Board of Directors
The Prostate Forum of Orange County is one of largest, independent, and growing Prostate Cancer support groups. Our mission is to offer help and hope to men by providing prostate health information. The Forum is generously supported by our volunteer Board of Directors who help to set the strategic direction of the Forum and provide support and guidance.
We are thankful for the dedication and commitment our Board continues to provide. Originally established in 1992, our Board of Directors is comprised of men who are motivated, involved, analytical, practical and who have broad experience in different professional careers. The current 6 directors, plus 4 significant advisors, bring broad vision to develop and achieve the group’s objectives and provide different perspectives for guidance and oversight to reach our goals.
The Board of Directors are essential in providing leadership, review and direction. It is their active involvement, volunteering many hours in significant activity, which permits the Forum to grow and to continue our valuable community contribution.​
Board of Directors
Neal Berke
Chief Executive Officer; Chairman
Charles K. Metzger, M.D., M.B.A., (retired)
Executive Vice President
Wanda Salzer - Berke
Secretary
Jim Bothwell
Chief Financial Officer / Treasurer
Brian McEvoy
Chief Technical Officer
Ira Kaget
Education Director
Board of Advisors
Steve Adamson
Francis Gilbert
Russ Meyer
Outreach Coordinator
Bill Power
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Offering help and hope to men by providing prostate health information
We need your help!
A serious need continues for volunteers to share the many tasks necessary to produce an interesting and valuable experience but it is the Board members who end up taking care of continuing jobs. Volunteers are solicited; they could even serve for a short term on temporary assignments, if that were all the time they could spare. Anyone wishing to help is welcome.
Our Founders
The Prostate Forum of Orange County (PFOC) was founded in 1992 by the late Bill Dehn and Murray Corwin. Both men had Prostate Cancer (PCa) but neither died from it - Bill succumbed to ALS and Murray following a stroke. These men met in 1991 at a hospital support group where they shared their own personal experiences with PCa but they were then asked not to return. Undeterred, they founded their own group and by March of 1992 they had a meeting place, a flyer, and a core group of 13 men.
Subsequently, both Murray and Bill became founding members of the National Prostate Cancer Coalition (NPCC) and of the California Prostate Cancer Coalition (CPCC), where both served as Directors on the Board.
Murray was diagnosed in 1991, also in the early stages of the disease. A professional engineer, he quickly conducted extensive research, resulting in his choice of hormonal therapy followed by proton beam radiation and then Linear Accelerator radiation; the treatment was successful.
Bill Dehn was diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer in 1985. He found his urologist’s recommendation for a radical prostatectomy at age 62 to be unacceptable, so after laborious research (not easy in those pre-Internet days), he chose radioactive seed implantation, a very new treatment option in 1985.
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The challenges of their research led both men to realize that most men diagnosed with prostate cancer have very little information about their illness or their options. That realization was the motivation for their founding of the Prostate Forum; now, thirty years later, providing information, education, and hope remains the core mission of the Prostate Forum of Orange County.