Bob
Gabriel, Longtime Civic Leader, Dies |
By Jorge Casuso
December 17 -- Former City Council member Bob Gabriel
-- a prominent civic leader who was a major player in Santa Monica’s
recent history and worked tirelessly to ensure that its past is
not forgotten -- died Thursday. He was 84.
Gabriel died at the Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center surrounded
by his family. He had been battling cancer for several months.
Along with his wife, Louise, who heads the Santa Monica Historical
Society, Gabriel was a staunch supporter of the society’s
museum, raising funds and donating $100,00 earlier this year to
help build its new home.
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An insurance broker known as a soft-spoken
straightshooter, Gabriel was an important player in the history
he helped to preserve, serving on the City Council in the
mid 1970s, where he was a staunch supporter of local business.
As a business leader, he helped shape Third
Street in the 1960s and more recently took positions on
high profile issues, opposing an unprecedented living wage
law that was defeated at the polls five years ago, as well
as speaking out against the solar web, a controversial sculpture
slated to be built on Santa Monica beach.
Bob and Louise Gabriel (Photo courtesy of the Santa Monica
Historical Society) |
As a council member, Gabriel advocated tearing down the Santa Monica
Pier, a position that likely cost him a second term.
For decades, Gabriel was at the center of civic and political life,
supporting the local press, donating his time and money to non-profit
institutions and backing opponents of Santa Monicans for Renters’
Rights, the powerful tenants group that has run the City for much
of the past three decades.
“He was quite a gentleman, a really nice gentleman,”
said Mayor Herb Katz, who knew Gabriel for 30 years. “Whether
he agreed with you or disagreed, he was a really classy gentleman.
I’ll miss him.”
“He has a role in the history of the city,” said Council
member Richard Bloom, who was a client of Gabriel’s insurance
firm before entering the political arena. “He’s a real
family institution in Santa Monica.
“In an era of big business and faceless corporations, people
like Bob are becoming more and more scarce,” he said.
A SMRR member, Bloom said Gabriel never let politics “get
in the way of the relationship that kind of built up over the years.
“Even though we had a lot of differences of opinion, he always
showed a lot of class and respect,” Bloom said. “He
wasn’t afraid of sharing his opinion.”
A Detroit native, Gabriel moved back to Santa Monica, where his
family had settled, after returning from military service in the
Pacific in 1946 and decided to stay when he met Louise.
He made a living teaching school, selling garbage disposals and
running a market, before joining up with a small insurance company
run out of a house Downtown after returning from the Korean War.
“Economics sort of pushed that,” Gabriel told The
Lookout in 2003, noting that teachers with a Ph.D. made only
$6,500, and “I didn't have a Ph.D.”
“I didn’t know a thing. I didn’t know a policy
from a piece of Kleenex,” recalled Gabriel, who bought the
company and for a time branched out into real estate.
Besides serving on the council, Gabriel was president of the Chamber
of Commerce and the Santa Monica Convention and Visitors Bureau
and served on the Parks and Recreation Commission and on the Wise
Senior Services board.
Until his death, Gabriel was a member of the Santa Monica Hospital
Board of Advisors and an advisory board member of Santa Monica College.
In 1993, the Gabriels were presented with the Chamber of Commerce’s
Roy E. Naylor Award for Lifetime Achievement for their half-century
of dedication to the community.
Other awards received by Gabriel include the Santa Monica Realtor
Citizen of the Year Award, the National Conference of Christians
and Jews Humanitarian Award, the Kiwanis Club’s Community
Service Award and the Boys Club of America’s Medallion for
Unusually Devoted Service to Youth.
Gabriel also was a driving force behind the nativity scenes that
line Palisades Park every Christmas season, stepping up to finance
the opening of the scenes after the City announced in 1979 that
it would no longer underwrite the bagged meters and wanted money
up front. Others, including band leader Lawrence Welk, joined in
to help. (see
story)
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| Louise and Bob Gabriel with vintage clothing
that is part of the Historical Society Museum collection. (Photo
by Lookout staff) |
In recent years, Gabriel devoted much of his time and energy to
supporting the Historical Society Museum, which has been raising
funds to move into a permanent home in the new Main Library currently
under construction Downtown. (see
story)
“I’ve always said that Santa Monica is the biggest
‘little city’ in the world with so much history,”
Gabriel said when he and Louise donated $100,000 in March.
In June, the Gabriels were unable to attend an event to publicly
launch the museum’s capital campaign to raise $5 million,
after Gabriel was in the hospital for surgery after a heart aneurysm.
Louise -- who slipped and fell, breaking her foot during a hospital
visit -- also was unable to attend.
Bloom said Gabriel, who remained an active force in has adopted
city until his death, should serve as a role model.
“That’s the kind of life we should all aspire to,”
the former mayor said. “He had a loving family, a great career
and he was with it.
“It’s sad to see him go, but if you’ve got to
go, he’s a role model for all of us.”
Gabriel is survived by his wife, Louise; three children, Susan
Potter, Sharyl Scydlik and Robb Gabriel; and three grandchildren,
Patrick and Bryan Potter and Michael Scydlik.
Funeral services have not been announced. In lieu of flowers, the
family is asking that donations be made to the Santa Monica Historical
Society at 1539 Euclid Street, Santa Monica, CA 90404 or call 310.395.2290.
For more information visit www.santamonicahistory.org.
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