July 10, 2007

Departing city historian leaves hole
Volunteer acting as city historian moves on after six years of service.
By ANNIE BURRIS
STAFF WRTIER

Alicia Wentworth was Surf City's historian for 17 years and when she died in September of congestive heart failure, there was no one to take her place.

A month after her death, City Council directed staff to work with the city's Historic Resources Board to select a new historian. Last week, council voted to approve recommendations from the Historic Resources Board and to continue the search for the new historian position.

But who has been performing the duties of the city historian for the last year and what is taking so long were questions asked by councilmembers Cathy Green and Joe Carchio.

City Clerk Joan Flynn's response stunned the council – a volunteer.

Her name is Marie English and she had been volunteering two hours a week for the last six years with Wentworth. Since Wentworth's death, English unofficially picked up where she left off.

"She would slip in and do what was needed and quietly slip out," Flynn said. "She was faithful, diligent and so friendly."

Now English wants to move on.

English was a history major at Cal State Fullerton in the 1970s and has lived in Huntington Beach since 1966. She had always loved history and began working with Wentworth by helping clip newspaper articles and keeping files at the clerk's office.

After Wentworth became ill and needed to stay home, English provided the manpower behind the operation. English would take thousands of unidentified photos that belong to the city to Wentworth's home for her to identify.

When Wentworth died, English maintained the files, accepted and loaned photos, answered requests for city history and even wrote the job description of the new historian position.

Despite her love of history and working at the clerk's office, she does not plan to apply for the new city historian position because the job would be too permanent.

"I like to volunteer here, there and everywhere," English said. "But I told them I would never leave them in a lurch."

Now she plans to use her extra hours to volunteer at the Food Bank of Orange County.

But she'll never stop filing photos, even if it is to simply keep track of her family history in photo albums.

To apply for city historian, contact senior deputy city clerk Linda Suraci at 714-536-5210. Requirements including being a local resident for at least five years, knowledge of city history as demonstrated in a written essay and skills in writing, research, archiving and customer service. The application deadline is Aug. 6.