Charles Fletcher, 82, Dies; Founder of Home Federal

Charles Kimball Fletcher, founder of the county’s largest savings and loan and a member of a pioneering San Diego family, died Sunday of cancer. He was 82.

Fletcher, who founded Home Federal Savings and Loan in 1934 and helped build it into the nation’s ninth largest, was described by an associate Monday as a “perpetual motion machine.”

“Charlie believed you could accomplish anything you wanted if you put your mind to it and your effort to it,” said Robert Adelizzi, president of Home Federal. “He was certainly a strong exemplar of that. He just never stopped.”

Others said Fletcher, a one-time congressman, was known as a generous man who took a special interest in all his employees.

“He was very informal,” said Linda Suverkrubbe, employed by Home Federal since 1959 and now secretary to Fletcher’s son, Kim, who is chairman and chief executive officer of the savings and loan. “Everybody was on a first-name basis with Charlie, from the people in the cafeteria to the president of the company. It didn’t make any difference.”

Marge Rouzzi, now retired but Fletcher’s personal secretary for almost 20 years, said that in the company’s earlier days, Fletcher would make a point of bringing a small gift back from his world travels for each employee. He was also known to offer his condominium on the beach in Hawaii to anybody in the company who cared to use it when he was away.

“He was a wonderful man,” Rouzzi said.

Born in San Diego in 1902, Fletcher was the third of Edward and Mary Fletcher’s 10 children. Edward Fletcher, who came to San Diego from Massachusetts in 1888, was a key player in bringing a water supply to San Diego and is credited with creating reservoirs at Lakes Hodges, Cuyamaca and Henshaw.

The elder Fletcher also helped develop Del Mar, Solana Beach, Grossmont, Mt. Helix and Fletcher Hills.

Charles Fletcher attended grammar school in San Diego and graduated from San Diego High School in 1920. He graduated from Stanford University in 1924 and studied at Oxford University for a year before traveling in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Fletcher married Jeannette Toberman of Hollywood in 1926. After spending several years selling stocks and securities in Los Angeles, he founded Home Savings with $9,500 in capital in 1934. By 1942, when Fletcher enlisted in the Navy, the company had grown to $4 million in assets.

After the war, Fletcher served one term as California’s 23rd District Republican congressman.

He retired as president of the firm in 1963 and, four years later, at age 65, he relinquished his job as chairman of the board.

Fletcher then moved to Hawaii, where he was general manager, then president and chairman of Pioneer Federal Savings and Loan Assn. He divided his time between Hawaii and Del Mar.

An avid swimmer, Fletcher at age 19 set the world record in the 200-meter breast stroke. He swam daily until he entered Mercy Hospital three weeks ago.

Fletcher is survived by his wife, Jeannette; two sons, Kim of San Diego and Peter of Rancho Santa Fe; a daughter, Dale Lingenfelder of Solana Beach; four brothers, Edward of Fletcher Hills, Willis of Point Loma, Ferdinand of Point Loma, and Stephen of Rancho Santa Fe; two sisters, Mary Louise Glanz of Rancho Santa Fe and Virginia Hawk of Fletcher Hills; 12 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

Memorial services will be at 2 p.m. Thursday at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 2728 6th Ave. In memory of Fletcher, flags will be flown as half-staff at all Home Federal branches this week.