About $550 million in federal and state funding for college is left behind annually when thousands of eligible California students miss out on financial aid, but a new California law intended to increase the number of high school seniors completing financial aid applications seems to be working.

In September, the California Student Aid Commission announced that it had received 24,000 more applications than the previous year. These students completed either the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as FAFSA, or the state California Dream Act Application, known as CADAA, for students who are ineligible for federal aid due to their immigration status.

In total, California saw a 74% completion rate in 2023, a 9% increase in FAFSA and a 1% increase in CADAA, ranking the state first in the nation for financial aid application growth in the past academic year. California ranks 14th out of 50 states in FAFSA completion.

As California’s push to increase applications enters its second year, upcoming changes to the forms could both help and hinder the effort. The U.S. Department of Education is streamlining the FAFSA, but delays in the overhaul will give students one less month to apply.

All in for financial aid

Assembly Bill 469, passed in 2021, requires high schools in California to verify that their seniors have completed a financial aid application or an opt-out form. California was the sixth out of 12 states to enact such a requirement. In Louisiana, which saw a 25% increase in FAFSA completion its first year, students are required to fill out an application to graduate. But in California, there is no penalty for students who don’t.

To get the word out, the California Student Aid Commission created the campaign “All in for FAFSA/CADAA” and deployed it through two of its programs, the California Student Opportunity and Access Program and Cash for College.

The opportunity and access program provides college preparation and financial aid assistance to underserved high school students and their parents. The program operates in 16 locations across California, partnering with local colleges and organizations.

Prospective college applicants and family members attend College Information Day at UC Berkeley in Berkeley on Oct. 14, 2023. Photo by Juliana Yamada for CalMatters

“They’re required to work with a certain demographic of students and then, if they have capacity, they can expand beyond that,” said Michael Lemus, outreach and marketing director for the commission.

The program hosts Cash for College workshops at high schools and colleges, and the commission trains high school counselors, student advocates and others who help students apply for financial aid. Last year, the commission hosted 17 statewide webinars and over 1,440 Cash for College workshops.

A rural school success story

As many as 1,400 public schools in California saw an increase in financial aid application completion by the Sept. 5 deadline.

One of those was Borrego Springs High School. Located in northeastern San Diego County, the small school has an enrollment of just 124 students. By September 2023, 85% of its seniors completed an application, nearly 20 percentage points more than in the previous year.

Andrea Urquidez, who teaches a senior seminar class at the school, said she focused on informing families.

“We just kind of talked to the kids and let them know that it was something that had to be done last year because of the changes that were made, and that they needed every high school student to apply,” said Urquidez, a community schools coordinator for the Borrego Springs Unified School District.

Urquidez and her colleagues hosted a FAFSA Night within the first month of the application’s release for its class of just over 30 seniors. They opened up the school library with computers, where families brought necessary documents. About 20 students attended.

“We stayed ‘til almost 9 or 10 o’clock that night, just making sure that everybody got it filled out. If there were kids that didn’t come, we followed up with them,” Urquidez said.

Many families at Borrego Springs were surprised that they qualified for financial aid. Urquidez said that living in a rural community, a lot of students don’t think they can afford to go to college.

“We have agriculture workers. We have families here. It’s a very low-income community,” she said, adding that for those with a senior for the first time, “they didn’t know about the financial assistance. So, it was something very eye-opening for them to see and know that this is money that they don’t have to pay back.”

Urquidez says because Borrego Springs is such a small school, she’s been able to build relationships with families who open up about their financial situations. She also helps students look for scholarships.

This year, since the applications won’t be available until December, Urquidez and colleagues plan to email and call families to let them know there will be less time to apply.

High school counselors shoulder the responsibility

Many schools rely on their academic counselors to help students apply for financial aid. However, some counselors say they are already stretched thin.

Rancho San Juan High School, in Monterey County, serves over 1,600 students. The school has six counselors to assist families with financial aid applications, with help from nearby Hartnell College’s financial advisor about twice a year.

In 2023, 69% of the high school’s 460 seniors completed an application, just 3 percentage points more than the year before.

Dolores Christensen, a counselor at Rancho San Juan, said that one of the school’s challenges is the lack of people designated to assist families. According to the American School Counselor Association, the average student to counselor ratio in California was 509-to-1 in 2021-22, while the recommended ratio is 250-to-1.

“Even if we had one person designated … and they are guiding all the efforts, I think that would clearly help us raise our rates a lot better,” Christensen said.

At Escondido High School, counselors had already been pushing all students to pursue college and fill out financial aid applications before the new law.

“We 100,000,000% believe in the power of accessing higher education, and the only way to access higher education is through being able to connect students to financial aid,” high school counselor Xochitl Gonzalez said.

FAFSA fact sheets at College Information Day at UC Berkeley in Berkeley on Oct. 14, 2023. Photo by Juliana Yamada for CalMatters

Data from the state aid commission shows that 383 of the school’s 513 seniors completed a financial aid application last year, a 7 percentage point increase from the year before. However, Gonzalez said these numbers may not reflect the full picture, because the school has a sizable number of students, such as those in special ed programs, who are not working towards a diploma.

At this high school north of San Diego, a majority of students come from families living close to the federal poverty line. Many are undocumented, with around 40 seniors submitting a CADAA last year.

The six counselors at Escondido High work closely with students and their families to ensure they complete a financial aid application. They keep track of which students haven’t completed an application or opted out, and call them into their office once a month to find out why. If families are resistant to applying for aid, Gonzalez said they do “everything possible” to convince them. Additionally, they send out constant reminders.

“We’re really annoying,” Gonzalez said. “It works because it gets the vast majority of our students to finish.”

Gonzalez said the department’s efforts would be helped by more clerical support and better internet. The school’s limited Wi-Fi bandwidth, as well as outdated hardware, means that accessing the online applications on computers can be so slow. It’s faster for students to use their cell phones.

Sweeping changes are coming to financial aid soon

With the rollout of the simplified FAFSA planned for this December, along with changes to the CADAA, students and families can expect an easier process. The changes aim to address criticisms that the current FAFSA is too long and complex, and that the financial aid award process lacks transparency and predictability.

The past FAFSA had 103 questions, most of which asked families to parse through their federal tax returns. Now, parts of the application will be either pre-populated with data directly from the IRS, or skipped over if that part doesn’t relate to the applicant. At most, applicants will see just 36 questions.

Claudio Zavala, a first-year business administration student at Cal State Bakersfield, was the first in his family to fill out a financial aid application as he prepared to graduate from Everett Alvarez High School in Monterey County this past year.

Zavala received guidance at a mandatory workshop for seniors during the school day. He said the application was easy until he had to provide tax information.

“I mostly got the information from documents that were provided by my parents. They’re immigrants, so they don’t have Social Security numbers or anything like that. So, it was more of a difficult process,” Zavala said.

Counselors were able to help Zavala analyze his documents and guide him on what to put in the application. The streamlined application this year should make it easier for students like Zavala to apply for financial aid.

Prospective college applicants and family members attend a financial aid information workshop at College Information Day at UC Berkeley in Berkeley on Oct. 14, 2023. The California Student Aid Commission held sessions on financial aid to help inform students and families about their different options. Photo by Juliana Yamada for CalMatters

Another big change is the factor used to determine how much aid a student is eligible to receive. In the past, the number was called the Expected Family Contribution. Now it will be called the Student Aid Index and be calculated slightly differently. The rebrand aims to avoid the misconception that the Expected Family Contribution represented the amount families needed to pay toward college.

The basic formula remains the same. Financial need equals the total cost of attending a college, minus the index and aid from other sources. New regulations for how colleges calculate their cost of attendance — such as requiring colleges to assume students eat three meals a day, rather than two — might increase the amount of aid students receive.

The overhauled FAFSA isn’t expected to be ready until December, two months later than the usual Oct. 1 release. To account for the delay, California extended the priority deadline to submit financial aid applications by one month, to April 2, 2024. If eligible, students that meet the priority deadline are guaranteed a Cal Grant award, a California-specific grant for students based on financial need and grade-point average. In the meantime, students can still create their accounts on the Federal Student Aid website.

Looking forward to even more applications

The delay puts pressure on high school counselors to reach students quickly. Urquidez said that Borrego Springs hopes to host FAFSA Night within the first week of the application’s release, before students leave for winter break.

But for the larger Rancho San Juan High School, Christensen said counselors cannot begin helping families until January, after the break. The application period overlaps with Rancho San Juan’s student registration from February through March. The counselors also juggle other responsibilities, such as scheduling, ensuring students are on track for graduation, and crisis management.

“When you don’t have the time really to put into having a really focused effort and launching it from start to finish in a way that you’re constantly addressing it, and constantly monitoring it, that’s a challenge,” Christensen said.

Still, the counselors discuss financial aid applications in government and economics classes, and provide assistance during evening and Saturday sessions with parents.

“If the students aren’t hearing about it, they don’t really take the initiative to do it unless they’re super highly motivated, and they’re resourceful, and they know how to do it,” Christensen said.

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

Carol Sue Knodel
Oct. 18, 1946  —  Oct. 6, 2023

Carol Sue Knodel passed away Oct. 6, 2023 in her home in Mckinleyville at the age of 76, of congestive heart failure.

She worked as a secretary for JR Stephens and Nielsen Feed Store before retiring. She loved people and chatting, so started Uber driving, which she really enjoyed, only stopping due to COVID. She was always cheerful and her motto was “there is always a plan B.”

Carol enjoyed many years houseboating at Trinity Lake with her husband family and friends. Carol loved to travel — she enjoyed cruising and trips to Hawaii and was able to go on one motor home trip to Arizona before her husband Wally’s passing in 2005.

She was an avid bowler and devoted to her little dogs.

She will be greatly missed by her family and friends.

Carol is survived by daughter Tamara Langford and husband Tom; son Bucky Knodel and wife Seri; grandchildren Timothy Langford and wife Amber, Tanner Knodel, Rose Mattox and her daughter; and sister Vera Currie and husband Jim.

Carol is preceded in death by her husband, Wally Knodel; daughter Katherine Knodel; parents Colan and Maxine Sampels; and brothers Terry Samples and Ben Sampels.

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City of Eureka release: 

Upcoming Eureka Road Construction Work

• 2nd Street from C Street to H Street
  
• 3rd Street from C Street to G Street
• D, E, G, and H Streets, from 1st Street to 4th Street.

The City of Eureka will be performing Road Construction work at the above locations in Eureka beginning Tuesday, November 7th.

Work is anticipated in the following locations; Tuesday in 3rd Street from C to G Streets; Wednesday, November 8th in 2nd Street from C to H Streets; Thursday, November 9th in D, and E Streets from 1st Street to 4th Street; and Friday in G Street from 1st to 4th Streets and in H Street from 2nd to 3rd Streets. Intersections will have closures between the hours of 8:00am and 6:00pm Tuesday-Friday, WEATHER PERMITTING. Additional work will follow when weather allows. Noticing will follow describing the location and extent of future work.

There will be controlled traffic and detours at these locations, and motorists should expect short delays.

The patience and cooperation of motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians in the vicinity of the work zone is greatly appreciated.

The City of Eureka realizes that this disruption is an inconvenience, but maintaining the City’s streets and sidewalks is vital to the health and safety of our residents.

PREVIOUSLY:

• (UPDATED With Response from Mayor Bergel) PETA Urges Eureka to Ditch the Fisherman Statue in Favor of a ‘Fintastic’ Fish Sculpture

Press release from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals:

During the “Mayor’s Reports” portion of tomorrow’s city council meeting, PETA will present Eureka with a first-of-its-kind Fish Empathy Quilt and deliver a brief presentation on the importance of respecting fish and other marine life and leaving aquatic animals in the ocean, where they belong. Three of the enormous quilt’s panels will be displayed outside the Council Chambers at Eureka City Hall for one month. The presentation follows positive communication between the group and Mayor Kim Bergel about promoting compassion toward fish and other animals.

“Fish are intelligent, empathetic, and playful beings who deserve the same consideration and compassion as humans, dogs, and every other animal,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA thanks Eureka for helping to pay tribute to the billions of aquatic animals killed each year in the fishing industry and tip the scales toward humane vegan meals.”

The quilt measures more than 300 square feet and is composed of more than 100 unique, handcrafted squares from PETA members and supporters, including cartoonist Harry Bliss and oceanographic explorer and film producer Jean-Michel Cousteau.

California has poured billions of dollars into finding homes for unhoused veterans, but the number of former military service members living on the street has held steady for almost a decade. Today, a third of the nation’s unhoused veterans are in California.

Tori Gibson of San Francisco is one of them. She’s been looking for a stable place to live since she left the Navy seven years ago, and it hasn’t been easy for her. She left the service in part because of health issues that continue to debilitate her.

Now 32 and undergoing a gender transition, she’s struggling to make ends meet.

“It was just a really bad spiral of just more disability and then less money and no support,” she said.

She’s searching for a new start as Gov. Gavin Newsom proposes a significant change in the state’s strategy for ending veteran homelessness. His plan, included in a $6.4 billion mental health bond he’s sending to voters in the March primary election, would set aside funding specifically for veterans with serious behavioral health conditions.

That’s a shift from California’s last two major efforts to fund housing for veterans, both of which created units for a general population of former military service members.

The first effort began in the late 1990s, when the state built seven new veterans’ homes over a period of 17 years. Today those veterans homes are underused. They were built to house about 2,400 people, but only 1,575 veterans live in them. The 300-unit veterans home in Barstow was so underutilized in 2020 that Newsom moved to close it as he braced for a pandemic recession, although lawmakers blocked him from shutting the site.

The second push centered on a pair of ballot measures voters approved in 2014 and in 2018 that allocated $4.6 billion to build housing specifically for former military service members. The money created the Veterans Housing and Homelessness Prevention Program, which has supported the construction of about 3,250 housing units for veterans to date.

Veterans advocates and state officials view the programs — along with federal efforts led by the Department of Veterans Affairs — as successful in reducing homelessness among former military service members. In the last 12 years, veteran homelessness in California has decreased by more than 30%.

But the trend in California mostly accounts for gains made during the Obama administration, when veteran homelessness peaked nationwide and the Department of Veterans Affairs moved aggressively to place former troops in housing. Since 2014, the number of homeless veterans in California has mostly plateaued around 10,000 to 12,000 people, according to annual counts released by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Alex Visotzky, senior California policy fellow at the National Alliance to End Homelessness, said the high numbers of veteran homelessness result from the challenges veterans face on returning home in California’s competitive housing market.

“When housing markets are unaffordable and incredibly competitive, those with the greatest needs are going to be more likely to fall out,” he said.

Newsom’s new strategy in the mental health bond, advocates say, should help those most in need. The California Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that half of the state’s unhoused veterans suffer from some kind of behavioral health issue.

The money in the bond would go to the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development, which would work with CalVet “to focus specifically on housing veterans experiencing behavioral health challenges,” said Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, the Thousand Oaks Democrat who wrote the bill that ultimately put the bond on the ballot.

Studies have shown veterans are overrepresented in the nation’s homeless population. They may experience personal challenges, such as post-traumatic stress disorders or other mental health issues as well as disabilities related to their military service.

“Transitioning from that very specific culture and society to civilian life is a lifelong process,” said Amy Fairweather, director of policy at the veterans advocacy group Swords to Plowshares. “If you do have any physical or mental disabilities, dealing with those and trying to re-enter civilian life can be very difficult.”

California’s veterans homes

California’s long history of providing housing to former military service members dates to 1884, when it opened an estate in Napa County as the state’s first veterans home. That site is still in operation, housing around 600 veterans on a picturesque property in wine country.

Altogether, the state now has eight veterans homes. The two largest homes are in fairly remote communities — one is in Napa County’s Yountville and the second is in Barstow in the Mojave Deserts. Moving to them can mean living at a long distance from a veteran’s family. That geography somewhat limits interest in the homes.

The homes account for the lion’s share of CalVet’s $650 million annual budget. Some advocates have called on the state to put money into programs that would benefit people who don’t necessarily want to live in a veterans home.

“The state should keep its promises to the current home residents, but as things change, the program needs to be less structured on just providing room and board for a very limited number of people and more structured on providing skilled nursing facility care for those who need it,” said Ethan Rarick, executive director at Little Hoover Commission, which published a report on the veterans homes in 2017.

Outside of the veterans homes, California approved a series of bonds meant to help military service members find housing beginning in 2008. The Veterans Bond Act, passed that year, provided $900 million to veterans through the CalVet Home Loans Program.

In 2014, California passed an initiative creating the Veterans Housing and Homelessness Program, which put $600 million toward building multi-family homes for veterans. A second ballot initiative in 2018 gave another $4 billion to the program.

The federal Department of Veterans Affairs, meanwhile, has kept up steady funding for housing vouchers that can provide a place to live for former troops. The Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program, commonly known as HUD-VASH, was a centerpiece of the Bush and Obama administration’s efforts to curb veterans’ homelessness. It provides rental assistance to over 100,000 veterans nationally.

A steep drop in veteran homelessness

The number of homeless veterans in the U.S. peaked in the Great Recession, when the VA in 2007 reported some 154,000 former troops were homeless.

At that time, Fairweather of Swords to Plowshares said many of those deployed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were starting to come back home “to a society that wasn’t prepared for it.”

On top of that, they and older veterans struggled in the economic downturn, which led to more unemployment and homelessness.

“It all came together in a way that was really disadvantageous to the veterans,” she said.

Last year, the VA estimated about 33,000 veterans were homeless nationwide. According to the 2021 annual homelessness assessment report by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, more than half of them are over age 55. The data also shows that Black veterans are more likely to be homeless than veterans belonging to other races.

Advocates say veterans can be reluctant to ask for help.

“When veterans ultimately fall down that hole into homelessness, what is happening along with that is that they’re losing connection with friends and family, because they’re ashamed that their life is falling apart and it’s hard for them to ask for help,” said Stephen Peck, president of the veterans support organization U.S. Vets.

San Francisco native and Army veteran Latoya White has struggled to stay housed in the dozen years since she left the service. She has found it difficult to afford rent even though she was able to keep decent jobs at a grocery store, the San Francisco airport, and now as a city bus driver.

She was unfamiliar with the resources the VA offered to veterans, like housing vouchers.

“I’ve always had benefits through my job. I don’t think that then the VA had as many resources as they have now. I did go to the VA and they’re so limited on what they could help me with. So, you know, I just went and got a job and I just was really self sufficient,” she said.

After sleeping in her car and couchsurfing for several years, White reached out for help from the advocacy group Swords to Plowshares. That led her to transitional housing, and then to an apartment in San Francisco this June through the HUD-VASH program.

“A lot of us didn’t even know anything about the HUD-VASH program,” said White, 34. “A lot of veterans don’t even know that there is assistance out there for them.”

What does Newsom want to do?

Putting the money into the mental health bond comes with a tradeoff.

In advancing Newsom’s mental health plan, lawmakers amended an early version of Assemblymemer Irwin’s veterans’ housing bill that would have issued more bonds for the existing veterans’ housing program. Without new funding, the program that supports construction of multi-unit veterans’ housing is expected to run out of money in 2024.

Still, representatives for Newsom’s ballot measure in a written statement said the bond would create more capacity to help former troops.

“Proposition 1 adds new money for California’s most vulnerable veterans without any redirection or reprioritization from the current program. Without Proposition 1, there would be zero funding for homeless veteran housing moving forward, which is why the measure is so critically needed,” the statement read.

All together, the ballot measure going to voters includes $6.4 billion to fund projects for behavioral health issues and those at the risk of homelessness. It also includes a proposal to adjust how the state spends money it collects for mental health services from a tax on personal income over $1 million, aiming to direct more of the money to housing.

The $1 billion for veterans housing will be distributed in the form of loans and grants by the Department of Housing and Community Development.

Representatives from veterans’ groups say the program’s success could hinge on getting the word out, and providing services that provide a path out of homelessness.

At U.S. Vets, Peck said the nonprofit strives to create a community where veterans help veterans.

“Building that community is really important,” he said. “A federal veteran who’s been through the process already is probably more effective than we are as social workers.”

Gibson, who currently lives in transitional housing provided by Swords to Plowshares, has started to find that community through the nonprofit.

“I talked to them about how I’m struggling with some issues and they are pretty open and supportive about it,” she said.

Gibson hopes that federal and state services fund more community-oriented programs like hers, so more veterans are able to feel like they are home.

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Supported by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.

“At the start [in 2016] it seemed like it was going to be impossible, but bit by bit people from other provinces of Spain, other towns, and even other countries, came to help us rebuild the cemetery and it snowballed.”

— David Alba, president of the Sad Hill Cultural Association

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The Golden Age of “spaghetti westerns” lasted from 1960 to 1978, during which time over 600 European movies were made in a reformulating of the “oater” mold of such U.S. directors as John Ford, Fred Zinnerman, Anthony Mann and Howard Hawks. In contrast, spaghettis were international creations, typically with an Italian director (notably Sergio Leone, Sergio Corbucci and Enzo Barboni), Italian and/or Spanish technicians, German funding, and a mostly Italian and/or Spanish cast.

The first really successful spaghetti was Leone’s 1964 A Fistful of Dollars starring Rawhide’s Clint Eastwood as “The Man with No Name.” Leone and Eastwood, went on to complete a trilogy with A Few a Few Dollars More and, perhaps the greatest of them all, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, shot in Italy and Spain between May and July 1966.

Whereas in American westerns, the good guy was really good and the bad guy(s) really bad (sometimes clothing them in white and black, in case you missed the point!), spaghettis tended to have far more nuanced characters. In TGTBATU, for instance, The Good (Clint Eastwood, “Blondie”) is an unshaven, cigarillo chewing, sarcastic antihero with a perpetual squint and for whom money rules. The Bad, “Angel Eyes,” was played by the great Lee Van Cleef (“The Best of the Bad” according to his tombstone), while The Ugly went to character actor Eli Wallach, veteran of nearly 100 films and dozens of Broadway plays. He was a founding member of the influential Actors Studio. In TGTBATG, Wallach steals the show as Tuco who, apparently, had two choices as a poor kid in Mexico: to be a priest like his brother or to follow his calling as a bandit. Watching this movie, I’m convinced these three talented actors were having the time of their lives playing such unscrupulous villains.

THTBATU is set in 1864, during the Civil War. The climatic 20 minutes of the movie takes place at Sad Hill Cemetery where thousands of Confederate soldiers are buried, along with $200,000 in gold. Tuco knows the name of the cemetery, while Blondie knows the name of the grave where the money is stashed (Arch Stanton) or, to be precise, the “Unknown” grave next to it. Leone and his set designer, Carlo Simi, chose remote Mirandilla Valley in the Spanish province of Burgos to stand in for the supposed New Mexico location. When we visited last month, it was still beautiful and wild, completely unspoiled by buildings, roads or power lines. Leone somehow arranged for 250 soldiers from an army barracks in Burgos to build the vast outdoor set: 5,000 graves in concentric circles surrounding an “arena” in which the final three-way duel (Triello) takes place.

I love spaghetti westerns, and have given OLLI classes on them. I promised myself that if I ever returned to Burgos (having passed through the city years ago walking the Camino de Santiago), I’d visit Sad Hill, even if it had been overgrown since 1966. I needn’t have worried. In 2015-2016, a group of local movie buffs formed the Sad Hill Cultural Association, spending their weekends to renovate the site. Volunteers came from all over to join them, and today it looks virtually as it did in 1966: a restored fake cemetery in Spain created to look like a non-existent one built in New Mexico in 1862.

For full effect, watch this clip of Tuco searching for the grave of “Arch Stanton” to the backdrop of Ennio Morricone’s Ecstacy of Gold. Leone’s trick? He had Morricone compose the music before shooting began, so the movie was filmed to follow the music rather than usual sequence. Molto bello!

Laura Perry Rose passed away in her home on August 8, 2023 on the eve of her 81th birthday, surrounded by family and friends.

Laura was born August 9, 1942 in California and grew up in San Francisco.

Laura was a brilliant and dearly beloved teacher in Humboldt County for over 40 years; graduating magna cum laude from San Francisco State University, and receiving her master’s degree with distinction in education from the University of Oregon.

Laura taught most grades between K-12 and spent over 20 years at Pacific Union School in Arcata as well as being president of the teachers’ organization and art mentor for fellow teachers. Laura then taught teaching techniques at the Humboldt County Office of Education providing professional development opportunities for teachers. After earning her master’s degree, Laura spent ten years at Cal Poly Humboldt working with students in the teacher credentialing program. She was an accomplished author of teaching manuals, children’s folktales, and works of historical fiction.

During her retirement Laura became a prolific ceramicist, specializing in Raku, learning to throw pots from one of our area’s best potters, Peggy Loudon. She found inspiration in the oldest images that humankind ever drew, and brought them to life in her beautiful work which turned out to be stunning representations of the wonderful beasts of nature. Her pottery was shown in galleries in Ferndale and Trinidad.

Laura also enjoyed playing bridge and before the pandemic played regularly with the Sequoia Bridge Club as well as a women’s bridge group at Baywood Country Club in Arcata.

Laura was an active member of her many communities, most proudly as a longtime parishioner and vestry member at Christ Episcopal Church serving on many parish committees, including the Search Committee to call a new rector. Laura found Christ Church more than thirty-five years ago, when her son David was three-years old. Laura and David were soon in the choirs and continued singing joyfully. Laura continued to sing through her illness up until June of this year. Because of her love of music which she instilled in her son David, he now serves as choir director at Christ Church. For a number of years, Laura played guitar and headed up a sacred song sing-along for the children. She organized a Taizé service in the chapel.

Laura brought laughter, music and her unforgettable smile wherever she went.

Laura is survived by her son, David B. Powell and wife Alexandra Blouin; sisters Christine and Katharine and her brother Steve; as well as an extended family of many wonderful nieces.

The family wishes to thank her amazing caretakers, Hospice of Humboldt and the many friends who all helped so much with Laura’s care near the end. More than words can express.

Friends and acquaintances are invited to a memorial service and celebration of life to be held Saturday, November 11, 2023 at 11 a.m. at Christ Episcopal Church, 625 15th Street, Eureka. Final arrangements were entrusted to Humboldt Cremation and Funeral Services.

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