My hire date was October 6, 1954 at Sav-on Drug #23, at the time, the 12th and newest store of the fledgling chain.
I started at Sav-on while attending Santa Monica College and later University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). In 1959, I was transferred to Sav-on #39 in Garden Grove, CA. as an assistant manager. Two and a half years later I was transferred back to Los Angeles as store manager. After two more lateral transfers I was promoted to District Manager. At that time, there were 66 stores and five district managers (1972). In November 1980, Sav-on Drug, Inc. was acquired by the Jewell Companies. I continued to work as a DM until I retired after 40 plus years. I was fortunate to have loved my job, the people and the companies that I worked for nearly 36 years.
After retirement, my wife and I pretended that we were kids again, just let out of school for the first day of summer vacation. We did this for twelve years until I woke up one morning and realized that I needed to be productive again. I joined SCORE (Service Corps. of Retired Executives) and served for seven years. I also joined the "Volunteer in Policing" program in Newport Beach, CA. where I have been serving now for eight years and having more fun than an old guy should have.
Roberta and I will celebrate our 59th year of marriage later this year. We met at Sav-on #23 the year that I began this "temporary" job. We have two daughters, Leslie and Gayle. Leslie is a graphic designer and doer in Orange County and Gayle is an attorney in San Francisco. We have two grandchildren Adam 24 and Jake 18. Adam is attending Harvard University as a Masters candidate in Software Engineering and Jake is graduating Santa Margarita Catholic School (with a 4.9 GPA) and will attend university on the East Coast in August with biology major.
I have been an alumni club member since 2007 and am excited to see Sav-on members are starting to hold annual events in Southern California. Sav-on Drug will be celebrating our 70th Anniversary in October in Newport Beach and I look forward to seeing all you alums there!
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