Meet Candidate Henderson: From Iowa, Lawyer, Republican : . . . and Rival Candidate Ottilie: From Iowa, Lawyer, Republican

San Diego City Council candidate Bruce Henderson admits that, in comparing his personal background to that of his opponent, Bob Ottilie, “the top half of the resumes look almost identical.”

Like Ottilie, Henderson grew up in Iowa, having moved there with his family as an infant after being born in San Luis Obispo. Henderson’s father, like Ottilie’s, was a doctor. As youths, both had railroad jobs--Ottilie as a track layer and Henderson as a switchman. Both men graduated from prestigious universities--Ottilie from Stanford and Henderson from Harvard. Both became lawyers. Both are single. And both, as Henderson wryly puts it, “somehow ended up living in San Diego, in the 6th District, running for City Council as Republicans.”

“The big personal difference between us is primarily age,” Henderson, 44, said. “I’ve had 12 more years to work in the community. I think that gives me a leg up.” He paused, then chuckled as he added, “At least in politics.”

Raised in Cedar Falls, Henderson, the older of two brothers, had considered a career in medicine until two factors changed his mind in his late teens. “One thing that steered me away from medicine was my vivid memories of the phone ringing all hours of the night and my father constantly going out on calls,” Henderson recalled.

Then, in the summer before his senior year in high school, Henderson visited Japan as an American Field Service exchange student--leading to a lifelong fascination with Japan and the Far East.

Majored in Asian History

At Harvard, Henderson majored in Asian history and later received his law degree from UC Berkeley. His first legal experience came in the late 1960s as a Peace Corps volunteer on the island of Yap--perhaps best known for its large, circular stone currency--in the western Pacific Ocean. He helped the Yap legislature and courts to bring neighboring islands under their jurisdiction.

When Henderson returned to this country, he worked as an assistant public defender in Los Angeles in 1970. Later that year, Henderson moved to Japan, where he practiced with an American firm in Tokyo that represented numerous large American and British companies, handling the firms’ banking and licensing work there.

After four years in Japan, Henderson once again returned to the United States, this time settling in San Diego to practice law with his brother in La Jolla. Until he terminated his practice last June to concentrate on his campaign, Henderson served business, real estate and, in his words, “environmental law” clients.

Henderson admits that abandoning his law practice for the prospect of a $45,000-a-year council seat is a “sizable financial sacrifice,” but says that he could live comfortably on the money he has already made.

“I’m in the fortunate position of not really needing a lot more money,” said Henderson, who lives in Pacific Beach. “I don’t have children, so I’m not facing a $20,000-a-year college bill. You come back to the old question: How much money do you really need? Sure, like anybody else, I wouldn’t mind having more money. But I have enough for the kind of life I want.

“Besides, what gives me pleasure is not making more money, but trying to find solutions to problems like sewage and trash, trying to make a real difference in my community. Sometimes I think it’s the history student in me. I’ve read so much about people who made a difference. I’d love to be able to do that, even in a small way, on the local level.”

This is Henderson’s second bid for public office, the first being an unsuccessful race for the County Board of Supervisors in 1976. “I was in that race for a couple of weeks before I realized that there was another guy running named Roger Hedgecock who seemed to know what he was doing,” he joked. “I realized I had no chance. I was too embarrassed to even take money from my friends.”

Over the last decade, Henderson has been active in a wide range of social and civic organizations. He is the former president of Citizens Coordinate for Century III, a respected environmental planning group, and the former president and a current board member of the Assn. of Concerned Taxpayers. With the latter group, Henderson played a leading role in the 1978 campaign for Proposition 13.

Henderson also maintains an active interest in Japan, serving as a member of the board of directors of the San Diego Yokohama Sister City Society, the city’s most active sister city program, and as president of the San Diego Japanese Friendship Garden Society, a group that plans to build a 10-acre Japanese garden in Balboa Park.

An avid domestic and international traveler, Henderson said that his other hobbies include “fast walking,” concerts, plays and other cultural events.

Henderson insists that his political ambitions now begin and end with the San Diego City Council, adding that he could envision spending the rest of his working life at City Hall.

“I don’t want to live in Sacramento or Washington, and I’m not interested in the Board of Supervisors,” Henderson explained. “I don’t want to sound presumptuous, because I haven’t even won my first office yet, but I can easily see myself in local politics for 20 years. Assuming I’m successful in solving problems and in my relations with the public, I think I could be happy doing this for a long, long time.”

District 6

Next month, San Diegans will elect four new members of the San Diego City Council. These short profiles of 6th District contenders Bruce Henderson and Bob Ottilie are intended to help acquaint voters with the candidates’ personal backgrounds. Similar stories on the two finalists in each of the three other council races will follow before Election Day.