Remembering Donald Hongisto, president of Merritt College and other Peralta campuses

"Don moved to San Francisco in 1942 with his parents and younger brother Richard (Dick). He often joked that leaving the frigid cold of northern Minnesota and moving to beautiful San Francisco was one of the best things his parents ever did. Don was an academic student, skipping half a grade after moving to San Francisco. In 1950, he graduated from Polytechnic High School, where he was a yell leader and an editor of the high school newspaper and yearbook."

"After high school, he also worked for the San Francisco Chronicle in the advertising department, where he helped answer advice letters sent to Abigail Dear Abby Van Buren. He served nearly four years in the Air Force before earning a BA at San Francisco State, where he met his future wife, Norma Cole. Norma was completing her teaching credential when they met in an English class. They married on Valentine's Day, 1959, in Reno, Nevada."

"Don earned his MA in English at UC Berkeley and immediately started work on a Ph.D. in Eighteenth Century Literature. He soon realized that he had little interest in the doctorate research. Instead, Don felt passionately about teaching in a college classroom. So, soon after graduation, he joined the English teaching staff at Merritt College in Oakland. One of the highlights of his career was his 1972 teachin"

Donald Ray Hongisto was born Sept. 3, 1932, in Bovey, Minnesota, and moved to San Francisco in 1942 with his parents and younger brother. He skipped half a grade and graduated from Polytechnic High School in 1950, where he served as a yell leader and edited the school newspaper and yearbook. He worked in the San Francisco Chronicle advertising department, served nearly four years in the Air Force, and earned a BA at San Francisco State, where he met and later married Norma Cole. The couple settled in Berkeley in 1963 and raised three children. He earned an MA in English at UC Berkeley, began Ph.D. work but chose college teaching, joining the English faculty at Merritt College in Oakland. He died on Oct. 29 at age 93 in Albany.

Read at www.berkeleyside.org