Apples in God's Eye

Orinio Gregorio Opinaldo was born in Los Angeles and attended St.Agnes

Elementary and High School of which he is still an active member of that

community in fi nances, social justice and liturgy. He has been a teacher for fortyfour

years for LAUSD and has taught all elementary grades and served as resource

teacher in art, drama, math, writing and reading. He was chosen as outstanding

teacher from the Mayors Offi ce when he taught at Fifty-Second Street Elementary

(1964-1989), nominated for the Disney teacher award when he taught at Forty-

Ninth Street Elementary (1989-2004) and selected as the 2008 Hero for Harmony

Elementary School from LAUSD Board of Education. (2005-2008)

After twenty years of teaching, he went to India to refl ect on his fi rst twenty

years as a teacher and to plan for his next twenty during all of the 1983-84 school

year. During the next twenty years, he spent six months in Botswana where he

traveled to South Africa and Zimbabwe. After retiring, he set plans on what his

next twenty years would be like in service to children and community.

He is the patriarch of twenty-three members of his family of which eleven live with him.

He has sixteen grandchildren, eight girls and eight boys and a long history of

wonderful friends scattered throughout the world.

His greatest asset is his openness as a life learner. He embraces new experiences and

is always studying, reading and listening but mostly observing the nuances of his own

mind so that he can grow toward total freedom as a vegan and a humanitarian.