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Marxist takes over CAA By Ayala Ochert Mark Ornellas was just eight years old when he first set foot on the Berkeley campus. His mother brought him along with his Cub Scout troop to get their first taste of college. (A root-beer float at Larry Blake’s ensured that it would be a sweet taste.) For Ornellas, it was the beginning of a lifelong relationship with Cal. By age 10, he was a regular at Cal sporting events; in 1966 he became a student; he spent five summers as a staffer at California Alumni Association’s Lair of the Golden Bear family camp in Pinecrest; and in 1992 he joined the board of the Alumni Association. This July, the 51-year-old lawyer from Stockton begins a two-year term as the Association’s president. Ornellas’s parents, Frank and Violet, both from Oakland, met at Berkeley in 1933, during the height of the Depression. His father’s family were fishermen from the Madeira Islands in Portugal; his mother’s family was from Pisa in Italy. The two families had a lot in common, including disapproval of their children’s decision to attend college. “You were supposed to go out to work. Going to college was seen as a frivolous thing to do,” explains Ornellas. By contrast, his own parents tried to instill in their children a sense of the importance of higher education. So delighted was his mother when Mark chose to apply to Berkeley that she personally hand-delivered his application, making sure that his was the very first to be received that year. “My mother was very big on being responsible, conscientious, taking things seriously, and following through,” says Ornellas, who from a very early age began taking on positions of leadership and responsibility.
He certainly takes his responsibilities seriously, but no one can accuse Ornellas of taking himself too seriously. In fact, he has earned a reputation as CAA’s resident comic. His keen sense of humor was noticed early on, when he was a staffer at the Lair in 1969. He earned the position of program director the following summer, writing the script for the Friday Night Show—the high point of the camp’s entertainment program. So began a lifelong devotion to the Lair, which he still visits often with his wife, Debbie deGanna ’76, and young daughter. It also marked the start of his career as the CAA’s in-house MC and entertainer. “He may seem quiet on first contact, but he is a really funny guy,” says friend and former CAA president Irene Miura ’60. “His impersonation of Groucho Marx is hilarious.” Now that he is president of the Association, Ornellas doesn’t expect that to change: “I won’t stop being a wise guy,” he says. “I guess some people think I’m funny. I just try to keep people from getting bored—let’s put it that way.” There was “never a dull moment” during Ornellas’s student days at Cal—not so much because of his jokes, but because he was here during the period of Berkeley’s student uprisings. Ornellas’s room overlooked People’s Park, just 50 yards away. Although he was not directly involved in the protests, he did get caught in the crossfire from time to time, on one occasion getting tear-gassed on his way home from the library. After those heady days at Cal, Ornellas went to UC Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, and then took his first job, at the county counsel’s office in Stockton. In 1982, he joined a private practice in Stockton, where he remained until just last year, when he set up his own partnership as a certified specialist in tax and estate-planning. As CAA president, he hopes to bring together different groups within the Alumni Association. Miura believes he is well suited to the job: “He relates well to all ages—students, young alums, and senior alums,” and adds that his maturity and common sense, as well as his long association with the CAA, make him “the perfect person to lead us into the future.” Among his plans, Ornellas hopes to make some changes at the Lair: “The Lair is over 50 years old and a victim of deferred maintenance; it needs to be reconditioned, but I think it also needs a fresh look. We need to broaden its appeal to people who have not traditionally looked at the Lair as an option for their vacations.” He says he had a sheltered upbringing, but the CAA changed all that for him. As well as the lifelong friends he made at the Lair, Ornellas met his wife, a public school administrator, at the Cal Alumni Club of San Joaquin County. “I feel a sense of gratitude and obligation to the Association for what it’s done for me. It helped me grow up, and it introduced me to a lot of people,” he says. “Now, coming to Berkeley on a regular basis exposes me to a whole different point of view on the world. It really broadens me.” Jim Burk announces retirement When James R. Burk ’62, MBA ’63, took over the post of executive director of the California Alumni Association in 1994, he knew he would have a tough job ahead of him. Not only was the Association going through hard times financially, he would also have to overcome the stigma of being…a Stanford graduate (in 1960). But his devotion to Cal was evident right from the start. He has always been grateful to Berkeley for, as he puts it, giving him a “second chance.” Now, after seven years at CAA, he has announced his plan to retire this summer. It won’t be an entirely new experience for Burk—at the age of 50 he took early retirement from AT&T, after 26 years of service with the Bell System. But this time, he says, it’s for real: “The R word was something I couldn’t say the first time around. Now it feels a little more comfortable to me.” Burk is credited with restoring the CAA to financial stability and expanding several key operations. During his tenure, membership increased from 76,000 to 92,000, and a third camp—Camp Oski—was opened at the Lair of the Golden Bear. But his biggest impact has been in the area of student services, which has grown substantially in the last five years to become a central part of the Alumni Association’s activities.
That is why he is particularly proud of CAA’s new Achievement Award Scholarship. Now in its third year, the scholarship aims to help academic high-achievers from low-income backgrounds become Cal students. Anyone who has spent much time around Alumni House will be familiar with Burk’s “hands-on” approach. He is often seen picking up trash on his way into the office in the morning, and during a flooding episode he even came in at 2 a.m. to stem the tide. “You know the expression, ‘I don’t do windows’? Well, I’ve never been that way. I do windows,” he says. Current Association president Alfredo Terrazas says it’s all part of Burk’s love for the job. “He is devoted to his work and astonishingly attentive to details,” he says, adding: “It has been my pleasure and honor to have worked alongside both Jim and his lovely wife, Anne. I can’t speak highly enough about the two of them.” Burk is now looking forward to spending more time with Anne ’62, whom he met at Cal and who recently retired herself, and with their new grandson, Timothy. The California Alumni Association will honor Jim and Anne Burk on Saturday, August 4, 2001 at 1 p.m. at Alumni House. For reservations and further information, call 510/642-1892 or e-mail mei-mei@alumni.berkeley.edu. Notice of Membership Meeting Please be advised that a general meeting of the membership of the California Alumni Association will be held at Alumni House on the University of California, Berkeley campus on Saturday, August 25, at 9 a.m. This notice is given pursuant to the Corporation Code of the State of California and Article IV (“Meetings of Members” sections 1, 3, and 4) of the bylaws of the corporation, as amended August 6, 1995. The general nature of the business of the meeting shall include a financial report on the fiscal year immediately preceding, and such other business as shall come up before the membership as a whole.
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 Mark Ornellas (top) at the Lair in 1970.
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