Los
Angeles County
Biographies
WILLIAM LUCAS
VALENTINE
William Lucas Valentine, well known
for his business and financial leadership as well as for his civic activities,
is a native son of California who has been a resident of Los Angeles County
during the past four decades. He is
president of the Fullerton Oil Company and also of the J. W. Robinson Company,
which conducts one of the largest and most exclusive department stores in Los
Angeles. His birth occurred in Mendocino
County, California, March 8, 1870, his parents being William and Susan (Lucas)
Valentine, early settlers of the Golden state.
His father was an engineer by profession.
In the acquirement of an education
William L. Valentine attended the Lincoln grammar school of San Francisco, from
which he was graduated in 1885, and subsequently spent one year as a student at
the Commercial high school of that city.
After putting aside his textbooks he was employed for a time by the firm
of Garrick, Williams & Wright, lumber and box manufacturers of San
Francisco, and next became associated with the Easton & Eldridge Company,
one of the largest and most important real estate concerns in San
Francisco. In 1893 he had advanced so
far in experience and ability that he was chosen to take charge of the Los
Angeles branch of the company’s business, under Major George Easton. After seven years with this organization, Mr.
Valentine resigned in 1900, and organized the Fullerton Oil Company. This was capitalized at six hundred thousand
dollars, and he became the largest stockholder, secretary and general manager,
and for a number of years past has been its president. The Fullerton Oil Company first acquired fifty
acres of proved oil land. With only a
single assessment on the company’s stockholders, oil was developed in paying
quantities. From the profit derived from
operations and production, the company acquired land and leases in Orange and
Los Angeles counties and in the state of Wyoming. Aside from his interest in oil development,
Mr. Valentine has for the past nineteen years been a director of the J. W.
Robinson Company, conducting one of Los Angeles’ leading dry goods concerns, of
which he served as treasurer for seventeen years prior to being chosen to the
presidency in September, 1932, as the successor of his brother-in-law, the late
H. W. Robinson. The traditional policy
of Robinson’s closed corporation was continued in Mr. Valentine’s acceptance of
the presidency, as it had been maintained for fifty years. He is the son-in-law of J. W. Robinson, the
founder of the business. Mr. Valentine
also figures in financial affairs as a director of the Security-First National
Bank of Los Angeles and is ranked with the outstanding Californians of his
generation in business experience and service.
On the 27th of May, 1896,
Mr. Valentine was united in marriage to Miss Louie Chandler Robinson, daughter
of the late Joseph W. Robinson. Mr. and
Mrs. Valentine are the parents of five children, all born in California,
namely: Julia V., the wife of W. L.
Stewart, Jr., and mother of two children, Margaret and William L., Jr.; Susan
V., who is the wife of Otis Buckingham and mother of two children, Otis and
Henry; William W., who married Sarita Miller and has
one son, William W., Jr.; Edward R.; and Henry W.
Mr. Valentine assisted in the
incorporation of the city of San Marino in the year 1912, being a member of the
board of trustees elected at that time, and has served on that board continuously. He is chairman of the street committee and
has devoted much time to the betterment of roads and streets in this charming
suburban community where he resides. He
served for five consecutive terms as president of the Automobile Club of
Southern California, the largest and most prosperous automobile club in the
world. Following his election for a
fifth term as president of the Automobile Club of Southern California, the Los
Angeles Times published some interesting comments, from which the following is
quoted: “The newly elected president
served two years as a director and eight years as first vice president prior to
heading the big aggregation of motorists.
His activities have been largely centered on the Inter-Insurance
Exchange. He began serving as chairman
of the executive committee of the Exchange in 1916. In the five terms Mr. Valentine served as
president, the service organization for owners and operators of motor vehicles
has had a phenomenal gain. The members
show an increase of more than forty thousand since 1921, the present total
being more than one hundred ten thousand.
The club is said to offer a larger range of service to members and
visiting motorists than any similar organization in the United States.” When he retired as president in March, 1926,
he remained on the club’s board of directors.
In fraternal circles Mr. Valentine is a member of the Masons, being a
York Rite Mason, a member of the Lodge, Chapter, Commandery (L. A. No. 9), and
Shrine. His name is also on the
membership rolls of the following organizations: The Bolsa Chica Gun Club, of which he is president; the California
Club of Los Angeles; the Midwick Country Club; the San Gabriel Country Club;
the Los Angeles Athletic Club; the Tuna Club; the Rainbow Club of Bishop,
California; Ramona Parlor of the Native Sons of the Golden West; the Society of
California Pioneers, of which he is a junior member; and the Bohemian and
Pacific Union clubs of San Francisco.
During the World War he was active in the Liberty bond campaigns and the
American Red Cross War Fund, of which he was the local treasurer. He was also chairman of the Boy Scout drive
and vitally interested in many other activities.
Transcribed
by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South Vol.
IV, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 737-739,
Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V.
Gerald Iaquinta.
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