Norma Ann Kruth Eggli, an active computer network engineering faculty member of City College for the past 30 years, passed away on Nov. 15, 2024. She was 66.

Starting as a tutor in high school, she nurtured her love for helping others, spending her life teaching and supporting her community through her career at City College. She valued her faith in the Church as well.

“She was very generous with her time,” her son, Peter Eggli said. “She went above and beyond.”

Born in Ukiah, California, on March 20, 1958, Norma Eggli first attended Mendocino College in her hometown before moving to Santa Barbara. Then, she completed her bachelor’s degree in Math and Science at Westmont College. She later earned her teaching credential in secondary education at Biola University.

Norma Eggli married Paul Eggli in 1981, and the couple welcomed four children into the world, Benjamin, Peter, Ruth, and Hannah. She put her passion for teaching to use. In addition to teaching since 1992 at the Santa Barbara City College Continuing Education, now known as the School of Extended Learning, she homeschooled her children and “bonus” children from the Santa Barbara Homesteaders in 1995.

Norma Eggli started working at City College in the typing center, then as a tutor in the computer lab before joining the Curriculum Advisory Committee and the Student Learning Outcome.

She is remembered as caring and devoted to her work by her colleagues. Dean of the School of Extended Learning Jeanette Chian, her longtime colleague, insisted on Norma Eggli’s modesty and the joy it gave her to see her students succeed.

“She did so many different things,” Chian said. “She was the backbone, the foundation, of our computer classes and curriculum.”

Not only was she active in education, but she was also a member of the church and the ministry. She taught Sunday School, cleaned facilities, and coordinated receptions and events.

Her true passion, however, had laid elsewhere. In the early 2000’s, she came across genealogy, and never let it go. Norma Eggli was part of the Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society and earned membership in the Mayflower Society thanks to her research. One of her personal greatest accomplishments was proving that her mother was descended from the pilgrims who arrived on the Mayflower.

Her passion for genealogy intertwined with her love of helping others. Chian recalls fondly the advice Eggli had given her before her father passed, recording him explaining their family’s story before he could forget. Thanks to Eggli’s constant desire to teach and help others learn more about their history, Chian now possesses invaluable recordings of her father.

“I feel so grateful and privileged to have worked alongside her,” said Chian.

Celebrations of life for Norma Eggli took place on Jan. 04 at the Community Covenant Church of Goleta, and on Jan. 31 at City College’s Wake Campus where she worked. In an echo of her lifelong generosity, memorial contributions to the Hospitality Ministry at Community Covenant Church of Goleta were suggested instead of flowers.

She is survived by her husband, children, and four grandchildren.