Businessman Aaron Lovejoy Is Dead at 58
Aaron Lovejoy of Santa Ana, an influential businessman known as a unifying force and a tireless advocate for small-business enterprise, died Friday, apparently from a heart attack. He was 58.
Besides owning Ultratech Resources Inc., a Santa Ana-based computer systems company, Lovejoy founded the Black Chamber of Commerce of Orange County in 1990. He also served on the boards of the Orange County Purchasing Council and the Orange County Business Council, chairing its small-business executive committee.
He also founded the Small Business Trade Fair, which attracted more than 1,000 participants when last held in 1995.
“In this community, Aaron is a tremendous loss,” said Webster Guillory, chairman of the national Organization of Black County Officials.
Bobby McDonald, president of the Black Chamber of Commerce, added: “He made corporations feel comfortable working with the minority business community.”
Three years ago, Lovejoy received an African American Citizen of Distinction Award from the city of Santa Ana and the NAACP.
In 1994, he was named chairman of the Diversity Issues Group for the White House Conference on Small Business. That conference helped define the problems and concerns of female and minority business owners.
Lovejoy is survived by JoAnn, his wife of 17 years; his mother, Alice Deans of Detroit; two sisters, Sheila Perry of Santa Ana and Marjorie Lovejoy of Willow Run, Mich.; a brother, Tyrone Deans of Detroit; and a daughter, Sonja Wells of Baltimore. Services are planned for 1 p.m. Saturday at First A.M.E. Church, 2270 S. Harvard Blvd., Los Angeles.
