Mildred B. Beckstrand; First Palos Verdes Estates Councilwoman

Mildred Burrows Beckstrand, 93, the first city councilwoman and a community leader in Palos Verdes Estates. A resident of the area for more than 50 years, she won her council seat as a write-in candidate in 1946, years before women became prominent in politics. She and her husband, the late cancer surgeon Grant Beckstrand, moved to the area after graduating from the University of Utah. Mrs. Beckstrand, herself an artist, was president of the Palos Verdes Arts Assn. She was also a founding member of St. Mary’s Hospital Guild in Long Beach and an organizing director of Palos Verdes Savings & Loan. During World War II, she was assistant director of civil defense for the Palos Verdes Peninsula. After her husband’s death, Mrs. Beckstrand worked with the Grant Beckstrand Cancer Foundation of Long Beach to endow a chair in surgical oncology at the University of Utah Medical School. On Monday in Palos Verdes Estates after a stroke.