SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – Longtime native dentist and a member of the primary Lake Tahoe Group Faculty Board of Trustees Dr. Frederick “Fritz” Wenck handed away on January 5, 2023, after a interval of declining well being in current months.
Lake Tahoe Group Faculty workers, school, board members, and directors be a part of the Wenck household in mourning the passing of Dr. Wenck who served LTCC for 42 years.
Dr. Wenck was first elected to LTCC’s Board of Trustees in 1974 when the faculty had simply fashioned and was situated in a motel on Freeway 50. He retired in December 2016 because the third longest-serving group school trustee in California historical past. Throughout his tenure, he was elected eight occasions to the Board, serving as Board President 5 occasions.
“We’re all deeply saddened to listen to about Fritz’s passing,” stated LTCC Superintendent/President Jeff DeFranco. “He gave a lot of his life to this faculty, offering service and help for greater than 40 years. LTCC wouldn’t be what it’s in the present day with out his contributions. His lifelong efforts have created an enduring legacy of actual constructive impression on our school and on our higher South Shore group.”
Kerry David, who has served as a LTCC trustee since 1992, stated, “Fritz was a real advocate for training in our group. He was at all times an advocate for the faculty, and he firmly believed that ‘college students come first.’ I had the pleasure of serving with Fritz on the Board for twenty-four years, and he was an amazing mentor to me. We’re grateful for his management and the numerous hours of service he gave to LTCC.”
Dr. Wenck turned a trustee on March 5, 1974, when the primary Board of Trustees was elected by South Lake Tahoe voters. At the moment, additionally they voted in favor of making the Lake Tahoe Group Faculty District, laying the groundwork for a school in South Lake Tahoe. Becoming a member of Dr. Wenck in that first trustee group have been William Conlon, Rev. Donald Swanson, Dr. Will Cluff, and Roberta Mason, who retired as an LTCC trustee and Board president in 2014 after 40 years of service.
On the time of his retirement, then-Board President Dr. Karen Borges stated, “It’s uncommon for a group school in our state to have a trustee keep on board and be energetic and dedicated for this lengthy. Fritz is absolutely particular, and we owe him a debt of gratitude for his devotion to LTCC. He’s at all times considered what’s finest for the long-term success of the faculty, what’s finest for college students, and after that, what’s finest for all the opposite pursuits of the faculty.”
Upon his retirement, LTCC’s Board handed a decision honoring Dr. Wenck’s many years of dedication to the faculty and renaming LTCC’s Board Room after him. Dr. Borges’ phrases about Dr. Wenck’s guiding rules have been captured in a plaque that’s now displayed within the room that bears his identify.
Whereas he didn’t count on to be a trustee for so long as he was, Dr. Wenck dedicated to it for the lengthy haul due to the significance of the work.
“My objective proper from the beginning was to get a school right here, and to be a assist to college students and residents of our city,” Dr. Wenck stated upon his retirement. “Getting the college in place and making it open and accessible to anybody who needed entry, for vocational and switch college students specifically…this has
been an important a part of the job.”
Throughout his time as trustee, Dr. Wenck was a part of a staff that basically reworked the faculty from its early days on the motel to its present 164-acre campus off of Al Tahoe Boulevard.
Dr. Wenck and the unique Board of Trustees members employed LTCC’s first president, Dr. James Duke, in 1974. Collectively, they oversaw the land acquisition that made LTCC’s present campus attainable, transferring out of the motel and to the brand new area in 1988.
The Board subsequent chosen Dr. Man Lease in 1990 as LTCC’s second president. Throughout his tenure, Dr. Lease and the trustees oversaw the additions of the Baby Growth Heart, a expertise wing, the G Wing lecture rooms, the standalone Bodily Training constructing, the Scholar Heart, the industrial grade kitchen that helps the Culinary Arts program, and the library and Haldan Artwork Gallery.
Dr. Wenck was additionally a basic a part of serving to to move the Measure F bond in 2014, offering LTCC with essential funding of $55 million to improve and modernize current lecture rooms and services. In championing the bond’s passage, he wrote, “Our college students deserve one of the best training we can provide them.
Measure F funds would proceed and even enhance the high-quality expertise LTCC gives. Ought to we be glad with merely an ample academic expertise, in merely ample services? I imagine that to be able to obtain their targets and do their finest work, college students want a well-supported and enthusiastic school, educating within the best services we will present.”
Dr. Wenck was on the board when then-President Dr. Kindred Murillo accepted a virtually $6 million donation from Lisa Maloff to construct a college middle at LTCC, which opened in 2018. Dr. Wenck was additionally a part of the staff when Dr. Murillo retired and LTCC’s board chosen its present president, Jeff
DeFranco.
“Fritz was the board chair who employed me,” stated DeFranco. “I’ll always remember that cellphone name from him, and I’m eternally grateful for the belief he positioned in me.”
Dr. Wenck was an early advocate for on-line training at LTCC, and expertise in that was a part of his listing of necessities when hiring superintendents/presidents. He additionally inspired exploring the usage of on-line textbooks and classroom supplies. He felt that transferring training into the web world allowed those that couldn’t take conventional lessons to nonetheless entry an inexpensive, high quality training.
In 2015, Dr. Wenck was honored by the Group Faculty League of California for his then-40 years of service to LTCC and the group school mission.
Along with his work at LTCC, Dr. Wenck was a dentist in South Lake Tahoe for 52 years. He was additionally a really energetic member of the South Lake Tahoe Optimist membership for years, heading up their annual Easter egg hunt on LTCC’s campus.
Dr. Wenck was born and raised in Illinois simply outdoors of Chicago. He earned his Bachelor of Science diploma from St. Bonaventure College in New York, then graduated from the Northwestern College Dental Faculty in Chicago the place he earned his Physician of Dental Science diploma. He then joined the
United States Navy, the place he served as a dentist in numerous places, together with Camp Pendleton in California. After finishing his service in 1970, he moved to South Lake Tahoe and commenced practising dentistry.
Dr. Wenck continued serving within the Naval Reserves for an additional 21 years, throughout which he met his spouse, Persistence, who was serving as a U.S. Military nurse. She retired on the rank of Colonel after serving as commander of a Fight Assist Hospital in Washington. Dr. Wenck retired from the Navy Reserves as a captain after 29 years of service. The Wencks have seven youngsters and 10 grandchildren.
Those that want to can honor Dr. Wenck’s legacy by making a donation to the LTCC Basis (www.ltcc.edu/giving), which helps pupil scholarships and educational applications on the school.
A memorial service might be held at St. Teresa’s Church on January 21 at 1 p.m.
