History of the Jerry Dean Medallion Award
by
Dick Kuester, CCEA Member 1969 - Present (1997)

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In 1981, I became President of CCEA. I realized our constitution had not been reviewed or amended since our organization's inception in 1968. The longtime State Treasurer, Jerry Dean, was from the south, the Vice-President and Secretary from the North. At that time the President, Vice-President and Secretary were elected but the Treasurer had a long-term appointment. Sort of as long as this person wanted it.

I asked Jerry to take a conference day, as I would also; meet at my house in Huntington Beach; and we would take a look at our constitution. It didn't take long to realize it had to be rewritten. We worked all day to accomplish this task.

After dinner we got to talking about the wonderful things our many, many volunteers do for our "kids".... and also how much our classified and certificated employees do above and beyond their call to "duty".

That evening the Medallion Award was born. I designed a tie pin and later a lapel pin with a jeweler friend of mine (had both his daughters in my school) and designed the parchment and folder with a printer friend of mine (had his son and two daughters in my school)

By 1982 the Medallion Award came into being. (We still charge 20 dollars)

Three or four years after the Award came into existence, Jerry suddenly died. At our next CDR meeting, as a fitting gesture to Jerry and his long dedication to our organization, we changed the Award to the:

JERRY DEAN MEDALLION AWARD