Los Angeles
County
Biographies
NELLIE
MAE LOMBARD
World
traveler and member of a family which dates back to early Massachusetts
history, Nellie Mae Lombard taught in the English department of Alhambra High
School for over thirty-seven years, from February, 1924, until her retirement
in 1959. During that time she instituted
and organized the present developmental reading program at the high school, was
mainly instrumental in developing the senior English program there, wrote the
book, “Looking at Life Through American Literature”,
and also wrote articles for “The National English Journal”, “The Readers’
Digest”, and “The California Journal of Secondary Education”. Miss Lombard was the faculty advisor to Las Moras and Pequinitas, girls’
service clubs. She has received many
testimonial letters complimenting her teaching.
Her
travels have taken her to Europe twice, to Hawaii, Alaska, Mexico, and Cuba,
through the Panama Canal, to Canada, New England, the South, and the United
States National Parks. On October 15,
1961, she embarked on a voyage circling the Pacific – to Japan, Formosa,
Tahiti, Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, and several other points in the Orient.
Miss
Lombard was born on September 29, 1894, in Eugene, Oregon. Her parents, Atmer
and Elizabeth (Stebbins) Lombard, were Oregon pioneers. Mr. Lombard was born in Newburyport,
Massachusetts. A building contractor, he
was also a thirty-second degree Mason, with a fifty-year pin in the Masonic
Order. He held the York Knight Cross of
Honor and was awarded fifty-year pins in each of the following: Elks Lodge, Eagles, Eastern Star, and Odd
Fellows. Mrs. Lombard was born in Beardstrom, Illinois, and was awarded a fifty-year pin in
Eastern Star and a Degree of Honors.
There were four children in the family:
Maude (Lombard) Knapp was the head of physical education and a professor
in education at Stanford University; Clarence Lombard is a banker in Eugene,
Oregon; Herbert Lombard is a lawyer in Cottage Grove, Oregon.
Miss
Nellie Lombard received both her elementary and high school education at
Eugene, Oregon; she was graduated from the University of Oregon with a Bachelor
of Arts degree in 1916, and has taken many subsequent courses at Stanford
University and at the University of Southern California, and other
universities.
A
member of the First Methodist Church of Alhambra, Miss Lombard is also an
active worker at the Republican Party headquarters. She is a member and past president, in 1950,
of the Alhambra-San Gabriel branch of the American Association of University
Women and is presently serving on the state committee of that organization and
is acting as its local parliamentarian.
A member of the Alhambra Professional and Business Women’s Club since
1924, Miss Lombard was its president in 1956.
She is also a member of the San Gabriel Women’s Club, and is a past
member of the Order of Eastern Star and Amaranth, having been affiliated with
those organizations for thirty years. In
relation to her profession, Miss Lombard is now a member of the Retired
Teachers’ Association, and is a former member of the National Education
Association, the National English Teachers’ Association, the California
Teachers’ Association, and the Alhambra Teachers’ Association.
Miss
Lombard is enthusiastic about cooking as a hobby; she also finds reading,
gardening, club work, and needlepoint to be sources of
enjoyment.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Historical Volume & Reference Works Including Alhambra, Monterey Park,
Rosemead, San Gabriel & Temple City, by Robert P. Studer,
Pages 615-616, Historical Publ., Los Angeles, California. 1962.
© 2013 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES
BIOGRAPHIES