Obituaries : Stephen D. Gavin; Insurance Executive, Civic Leader

Stephen D. Gavin, insurance executive and Los Angeles civic leader who was the chief executive assistant to Mayor Norris Poulson and a former member of the Police Commission, has died. He was 77.

Gavin died Saturday of a stroke while vacationing in Cork, Ireland, his administrative aide at Gavin Associates Inc., Lilian Matthewson, said Tuesday.

A popular adviser at City Hall through several administrations, the conservative Gavin held the No. 2 position in the mayor’s office, the equivalent of deputy mayor, from 1957 until Poulson completed his term in 1961.

Gavin served as a police commissioner under Mayor Tom Bradley from 1981 until Bradley asked him to step down in 1984. He was also a former board president of the Fire and Police Pension Commission.

Although he was known as a strong supporter of former Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, Gavin once said: “I would personally prefer if he kept a lower profile as far as politics is concerned. . . . It muddies the objectives of the department.”

Even more visible in civic organizations than government, Gavin served as president of the Central City Assn. of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Opera Company and the Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce. At the time of his death, he was chairman of the California Community Foundation and United Way of California.

He had served as a director of the California Special Olympics, the Skid Row Development Corp., the Hollywood Bowl Assn., the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, Los Angeles Beautiful, Town Hall, the Los Angeles Welfare Planning Council and the Los Angeles chapters of the Red Cross, United Way and Urban League.

“Too many persons emphasize our rights and privileges and not our responsibilities,” Gavin once told The Times. “If I have a philosophy of life, that is it--that everyone has a responsibility not only to himself but to all others as well.”

A third-generation Californian born in Ventura, Stephen Donovan Gavin earned a degree in business administration at Loyola University and served in the Army during World War II.

Building his career in insurance and finance, Gavin worked for the Bank of America trust department, Johnson & Higgins insurance brokers and Northwestern Mutual Life.

He joined Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Co. in 1961 as an assistant vice president and retired in 1982 as vice president and assistant to the chairman for public affairs.

Gavin then served as president and chief executive officer of Goleta Communications Corp. until it was sold in 1986.

Interested in music, although he had no formal training in it, Gavin was a major booster of the Hollywood Bowl and Los Angeles’ fledgling opera company, which he headed in the early 1960s.

“We will live to see the day,” he confidently predicted to The Times in 1957, “when Los Angeles becomes the music center of the world.”

Among his many awards, Gavin received the City of Angels Award from the Central City Assn. in 1987 for his work on Metro Rail and other community projects, and earlier this year a Cardinal’s Award from Cardinal Roger M. Mahony for his leadership in the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese. Gavin belonged to the Knights of Malta and the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher.

He is survived by his wife of 41 years, the former Alicia Diaz; two sons, Stephen and Patrick; a daughter, Dolores Gavin Shipman; a brother, Kevin; a sister, Cecilia O’Meara, and four grandchildren.

Funeral Mass is scheduled for today at 11 a.m. in St. Brendan Church, 3rd Street and Van Ness Avenue in Los Angeles.

The family has asked that memorial donations be sent to the Good Shepherd Center for Homeless Women, 267 N. Belmont, Los Angeles, Calif. 90026; to the Sister Servants of Mary, 2131 W. 27th St., Los Angeles, Calif. 90018-3018, or to the Loyola High School Scholarship Fund.