Los Angeles County
Biographies
K.
STEPHANE BELL BALIAN
The
author of the widely acclaimed “America Speaks” booklet published in 1942, in
order to strengthen hemispheric solidarity and to give the people of the United
States a better understanding of their own and Latin American countries, K.
Stephane Bell Balian has been a resident of Alhambra since 1925. For his work on the “America Speaks” booklet,
Mr. Bell Balian received the national Association of Journalists honorary life
membership award in 1944 and the International Mark Twain Society award in
1945. Active in all phases of civic
life, he was named “Mr. Valley Boulevard” by Judge Northrup, and received the
International Civitan Club award for “Most Useful Citizen” in 1951.
Born
in Marseille, France, on June 21, 1899, K. Stephane Bell Balian is the son of
Stephane and Mariam (Deyer) Balian, devout Christian parents. His great-great-great-grandmother, Josephine
Deyer, fought during the French Revolution in 1789 and took part in the singing
of the first national anthem of France, La Marseillaise, written by Rouget de L’Isle, in the city of
Marseille in 1792.
A
combat veteran of World War I, serving in the Army of France, K. S. Bell Balian
received the Croix de Guerre. His
friends among the American Expeditionary Forces persuaded him to come to the
United States, where he became a naturalized citizen. The “Bell” in his name, the American
doughboys’ version of the pronunciation of Balian, was
legalized by him when he received his American citizenship.
Mr.
Balian had been interested in chemistry in his boyhood, and this interest led
him to learn the dry cleaning business.
He received an Honor Roll certificate from the American Products Company
of Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1924, for his service as its West Coast representative.
Soon
after his marriage to the former Miss Bernice Rosch,
the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Rosch of Iowa,
on New Year’s Day, 1925, Mr. Balian came to Alhambra and later established the
Universal Dry Cleaning Company which is now located at 517 West Valley
Boulevard. He was president of the San
Gabriel Valley Progressive Dry Cleaners Association from 1929 to 1931, and
president of the Valley Boulevard Business Men’s Association from 1940 to
1942. He was commissioned a captain,
directing seven field lieutenants, for an Industrial Cost Survey for the
California “Fair Trade Act” in 1935, and two years later completed a successful
law course in evening classes at the University of Southern California. In 1939 he received a French-Canadian plaque
for his Christmas greetings published in newspapers in thirty languages.
For
pioneering the “Retailers for Defense Funds” drive in 1941, he received a
United States Treasury award, and the following year was awarded an Open Hands
Plaque by Judge Northrup. In relation to
the war effort, he was United Service Organization Director in 1945-1946, was
supervisor and organizer of the Ground Observer Corps for United States Air
Force in 1950-1952, and was appointed staff council member for the State Civil
Defense from 1952 to the present. For
his outstanding work during World War II and the Korean War, Mr. Bell Balian
received an American Red Cross citation in 1945, sign by President Franklin D.
Roosevelt, and a United States Air Force official commendation and a city of
Alhambra resolution, both in 1952.
Locally
Bell Balian is proud of being a Kiwanian and an Elk, and was director of the
Kiwanis Club from 1944 to 1947. A member
of the Alhambra Chamber of Commerce, he was its director for three years. He also belongs to the Young Men’s Christian
Association.
Mr.
and Mrs. K. S. Bell Balian are the parents of a son and a daughter. Mrs. Richard E. (Marseille) Treon was born on January 3, 1926; she is a graduate of
Alhambra High School and Pasadena City College.
Her husband served in the United States Air
Force. They have a daughter, Denise
Diane. Donald Norman Balian, born on
November 16, 1930, is a graduate of Alhambra High School, Pasadena’s John Muir
Junior College, the University of California at Los Angeles, and the Army
Language School at the Presidio of Monterey.
He served overseas during the Korean War with the United States Army
Intelligence and received four medals for his outstanding combat record. He speaks Russian and French fluently.
Soccer
and swimming are Bell Balian’s favorite sports; his
present and long-standing hobby is maintaining a day-by-day diary.
Transcribed
by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Historical Volume &
Reference Works Including Alhambra, Monterey Park, Rosemead, San Gabriel &
Temple City, by Robert P. Studer, Pages 396-399,
Historical Publ., Los Angeles, California.
1962.
© 2012 V.
Gerald Iaquinta.
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BIOGRAPHIES