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San Bernardino County, CA November 2, 2010 Election
Smart Voter Full Biography for Henry "Gus" Hawthorn

Candidate for
Member, Governing Board; Fontana Unified School District

[photo]
This information is provided by the candidate

Shortly after the end of World War II my father, a United States Air Force fighter pilot, met my mother who was working in the secretarial pool at Luke Air Force Base west of Phoenix, Arizona. They were married and upon my father's discharge from the service moved to Denver Colorado. I arrived shortly thereafter on a hot September afternoon.

When I was four years old my parents moved my sisters and me to Lakewood, California to begin a new life. I started school there and attended kindergarten and first grade at Samuel Gompers Elementary until we moved east to nearby Arlington where I attended Liberty Elementary. We finally settled in Redlands where I attended McKinley Elementary, Cope Junior High and Redlands High School.

I graduated in 1965 and like so many of our students did not know exactly what I wanted to do. With the support of my parents I enlisted in the United States Air Force. After basic training at Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio, Texas I attended nine months of electronics training at Chanute Air Force Base south of Chicago. I then received orders to report to Ellsworth Air Force Base near Rapid City, South Dakota. I spent the remainder of my time in the service as a Minuteman ICBM ground equipment electronics technician until I was honorably discharged in January of 1969.

I started my college education at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology on a part time basis while serving in the Air Force and working at a local McDonald's restaurant. I arrived back home in Redlands and enrolled at Cal State San Bernardino. After completing a couple of quarters I found that I really did not know what I wanted to do for a living. I was out of school working for a short time and then enrolled at San Bernardino Valley College where I finally began to study and decided on a Mechanical Engineering major. I completed most of my core courses at Valley but the most important event in my life also took place during that time. I was introduced by a friend to Terri Vandenburg of Bloomington who I then married in July of 1971.

Terri is the anchor in my life and responsible for me completing my education at Cal Poly Pomona. She has been by my side supporting me financially through college and as my partner through our thirty nine years of marriage. I am currently enjoying a great career as director of engineering for a world-class American manufacturing company in Ontario, California. I am proud to have served on the Fontana Unified School District Board of Education for the past thirteen years, serving as Board President for five of those years. I intend to continue serving Fontana students. None of this would have been possible without the help and support that Terri provides. She is also the mother of our three children, all of whom went to Fontana Unified schools from kindergarten through graduation from high school.

Family

I have been married to Terri for thirty nine years. We have three children, Trevor 33, Allie 30 and Kyle 24. We are also the proud grandparents of Trevor and his wife Kim's son Henry, 16 months.

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: September 22, 2010 12:43
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