Mission San Juan Promoter Will Fly North This Summer

Richard F. Landy, the man who has kept meticulous track of the comings and goings of the swallows--and the tourists--in San Juan Capistrano, won’t be there when the little birds depart in October for their winter homes in South America.

Landy, who was director of tourism for the old Mission San Juan Capistrano for 6 1/2 years, said Friday he is keeping a promise made to the woman he married a little more than a year ago.

He said he told his wife, Carol, that he would follow her wherever she wants to go to advance her career.

Landy said: “Carol’s been offered a post as assistant director of the San Jose Internal Revenue Office. It’s her opportunity to move into the rank of an executive. So, we’ll be leaving for there about the middle of August.”

He said he had little doubt that his own career, based on about 25 years of experience in the travel promotion business, will suffer, although he added that he didn’t yet know exactly what he’d be doing next.

The Rev. Paul Martin, pastor of the mission, said that in addition to being “the kind of nice person who is hard to come by,” Landy reversed the mission’s drop in tourism during the gasoline-shortage years of the late 1970s and early 1980s. No successor for Landy has been named.

But Landy said he is finding it difficult to disassociate his life from the spring arrival of the swallows in San Juan Capistrano, and their fall departure, which is officially marked on Oct. 23.

“We may not be here. . . . My wife and I are due to have our first baby Oct. 21,” he said.