Civic Leader Robert Gaugler Is Dead at 55

Robert A. Gaugler of Mission Viejo, an accountant lauded for his community service, including the founding of the Girls Club of Garden Grove, died Sunday at Mission Community Hospital. He was 55.

Gaugler’s death was caused by coronary failure, according to Pat Szekel, one of the partners in the accounting firm Gaugler founded in Orange in 1968. Gaugler is survived by his wife, Mary, and three grown daughters, Sheryl Roberts, Christine Gaulger and Karen Joy.

Memorial services are scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at St. George’s Episcopal Church, 23802 Avenida de la Carlota, Laguna Hills. Burial services will follow at Pacific View Memorial Park in Newport Beach.

A resident of Mission Viejo for 15 years, Gaugler was born in Easton, Pa. He served with the Navy during the Korean War and later graduated from Cal State Long Beach in 1959.

He attended graduate school at UCLA before becoming a certified public accountant. He later moved to Garden Grove.

His civic activities included presidencies of the Garden Grove Jaycees, the California Junior Miss Pageant, Garden Grove Kiwanis, the Orange County-Long Beach chapter of the California Society of CPAs and the Orange County State Planning Council.

He also founded the Girls Club of Garden Grove and was a member of the Garden Grove Planning Commission. For his achievements, he was given the Garden Grove Jaycees’ distinguished service award in 1967.

At the time of his death, Gaugler was president of Kiwanisland, which provides its park and amphitheater in Garden Grove for use by other nonprofit organizations.

Gaugler had suffered from heart ailments for the last 10 years, Szekel said. His family requests donations be made in his name to the Orange County Heart Assn.