Obituaries : * Irving H. Kline; Automobile Dealer, Horseman

Longtime Ventura resident and local businessman Irving H. Kline died Sunday of pneumonia at the Californian Convalescent Hospital in Ventura. He was 89.

Kline was the first car dealer to operate at the Ventura Auto Center. He also helped found Ventura’s Westland Savings & Loan, which later became part of the World Savings & Loan Bank.

Auto dealer Frank Kirby, who moved to the Auto Center right after Kline in 1970, said 10 dealers now operate at the site.

“It was just farm fields used by a winery and for beans,” Kirby said. “Irv was the one who thought of moving out here. It was a very shrewd move. He was a great man, very sharp.”

Kline was born Aug. 27, 1906, in Cleveland and moved with his family to San Diego as a small boy.

During the Second World War, he trained cavalry officers for the U.S. Army.

He had a lifelong love of horses, said Genevieve Kline, his wife of 60 years.

“He was quite a horseman,” she said.

At one point during the war, he performed in an equestrian event at Fort Riley, Kan., in front of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, his wife said.

Kline settled in Ventura in 1950 and worked as a Cadillac dealer for many years. He was interested in helping others, his wife said. He was past president of the Ventura Shrine Club and the Southern California Western Section Seniors Golf Assn. and was a member of the Ventura County Historical Society.

“Irv was a fantastic man in so many ways,” Mrs. Kline said.

Kline is survived by his wife; a sister, Judith Esacove of Beverly Hills; and two nephews.

At his request, there will be no service.

Memorial donations may be made to the Shriner’s Hospital for Crippled Children, 3160 Geneva St., Los Angeles, 90020; the Los Angeles Orthopedic Hospital for Children, C/O Doug Buckmaster, 2400 S. Flower St., Los Angeles 90007-2679; or to the Livingston Memorial Visiting Nurses Assn. of Ventura, 1996 Eastman Ave., Ventura.