ENORMOUSLY APPRECIATIVE GRADS' PARENTS DONATE $71,000 TO KENNEDY HIGH.

Byline: Cecilia Chan Staff Writer

GRANADA HILLS - Ward and Marilyn Brewer know the value of a good education. Just ask John F. Kennedy High School.

Grateful for the educations their children got at Kennedy, the Granada Hills couple donated $71,000 to the school - the largest single gift to an individual school in recent memory, Los Angeles Unified School District officials said.

``It is very, very generous, and we are appreciative,'' said Principal Jim Gwin, a 22-year district employee.

``In all my years in public schools,'' he said, ``I have never seen anyone make a donation that size unless you are talking about Michael Milken,'' the financier whose foundation has awarded millions of dollars to outstanding teachers.

The Brewers' generosity - thanks in part to stock holdings in a software company co-founded by their son, Eric, a 1985 Kennedy graduate - will pay for a new computer lab at the Granada Hills high school.

``We've never donated a principle amount of money before,'' said Ward Brewer, a retired Lockheed Martin Corp. systems engineering manager, whose daughter, Marilee, is a 1987 Kennedy graduate. Because of ``the success of the two kids that came out of there, we decided we wanted to give back to the school.''

Alan Tomiyama, LAUSD business manager, said a staff review of donations in the past year found no other individual gift to a particular school as large as the Brewers' donation to Kennedy.

Donations larger than $25,000 typically are from organizations such as booster clubs and major corporations, said Karen Hemingway, the district's principal procurement officer.

Usually, the district receives donations from foundations, such as the Milken Family Foundation and the Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project, which awarded a $53 million grant to the LAUSD, or from well-heeled individuals, such as Kirk Douglas and his wife, Anne, who have given more than a $1 million to renovate public school playgrounds in recent years.

The Brewers' son said the donation is well-deserved.

``I think it's a nice way to give back to the community,'' said Eric Brewer, a computer science professor at the University of California at Berkeley, who in 1995 co-founded Inktomi Corp., which designs software that speeds up Web sites and search engines.

``I gave them stock more than a year ahead of the IPO, knowing it might have some value some day,'' added the professor, who earned a master's degree from UC Berkeley and a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He said Kennedy prepared him well for college and beyond.

``I think there are some big benefits of going to public school in terms of life experience and the fundamental breadth of education you can get,'' he said. ``I certainly got a richer education than I would have gotten at a private school because it was more like real life. It was less protective and made me wiser earlier in a positive way.''

The Brewers credit the high school with their daughter's interest in engineering. Now an IBM research scientist, she attended UC Berkeley and earned a doctorate at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

``Marilee was turned on to engineering from her exposure there,'' her mother said about Kennedy.

``They had good teachers there, and they had (Advanced Placement) classes,'' Marilyn Brewer, a retired Lockheed program analyst, added about her children. ``They were going to go to college no matter what, but they got a lot of good help along the way.''

The Brewers this week presented their check to the school, which will buy 31 new IBM Netvista computers, nine printers, six scanners, cables and other equipment for the lab, Assistant Principal Peter Fries said.

``There was no way we could have afforded a new computer lab,'' he said. ``It will raise the quality of instruction and provide more access for the students.''

An English classroom will be outfitted with the new IBMs and will supplement the school's three other computer labs, Fries said. A ribbon- cutting ceremony is anticipated after Christmas break.

Fries said the donation will also enable every ninth-grader in the 2,600- student high school to develop computer skills.

``It warms your heart a family would think of us,'' Fries said. ``It's nice they thought about us - to come back to help the future generation.''

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Granada Hills residents Ward and Marilyn Brewer relax in a classroom at Kennedy High, where a fourth computer lab will be created with the couple's cash gift of $71,000 in appreciation of the good educations their son and daughter received.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer