LTCC marks passing of longtime trustee Frederick Wenck

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Frederick “Fritz” Wenck
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SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — Lake Tahoe Group School workers, college, board members and directors be a part of the Wenck household in mourning the passing of longtime Board of Trustees member Dr. Frederick “Fritz” Wenck, who served LTCC for 42 years. Dr. Wenck handed away on Jan. 5, after a interval of declining well being in current months.

Wenck was first elected to LTCC’s Board of Trustees in 1974 when the faculty had simply fashioned and was positioned in a motel on U.S. Freeway 50. He retired in December 2016 because the third longest-serving neighborhood school trustee in California historical past. Throughout his tenure, he was elected eight occasions to the board, serving as 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 school, offering service and help for greater than 40 years. LTCC wouldn’t be what it’s immediately 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 neighborhood.”



Kerry David, who has served as a LTCC trustee since 1992, stated, “Fritz was a real advocate for schooling in our neighborhood. 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 incredible mentor to me. We’re grateful for his management and the numerous hours of service he gave to LTCC.”

Wenck turned a trustee on March 5, 1974, when the primary Board of Trustees was elected by South Lake Tahoe voters. At the moment, in addition they voted in favor of making the Lake Tahoe Group School District, laying the groundwork for a university 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 neighborhood school in our state to have a trustee keep on board and be energetic and dedicated for this lengthy. Fritz is actually particular, and we owe him a debt of gratitude for his devotion to LTCC. He’s at all times considered what’s greatest for the long-term success of the faculty, what’s greatest for college kids, and after that, what’s greatest for all the opposite pursuits of the faculty.”

Upon his retirement, LTCC’s Board handed a decision honoring Dr. Wenck’s a long time of dedication to the faculty and renaming LTCC’s Board Room after him. Dr. Borges’ phrases about Dr. Wenck’s guiding ideas have been captured in a plaque that’s now displayed within the room that bears his identify.

Whereas he didn’t anticipate 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 purpose proper from the beginning was to get a university right here, and to be a assist to college students and residents of our city,” Dr. Wenck stated upon his retirement. “Getting the varsity in place and making it open and accessible to anybody who wished entry, for vocational and switch college students particularly…this has been a very powerful a part of the job.”

Throughout his time as trustee, Dr. Wenck was a part of a crew that essentially 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 potential, shifting 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 Middle, a know-how wing, the G Wing lecture rooms, the standalone Bodily Training constructing, the Scholar Middle, 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 go the Measure F bond in 2014, offering LTCC with essential funding of $55 million to improve and modernize present lecture rooms and services. In championing the bond’s passage, he wrote, “Our college students deserve the perfect schooling we can provide them. Measure F funds would proceed and even enhance the high-quality expertise LTCC supplies. Ought to we be happy with merely an satisfactory instructional expertise, in merely satisfactory services? I imagine that so as to obtain their objectives and do their greatest work, college students want a well-supported and enthusiastic college, educating within the best services we are able to present.”

Dr. Wenck was on the board when then-President Dr. Kindred Murillo accepted an almost $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 crew 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 telephone name from him, and I’m ceaselessly grateful for the belief he positioned in me.”

Dr. Wenck was an early advocate for on-line schooling at LTCC, and expertise in that was a part of his record of necessities when hiring superintendent/presidents. He additionally inspired exploring using on-line textbooks and classroom supplies. He felt that shifting schooling into the web world allowed these who couldn’t take conventional lessons to nonetheless entry an inexpensive, high quality schooling.

In 2015, Dr. Wenck was honored by the Group School League of California for his then-40 years of service to LTCC and the neighborhood 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 exterior 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 america Navy, the place he served as a dentist in numerous areas, together with Camp Pendleton in California. After finishing his service in 1970, he moved to South Lake Tahoe and started practising dentistry.

Dr. Wenck continued serving within the Naval Reserves for one more 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 Help Hospital in Washington. Dr. Wenck retired from the Navy Reserves as a captain after 29 years of service. The Wencks have seven kids 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 scholar scholarships and tutorial packages on the school.





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