When two teenage scouts raised their bugles at a recent Court of Honor ceremony in Huntington Beach and played a solemn rendition of “Taps,” they weren’t just honoring tradition.
They were honoring the man who put those instruments in their hands.
John Briscoe, a longtime Ocean View Unified School District trustee and beloved local Boy Scout leader who mentored generations of kids in Orange County, died on May 16 from complications following open heart surgery. He was 72.
The ceremony, held May 19, was led by 15-year-old Eagle Scout Wyatt Johnson and his friend, both of whom Briscoe had mentored through their local troop. Briscoe had encouraged them to learn the bugle and even gifted each of them their own instrument, engraved with their names, said David Johnson, Wyatt’s father.
“My son was coming out of sixth grade, about to go into middle school. And John shows up to a troop meeting in full uniform, and he pulls out this bugle from a really nice velvet case,” David Johnson said. “He says, ‘You know, bugler is a position in scouts. Would any of you like to learn to play the bugle?’”
Before the ceremony, the two boys practiced together behind the church and then stepped forward to play the symbolic bugle call — their first time playing together — as a tribute to their mentor.
“They brought out the bugles that he gave them … and they harmonized it so well,” said Johnson, a Westminster School District trustee and longtime scouting peer. “They always played separately. This was the first time they played together. It was just really fitting. That’s the way John would want it.”
Briscoe served on the Ocean View board for 16 years, first elected in 2006. Loved ones and friends said Briscoe will be remembered for his tenacity, his deep belief in public education and his unwavering commitment to students’ well-being.
Johnson said he first met Briscoe about eight years ago while waiting in line for food at a local scouting event. It didn’t take long, he said, to see that Briscoe was deeply committed to “doing the right thing for students,” whether through his role on the school board or in his work with the Boy Scouts.
“He would lead five-mile hiking trips, and that really helped the younger boys get physically fit and ready to go on the big overnight backpacking (events),” Johnson said. “That’s just the way he was. He was always super generous.”
That same commitment to students also stood out to those who worked directly with Briscoe.
Gina Clayton-Tarvin, a trustee on the Ocean View board, said she served alongside Briscoe for a decade. Despite their political differences — she a Democrat and he a Republican — she said the two formed a lasting bond.
“It was funny, because he would always say, ‘It’s the Gina and John show, or the John and Gina show,’” she said. “It was never about what my party said, or what his party said. It was about doing what’s best for kids in the nonpartisan seat that we sat in.”
That’s what Johnson said he liked about Briscoe.
“His political ideology and mine didn’t always line up, but we always put that aside, because I knew he was always doing the right thing for students, whether through the school or through Boy Scouts,” Johnson said.
That shared mission brought Briscoe and Clayton-Tarvin together in several efforts, she said, including a years-long campaign that resulted in a $22 million settlement with operators of a waste-transfer station near Oak View Elementary and new safety measures, including fully enclosing the trash facility and building the school a new gymnasium.
“If it wasn’t for him and the work that he did, I don’t think I could have done it alone,” Clayton-Tarvin said. “He was a driving force behind the entire operation.”
Clayton-Tarvin said Briscoe never let his political affiliation stop him from championing policies that sometimes ran counter to his party’s usual positions.
In 2019, while serving as board president, Briscoe introduced a resolution requiring schools to notify parents that all children have the right to attend public school regardless of their immigration status, and to notify them of their rights if immigration enforcement takes place. The resolution, now board policy, also calls for teachers and school staff to be trained on how to respond to immigration enforcement actions.
“He just really wanted to do right by society and community,” Clayton-Tarvin said. “He was a person that had forward vision.”
Briscoe was a familiar face in Huntington Beach civic life. He ran for Congress several times, often touting his deep roots in the community. He most recently ran for the vacant California 36th Senate District seat in February.
“Running for anything above the school board was just kind of in his DNA, because that’s the way he knew he can help people,” his wife Debbie Briscoe said.
Debbie Briscoe said she was “proud of him for being able to jump up and try again.”
“One of the Eagle Scouts came by yesterday with his mom, and he said, ‘You know one thing I learned from Mr. Briscoe? Never give up,’” she said.
At home, Briscoe was a lifelong learner who held two master’s degrees and had just completed his doctorate in education shortly before he died, his wife said.
She laughed as she recalled that the best grades she ever earned were during the time she dated him at Cal State Long Beach, where they met through her sorority sister.
“After school every day, John went to the library. And he said, ‘Well, if you want to hang out with me, it’s going to be at the library.’ And so the best grades I got in my entire college life, was during the semester that I spent with John in the library,” she said.
Later in life he could still often be found with a book in his hand.
“Once I caught a foul ball in Angel Stadium, and he didn’t even know it. And every time my son was in a football game, I had to say, ‘John, put your book down. Tyler’s in. Put your book down,’” Debbie Briscoe said.
For those who worked with him, the consistency of his character stood out.
“Every vote that was taken on our board of trustees, John was always there for me,” Clayton-Tarvin said. “He always voted for what’s best for children, period. End of story. He was a hero. He is a hero.”
A celebration of life is scheduled for 11 a.m. on July 15 at Old World in Huntington Beach, Debbie Briscoe said — just three days after what would have marked their 50th wedding anniversary.