Marian Bergeson, a longtime education advocate who served Orange County for decades as one of its most prominent politicians and became a trailblazer as the first woman to win seats in both the state Assembly and Senate, died Wednesday. She was 90.
Bergeson, who resided in Newport Beach for many years, died at 6:30 a.m. at Hoag Hospital due to complications from a recent surgery to treat her pancreatic cancer, according to Newport Beach City Manager Dave Kiff.
Bergeson first took public office in 1965 as a member of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District’s Board of Education, a post that launched her influential GOP political career that saw her serve as an Assembly member, state senator, Orange County supervisor and state education secretary under former California Gov. Pete Wilson.
Throughout California, Bergeson was known as a trailblazer for female politicians, initiating a wave of women successfully running for public office. Today, nearly four decades after she was first elected to the state Assembly, three of the county’s seven congressional delegates are female, as are two of its five state senators and two of its five county supervisors.
“You feel like you’ve left your footprint and that you’ve made some difference in people’s lives, being helpful. … Sometimes you just have to believe that you can do it,” Bergeson said in a 2014 interview for a Cal State Fullerton oral history project.
Republican state Sen. Patricia Bates of Laguna Niguel, who has known Bergeson since the mid-1980s, called her “an inspiration because she came from grass roots, which is where a lot of the women politicians from Orange County come from.”
Added Bates: “We all started on local community councils and committees and worked our ways up, and so did Marian. That was her legacy for us – that you start there and achieve your goals all the way to Congress.”
The Republican National Committee praised Bergeson in a statement Wednesday, saying she “made a difference for the citizens of California that will not soon be forgotten.”
According to a biography published by UC Irvine, Bergeson was born in Salt Lake City in 1925 and grew up in Westwood. She attended UCLA and later graduated with a degree in elementary education from Brigham Young University. She began teaching in Newport Beach in l959 and six years later mounted her successful bid for a school board seat.
In 1978, Bergeson won a seat in the state Assembly after an unsuccessful run two years prior. In 1984, she won her race for the California Senate, where she served until 1994.
During her time in the Legislature, she authored legislation that created the Orange County Transportation Authority, which Bates said “finally gave the county its fair share of transportation dollars, improving the mobility and quality of life in our county.”
Bergeson also authored legislation that toughened penalties for repeat domestic violence offenders.
She developed a reputation for working with members of both parties.
“There was never a problem that she didn’t think could be solved with people sitting down and talking it through,” said Kiff, who worked on Bergeson’s legislative staff for eight years while she was a state senator. “And that’s a throwback to a day that isn’t prevalent anymore.”
In 1985, she helped form the bipartisan California Legislative Women’s Caucus, which continues to advocate for equal pay, women’s health issues and sexual assault prevention in Sacramento.
“They would get together and talk about how to combat the good ol’ boys networks,” Fullerton College political scientist Jodi Balma said of the caucus’s formation. “She also was really influential in not pulling up the ladder once she achieved what she did, but instead reaching down and helping other women get elected.”
In 1990, Bergeson ran for lieutenant governor but lost. Four years later, she returned to local politics, winning the Orange County Board of Supervisors 5th District seat and taking office shortly after the county filed for bankruptcy protection. She advocated to make the county’s budget more transparent and understandable for residents.
Throughout her political career, Bergeson kept a passion for improving education and citizens’ access to it.
In 1996, Gov. Pete Wilson appointed her as the state’s secretary of education. Three years later, she was appointed to the California State Board of Education, where she served until 2001. In those roles, she helped launch programs to reduce class sizes, change literacy education, impose tougher academic standards for core subjects and overhaul education assessments.
In her later years, Bergeson continued to mentor local politicians and was a prominent face at local political events. Even after her cancer diagnosis she remained active, and some close to her said they were unaware she was sick. In August, to celebrate her 90th birthday, Bergeson went skydiving.
On Wednesday, the city of Newport Beach released a statement saying that in addition to her political legacy, Bergenson will be remembered as “a bridge partner, a walker along Back Bay with her dogs (Chester, then Maggie), a frequent sight at water polo and swim events involving kids or grandkids.”
A Laguna Niguel elementary school was named for Bergeson in 1986 and a high school aquatics center in Newport Beach was named in her honor in 1990.
She is survived by her husband and three of her four children. Services are pending.
Contact the writer: 714-796-7960 or jgraham@ocregister.com
