Community loses leader who helped write Newport Beach city charter
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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