Alumna, 91, Helps Mark College’s 75th

Black and red balloons soared into the hot sky. The Santa Ana High School Band struck up “When the Saints Go Marching In.” And 91-year-old Martha Ehlen, class of 1919, proudly raised the state flag in front of Rancho Santiago College’s Administration Building.

With this ceremony, the college on Wednesday morning launched a yearlong observance of its 75th anniversary.

Originally called Santa Ana Junior College, the institution was founded in 1915. It is the second oldest college in Orange County; Fullerton College, the oldest, opened in 1913.

For alumni and civic officials, the Rancho Santiago anniversary ceremony on Wednesday triggered a series of remembrances. World War II veterans recalled the bare, sparse look of the campus in the 1940s, when many structures were Quonset huts. College district Trustee Shirley Ralston recalled the ruckus among some alumni in the 1980s when the Board of Trustees changed the college’s name to Rancho Santiago to reflect a service area bigger than just the city of Santa Ana.

But none of the remembrances could outstrip Martha Ehlen’s recollection of how the infant campus looked in 1917, when she entered Santa Ana Junior College after graduating from Orange High School. The college was only two years old in 1917, but Ehlen said it was already a superior place to prepare for transfer to a four-year school.

“Absolutely wonderful instruction,” she said. “Every remembrance I have of Santa Ana Junior College is one of gratitude and happiness. I got such wonderful instruction here that when I transferred to (UC) Berkeley, I was able to graduate from there in just a year and a half,” Ehlen recalled. “And I graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude (with highest honors).”

After getting her degree from UC Berkeley, Ehlen taught at Fullerton College. One of her most notable students, she said, was Richard M. Nixon--a young lad from Yorba Linda. “Oh, he was a fine student, a straight-A student, and I remember that he played the violin,” Ehlen said. “I’ve always liked him, but, of course, I’m a Republican.” Ehlen said she taught Nixon in her Latin I and Latin II classes.

Ehlen, who still lives in Orange, received a standing ovation from the outdoor crowd of about 100 persons when she was introduced for her flag-raising duties at the ceremonies.

College officials said the next major event commemorating Rancho Santiago’s 75th anniversary will be a homecoming pep rally and potluck dinner at 4 p.m. Oct. 27 on the Santa Ana campus.