Ex-Police Chief of Redondo Beach Dead at 77

Retired Redondo Beach Police Chief Louis J. Sunyich, who helped establish a South Bay Regional Crime Lab during his seven-year tenure, died last Thursday at the age of 77, family friends said Wednesday.

A memorial service for both Sunyich and his wife, Margie, who died Dec. 9 at the age of 69, has been scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday at the Rock Garden of the Los Angeles Police Academy.

Born Jan. 9, 1914, in Los Angeles, Sunyich completed bachelor’s and master’s degrees at USC before joining the Los Angeles Police Department in 1942. He enlisted in the Air Force shortly afterward and was a lieutenant by the time he returned to the Police Department.

Sunyich, who rose to the rank of captain in the department, became chief of the Redondo Beach Police Department in 1968 and became active in several South Bay charitable organizations before his retirement in July, 1975.

A founding member and past chairman of the board of the South Bay Alcoholism Council, Sunyich also became a member of the board of Behavioral Health Services Inc., a Gardena-based organization that provides counseling for drug and alcohol abuse. Sunyich had been chairman of that board for eight years at the time of his death. He also was a past board chairman at Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center in Culver City.

Sunyich is survived by two brothers, Edward of Grants Pass, Ore., and Steve of Bellflower, and a sister, Eva Held of Huntington Park.

The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to Behavioral Health Services, the South Bay Alcoholism Council or to the Didi Hirsch center.