Peter Frank Schabarum (January 9, 1929 – August 2, 2021) was an American football player and politician who was a member of the

California State Assembly The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature, the upper house being the California State Senate. The Assembly convenes, along with the State Senate, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. The A ...

and 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 ...

Biography

Schabarum was born January 9, 1929, in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. He attended and played football and baseball at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. He was drafted by the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

in the 2nd round (17th overall) of the 1951 NFL Draft, and played for the 49ers in 1951, 1953 and 1954, taking time off from his football career to serve in the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

during the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

Politician

Schabarum represented the 49th district in the

from 1967 to 1972. He was appointed to the

in March 1972 by Governor

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

following the death of incumbent

Frank G. Bonelli Frank G. Bonelli (October 15, 1906 – February 14, 1972) was the Los Angeles County Supervisor of the 1st District from 1958 to 1972, a member of the California State Assembly for the 52nd district from 1953 to 1958, and a member of the Hunting ...

and elected to the position three months later in a hotly contested special election that pitted him against his former roommate and colleague Assemblyman William Campbell. Schabarum was re-elected in 1974, 1978, 1982 and 1986. He did not seek re-election in 1990, but served three extra months until Feb. 28, 1991 to allow a special election to be held following a court ruling that redrew the boundaries of his district to create a majority-Latino district, later occupied by

Gloria Molina Jesus Gloria Molina (born May 31, 1948) is an American politician and a former member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Molina broke into politics in 1982 by going agai ...

. Schabarum was noted for opposing government unions, supporting privatization of certain county duties, and supporting the decentralization of County government. In addition, he was the leading backer of California's Proposition 140 on the 1990 ballot, which imposed term limits on the California Legislature.

Tax evasion conviction

When Schabarum left office, his unspent campaign funds were transferred to a nonprofit organization, the Foundation for Citizen Representation. That foundation later transferred $50,000 to a foundation affiliated with the

Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is the largest natural and historical museum in the western United States. Its collections include nearly 35 million specimens and artifacts and cover 4.5 billion years of history. This large coll ...

, which then subsequently used the funds for overseas trips for him and his wife after he left office. Prosecutors charged Schabarum with felony grand theft, tax evasion and perjury, but Schabarum took a plea bargain to plead guilty only on the tax evasion charges, receiving three years of probation. Two years later, the charges were reduced to misdemeanors and the probation was terminated early.

Personal life

Schabarum died of natural causes on August 1, 2021, at the age of 92.

Parks

Schabarum Regional Park

Peter F. Schabarum Regional Park, locally known as Schabarum Regional Park, is located in

Rowland Heights Rowland Heights is an unincorporated area in and below the Puente Hills in the San Gabriel Valley, in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 48,231 at the 2020 census. Rowland Heights is in the Los Angeles metropol ...

, eastern Los Angeles County, California. It is in his former supervisorial district, and named after him. The regional park offers playgrounds, picnic areas, and horseback riding and trails in the surrounding

Puente Hills The Puente Hills are a chain of hills, one of the lower Transverse Ranges, in an unincorporated area in eastern Los Angeles County, California, in the United States. The western end of the range is often referred to locally as the Whittier Hills. ...

Cherry Blossom Festival

Schabarum Regional Park is also known for

ume ''Prunus mume'' is an East Asian and Southeast Asian tree species classified in the ''Armeniaca'' section of the genus ''Prunus'' subgenus ''Prunus''. Its common names include Chinese plum, Japanese plum, and Japanese apricot. The flower, long ...

and

sakura A cherry blossom, also known as Japanese cherry or sakura, is a flower of many trees of Prunus, genus ''Prunus'' or Prunus subg. Cerasus, ''Prunus'' subg. ''Cerasus''. They are common species in East Asia, including China, Korea and especia ...

cherry blossoms. 500 ume trees were donated by

Kairaku-en is a Japanese garden located in Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. Along with Kenroku-en and Koraku-en, it is considered one of the Three Great Gardens of Japan. Overview Kairaku-en was built in the year 1842 by Tokugawa Nariaki, ''daimyō'' of ...

Mito Mito may refer to: Places *Mito, Ibaraki, capital city of Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan *Mito, Aichi, a Japanese town *Mito, Shimane, a Japanese town * Mitō, Yamaguchi, a Japanese town * Mito District, a district in the province of Concepción, Per ...

, Ibaraki,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

when the two parks established a "sister-park" relationship in 1992.

Schabarum Trail Park

The Schabarum Trail Park is located near

Walnut A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''. Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true ...

, also in his former supervisorial district.Schabarum Trail: Amar Road to picnic area, at Nobody Hikes in L.A.
/ref>

References

External links

Peter F. Schabarum Regional Park
- Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation
Schabarum Regional Park Support Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schabarum, Peter F. 1929 births 2021 deaths Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Republican Party members of the California State Assembly Sportspeople from Los Angeles County, California California Golden Bears football players San Francisco 49ers players University of California, Berkeley alumni People from Indian Wells, California