Alison, daughter of Harold and Julia Christler, was a 1962 graduate of Newport Harbor High School in Newport Beach, California, where her parents owned "The Islanders", a fine furniture and interior design store. Alison was athletic and loved water sports, especially surfing and 50-meter sailboat racing. She began playing the piano at the age of four and through her teenage years, she trained to be a concert pianist. After graduating from UCLA with a BS in psychology, Alison gave up thoughts of a music career. For the next seventeen years she worked in her family's design business and during that period, she became interested in and seriously studied art. Alison went on to become one of the most distinguished and honored artists of Encinitas, California and won numerous awards, such as the San Diego Watercolor Society's International Exhibit and Watercolor West. She believed a truly good artist needs a strong ongoing education, so she participated in dozens of workshops and took courses taught by known, accomplished artists. Alison was a member of the San Diego Watercolor Society; San Dieguito and Rancho Santa Fe Art Guilds; La Jolla Art Association; Carlsbad/Oceanside Art League; Fallbrook Art Association; and the Southern California Plein Air Painters Association. Many aspiring artists attended her courses at the Rikki Reinholz Studio of Art and Design in Solana Beach. Her dedication was so great, that she continued teaching for a while after learning she was terminally ill with pancreatic cancer. Alison was loved and admired by so many and her memory will be cherished.

Links to Find-A-Grave memorials of some other Newport Harbor High school graduates and teachers can be found listed with Lt. Kent Anderson, class of 1962:

Lieutenant Kent Anderson - Class of 1962