Anthony Di Giovanni, Former San Clemente Mayor, Dies at 69

Anthony R. Di Giovanni, a former mayor of San Clemente and a co-founder of two local banks, died Monday after a lengthy illness. He was 69.

Di Giovanni had retired from an active civic and business life. For the last three years, he had battled stomach cancer, his wife, Julia Di Giovanni, said.

She said he died at their San Clemente home late Monday.

Di Giovanni was mayor of San Clemente from 1975 to 1976.

He was a longtime local businessman who had co-founded the Bank of San Clemente and Mariner’s Bank. In addition, his wife said, he also helped establish the Bay Area Bank in Redwood City in Northern California.

Di Giovanni was born in Midland, Pa., in 1921. He served in the Marine Corps at El Toro and after discharge, he and his wife settled in San Clemente in 1955.

The Di Giovannis owned Tony’s Sporting Goods and Camera Store, then a pawnshop and locksmith establishment.

“He was instrumental in putting the Bank of San Clemente together with a number of other businessmen in town,” local attorney Patrick Lane said.

Lane, who is also a former mayor, was on the City Council with Di Giovanni, who served from 1974 to 1978.

Di Giovanni was also active in the unsuccessful push to get the Nixon library located in San Clemente, where the President’s former Western White House was located.

He is survived by his wife; daughters Gina Marie Smith and Marisa Di Giovanni, both of San Clemente; six brothers and sisters, and four grandchildren.

A rosary will be said at 7 p.m. Thursday at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church in San Clemente. A Mass will be held at the church at 10:30 a.m. Friday. Interment will be at Ascension Cemetery in El Toro.

The family suggests that donations be sent to Comboni Missionaries, Cincinnati, Ohio; the Our Lady of Fatima Education Fund at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church in San Clemente, or the American Cancer Society.