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Community loses leader who helped write Newport Beach city charter

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Deepa Bharath

Leslie Steffensen, a longtime Corona del Mar resident who helped to

write the Newport Beach city charter, died Tuesday of natural causes. He

was 95.

Born in Bricelyn, Minn., Steffensen moved with his family from Santa

Ana to Corona del Mar in 1938 and had lived here ever since.

Steffensen had his own lumber business, but he was better known and

loved for the significant contributions he made to his community.

In 1954, he became chairman of the board of Freeholders, the group

that created the city charter. Steffensen also served as a trustee of the

Newport Harbor High School District and was chairman of the Orange County

Grand Jury. He was named Newport Beach’s Citizen of the Year in 1957.

Steffensen’s talents as a master of ceremonies was well-appreciated by

the local community, said his longtime friend, Robert Gardner, a Daily

Pilot columnist and a former judge. Steffensen continued as toastmaster

for Amigo Viejos, a group he and Gardner founded in 1950.

“He was spontaneous,” said Gardner, who knew Steffensen from the time

they attended Huntington Park High School together in the 1920s. “He had

a great sense of humor. He and I, we never rehearsed.”

Gardner said Steffensen played a significant role in writing the

city’s charter.

“The charter was very important for our city at that time,” he said.

“It made Newport Beach a progressive and modern town.”

Steffensen is survived by his son, daughter-in-law, four

grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren and four

great-great-grandchildren.

He always put his family first, said son Don Steffensen of Palm

Desert.

“He was a great father,” he said. “He led the family.”

The younger Steffensen said he was happy to have spent the last few

weeks with his father.

“We were very, very close,” he said. “He never lost his sense of

humor, and his mind was as sharp the day he died as it was years ago.”

A man of many talents, the elder Steffensen was active in theater

during the 1930s and ‘40s and played leading roles in such musicals as

“Oklahoma.” He and his family also put on marionette shows for the

community during Christmas.

“People passing by would honk, and we’d come up to the front window

and put up a show for them,” Don Steffensen recalled.

But most of all, his father loved the city and the community he lived

in, the son said.

“He told us he moved to Corona del Mar because he thought it was a

great place to raise a family,” Don Steffensen said. “He never lost that

feeling of pride for Corona del Mar, where our family spent several happy

days together.”

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