The Newhalls Host A-Plus Party in Piru

James Dickason is certainly one of the great raconteurs of Los Angeles. For a party, that’s a plus, and he was telling tales about searching in San Francisco for his original birth certificate under “Baby Dickason” (his parents didn’t name him for 10 days) at his retirement party over the weekend at the Piru Mansion in Piru.

Piru? That’s the town inland from Ventura with a small brick bank, the quaint schoolhouse and Scott and Ruth Newhall’s magnificent Victorian Piru Mansion, rebuilt several years ago after a spark from a painter’s torch had burned it to the ground in 15 minutes. Miraculously, the bougainvillea and the palm trees remained with the ageless hibiscus; the gardens were the setting Saturday evening for Dickason’s farewell dinner as chairman and CEO of the publicly owned Newhall Land and Farming Company.

Mansion owners Scott and Ruth Newhall (he is a direct descendant of Henry Mayo Newhall, who came to California in the Gold Rush, made a fortune in San Francisco and bought the Rancho San Francisco Spanish land grant that had been owned by the historic del Valle family) hosted the party and tributes. Newhall Company president Thomas L. Lee, new CEO, and his wife Colleen extended the old-fashioned hospitality. And there were almost no regrets to the invitations.

It was like an upscale adventure out West. (Printed directions about taking Highway 126 to Ventura and “driving into Piru you will be on Center Street. When you get to the center of town (a bank on the corner on your left) continue straight ahead about two blocks to the school parking lot on your right. Drive in and park. A shuttle bus will take you to the Mansion.”)

Magnates of the business and political world couldn’t resist: Warren and Marie Christopher (he negotiated the release of 52 American hostages in Iran in 1980 and now heads Stanford University’s $1 billion-plus campaign); Peter and Helen Bing (he’s on the Stanford board); Jim and Inge Miscoll (he’s executive vice-president, Bank of America); Paul and Marjory Miller (he’s chairman, Pacific Lighting); Fred and Peggy Hartley (he’s chairman of Unocal); Terry Van Gorder (president, Knott’s Berry Farm); Bill Schulte (Western regional manager of Peat, Marwick & Mitchell) and Marilyn; Bob Wycoff (president of Arco) and Anne; Bowen and Jan McCoy (he is West Coast managing partner Morgan Stanley); David Anderson (president, General Telephone) and Marilyn were only a few of the titans and their wives.

Attorney Bob Hastings drove up from Montecito, and got help to recharge the battery in his Seville from a Rococo waiter who absolutely refused a tip. Oil and land investor Selim Silkha was with Mary Hayley. Close Dickason pals Russ and Sally White brought Margie Marble. California State Sen. Ed Davis and his wife Bobbie, who live in Valencia, had only to pop over for the fun. Attorney George and Betsy Link of Brentwood drove just a few miles from their holiday hideaway. And Chuck and Carolyn Miller (he’s president Avery International) reluctantly left their 7-week-old newly adopted baby girl at home.

Dickason’s gracious wife Linda had assembled the entire family: Daughter Margie (working on her Ph.D. at Stanford in French art history) flew in from New York; young Brad was there, and so were son Tom and his wife Lisa and Jim and his wife Joan. And, additionally, there were Newhalls--Scott and Ruth’s sons Skip and Tony and the latter’s wife, Reena.

The honoree won’t be lounging. He’s taking an office downtown with Dickinson Ross, the better to keep up all those boards--Wells Fargo, Stanford, Pacific Lighting, Museum of Science and Industry, Southwest Museum.

On cue, as Scott Newhall began to toast Dickason, the Newhalls’ Great Dane, Tori, galloped into the limelight. But it was Dickason’s night, with good cause. Dickason, 65, joined White Investment Company, which managed the Newhall family’s real estate, right out of Stanford Business School and moved to Southern California in 1963 to develop the Newhall company, which owns 123,000 acres of farmland (the Newhall Ranch with 37,000 acres is twice the size of Manhattan), developed Magic Mountain and staged the planned development of the community of Valencia. Added his successor, Lee, “Jim has done an incredible job of management. Our stock traded at $2 in 1974 when he took over (as CEO), and now it’s at $40.” Another kudo: Dickason headed the Los Angeles United Way as chairman in 1985-86, raising more than $84.6 million, the largest United Way campaign ever in Los Angeles.

UPSCALE: Diahann Carroll stars when Vista del Mar Associates hosts its elegant evening Sept. 12 at the Century Plaza to honor Nathan Kates. Sylvia Mathes is Associates president. Laura Fuhrman and Gayle Rodgers are chairing the event.

ESCALATION: There were Californians galore in attendance when Lester B. Korn was sworn in as ambassador of the United States and representative of the U. S. to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations in the Benjamin Franklin reception room at the State Department. Wife Carolbeth Korn held the Bible for the swearing-in, with proud daughters Jessica and Jody looking on. Californians attending included Sen. Pete and Gayle Wilson, Rod and Carla Hills, Chuck Schneider, Mike and Linda Curb, Richard Ferry, Los Angeles County protocol chief Sandy Ausman, Harriett and Howard Schreiber, Bob and Donna Tuttle, Barbara Sayre Casey and Robert Rollo. Also in on the congratulations were Larry and Inga Horner (former L. A. residents now in New York heading KMG Peat Marwick), and Ted and Nell Schad, formerly of San Marino.

BAYOU BALL: The Beverly Hills Country Club hosts a Bayou Ball on Saturday to raise funds for the Los Angeles Mission on Skid Row for construction of a new $11.25-million facility. Janice Martin is organizing the event.

PAST PERFECT: Wendell Niles Jr., owner and president of Niles International and Reebok International, Ltd., hosted cocktails at the Bistro to introduce monsieur Fabrice Bastard-Rosset, marketing director of Louis Roederer Champagne of Reims, France. Among the crowd, celebrities who have played in the Niles International tennis tournaments in Monte Carlo and Las Hadas. . . . Contributors to the Marshall P. Riddick Youth Center on Overland Avenue celebrated the grand reopening with an open house. . . . Marcelle and Martin Becker took over the Bistro for her birthday with 100 closest and dearest including Suzanne Pleshette and Tony Gallagher, Marcel and Sydney Beckerman, Kathy and Rick Hilton, Jane and Bob Kramer, Anne and Jimmy Murphy, Linda Tallen, Sedge and Henry Plitt and Eddie Albert . . . Leonard Cohen, president and chief operating officer of National Medical Enterprises, spoke at the 60th anniversary dinner of the Garfield Medical Center. . . . Travelers Aid Society generated more than $50,000 when several hundred dined around the auction at the Beverly Hilton headed by Happy I. Franklin and S. J. Gaido.