Ken Sampson Saluted for Work on Dana Point Harbor, County Parks

The man who played the leading role in the development of Dana Point Harbor and who also was instrumental in creating Orange County’s master plan for regional parks more than 20 years ago was honored Wednesday by the Board of Supervisors on his 80th birthday.

A few hours after the morning ceremony, he drove to Dana Point, parked at the end of Street of the Blue Lantern and stood for a while on a bluff-top park named for him: the Ken Sampson Overview.

“I have to admit I feel a little proud,” he said.

Below him stretched the harbor with its 2,500 boats snug behind a milelong breakwater, the tall ship Pilgrim anchored in front of the Orange County Marine Studies Institute on whose board of directors he still serves as vice president and the walkways, restaurants, shops and sport-fishing docks--all there largely because of his efforts.

The 15-year-old harbor was conceived, financed, engineered and constructed while Sampson served as director of the county Harbors, Beaches and Parks Department. As part of his job, he made two trips to Vicksburg, Miss., where the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operates a waterways testing station. There, mock-ups of the seawalls were subjected to tank tests of wave, wind and tide actions to obtain the best possible conformations for the Dana Point Harbor.

In a resolution commending Sampson for his services, the $24-million harbor was described as “among the finest small-craft harbors in the world.”

The resolution, which declared April 19 as Ken Sampson Day, also noted that his regional parks master plan of 1965 “contributed to the expansion of the Orange County regional park system from 850 acres to 8,500 acres by 1975.”

Sampson, who retired from public service in February, 1975, lives in Newport Beach and still does some work as a marine engineering consultant “just to keep myself a little busy.”