Newport Beach Civic Leader Phillo R. Tozer Dies at 74

Longtime Balboa Pavilion and Davey’s Locker owner Phillo R. Tozer died Thursday at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian of respiratory complications related to arthritis. He was 74.

“He had a very good life. Phil was always a very active citizen in various city projects. He was very cooperative but he did speak out if he thought the city was wrong,” former Newport Beach City Manager Robert Wynn said, noting that median landscaping and signal synchronization were two of Tozer’s pet issues.

Tozer funded a memorial tribute commemorating Newport Beach residents who had been lost at sea, Wynn said. The statue remains on a median in Cannery Village.

Some of his philanthropy was not as well known, Wynn said.

“There were a lot of kids in his lifetime who could not afford a professional education. He was always paying for someone to go to law school or medical school, helping people who he thought had potential,” said Wynn, who will speak at a memorial reception Monday.

Tozer, an avid boater and fisherman, was born July 19, 1921, in Delta, Utah. He moved to Anaheim with his family in 1929 and to Newport Beach in 1945, after a stint as a B-17 bomber pilot in World War II.

Tozer is survived by his wife of 52 years, Bette, sons Mitchell Ray Tozer of Newport Beach and Matthew Brent Tozer of Costa Mesa, brother Richard Tozer of Anaheim, sister Shirley Bigler of Apple Valley, and grandchildren.

Funeral services are scheduled for 1 p.m. Monday at Pacific View Memorial Park in Corona del Mar. A public memorial tribute will follow at 2 p.m. at the Balboa Pavilion, 400 Main St., Newport Beach. Interment will be private. The family, who will join friends at the tribute, asks that donations be made to the Hoag Hospital Foundation, Pulmonary Division, P.O. Box 6100, Newport Beach, 92658-9825.