January 2, 2005, Daily Pilot
LINDA MOOK
Dynamic voice for teachers dies of cancer
NEWPORT-MESA — To many teachers in the Newport-Mesa School District,
time is often defined in two terms: before Linda Mook and after Linda
Mook.
An accomplished editor and teacher of journalism, Mook was best known
in Newport Beach for pioneering a reorganization of the school district
that elevated teachers' needs to the forefront of school board policy.
Mook died at her home Thursday after a long battle with cancer. She
was 62.
"She was a very dynamic person, someone with a lot of charisma
and the ability to get things done," Newport-Mesa school board
trustee Dana Black said.
A student of journalism at the University of Missouri, Mook worked as
a magazine editor and then an educator before becoming the union president
for the Newport Mesa American Federation of Teachers Local 1794 in 1996.
She served as president until 2003, when she was appointed to the position
of educational issues coordinator for the California Federation of Teachers.
She often traveled to Sacramento to lobby for teachers' rights.
Her husband of 41 years, Harland Mook, said his wife had battled cancer
her entire adult life, but in March she was diagnosed with a fatal form
of colon cancer.
In early December, she traveled to 27-year-old daughter Katie Kraus'
wedding in San Antonio but suffered a stroke shortly after arriving
in Texas. Her husband said she recovered after three days and was able
to attend the ceremony.
Mook was born in Marysville, Mo., and received her teaching credential
from Chapman College in Orange before going on to receive her master's
in communication from Cal State Fullerton.
From 1964 to 1969 she worked as editor, first for the Westminister Herald
and then the Leisure World News, before becoming a national speaker
for the National Journalism Education Assn., and then a magazine journalism
instructor for Saddleback College.
In her free time, she enjoyed raising West Highland terriers and training
quarter horses at her ranch in Oregon.
"She was always running at 110%," Harland Mook said. "She
always had a million things going at once. She was quite a lady."
Linda Mook will be buried in Missouri, where her family will have private
services.
The school district plans to announce sometime in the next week where
and when a public memorial will be held.