Los Angeles
County
Biographies
JOHN LEE HUNTZINGER
(Deceased)
John
Lee Huntzinger, whose integrity and sense of justice was known and greatly
respected throughout the community, practiced civil and corporation law for thirty-two
years at 215 West Fifth Street in Los Angeles.
He was a member of the Los Angeles County Bar and California State Bar
associations.
A
man of vision and a pioneer at heart, Mr. Huntzinger was known and loved in
Alhambra and San Gabriel for his untiring giving of himself in community
projects. He was president of the board
of directors of the Alhambra Church of Religious Science of which he was a
member, and also head of the building committee which raised the money and
built the church at 507 North Granada.
Mr. Huntzinger was also accorded the honor of being a member of the
Council of Affiliated Churches of Religious Science at Los Angeles for three
years, the highest office a layman could hold.
He also taught classes for church members and board members, instructing
them in ways and means of financing and building churches. In tribute to Mr. Huntzinger, his minister
and close friend has said, “Because John Huntzinger lived, the world is a
better place for all mankind. All who
had the privilege of knowing and working with him, were touched by his great
spirit and each in his own way was impelled to be a better person.”
John
Huntzinger was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on October 10, 1898, the son of James
Henry and Sarah Edna (Smith) Huntzinger of Iowa. He received his elementary and high school
education in Kansas. After graduating
from the University of Kansas, he studied engineering and advertising at the
University of Illinois and Northwestern University. He served in the United States Navy from 1918
– 1919. He entered law practice with
Senator Armwell Lockwood Cooper in the firm of Cooper,
Neale, and Wright in Kansas City, Missouri, where he remained for several
years. Generous and unselfish in the
practice of his chosen profession, his prime interest was in helping others.
Liberal
in sharing his talents with the community in which he lived, Mr. Huntzinger did
a great deal of work with the San Gabriel Village Improvement Association and
was an advisor in local political campaigns and active on bond issues for local
schools. He also served the community as
a member of the San Gabriel Boy Scouts of America and as finance chairman of
the El Camino District, San Gabriel Valley Council.
Mr.
Huntzinger was a thirty-second degree Mason in Granada Lodge Number 608 of
Alhambra, having become a Mason in Ivanhoe Lodge Scottish Rite in Lawrence,
Kansas. He was also a member of the Al
Malaikah Temple Shrine in Los Angeles, and a San Gabriel Valley Shrine Club peace
officer. His affiliations also included
membership in the Sigma Nu fraternity.
Mr.
Huntzinger moved into the San Gabriel Valley area in 1939. He was instrumental in the development and
sales of the San Gabriel Village tract for which he was legal advisor. He established his home in the village and
lived there until the death of his first wife, the former Juanita Sharp.
Always
interested in business, Mr. Huntzinger had various businesses as a sideline to
his law practice over the years. His
business activities included West Coast Die Casting Inc., a similar business in
Los Angeles, a jewelry store which he owned in Glendale, an advertising
business in Chicago, and Florida land reclamation and development.
On
January 19, 1947, Mr. Huntzinger was married to the former Suzanne Dawson of
Russell, Kansas. Mrs. Suzanne
Huntzinger, as a member of the Good Schools Committee, worked on the building
campaign bond issue for San Gabriel High School and was active in Brownies, Cub
Scouts, and the Parent-Teachers’ Association.
A Religious Science practitioner for ten years, she teaches the youth
group at Santa Anita Church and in the past taught the Whittier youth group and
served in the Alhambra church.
Mr.
Huntzinger leaves his widow, Suzanne, a sister, Ethel, residing in Alhambra,
and four children. Thomas T., born in
1942, is a graduate of Alhambra High School and has been studying business at
Pasadena City College. Active in Boy
Scouts, he was awarded the Order of the Arrow.
Another son, Douglas W., born in 1944, is a graduate of Alhambra High
School and is majoring in architecture at Pasadena City College. He has had a good deal of art training, won
an art scholarship, and has attended Chouinard’s Art
Institute in Los Angeles and the Pasadena School of Fine Arts. Susan Lee, born in 1947, attends Alhambra
High School. She is a member of Job’s
Daughters and a Curved Bar Girl Scout and was student officer at Granada
Elementary School. Johnny Lee, born in
1950, attends Santa Anita Church Day School.
He is also a Boy Scout.
The
Santa Anita Church Day School, founded by the Santa Anita Church of Religious
Science of Arcadia in 1959, was one of Mr. Huntzinger’s
great interests. After becoming a member
of that church, he was chosen as a member of the board of directors and was
tireless in his efforts to see that the school was financially backed to enable
it to complete the great work envisioned.
The
death of Mr. Huntzinger, December 28, 1960, was felt throughout the Religious
Science movement. Five ministers,
representing all of the churches, expressed the love of all members at a
memorial service held at the church in Arcadia.
In honor of him, and in recognition of his great services, a memorial
fund for the Day School was established under the name of the John L.
Huntzinger Memorial Fund. In the words
of his minister, “Through the gifts flowing into this fund in his memory for
the expansion of the Santa Anita Church Day School, he will live forever and
his greatness will light the way for many youth.”
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Historical Volume & Reference Works Including Alhambra, Monterey Park,
Rosemead, San Gabriel & Temple City, by Robert P. Studer,
Pages 829-831, Historical Publ., Los Angeles, California. 1962.
© 2013 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPHIES