Longtime Porterville attorney Richard Christenson will receive the 2014 Porterville College Distinguished Alumni Award at the school’s fourth annual Hall of Fame Banquet to be held on Saturday, March 8 at River Island.
Christenson will be inducted into the Hall of Fame along with former PC athletic standouts Dennis Stowe and Jennie Hatch.
Christenson is known as someone who has never sought the limelight, but his community service is unquestioned. He was born and raised in Porterville, attending Olive Street Elementary School, Bartlett Middle School and graduating from Porterville High in 1970. Christenson graduated from PC after attending the school from 1970 to 1972.
He went on to Brigham Young University where he earned a bachelor’s in Japanese and minored in asian studies. He went on to earn a law degree from BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School where he gradated cum laude and served as the BYU Law Review’s associate editor.
He joined the family law firm of Christenson and Kralowec, now known as Christenson Law Firm, and has remained there ever since. He has been a member of the Tulare County Bar Association and served as a board member and as its president in 1988 and 1989. He is currently the association’s fee arbitration committee chairman. He also served as a pro-tem judge for Drug Court.
Christenson community service in Porterville has been extensive and includes being a member of the Optimist Club of Porterville where he has been a charter member and now serves a secretary/treasurer. He is the founding member of the Burton Educational Foundation, a past board member and chairman of the Tule River Economic Development Corporation, a board member and past chairman of the PC Foundation, now serving as its scholarship committee chairman.
He’s also a Sierra View District Hospital Foundation board member and past president, participated in the hospital’s Cancer Center Capital Campaign and Major Gifts Committee and a scout badge merit counselor for the Boy Scouts.
Christenson is a life-long member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, going on a mission trip to Japan from 1972 to 1974. He taught early morning seminary scripture for more than 20 years, is a former Bishop for Porterville First Ward and is now the Porterville California Stake president.
He and his wife, Kathy, have six children and fourteen grandchildren.
Christenson will be joined by fellow inductees, Hatch and Stowe. Hatch was a standout in softball at PC while Stowe was a standout in basketball and baseball. Stowe played on PC’s 1978 men’s basketball team that advanced to the State Final Four and played for his brother, Milt, also a PC Hall of Fame inductee, when Milt was the school’s baseball coach. With Milt as coach and Dennis as a player, PC had one of its winningest seasons in schoo history in baseball in 1977.
Keynote speaker for the Hall of Fame event will be Lupe Sanchez, a 1979 graduate from Visalia’s Mt. Whitney, who went on to star in football at UCLA and play for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Social hour for the event will be at 5:30 p.m. and dinner will be served at 6:30. Tickets are $50 each, $275 for a table of six and $350 for a table of eight. Seating is limited and the event is expected to sell out fast. Tickets are available by calling the PC Foundation office, 791-2319, from any PC Foundation board member or by calling 784-5300.
