Retirement

Newport-Mesa retirement community Vivante on the Coast will host a Thanksgiving food drive Wednesday to benefit local nonprofit Share Our Selves. Community members can drop non-perishable Thanksgiving food items, like canned vegetables, cranberry sauce and instant mashed potatoes, at Vivante's leasing office, 320 W. Coast Hwy. Donations will be accepted from noon to 6 p.m. Vivante will buy turkeys to complete donated meals. Share Our Selves will distribute the food to area families in need.

After nearly three decades on the Costa Mesa Police Department, those who know him said Officer Jess Gilman's impact on the community was bigger than even his stature. "There are a lot of words that you could use to describe Jess Gilman, and no one would disagree that if you use the word 'big,' you wouldn't be misapplying the term," said Costa Mesa High School Principal Phil D'Agostino. "Our elementary kids might use the word 'huge,' 'gargantuan,' 'imposing.' "There are a lot of things big about Jess, but in my years of working with him, I have found that nothing is bigger than his heart.

Costa Mesa's deputy CEO and economic development director announced his retirement in a memo sent to city employees Thursday. Peter Naghavi, a city employee of more than 22 years, plans to leave City Hall on Dec. 4. "I consider this organization a great place to work," Naghavi wrote in a memo to staff. "Its employees are committed and experienced with a high level of quality and energy across every department. Costa Mesa residents are fortunate to have you. " Naghavi came to Costa Mesa in 1990 after working in Somerville, Mass., a Boston suburb.

Davis Magnet School's first principal is retiring after three years Wednesday. Kevin Rafferty oversaw the creation of the district's first magnet school, which focused on math and science; created traditions that bring the school community together; and helped the school's Academic Performance Index (API) scores rise more than 200 points. "Leaving Davis Magnet School, being here since its opening in September 2009, and helping [Davis] grow and mature into our phenomenal, professional learning community, is a lot like giving up one of my own children," Rafferty said in an Oct. 12 farewell email.

Tito Ortiz, a retired UFC fighter, has teamed up with Roy Englebrecht, a Newport-Beach based promoter, to launch the Fight Club MMA Rising Star series at the Hangar at the OC Fair and Event Center in Costa Mesa on Oct. 6. The first show will feature 10 bouts and some of the top amateur mixed martial arts fighter in California. The second show is slated for Dec. 7. "I have always wanted to develop talent and make a positive influence, from the days of wanting to be a wrestling coach to coaching on The Ultimate Fighter," Ortiz said in a press release.

The Costa Mesa City Council passed two measures Tuesday that make significant changes to city employees' compensation. The Civic Openness in Negotiations ordinance, or COIN, will expose future labor contract negotiations to added public scrutiny. In the other, the city's firefighters agreed to a new contract that eliminates minimum staffing requirements, reduces retirement benefits for future employees and freezes pay until 2017. Both items fit into the council majority's larger plan to shift power away from organized labor and to reduce the municipal employee payroll.

A day on the job for Richard and Sheri Crowe might include climbing a smoke-spewing volcano, watching Antarctic icebergs cave in, or guiding student sailors through rough seas to remote destinations. But now, after 30 years as captains of the Alaska Eagle, the Orange Coast College School of Sailing and Seamanship's 65-foot training vessel, the Crowes have retired. "It was way easier to say, 'Hey, I'm ready to retire,' than to say, 'I'm ready to stop running this boat,'" Sheri, 52, said while onboard the school's flagship sailboat in Newport Harbor on Monday morning.

LAGUNA HILLS — There were times in Dean Corey's young life when an appreciation for great music was encouraged during his earliest waking hour. His mother liked to awake him to the dignified sounds of the early 19th century — specifically, the symphonies of Beethoven, Ludwig van. "I could have my breakfast if I could identify which movement it was," Corey, 65, recalls with a smile from his home in Laguna Hills. "So I got that down, but then she started dropping a part randomly from any movement.

St. Mark Community Preschool has dedicated a natural playground to its recently retired director. The Mary Hornbuckle Nature Yard at the Newport Beach preschool, 2200 San Joaquin Hills Road, includes rocks for climbing, sand for digging, and dirt for planting and playing. Visitors on Monday toured the yard at a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The yard opens to students Tuesday - children at the church will also be able to use the yard. Hornbuckle said they have been trying to get the yard built since they moved to their current location four and a half years ago and she is thrilled with the result.

An eighth candidate with a quality-of-life message has added his name to a growing list competing in November for three of Costa Mesa's five City Council seats. "I feel that the seniors don't have representation, that the animal lovers don't have representation in the majority," said Al Melone, a retired certified public accountant. "I want to look out for the little guys being marginalized and disenfranchised. " Melone, 66, who runs his own asset recovery business, wants to avoid the divisive rhetoric sometimes heard from the council dais, though he said he aligns himself with some of the plans for the city.