Orange County Business History, Part 7, Entrepreneurs

ORANGE COUNTY BUSINESS HISTORY

THE SCHMID COLLECTION

Presented by: Aaron Rosenberger

Sponsored by: The Walter Schmid Center for International Business

1902-1995Farmer,

Businessman, Real Estate

Entrepreneur and Philanthropist

Walter Schmid

ENTREPRENEURS

Entrepreneur Merriam-Webster’s definition of an

Entrepreneur: Entrepreneur: One who organizes, manages,

and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/entrepreneur

Bernardo YorbaPart of the Yorba family who built Orange County’s first house, outside of Mission San Juan Capistrano

He created the first gravity-driven irrigation system in California

He founded Mission San Juan Capistrano on Nov. 1, 1776

Photo credit: San Diego Historical Society

Father Junipero Serra

Father Junipero SerraHe founded the first nine of the twenty-one missions Spain established in California

George HansenHe shaped the city of Anaheim into a grape-growing community, which was shipping grapes to as far away as China by the 1880’s

George HansenDug a five-mile ditch to provide irrigation for the city of Anaheim

Founder of Irvine Ranch

He and his descendents once owned a quarter of Orange County

James Irvine

James IrvineHe created the Irvine Company which became a powerful force in agriculture and later real estate development

Founder of Santa Ana

Contributed to the split of Orange County from Los Angeles County

William Henry Spurgeon

President of the first Board of Supervisors for Orange County

Founder of Santa Ana

William Henry Spurgeon

The McFadden Brothers

Founders of what is now known as Newport Beach

They operated one of Southern California’s largest ship yards, ran their own railroad line, and worked in real estate

Richard O’Neill

He bought a 205,000 acre ranch in 1882 some of which would become parts of Orange and San Diego Counties

Richard O’NeillMission Viejo and Rancho Santa

Margarita were built on O'Neill's former ranch.

George and Edward Amerige

Photo courtesy of the Fullerton Public Library Photo Courtesy of the Fullerton Public Library

Edward

George

Founders of the City of

Fullerton

George and Edward Amerige

They bought 430 acres of land for approximately $68,000 and established the town of Fullerton on July 5, 1887

Clarence Utt

He planted the first citrus trees in the Lemon Heights area, which became Tustin and Santa Ana

He helped organize and was the first president of the Tustin Unified School District

Clarence Utt

Charles C. Chapman

First to ship Valencia Oranges by rail

Photo Courtesy of Fullerton Public Library

Charles C. ChapmanFullerton’s first Mayor

Established the Fullerton News in 1902

Chapman raised funds to bring Chapman College to Orange.

Charles C. Chapman

Charles C. ChapmanThe College was first incorporated under the name California Christian College, and later changed to Chapman College and is now Chapman University

Lewis Moulton bought more than 22,000 acres of ranch land in South Orange County

He married Nellie Gail, an accomplished painter

Lewis Moulton & Nellie Gail

Lewis Moulton & Nellie Gail

She was a founding member of Laguna's College of Art and Design

Nellie Gail was president of the Laguna art gallery

Laguna Art Museum

Lewis Moulton & Nellie Gail

Moulton Ranch eventually became Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, and Aliso Viejo

Lewis Moulton & Nellie Gail

He helped put three Orange County cities on the map: Huntington Beach, Seal Beach, and Stanton

Founded city of Stanton

Phillip Stanton

Built Seal Beach pier in 1906

Phillip Stanton

Established the Pacific Electric Railway

Bought land in areas not yet reached by existing public transportation

Henry Huntington

Henry Huntington

Created trolley lines connecting Orange County cites

His railroad put Bay City, Pacific City, and Balboa on the map

Henry Huntington

Henry Huntington

Helped create the cities of Seal Beach, Huntington Beach, and Newport Beach

Glenn Martin

Made the first successful flight in California history

Built a biplane design and assembled it in an abandoned church in Santa Ana

On August 1, 1909 his plane flew a few feet off the ground for 12 seconds

Glenn Martin

Turned Laguna Beach into the premier art colony of Southern California

Frank Cuprien

Founded the Laguna Beach Art Association

Transformed the town’s community center into an art gallery

Frank Cuprien

Joseph Allen Beck

He started the first ferry service between Newport Beach and Balboa Island

Joseph Allen Beck In 1920, the first car was ferried across

the bay for 10 cents

Ferry services continue to this day with three 64 ft. boats that can carry three cars each time

Joseph Allen Beck

Started with small berry farm in Buena Park

Walter and Cordelia Knott

Grew a roadside chicken dinner business into two full-fledged restaurants

Walter and Cordelia Knott

They created a Ghost Town to keep customers busy who often waited hours to eat at their restaurant

Walter and Cordelia Knott

This Ghost Town turned into America’s first modern amusement park, now known as Knott’s Berry Farm

Walter and Cordelia Knott

A civil engineer who was active in Orange County for fifty years

Courtesy of the Orange County Register

Nat Neff

Nat NeffIn 1914, he was appointed Division Engineer of the Orange County highway department

Nat NeffResponsible for engineering the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway, Harbor Boulevard, Ortega Highway, and the Prado Dam

Started a small family-run contracting firm on Main St. in Santa Ana

John Simon Fluor Sr.

His company expanded into the worldwide construction giant known as Fluor Corporation

Fluor Corporation built the Alaska Pipeline

John Simon Fluor Sr.

Founded a small airfield that evolved into today’s John Wayne Airport.

Eddie Martin

He sold Orange County Airport in 1937

He started Martin Aviation, a manufacturer of unique aircrafts

Eddie Martin

Created the City of San Clemente

Photo courtesy of San Clemente Historical Society

Ole Hanson

Ole HansonIn 1925, Hanson and his sales team sold the first lots in San Clemente from a small sales tent in the middle of the city

Ole HansonBy the end of their first day, $125,000 worth of property had been purchased

Sister Elizabeth Lirette

First administrator at St. Joseph’s Hospital of

Orange, she was influential in making the hospital what it is

today

Sister Elizabeth Lirette She worked with other ministries such as

Taller San Jose, which aids uneducated and unskilled Latinos in gaining an

education

R.C. Hoiles

Raymond Cyrus Hoiles bought the Orange County Register in 1935

R.C. Hoiles R.C. invited

Register readers to engage in public dialogue

Founded Carl’s Jr. Drive-Up Restaurants

Carl Karcher

Carl Karcher Opened his first full-service restaurant in

Anaheim, Carl’s Drive-In Barbeque

Carl Karcher 2004 Carl’s Jr.® restaurant chain earned

revenues of approximately $1.4 billion

Co-founded Orco, a concrete-block company in Santa Ana in 1946

Peter Muth

Peter MuthOrco became one of the nation’s largest

manufacturers of concrete blocks

Copyright © 2004 Robert A. Hansen

An accomplished baker, she launched her legendary pie business in Orange County

Marie Callender and son Donald

Marie Callendar and son Donald

The first pie and coffee shop opened in Orange in 1964 and the restaurants were sold for 90 million dollars in 1986

Images courtesy of mariespies.com

Founder of Fender Guitars

Leo Fender

Leo FenderCreated the legendary Telecaster and

Stratocaster

Fender was inducted into both the Rock and Roll and Country Music halls of fame

The world’s largest lima bean producer

Opened South Coast Plaza of Costa Mesa in 1967

Henry Segerstrom

Henry Segerstrom Founder of South Coast Plaza, which

generates almost $1 Billion in annual sales

Founded Fleetwood Enterprises, Inc., producers of recreational vehicles, headquartered in Riverside

John C. Crean

John C. Crean Fleetwood Enterprises is one of the

nation’s largest producers of recreational vehicles and is the leader in building, retailing, and financing manufactured homes

Images courtesy of Fleetwood.com

Founder of William Lyon Homes Inc., which is now one of the nation’s largest homebuilders

William Lyon

William Lyon Co-purchased Aircal in 1981 and sold it

five years later for a $150 million dollar profit

Surfboard designer

His board designs made a lasting impact of the sport of surfing

Hobie Alter

Hobie Alter Also designed the Hobie 14 Catamaran

that revolutionized the sailing world

One of the most influential inventors of the 20th century

Founded National Technical Laboratories, now known as Beckman Coulter Inc.

Arnold Beckman

Arnold Beckman He received multiple awards, including

induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame

Built the world famous, million-dollar Crystal Cathedral of Garden Grove

Reverend Robert H. Schuller

Reverend Robert H. Schuller He is the founder, leader, star, chief

fundraiser, and largest donor to his religious empire

Creator/Founder of Disneyland

Walt Disney

Walt Disney In 1955, Anaheim orange groves

became Disneyland, which now attracts more than 13 million visitors a year

Instrumental to the founding of the University of California, Irvine

Joan Irvine Smith

Joan Irvine Smith She fought Irvine Ranch board

members for a 1,000 acre donation of the ranch to build University of California, Irvine

Inventor who moved to Santa Ana in 1957Holder of 63 patents

M. Lowell Edwards

M. Lowell Edwards Founder of Edwards Laboratories, now

known as Edwards LifeSciences Corporation

The success of his medical center established Orange County as a center of the health industry

Pharmacist who formulated a concoction of nasal drops to fight congestion

The formula became known as Allergan

Gavin Herbert

Gavin Herbert Started his own pharmacy in Orange

County and became one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical firms

Ross W. Cortese Builder of the Leisure World communities in Orange County and across the nation

Ross W. CorteseBought 3,000 acres at Moulton Ranch where he built Leisure World Laguna Hills

In 1963 Cortese was named builder of the year by the National Association of Home Builders

Transformed Birtcher Development & Investment Company into one of the largest commercial-property managers of the nation

Art Birtcher

Art Birtcher Reshaped Southern California through

high-profile developments such as the $200 million Xerox Center in Santa Ana

Land baron who built much of Orange county starting in 1958 with Bren Co.

Bren developed his building empire that culminated with his ownership of the Irvine Company

Donald Bren

Established the Don Koll Company, Inc.

Donald Koll

Donald Koll The Don Koll Company is a specializes in

the construction of custom homes and multi-tenant industrial business parks

Changed his family owned business from Orange County Title to First American Title

Donald Kennedy

Donald Kennedy First American is now a Fortune 500

enterprise and was valued at $2.2 billion in 2004

He founded Arnel Development Company in 1968

Owned Seattle Mariners from 1981-1989

George Argyros

George Argyros

Former Chairman of the Board of Trustees at his alma mater, Chapman University

Ambassador to Spain

Has five stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Courtesy of the Gene Autry Collection

Gene Autry

Gene Autry Purchased the Los Angeles Angels, at

the time a new expansion team Moved the Angels to Anaheim

Co-founded the company Ceradyne Incorporated in 1967

Joel Moskowitz

Joel Moskowitz Ceradyne Incorporated is an advanced

technical ceramic corporation Named Ernst &Young Entrepreneur of the

Year in Orange County

Orange County residents who created a trans-pacific oil kingdom from Tokyo to Singapore and back to California

Harold and Betty Hutton

Harold and Betty Hutton

Philanthropists, supporting a number of organizations including the Harold Hutton Sports Center at Chapman University in 1978

Founded clothing line St. John Knits Inc. from their garage in the San Fernando Valley

Kelly Gray

Gray Family

Gray Family In their first year they made nearly

$100,000 in sales, and they now post profits of almost $400 million per year

Developer of Little Saigon in Westminster

Courtesy of Eugene Garcia, Orange County Register

Frank Jao

Frank Jao Renovated a section of Westminster

into America’s largest and most established Vietnamese community

Courtesy of daytrippen.com

Founded Anaheim Trucking Company

Former Mayor of Anaheim

Charlie Pearson

Founded Oakley Inc.

Jim Jannard

Jim Jannard Introduced new features to sunglasses

including: hingeless arms, tougher lenses, and titanium castings

Forbes listed Jannard’s net worth at $1.5 billion in 2005

Fernando NieblaFounded Infotec Development which focuses on designing large computer networks for the defense department

Philanthropist who interests include the Hispanic Education Endowment Fund

Created the Leatherby Insurance Company

Founded Unicare Financial Corporation

Ralph Leatherby

Ralph Leatherby Founded The Center for Entrepreneurship and

Business Ethics at Chapman University Endowed the Leatherby Libraries at Chapman

University

Donald R. Beall

President and chief executive of Rockwell International

Donald R. Beall Transformed Rockwell from a military-

based company to a technological-driven firm

Rockwell became NASA’s leading contractor for the space shuttle program

Walter B. Gerken

Chairman at Pacific Life and Annuity Company of Newport Beach

Walter B. Gerken Founded "PIMCO" Pacific Investment

Management Company LLC in 1971 He endowed the Walter B. Gerken Chair

Enterprise and Society at UCI

James Doti 11th President of Chapman University

James Doti Chair of the Association for Independent

California Colleges and Universities Has raised endowment for Chapman

University from $36 million in 1994 to $175 million in 2005

Co-Founded computer chip-engineering firm Broadcom in 1991 in Redondo Beach

Broadcom’s profits rose to nearly $2 billion a year

Henry Samueli

Henry Samueli

Purchased the Mighty Ducks Hockey Team in 2005

Henry T. Nicholas Co-Founded Broadcom in 1991

His net worth is a reported $1.1 Billion

Resources The Orange County

Register’s 100 most Influential Individuals of Orange County

Fullerton Public Library

San Clemente Historical Society

The Gene Autry Collection

Daytrippen.com

Eugene Garcia – Orange County Register Back-In-Style.com

Max Dolberg Fleetword.com OCBook.com SFGAMworld.com Robert A. Hansen Mariespies.com Chapman Department

of PublicationsResources:

Special Thanks to:

Waltmar Foundation, Director of Waltmar Foundation Dr. Shauna FarleyDr. Pradip K. Shukla Dr. Lynne M. Pierson Doti Craig Williamsand Korey Ward