In memoriam: Gregg Figgins
Published: April 27, 2010
Gregg Figgins, a board member in the Hemet Unified School District who represented Region 18 on CSBA’s Board of Directors, died April 24, shortly after being diagnosed with acute leukemia. He was 75.
A lifetime educator, Figgins served on his local school board since 2006 and as a Region 18 member of CSBA’s Delegate Assembly since 2007. He recently graduated from CSBA’s Masters in Governance program. He also served on the boards of local education and economic organizations in the Hemet area.
Known for being a gifted orator, Figgins never hesitated to speak up during meetings of CSBA’s Board of Directors. Even if what he had to say wasn’t necessarily politically correct, he would say it, noted Executive Director Scott P. Plotkin.
“When he spoke, everybody would listen,” Plotkin said.
Figgins “was nothing if not colorful,” Hemet USD Superintendent Phil Pendley told the Press-Enterprise newspaper in Riverside, which covers the school district. Pendley characterized Figgins’ sometimes highly wrought rhetoric as “an expression of his passion and his love for the kids in the district,” adding, “When he’d get going, some of us would take a deep breath, but then you realized he made sense.”
That description sounds familiar, Plotkin said. “The Gregg we had here was the same Gregg they had on their board.”
One of his last Hemet school board meetings was a case in point. Figgins fought to preserve the district’s elementary music programs from budget cuts, telling parents, “I would oppose to my last breath the abolishment of elementary school music from our curriculum,” according to a Press-Enterprise report.
Figgins studied to be a teacher at the University of California, Berkeley, before serving in the U.S. Army, and he subsequently taught or served as a school administrator in California and the Midwest. He later earned a doctorate in education at Stanford University and taught English at Hemet High School before retiring in 1999.
He and his wife, Bonnie, also a teacher, have two adult children.
“CSBA’s leadership mourns Gregg’s passing,” said CSBA President Frank Pugh. “Gregg faithfully represented the delegates and board members of Region 18, and he always incorporated the understanding and perspective of a lifelong educator into his decision-making process. His passing creates a great void.”
Other CSBA officers spoke warmly of Figgins and his concern for the welfare of children.
“I am grateful for the time he spent on our CSBA board,” said Immediate Past President Paula Campbell. “He was such an enthusiastic and very practical supporter of students and teachers.”
President-elect Martha Fluor agreed: “He will be missed for his passion and commitment to children.”