Luce Shaped Much More Than a Savings and Loan

Much of the talk this week about the possible demise of Great American Bank has concerned its chief executive, Gordon Luce, and the role he has played in shaping San Diego.

There is a feeling that an era is passing.

Luce is San Diego aristocracy. His family was influential in banking and law in San Diego when Pete Wilson’s grandfather was a beat cop in Chicago and Maureen O’Connor’s relatives were still in Ireland.

By bloodline and education (Stanford), Luce inherited and expanded leadership roles in the worlds of finance, Republicanism and civic philanthropy.

How much individual power has the 64-year-old Luce quietly wielded in San Diego? Here is an example, from the 1983 mayoral campaign between O’Connor and Roger Hedgecock:

When Hedgecock badly needed support from Republicans and the business community for the runoff, the road unmistakably led to Luce. Luce’s friend, Bill Cleator, had been eliminated in the primary.

The abrasive Hedgecock, a nominal Republican, had shown little use for the party and had recently compared the county central committee to Nazis.

Still, Luce listened to his plea and gave a nod of approval.

Business leaders gathered at Luce’s suggestion to hear Hedgecock; the central committee fell into line; a fund-raiser attended by Luce reaped a record $100,000, and the Republican National Committee distributed 65,000 absentee ballots.

Perhaps most important, Wilson, a loyal Republican, stayed neutral in the race to choose his successor.

Wilson’s heart was with O’Connor. But with Luce, a confidant of Ronald Reagan, backing Hedgecock, the best Wilson could do was to make no endorsement at all.

Remember that the election proved much closer than the pollsters predicted and that a shift of 4,500 votes out of 201,000 cast would have tilted the result away from Hedgecock.

Consider the impact on recent San Diego history if Luce had stayed neutral (as Cleator did) or if his support had been less enthusiastic.

That, dear reader, is a lot of individual political clout. I doubt we’ll see its like again soon.

Sinceerly Yures . . .

Working press only.

- I like that form letter from the circulation department of the San Diego Daily Transcript promising to bring you the paper “in a timely manor .”

I presume a “timely manor” is Joan Kroc’s house with a clock.

- “Capital News,” the flashy new ABC newspaper drama set in Washington, has a hungry young reporter said to be fresh from an unidentified paper in San Diego.

“Nice clips,” growls the editor.

- As part of its North County push, the San Diego Union sent out “Dear Subscriber” letters and ran a full-page house ad. The letters and ad emphasize the Union’s local ties.

The letter to The Times’ office in Vista, which subscribes, was addressed to “L.A. Reporters.”

Very funny.

Pucker Up

Sean Lomax, the Whistling Sailor from San Diego, is in Louisburg, N. C., to defend his championship at Saturday’s 15th Annual National Whistling Championship.

Lomax, 29, is a fire-control petty officer aboard the submarine tender McKee at Point Loma’s Ballast Point. He’s not your ordinary “Anchors Aweigh” shower whistler.

Last year he won with “Dance Boheim” from “Carmen” and the theme song from “The Sting.” This year, he’s ready with Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” and Rossini’s overture to the “Barber of Seville.”

“I have a pucker whistle that I incorporate with humming, a vibrato and a lot of trilling,” Lomax told United Press International. His goal is to whistle the national anthem at a Super Bowl.

If he wins at Louisburg, he’ll have to hang up his lips, competitively speaking. No three-time winners allowed.