Los Angeles County
Biographies
HENRY
E. STEAD
In
a critical year, 1943, Carl Sandburg wrote a poem entitled “Freedom Is a
Habit,” in which he says, “Freedom is baffling; men having it often know not
they have it till it is gone and they no longer have it…” the hidden theme of
the poem being that of personal responsibility.
Freedom is maintained by millions of individual components all over the
nation, men like Henry E. Stead and others who, like him, are aware of their
responsibility. A member of the Rosemead
City Council since 1959 and the city’s first mayor, he was elected to the
council in 1957 but did not take office that year because Rosemead was not yet
ready for incorporation; Mr. Stead is a candidate for reelection in 1962. A member of the National Municipal League, a
committee member of the California Contract Cities’ Association, and an
alternate director to the League of California Cities, Mr. Stead believes
strongly in the freedom of individual city government, rather than domination
by a strong central agency.
The
son of the late John Fred C. Stead of Batavia, Iowa, who lived in Alhambra
until his death in 1960, and Mary (Malmgren) Stead of
Malmo, Sweden, Henry E. Stead was born in Zion City, Illinois, on January 6,
1902. He came to California at an early
age with his parents, attended Bell Grammar School and Huntington Park High
School, and graduated from the University of Southern California in 1926 with a
Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration.
Payroll
supervisor with Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company in Los Angeles, Mr. Stead
has been with that company since 1926, serving in nearly every phase of its
accounting and auditing operations, including field cost control and treasury
cashier. He holds an associate diploma
in life insurance office management and has served on the supervisory committee
of the employee’s credit union.
A
resident of Rosemead since 1940, Mr. Stead is a director of the Rosemead
Optimists and is a member of the Masonic Order, Lodge Number 702, in Rosemead and is past secretary-treasurer of the Masonic Lodge
Building Association. He is a past
member of the board of trustees of the Rosemead Community Methodist Church and
its former church school superintendent.
He is a director of the Rio Hondo branch of the Young Men’s Christian
Association, a member of the Rosemead Chamber of Commerce, and a past
committeeman for the Community Chest. He
was Rosemead’s first Cub Scoutmaster. A
member of the Rosemead Republican Club, Mr. Stead was chairman of the Nixon for
President Club.
Henry
Stead’s wife, the former Miss Hazel Ruth Tate of Kokomo, Indiana, whom he
married on August 25, 1929, in Inglewood, is a kindergarten teacher in Baldwin
Park and is active in youth guidance work.
Mrs. Stead is an alumna of the University of Southern California and,
after her four children were grown, earned her Master of Arts degree in
education there. The Stead children, all
of whom attended Rosemead schools, are:
John Henry, who was always interested in hobby work, graduated from
Pasadena City College and Santa Barbara State College, and is now head of the
industrial arts department of Ventura High School; Peter Roy, who was in the
band at Rosemead High School, attended Los Angeles Trade Technical School and
Los Angeles State College, lives in Alhambra and works for Century Motors; Mrs.
J. Joseph (Mary Annzel Stead) Pia,
who attended Whittier College, lives in West Los Angeles, is the mother of a
young daughter, Rachel Elizabeth, and whose husband is a linguist who is going
to Africa to write a grammar for the Somali language; and Paul E. Stead, who is
in the United States Army, stationed in France.
Henry
Stead is an enthusiastic bowler and a member of his company’s bowling
league. Other favorite leisure-time
occupations are gardening and woodworking, and keeping informed on state and
local government affairs.
Transcribed
by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Historical Volume & Reference
Works Including Alhambra, Monterey Park, Rosemead, San Gabriel & Temple
City, by Robert P. Studer, Pages 475-477,
Historical Publ., Los Angeles, California.
1962.
© 2013 V.
Gerald Iaquinta.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES
BIOGRAPHIES