningham, Arcadia Citizen of the Year in 1983 and former president of the Arcadia Rotary Club, died on December 15th at Methodist Hospital of natural causes. He was 82. Mr. Cunningham was actively involved in the Arcadia Chamber of Commerce, the Arcadia Red Cross, the Church of the Good Shepherd and Arcadians for Arcadia.
First Avenue Junior High has been nominated as a 1990 California Distinguished School by the State Department of Education. First Avenue will be one of six schools in Los Angeles County to be so nominated.
Arcadia High School students accepted a third-place trophy for their performance in the 40th Los Angeles County Academic Decathlon. The third-place award is for the North Los Angeles County region. Countywide, Arcadia ranked ninth, compared with its fourth-place finish in 1988.
About 1500 people went to a hearing before the county Commission on School District Organization to discuss the possible transfer of Sierra Madre schools from the Pasadena Unified School District to the Arcadia Unified School District. The hearing is the first step in a long process that involves approval by the state Board of Education and local voters before an area can transfer to another school district.
The Arcadia City Council has grounded a proposal that would have allowed hang glider pilots to land their grafts on an unused LA County floodplain in the north end of the city. The 30 pilots of the Mr. Wilson Soaring Society need a landing site because the one used for the last 8 years in Pasadena has been developed with the new Pasadena Rose Court homes.
Arcadian Gary A. Lorden, professor of mathematics at the California Institute of Technology and a Caltech faculty member for 21 years, has been appointed the Institute's Vice President for Student Affairs.
Arcadia Methodist Hospital's new neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) will help to eliminate the added risk that may be caused by transferring delicate, premature, or sick babies to another hospital.
Susan Robertson, 48, a 4th grade teacher at Hugo Reid School for 26 years, died on July 4 after an 11-year battle with cancer. Mrs. Robertson graduated from USC in 1963 and worked for the Arcadia Unified School District, teaching at Hugo Reid School for her entire career.
Arcadia Methodist Hospital now utilizes DOCENT, a communications computer program which automatically enters test results and other reports into the hospital's main computer as soon as they are processed by the laboratory, thereby eliminating the need for a technician or lab secretary to manually enter the data.
After serving 17 years as a crossing guard, 83-year-old Harry Christianson is retiring. The children at Highland Oaks honored him with a special Mr. Chris Day.
About 40 members of the Arcadia Chinese Association protested in front of the Chinese Consulate General offices, condemning the Chinese government for killing unarmed students in Beijing.
The Chinese School in Arcadia, with about 85 children, is geared to teaching Chinese children about their cultural heritage, music history, language, customs and traditions. See hard copy in VF "Schools - Private."