Dr. Alex and his wife, Dr. Casey Erickson are the owners and practicing veterinarians at Cambria Veterinary Clinic. After relocating to the Cen-tral Coast in January 2016 and purchasing Cambria Veterinary clinic, we could have not felt more welcomed into a community that truly adores their pets. We are committed to high quality medicine and patient care, and also believe that you should have a doctor for your pet that you trust to offer you guidance and options in caring for your 4-legged fami-ly member. We are hard-working, honest and compassionate when it comes to advising you on anything from preventative care to difficult end-of-life decisions. 

Dr. Alex grew up in Los Banos, California and could be found cleaning kennels and helping out at his father’s vet clinic from a young age. Following in his father’s footsteps, he attended Kansas State University for his undergraduate studies and then graduated from UC Davis Veterinary School in 2008. During veterinary school, his studies focused both on farm animal and small animal medicine. After graduating he moved to Sonora, California, at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains where he practiced at a busy small animal veterinary clinic for 8 years. Alex has addi-tional continuing education training in small animal dentistry and ultrasound. 

Dr. Alex told us that dermatology is the number one reason pets visit their veterinarian and, here on the Central Coast, there is no shortage of allergy triggers. 

Dick Cameron, filling in for Janet, introduced our speaker, Paula Van Zyl who was born in Glendale, CA. She moved to Africa in 2003, to volunteer with Primates in South Afri-ca then traveled up to Zambia where she met her late husband, Dan Van Zyl, who was, at the time, working for the U.N. When his contract ended in 2004, they went back to South Africa and worked with the baboons at the sanctuary until 2005. It was decided they would start a volunteer organization and drove international volunteers from Phalabora, South Africa to Mwandi, Zambia, Dan’s childhood home. They worked in and around the mission, helping where needed. 

In 2015, they started a non-profit organization called Home for Aids Orphans. In 2016, they started building a community school which opened in January 2019. They now have over 280 students from pre-school through 3rd grade and are working on building a 4th grade classroom which will open in January 2022, after which they will begin work on the next phase, upper primary grades 5th-7th. 

Compass Zambia is a California registered non-profit organization that was organized by Paula and her daughter in 2020 to help support the efforts of Home for Aids Orphans a registered NGO with a focus on building homes for extended families that had been displaced by AIDS. Together, the two companies work to improve the lives of people in the area by improving the community. 

Julie Jenkins, International Committee Chair, presented a check for $1,000 to Paula Van Zyl, Founder & Chairperson at Home For Aids Orphans. This organization works with the local community to im-prove the living conditions for those most vulnerable in society, es-pecially young children who have been orphaned by AIDS by provid-ing housing and building schools in Zambia, where AIDS is still at ep-idemic proportion. (homes4aidsorphans.com) 

Ed told us that he grew up in San Francisco. As a young boy he joined the scouts and went on a trip with them to a ski resort. Ed immediately fell in love with the resort, the ski lifts and skiing. At 18, he dropped out of school and went back to the ski resort looking for a job. He was hired to work on the lifts, a job he loved. While at the resort he met a teacher who was there with some of her friends. They got to know each other and eventually married. 3 months later he received his draft notice. After basic training, he was sent to Germany and a couple of months later, his bride joined him. When he was discharged (1 year, 7 months and 4 days later), they purchased a VW and traveled around Europe for 2 or 3 months. 

Upon returning to the States, Ed enrolled in Modesto Community College before transferring to Cal Poly where he majored in Architectural Engineering. One of his required classes was welding, which he knew quite a bit about. At the time, Cuesta was just getting started and they were looking for someone to set up a machine shop. Ed’s teacher recommended him and, once he set up the shop, he was asked if he could teach auto me-chanics. Of course he said yes. This led to him becoming Dean of Vocational Education, a job he held for 35 years. 

While at Cuesta, Ed hired a counselor from Long Beach State. She relocated to the Central Coast, purchased a home in Cambria and, shortly after, became Ed’s second wife. That is how Ed came to live in Cambria. 

If you have the opportunity, take some time to ask Ed about his life. He has a lot of interesting stories to share. 

Elizabeth moved to Cambria in 1967, lived on a ranch about 20 miles north of town, raised 2 chil-dren with her then husband and worked at the Cambria School District for 27 years as a school sec-retary. Her interests are botany, photography and history, both local and global. 

During his many years in Cambria, Art Beal preferred to be known by his nickname, Doctor Tinkerpaw. He also answered to the name Captain Nitt Witt after being called a nitwit by someone in Cambria. (Hence the name Nitt Witt Ridge.) But Art was anything but dim. 

Born 20 miles north of Cambria in 1896, Art was the son of a Klamath Indian wom-an who died when he was just 10 years old. As an orphan, he passed through sever-al institutions and took odd jobs before becoming a vaudeville entertainer. (He claimed to have performed an act with a stunt dog and a one-legged bicyclist at the Toronto World’s Fair in the 1920s.) Later, he would become a famed long-distance swimmer, freestyling 22 miles of the Hudson River and across San Francisco Bay. His swimming career led him to a number of famous entertainers who became friends, including Dale Evans, Roy Rogers, and Willie Nelson. During his years building and living at Nitt Witt Ridge, he was profiled on several television programs, highlighting his eccentricity. 

Sometime in the early 1970s, a man gave Art a small loan to keep up Nitt Witt Ridge, and Art trans-ferred the deed to him. When Art couldn’t repay the debt, the man threatened to destroy Nitt Witt Ridge and develop the property. But in 1975, friends of the unusual homebuilder formed The Art Beal Foundation, which purchased back the deed. The purchase also funded work to have Nitt Witt Ridge recognized as a California Historical Landmark in 1981. Today, the bronze plaque can be seen on the home’s street level. 

When he died in 1992, Art’s ashes were spread under a redwood tree on the Nitt Witt Ridge property. Clippings of his varied accom-plishments, as well as photos of his high-profile friends, remain in the house to this day, right where Art left them. 

Art Beal & Nitt Witt Ridge 

Elizabeth Appel