SOCIETY / DAVID NELSON : Hahns Open Lavish Estate to Aid Museum

Even if Sunday followed the summer solstice--the longest day of the year--by just two sunsets, candles burned palely at 7 p.m. on the terrace dinner tables at the new, rather grand home built by developer Ernest Hahn and his wife, Jean, on their 100-acre Tierra Feliz spread.

The candles, white-flamed in the late afternoon rays that flooded the massive stone terrace, were emblematic of the attention to detail paid by chairman Jean Hahn and the committee of the Thirteenth Anniversary Celebration Dinner, given to recognize and benefit the Mingei International Folk Art Museum. Besides the museum, Tierra Feliz itself and the chance to inspect the lavish new residence were the principal draws for an attendance of 230 that turned out promptly at 4 p.m. for entertainment, dinner and an auction.

The event, subtitled “Sunset on the Terrace,” flowed slowly in a circular motion from the aerie-like house (volunteer room hostesses pointed out the antique master bedroom fireplace brought from Europe and the beveled wooden floors) down the hill to the stables, complete with their own quarters for entertaining, and back up to the two-level terrace.

This area, connected by walkways for formal occasions and also by a waterfall that plunges into a vast, semi-circular pool, gives a view of the lakes, lawns and fairways of the rather aptly named Tierra Feliz . Later, during the dinner, the typical Rancho Santa Fe side show of hot air balloons crowded the nearby sky and provided a diversion between courses of the multiethnic meal.

Pre-cocktail hour amusements included mock golf lessons given by Joey O, self-described as the “world’s greatest acrobatic golf comedian” (how many of them can there be?) and an international horse exhibition and parade. Jean Hahn, a horsewoman and owner, organized this segment both to celebrate classy horseflesh and emphasize the focus on world arts and crafts taken by Mingei, of which she is the current board president.

Riders dressed in garb appropriate to the national origin of their steeds, so that Diane Powers, comfortably straddling her purebred gray Arabian, flashed with Bedouin spangles, while Lorian Stadler chose the more sober, stately Portuguese bullfight parade costume to wear while riding Riena, a gray Andalusian.

The parade of black stallions, thoroughbreds, quarter horses and riders included Gindori, a bay Arabian, and Olympic Gold Medalist in dressage Eloise King, who coaxed her horse to dance and, after the applause, take a bow.

The international theme of the day continued on the terrace with cactus-stuffed empanadas (less prickly an issue than might be supposed) and a dinner of Pacific Rim seafood, French veal en croute , an unusual Chinese salad of cabbage, grapes and seaweed and an all-American finale of ice cream and berries.

Before the meal, both Hahns rose to welcome guests. “A home is no good unless you have a lot of friends in it, and we have a bunch of good friends tonight,” said Jean Hahn. “This is a totally different party, not the run-of-the-mill gala, and we want you all to keep the museum in your hearts when you go home.”

Ernest Hahn, who developed the University Towne Center shopping mall in which Mingei is located and arranged for it to lease space at $1 per year, said “We have a soft spot in our hearts for Mingei, and knew it when it was just rafters and a gleam in (museum director) Martha Longenecker’s eye. Now it’s one of the great folk art museums in the country.”

Guests of honor and former Mingei Presidents Dorothy Day Stewart and Dr. Roger Cornell headed an attendance list that included Emma Lee and Jack Powell, Katy and Michael Dessent, Shirley and Lynn Kovar, Kenneth Rearwin, Peggy Renn, Audrey Geisel, Jenny and Sid Craig, Betty and Alex DeBakcsy, Marge and Author Hughes, Virginia and Jack Monday, Dr. Hugh Greenway, Dorothea Cronogue, Joanne and Frank Warren, Ruth and Jim Mulvaney, Kathy and George Pardee, Maureen King, Charmaine and Maurice Kaplan, and Nora and Alan Jaffe.

SAN DIEGO--Sharp Memorial Hospital is known for delivering--about 9,000 babies were born there in 1990--and Saturday, the Sharp Medical Staff delivered by selling out the second annual Stork Club Ball at a record attendance of 700.

The staff, drawn from the various hospitals and clinics unified under the Sharp Hospitals Foundation, actually hosted the event, and the massive committee consisted almost exclusively of physicians and spouses. The ball benefited the Mary Birch Women’s Hospital now under construction on the Sharp Memorial campus and the development of the Sharp HealthCare Medical Education program.

The larger-than-life size stork that posed outside the entrance to the downtown Marriott’s San Diego Ballroom looked rather like Groucho Marx minus the cigar, thanks to the spectacles that Betty Byrnes, who shared chairmanship duties with husband Dr. Donald Byrnes, placed at the upper end of its beak. She said that the eyeglasses (repeated on the smaller storks that stood in fields of snapdragons and roses on the ballroom tables) represented Sharp Hospital Foundation’s “new, bigger vision,” represented especially by the women’s hospital.

“Tonight is an historical evening for Sharp Hospital and for San Diego because the ball has put us over our goal of $15 million for the Mary Birch Hospital,” said Betty Byrnes. She added that the event was expected to earn in excess of $100,000.

Byrnes later interrupted the post-dinner dancing to announce the topping-out of the fund-raising effort, after which a concealed cocoon dropped yellow, white and blue balloons on the dancers, who popped them with such energy that the ballroom seemed to echo with the noise of fireworks. It was nearly loud enough to drown out the Wayne Foster Orchestra, which played with unusual enthusiasm that evening.

Public fund-raisers remain a novelty for Sharp, which used to limit attendance to staff, and the Stork Club Ball roster was weighted heavily with physicians, board members and allied Sharp supporters. In a widely remarked upon gesture, a large group of physicians chipped in to buy ball tickets for 80 nurses.

Sharp HealthCare’s chief executive officer, Peter Ellsworth, said, “It’s the partnership between the doctors and the hospitals that makes the institution, and it’s a wonderful thing to see the way they’ve supported us tonight.”

That support was especially apparent during the auction, which featured perhaps the liveliest bidding of the year--many items were sold two or three times, and sometimes well in advance of the suggested value. Three top bidders, for example, each paid $1,350 for a $1,000 shopping spree at a local department store.

Paula and Dr. Richard Henderson co-chaired a committee that included Barbara and Dr. Eugene Appel, Eileen and Dr. Alex Pue, Colleen and Dr. Kenneth Roth, Drs. Laura and Robert O’Donnell, Lyda and Dr. Joshua Cohen, Gayle and Dr. Thomas Moyers, Florence and Dr. Randall Smith, Susan and Dr. Nathan Harrison, Joanne and Dr. Gerald Furer, and Kathy and Dr. Jack Schneider.