Deane Dana, Jr. was a member of 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 first ...

. Dana was born July 9, 1926, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

.''Los Angeles Times'' obituary, published April 22, 2005
retrieved November 8, 2011.Social Security Death Index
/ref> He studied engineering at

Stevens Institute of Technology Stevens Institute of Technology is a private research university in Hoboken, New Jersey. Founded in 1870, it is one of the oldest technological universities in the United States and was the first college in America solely dedicated to mechanical ...

Hoboken, New Jersey Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,690 i ...

. After moving to California with his family, he lived in

Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

and later,

Rancho Palos Verdes Rancho Palos Verdes (Spanish for "Green Sticks Ranch") is a coastal city located in Los Angeles County, California atop the bluffs of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, neighboring other cities in the Palos Verdes Hills, including Palos Verdes Estate ...

. He worked as an engineer for 27 years at

Pacific Telephone & Telegraph The Pacific Bell Telephone Company (Pacific Bell or Pac Bell) is a telephone company that provides telephone service in California. The company is owned by AT&T through AT&T Teleholdings, and, though separate, is now marketed as “AT&T”. The ...

, and became an active participant in the local

Republican Party Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party. Republican Party may also refer to: Africa *Republican Party (Liberia) * Republican Part ...

and a close friend of future governor

George Deukmejian Courken George Deukmejian Jr. (; June 6, 1928 – May 8, 2018) was an American politician who served as the 35th governor of California from 1983 to 1991. Of Armenian descent, Deukmejian was a member of the Republican Party and he also serve ...

, working in each of Deukmejian's campaigns from 1962 on. In 1980, Dana was elected over

Yvonne Brathwaite Burke Yvonne Pearl Burke (née Watson, later Brathwaite; born October 5, 1932) is an American politician and lawyer from California. She was the first African-American woman to represent the West Coast in Congress. She served in the U.S. Congress from ...

to represent District 4 on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. He served until he retired in 1996, when his friend and chief of staff,

Don Knabe Donald R. Knabe (born October 15, 1943, in Illinois) was a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, serving the Fourth District. The long east–west district runs from Marina del Rey and LAX through the South Bay, Los Angeles Har ...

, was elected to replace him. Dana served as

Chair of Los Angeles County The Chair of Los Angeles County, formally the Chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, and sometimes known as the Mayor of Los Angeles County, is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the county government. They are members o ...

and was president of the Coliseum Commission and the Southern California Regional Airport Authority. The Deane Dana Friendship Park and Nature Center in San Pedro is named in his honor.In Memoriam: Deane Dana, County Supervisor 1980–1996
/ref> Deane Dana died April 21, 2005, at Torrance Memorial Hospital in

Torrance, California Torrance is a city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area located in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city is part of what is known as the South Bay (Los Angeles County), South Bay region of the m ...

. He is buried in Green Hills Memorial Park in Rancho Palos Verdes.

References

Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors People from Long Beach, California California Republicans 1926 births 2005 deaths 20th-century American politicians People from Rancho Palos Verdes, California {{California-politician-stub