11/24/2019
Here's a story about our teacher Trini Urtuzuastegui Melcher's career, after leaving Roosevelt...
Trini Melcher: From single mom to university professor - 5/11/02 - NCTimes.net
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Trini Melcher: From single mom to university professor
EDWARD SIFUENTES
Staff Writer
SAN MARCOS ---- Trini Urtuzuastegui Melcher, 70, grew up in a time when
few people expected a woman to work outside the home. But she did. She
earned a doctorate degree, helped found a university and raised three Ivy
League graduates.
"It has always been hard for a woman to succeed," said Melcher, who is now
preparing to retire as an accounting professor at Cal State San Marcos.
"There were a lot of disadvantages; now, at least, there are more
chances."
Her colleagues say it will be difficult to replace her.
"I've been fighting with her ever since she told me about it," said Isabel
Schon, an education professor at CSUSM and longtime friend. "Trini is
Trini, and it's going to be hard to find someone like her."
Melcher, one of 11 founding faculty members at CSUSM, is surrounded in her
office by bookshelves, a cluttered desk and family pictures. The pictures
show her son shaking hands with former first lady Nancy Reagan, a
graduation picture of her younger daughter and a family picture of her
oldest daughter.
She says she is beginning to move things out of the office.
Growing up in a border town
As a first generation Mexican-American, Melcher grew up in a small Arizona
border town. Her first two years of elementary school, she attended a
segregated school.
When she was 12 years old, she began keeping books for her father's retail
business, she said during a walk outside her office on a bright, sunny
morning. She walks in short, sure steps. She's dressed in a colorful
business outfit that brightens her face, hazel eyes and short, light brown
hair.
She was the 11th child born to her newly immigrant parents, and though she
did not speak English until she was 7 years old, she graduated from high
school with honors.
From that time, she has overcome a series of challenges to set a
trail-blaze of firsts: She was the first student from her town to go to
college, the first in her family to graduate from a university, the first
Latina in the United States to get a doctorate in accounting, the first
Latina professor at Kent State University, and the first Latina chair of
the accounting department at Cal State Fullerton.
"When I was in high school and she was a professor at Fullerton, her
students would always come up and say your mom is such an inspiration,"
said her daughter Jocelyn Gutierrez, an attorney living in Los Angeles.
"But to me she's always been mom."
Gutierrez, 32, graduated from Harvard University and has a law degree from
UC Berkeley. Professor Melcher's son, Michael Melcher, 38, graduated from
Harvard University and has a law degree from Stanford University. Teresa
Melcher, 40, attended Cornell University and has a master's degree from
the University of Southern California.
For Professor Melcher, none of her successes came easy.
Her father discouraged her from attending college. Accounting firms would
not hire her because she was a woman. Faculty did not think she could
complete her doctoral program because she was a single mother.
The glass ceiling
As a young university graduate, she recalls being told, "Now that you have
your diploma, you can get married and help your husband fill out the tax
return."
"I was told, 'You can't audit a men's health spa,' or 'We can't send you
on overnight trips,' " she said for her experiences trying to find a job.
Unable to find work as an accountant, she decided to teach.
After marrying and moving east, she became a temporary teacher at Kent
State University in Ohio. In 1972, she and her husband were divorced after
a 15-year marriage, leaving her with three kids to care for.
"At the time, it was very uncool to have your kids in day care," Melcher
said. "But that's what I did."
She wanted to keep teaching, so she enrolled in a doctoral program at
Arizona State University in Tempe. With the three kids in tow, she headed
back to Arizona to earn her doctorate.
"My mother became a role model in spite of herself," said Michael Melcher,
her son, a writer living in New York City. "She's tough."
As a child, he remembers reading texts to her while she drove him to day
care. She found inspiration and encouragement in the kids. Her children
learned the value of a good education and being independent.
"She has never dissuaded us. She never felt we should limit ourselves,"
Gutierrez said.
In 1977, Melcher earned her doctoral degree. From the many job offers she
received, she decided to accept one from Cal State Fullerton. Melcher
became head of the accounting department there in 1982.
After 16 years at Fullerton, she decided to make another change when she
was offered the chance to start an accounting program at the new
California State University campus at San Marcos.
In 1989, she became one of 11 faculty members at the fledgling San Marcos
campus. For Melcher it was just another challenge.
"My kids had all grown up and this sounded like a good opportunity," she
said.
Awards and inspiration
To Cal State San Marcos' students, Melcher has been an inspiration.
"I look up to her because she's very smart and a very strong woman," said
Luz Hinds, a former student who is now an accountant at a North County
health organization. "She taught us that to be successful you are going to
have to be motivated; doesn't matter who you are."
For her work on campus and in the community, Melcher received an award
from the North County Times in 1999 when she was named one of 10 "Women of
Merit."
In 1996, she was named "National Educator of the Year" by the American
Woman's Society of Certified Public Accountants. She was also named
"Accountant of the Year," by the American Society of Women Accountants.
Last month she was named one of the "80 Elite Hispanic Women," by Hispanic
Business magazine.
Melcher has been the director of the university's Center for Accountancy.
And she founded the Accounting Society, which raises money for
scholarships, brings representatives of local firms onto campus, helps
people with their taxes and does charity work for a variety of causes.
"She has such high standards for herself," Schon said. "She's a wonderful
role model."
With all that she has accomplished, Melcher said her greatest achievement
was raising good children. She said retirement will give her more time to
spend with them, her grandchildren and travel.
Her son said he is looking forward to meeting his mother in Paris this
summer, but said he thinks it will be difficult for her to stop working.
"She has a lot to offer people," he said. "And she enjoys being engaged in
the world."
Melcher said she may not be ready to retire completely and said she will
teach one class a year.
For her students, she offers this advice: "Sometimes you see people that
are perceived as successful, and say 'I can't do it,'" she said. "But keep
trying, be persistent and don't ever give up."
Contact staff writer Edward Sifuentes at (760) 740-5426 or
[email protected].
5/11/02
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