Hoping for Rebound
What’s the axiom about not keeping a good executive down? David Eichten may be Exhibit A. Fired earlier this year by directors of Sun Savings & Loan for his perceived activist role in the ouster of Daniel W. Dierdorff as chairman, Eichten last week was hired by Central Savings as senior vice president and general counsel.
But it’s hardly a cushy job. Financially troubled Central is being managed by executives of First Federal Savings Bank of Arizona, who have asked regulators for a five-year management contract. That request was made two months ago, and there’s still no word from the regulators.
Locals Hit Forbes List
Seven San Diegans, and two others who spend time here, made Forbes magazine’s list of the 400 wealthiest Americans on Monday. (The country’s richest folk can be seen on Page 1 of Business; a complete list is on Page 13.)
The locals, whose net worths are estimated by the magazine’s staff, include: Joan Kroc, owner of the San Diego Padres and widow of McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc, with an estimated net worth of $525 million; Helen Copley, publisher of Copley Newspapers, with a net worth of $335 million; Margaret Cargill, whose Minneapolis-based family owns one of the world’s biggest grain-trading firms, is worth about $250 million; Robert Howard, whose Howard Publications operates several small daily newspapers, is worth about $250 million; Sol Price, founder of now-defunct FedMart and the successful Price Co., is worth about $200 million; developer Ernest Hahn is worth an estimated $200 million, and M. Larry Lawrence, developer and chairman of the Hotel del Coronado Corp., is worth an estimated $180 million.
Two others who spend time in San Diego also made the list. Joe Lewis Allbritton, with an estimated net worth of $450 million, owns banks, newspapers, TV stations and funeral homes, and is a real estate developer. Alex Spanos, owner of the San Diego Chargers, made the list with his estimated net worth of $200 million.
Total net worth for those nine living here full- or part-time: $2.6 billion.
Covering the Coverage
The New York Times’ front-page coverage of Mayor Roger Hedgecock’s conviction last week had a few errors of note. The story, which was inexplicably datelined Los Angeles, had this East Coast headline: “Mayor on Coast Is Found Guilty at Perjury Trial.” Then it said that Hedgecock was connected to the securities firm of J. David & Son instead of J. David & Co., and it noted that J. David defrauded investors of more than $60 million instead of more than $80 million.
Time magazine, which mentioned the original Hedgecock indictment a year ago only as a brief, ran a full column with a photo of the mayor in Monday’s edition. The magazine had never previously mentioned the J. David & Co. affair.
Other local newspaper news of note regarding Hedgecock: The San Diego Daily Transcript, the local business and legal paper, carried its first-ever six-column headline and its first-ever above-the-masthead editorial headline. (Special advertising sections have in the past been run above the Transcript’s mast.)
The previous headline record-holder at the paper: A three-column headline when C. Arnholt Smith’s U.S. National Bank was taken over by regulators in 1973.
Frauds Are Old Hat
Her younger sister Maureen gets more publicity. But that doesn’t seem to bother Colleen O’Connor, the UC San Diego history professor and one-time congressional candidate who will be holed up this fall putting the final touches on her book on the J. David & Co. imbroglio.
One minor rub: She doesn’t yet have a publisher. But she has an agent and remains confident.
The focus of the book, O’Connor said, is to “take the business scandal and put it in a political and historical perspective.”
She has found that the infamous fraud scandals of the last few years aren’t unique to contemporary San Diego. “We had just as many outrageous schemes at the turn of the century in San Diego,” she said.
Fresh-Air Fiasco
Dirk Sutro, managing editor of San Diego Home/Garden magazine, just wanted some fresh air when he, his wife and two friends strolled outside Oct. 3 during a break in the music at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach.
The foursome was seated on a bench outside the club, facing the side of a van, when, suddenly, there was a crash and the van was pushed toward the bench.
“I looked like a Lincoln log set spilled on the floor,” Sutro recalled last week from his hospital bed at Scripps, where he will remain in traction for the next two months with a dislocated and broken hip, a fractured right leg and a fractured pelvis. The others suffered only minor bruises, and the woman who was driving the car that crashed into the van was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving.
Despite his confinement, Sutro’s work continues. Last week he was making routine business calls for the magazine and he figures he’ll be writing within the month.
