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More than 600 friends of former Pleasanton school board president Juanita Haugen joined her family Saturday in a vibrant, music-filled memorial service to the nationally-known education leader, who died March 5.
Speakers included Pleasanton school Superintendent John Casey; Jane Gallucci, president of the National School Boards Association, and Kerry Clegg, the association’s past president and now its regional director. Tim Hunt, former associate publisher of the Tri-Valley Herald, also spoke about Juanita Haugen and her late husband Gil, who died in 1990, who Hunt and his family had known since the 1970s when the Haugens moved to Pleasanton.
The Rev. Ronal Culmer, rector of St. Clare’s Episcopal Church, where Mrs. Haugen was a member, remembered her as a friend and devoted parishioner who was passionate about her religion and community service.
Her four daughters, Heather Rizzoli, Heidi Peart, Hilary Haugen and Holly Morello, remember their mother in a series of one-liners, called “What Mom Taught Us.”
The memorial service was held at St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic Church, which was able to accommodate the large crowd.
It started after the family was driven to the church from Mrs. Haugen’s Vintage Hills neighborhood with a police motorcycle escort and a procession that filled the entryway to the church and the sidewalk outside. The pageantry included choirs from St. Clare’s and Foothill High School, a brass band and some of Mrs. Haugen’s favorite hymns that the congregation sang, including “Amazing Grace” and “Shall we gather at the river.” At the conclusion, led by the band and choirs, everyone sang another of her favorites: “When the Saints go marching in.”
A reception followed at Hart Middle School, where the Pleasanton school district and the California School Employees Association provided tables, chairs and kitchen and parking lot monitors. Caterers included Kit Little, Joanie Fields, Skip Hinsley of Girasole Grill, Wendy Kirkup and students from Village, Foothill and Dublin high schools.
Mrs. Haugen was first elected to the old Amador Valley Joint Union High School District board in 1979. Following the school district unification in 1988, she continued her service with the new board, and was the longest serving board member at the time of her death. During her many years of service, she also was a member of a number of state, regional and national school organizations that helped develop curriculum and standards for public schools.
Besides her four daughters, she is survived by their husbands Christopher Rizzoli, Bruce Peart and Mark Morello, and grandson Giovanni Sebastian Morello, who was born last Jan. 5. Daughter Hilary is engaged to be married in July to Jeffrey Dito of San Francisco.
Those wishing to make donations in honor of Mrs. Haugen may still do so to the organizations she supported: St. Clare’s Episcopal Church, 3350 Hopyard Road, Pleasanton, CA 94588; University of Southern California East Bay Alumni Club Scholarship Fund, c/o Chris Anderson, Treas., PO BOX 300, Orinda, CA 94563; Juanita Haugen Community of Character Scholarship, care of Pleasanton Partnerships in Education Foundation (PPIE), 333 Division St., Pleasanton, CA 94566.
