Baxter Ward Schwellenbach (November 5, 1919 – February 4, 2002) was a television news anchor who served two terms on the
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors (LACBOS) is the five-member governing body of Los Angeles County, California, United States.
History
On April 1, 1850 the citizens of Los Angeles elected a three-man Court of Sessions as their firs ...
. Prior to his election on the board, he ran third in an unsuccessful bid to unseat
Sam Yorty
Samuel William Yorty (October 1, 1909 – June 5, 1998) was an American radio host, attorney, and politician from Los Angeles, California. He served as a member of the United States House of Representatives and the California State Assembly, ...
for Mayor of Los Angeles in 1969.
Background
The nephew of
Lewis B. Schwellenbach, Ward was born in
Superior, Wisconsin, and grew up in
Ephrata, Washington
Ephrata ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Grant County, Washington, United States. Its population was 8,477 at the 2020 census.
History
Ephrata was officially incorporated on June 21, 1909 and was given the county seat for the newly creat ...
. Ward served as a Los Angeles County Supervisor from 1972 to 1980. As supervisor, Ward was an early advocate for passenger rail transportation in the county, something Los Angeles had lacked since the abandonment of the
Pacific Electric Railway
The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electric railway system ...
in the 1950s.
Under Ward, L. A. County purchased eight rail cars from the ''
El Camino'' in an attempt to bootstrap
commuter rail
Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting Commuting, commuters to a Downtown, central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter r ...
in the greater Los Angeles area. Baxter Ward's initial effort failed, dubbed "Baxter's Choo-Choo" by its numerous contemporary critics, and although the purchased cars were used on
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...
's ''
San Diegan'' for six months in 1978, the criticism stuck, ultimately contributing to his 1980 election loss to
Michael D. Antonovich.
The original commuter rail route envisioned by Ward eventually did come to fruition in the form of
Metrolink's
Orange County Line
The Orange County Line is a commuter rail line run by Metrolink from Los Angeles through Orange County to Oceanside in San Diego County, connecting with the Coaster commuter rail service to San Diego. The Orange County Line carries passenger ...
some years after the end of his career as a Los Angeles County Supervisor.
During the 1950s and early 60s he introduced a
non-fiction
Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with b ...
documentary
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
show called Adventure Tomorrow with Dr. Martin L. Klein], which presented
technology
Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and Reproducibility, reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in me ...
of the early Space Age. The program's producer, George Van Valkenburg described the series as covering anything that moves, flies or explodes. Ward also worked as a television news anchor first at
KCOP-Channel 13, and then with
KABC-Channel 7 in Los Angeles before he ran for Mayor. He ran for mayor of Los Angeles one last time in 1989 against Mayor Tom Bradley.
Ward died in 2002, following a battle with lung cancer.
References
External links
Biography at OurCamcapigns.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, Baxter
American television reporters and correspondents
Television anchors from Los Angeles
People from Ephrata, Washington
Politicians from Superior, Wisconsin
1919 births
2002 deaths
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
20th-century American politicians
Candidates in the 1989 United States elections