Graduation Month Dinner June 14, 2011

A Trustee of the California State University will keynote the Graduation Month Dinner at the oldest Armenian Church in the Golden State.
Dr. Peter G. Mehas will address members and friends of Fresno’s First Armenian Presbyterian Church Men’s Fellowship on Tuesday evening, June 14, 2011. The dinner will take place at the FAPC Fellowship Hall, 430 South First Street at historic Huntington Boulevard. New graduates from the congregation and community will receive special recognition.
The evening will begin with ethnic appetizers at 6:30 p.m. and will be followed by a barbecue steak and chicken dinner at 7 p.m. Reservations are $12 per person and may be made by calling George Karkazian at (559) 434-9009.
A native of Fresno, Mehas received his bachelor's degree from California State University, Fresno in 1962, his master's degree from UCLA in 1967, and his doctorate in education from the University of Southern California in 1979. He was an All-American, All-Conference center at Fresno City College and played on CSU Fresno’s undefeated 1961 Mercy Bowl team.
Dr. Mehas began his professional career as an instructor at Fresno’s Roosevelt High School in 1963. He later joined the Clovis Unified School District where he rose from assistant principal at Clovis High (1968-69), to principal (1969-75), to assistant district superintendent (1975-78), and to associate district superintendent (1978-87).
From 1984 to 1987, Dr. Mehas served as the legislative advocate in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. for the State Center Community College District, the Fresno and Modoc County Offices of Education, and a consortium of 36 school districts throughout Central California.
In 1987, Governor George Deukmejian appointed Dr. Mehas as his chief advisor on matters relating to all public and private education in the state. In 1990, Governor Deukmejian appointed Dr, Mehas to the State Board of Education. In June of that same year, Dr. Mehas was elected Fresno County Superintendent of Schools, an office he held for 16 years.
In September 1991, President George H.W. Bush appointed Dr. Mehas to the advisory commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans. In 1998, Governor Pete Wilson appointed Dr. Mehas to the California Community College Board of Governors.
In 2005 Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Dr. Mehas to serve on his Advisory Committee on Education Excellence. Two years later, Governor Scharwzenegger appointed him to the 25-member Board of Trustees of the California State University, a 23-campus system of higher education serving more than 412,000 undergraduate and graduate students in the nation’s 31st state.
Dr. Mehas is the recipient of the USC School of Education Distinguished Lecturer Award (1992), New United Way's Annual George A. Osborne Award and the Rotary International Paul Harris Fellowship (1993), the CSU, Fresno School of Social Science Distinguished Alumni Award (1998), and the Fresno City College Distinguished Alumni Award (1999) and the California Community College Distinguished Alumni Award (2005). He is the current President of the Fresno County Athletic Hall of Fame.
Dr. Mehas holds a lifetime California Standard Secondary Teaching Credential and General Elementary Credential, as well as a lifetime School Service Credential in General Administration from California State University, Fresno. Mehas and his wife, Demi, have two daughters, Alethea and Andreanna.
Chartered by 40 Armenian immigrants on July 25, 1897, FAPC today is a multigenerational, multilingual congregation of 400 drawn from the Old and New Worlds.
Reverend Mgrdich Melkonian is the Senior Pastor, Reverend Eric E. Thompson is the Interim Associate Pastor, and Edward N. Esajian is the Chair of the FAPC Men’s Fellowship Executive Committee.
FAPC is a transitional member congregation of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and the Armenian Evangelical Union of North America. The 2011 theme of the congregation is “A New Community.”