Funeral Today for Former El Monte Mayor Geronsin

A Funeral service will be held today for former Mayor Elmer Geronsin, who died Saturday at Methodist Hospital of Southern California in Arcadia after a four-month battle with liver cancer. He was 71. The service will be at 11 a.m. at the United Methodist Church in El Monte. Geronsin will be buried at Live Oak Cemetery in Monrovia.

Geronsin served on the El Monte City Council from 1966 to 1973, when he resigned rather than make financial disclosures required by the Political Reform Act of 1974, his widow said. Blanche Geronsin said her husband worked for a savings and loan institution at the time and was concerned that he might be forced to reveal information about the private affairs of some clients.

After leaving the council, Geronsin continued to be active in civic groups. He was past president of the El Monte Chamber of Commerce, the local chapter of Rotary International and the Five Points Business Assn. He also served on the Planning Commission and on the El Monte Union High School District Board of Education.

Councilman Jack Crippen, who served on the council with Geronsin, described his longtime friend as “a good man” who “never let up.” Until a few weeks ago, Crippen said, Geronsin had not missed a Rotary meeting in 38 years. “He loved the community where he lived,” Crippen said.

Geronsin, a decorated veteran of World War II, moved here with his wife from Sibley, Iowa, in 1945. In addition to his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Kathy Shriver, of Glendora, and a son, George, of Anaheim.