52 Years Of Love With Al & Lorna Adelini

It’s the first week of October in 1970 and you are just arriving for the first day of classes at a brand-new community college in Valencia. After hiking up a dirt hill with your books, you arrive to the freshly-built campus to find few chairs and no working toilets. In fact, administrators had already contacted Hart High School to borrow hundreds of chairs for classroom use earlier in the morning. If you wanted to use the restroom, you had to (most likely) walk back down the hill to the Shell gas station on the main road. The first week of classes began like this, hectic, but the students were dedicated to learn. For Alduino Adelini and his wife, Lorna, the College of the Canyons was a much welcome improvement to the Santa Clarita Valley.
When they moved to Newhall in 1967 the Adelini’s remember how Lyons was a two-lane road, and how the freeway off-ramp had been just be a dirt trail. There was no mall or major movie theatre, no Target, no major restaurants, just the downtown Newhall and onion fields. In those days, Hart was the only high school within twenty miles and Al quickly found a job as an administrator as well as teaching U.S. history. Lorna would stay at home with their three children, but once they all graduated from Hart she found a position working as RN in the newly constructed Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital. While Al was employed at Hart, the College of the Canyons had no name or campus yet, in fact only a small group would meet for night classes at the Hart High campus. So, during his first few years on the job he became well acquainted with the needs of the newly budding community college.
Al found a new job in the College of the Canyons faculty in 1970 and the Aldini’s watched the new city become incorporated in 1987. When the Valencia campus opened in 1970, Al was determined to shake hands with every student who enrolled. As the Director of Student Activities, he oversaw the athletic games, dances, clubs, and student government all being formed from that first group of students. Only a few hours before, he had arranged with Hart to take whatever chairs they were not using back to the college. But, when the slow lumbering mob of students approached on that first day, Al realized he had underestimated how popular this new campus would be. Before he had been hired, the faculty consisted of less than fifteen people. But on that fateful day, Al managed to shake the hand of every student who walked through the new campus, all 1100 of them. He was surprised at the amount, all determined and willing to learn despite the lack of chairs or plumbing.
Al worked at the College of the Canyons for over 30 years and oversaw many major changes and improvements. He credits much of the college’s success to
Dr. Dianne Van Hook, the Superintendent and President, now Chancellor. Lorna as well, stayed with her position at Henry Mayo and saw massive changes not just within the hospital, but the Santa Clarita Valley as well. When they were married back in November of 1965, they had no idea where their paths would lead them but the entire city should be grateful they chose to settle here. Over the past fifty years, Al and Lorna have had children and grandchildren, all culminating in three generations of a family. They have helped build this community found the ground up, and have spent their lives working to make the future better for all of us.

Comments