DUBLIN/SAN RAMON -- Dublin San Ramon Services District directors will honor a board member who died this year with an annual memorial scholarship for a graduating high school senior planning to study water resources.
Directors voted Sept. 4 to establish the James B. Kohnen Scholarship, an award of up to $2,000 for students who meet a set of criteria that will be released later this year.
Kohnen served on the board from 1992 to 2000, and district staff credit him with helping to develop the Dougherty Valley, bringing recycled water to the valley and expanding the wastewater treatment plant. A retired San Leandro teacher, Kohnen, 69, died May 29.
"Jim made a difference at our district and in the education of young people," Richard Halket, the district president, said in a news release. "It is our hope that this scholarship inspires young people to follow in his footsteps and make a difference in their communities."
Kohnen also served on the Zone 7 Water Agency board from 2004-08 and was most recently on the Alameda County Mosquito Abatement District for the past eight years.
Kohnen earned two bachelor degrees, two master's degrees and a doctorate and taught at the University of Phoenix and St. Mary's College and he served 30 years in the Army Reserve.
The district will announce the first recipient in June. The winner must live within the district, which provides drinking water and sewer service to Dublin and the Dougherty Valley and sewer service to Pleasanton and parts of San Ramon.
Robert Jordan, Contra Costa Times
