Los Angeles
County
Biographies
FAUNTLEROY (FAUN L.) HUNSAKER, O. D.
Dr.
Fauntleroy (Faun) Hunsaker is widely known, not only in Alhambra, but
throughout the San Gabriel Valley, for his activities as a member of the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and as an unusually able and well trained
optometrist. Dr. Hunsaker has enjoyed a
steadily growing practice in Alhambra for nine years at 1422 South Garfield
Avenue.
Dr.
Hunsaker was born in Tremonton, Utah, November 7, 1903. His parents, Lewis and Sarah Ellen (Warner)
Hunsaker, had 13 children, 5 girls and 8 boys.
The son of a rancher, he attended Elwood Elementary and Bear High School
in Tremonton.
At
the age of 20, Dr. Hunsaker filled a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints in Georgia and Kentucky, for a period of 28 months, coming to
Los Angeles, California, in 1926. Following
his graduation from the Los Angeles College of Optometry, Dr. Hunsaker did post
graduate work at the University of California at Los Angeles. He established his first practice in Boyle
Heights in 1928, where he remained for 24 years prior to coming to Alhambra.
“My
Church is my life—my profession is my meal ticket”, says Dr. Hunsaker, when
asked about his Christian activities. An
active member of the Alhambra Ward of the LDS Church, he is presently serving
as chairman of the Church Board of Education for Southern California. He has an outstanding teaching record and
supervises religion classes in 200 high school classes and 50 college
classes. He is also chairman of the East
Los Angeles Welfare Region, which operates a 300 cow dairy farm, a 12,000
chicken ranch, as well as two other farms of 80 and 40 acres. He has been a member of the advisory board of
Brigham Young University Alumni for the past 10 years.
For
12 years Dr. Hunsaker has been serving as president of the East Los Angeles
Stake and for 9 years he served in the Presidency of the Pasadena Stake. A history of his activities in the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was recorded in “A Century of Mormon
Activities in California, Division 31”.
The
year 1960 will be long remembered by Dr. Hunsaker, a man of service to his
Church and to his community. He was
honored with a surprise “This Is Your Life” party attended by over 1,200
people. In appreciation to his 20 years
of unrelenting service, Dr. Hunsaker’s friends
presented him with a $2,000 electric organ, plus numerous other gifts. With all his activities he still finds time
to officiate every Wednesday at the Mormon Temple in West Los Angeles.
Dr. Hunsaker married Mamie Adams in
Salt Lake City, Utah, June 25, 1930.
Mrs. Hunsaker is an active member of the Alhambra Rotary Ann’s and the
PTA. She is music director for the East
Los Angeles Stake Primary Board of the LDS Church.
They have four children, Vern A.,
who is married and a senior at Brigham Young University; Gordon, who is married
and has one daughter; Kathryn, a junior music major at Brigham Young
University; and Thomas G., a senior at Alhambra High School and school drum
major. When the family is together, they
hold a family devotion hour every week.
When time permits, Dr. Hunsaker enjoys his hobbies of playing the
electric organ, the accordion and the trumpet.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Historical Volume & Reference Works Including Alhambra, Monterey Park,
Rosemead, San Gabriel & Temple City, by Robert P. Studer,
Pages 679-681, Historical Publ., Los Angeles, California. 1962.
© 2013 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES
BIOGRAPHIES