High School District Gets $5 Million for Scholarships

The family of a former Huntington Beach developer presented a local school district Tuesday with $5 million for scholarships, a gift that officials said may be the largest donation of its type in Orange County.

The Frank M. Doyle Foundation will make scholarships available to Huntington Beach Union High School students to continue their education, whether at a vocational school or an Ivy League university, Doyle’s widow said.

“Our scholarship program is not discriminating,” said Trudy Doyle, 78, whose husband died in May. “We hope it will be able to run the whole gamut. If students want to go to a hairdressing school, we’ll help them. If they want to shoe horses, I’ll back them. If they want to go to Yale Law School, they’ll qualify.”

The son of Irish immigrants, Frank Doyle was born in Ohio and later ventured to Orange County, where he lived for 20 years and built shopping centers and thousands of homes in the 1960s and ‘70s.

His dream of starting a scholarship endowment was inspired in part by his own struggles, his widow said. He attended Fordham University and Rutgers University but never graduated because he had to work to support his family, she said.

When the Doyles came to California in 1951, he discovered Orange County’s growth potential and launched a successful company that developed homes and shopping centers in Huntington Beach, Anaheim, Fountain Valley, Newport Beach and Fullerton.

He was best known for building Orange County’s first Spires Restaurant in Anaheim and the large Lucky supermarket in Huntington Beach’s Golden West Plaza, the Doyles’ family lawyer said.

“I knew Frank for 10 years, and he has always wanted to create a foundation for students,” said Youssef Ibreham, who was Doyle’s leasing manager and property broker.

The scholarship program will be funded by half of Trudy Doyle’s stake in Golden West Plaza, the only commercial property the family still owns.

The foundation will award about $500,000 in scholarships annually. Student recipients will be selected by a panel made up of Trudy Doyle, her son, daughter and four grandchildren. The scholarship amounts will depend on the students’ needs, Trudy Doyle said.

“What my husband wanted to do is make sure people who work hard to make their way into the world will get help. We want to make people who will serve each other as a community.”

Supt. Ron Bennett of Huntington Beach Union High School District, which operates eight continuation and high schools, said, “The family’s gift in the name of Frank Doyle is going to make a tremendous difference and help young students accomplish their dreams.”