John R. Steinhaus; Retirement Home Administrator

John Roderick Steinhaus, 75, president and chief executive of California Lutheran Homes for three decades. Steinhaus led the expansion and development of the Alhambra-based nonprofit corporation, which operates 10 retirement homes in Southern California serving 1,500 people. He served on the first board of examiners for nursing home administrators in California and held the first license issued by the state when the licensing of the administrators became law in 1972. Steinhaus was regarded as an innovator in the nursing home industry, starting programs for the deaf and people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. An adjunct professor in the USC School of Health Services Administration, he was the recipient of honors from the American Assn. of Homes and Services for the Aged and the American College of Health Care Administrators. Born in Max, N.D., he flew missions over Europe during World War II for the Army Air Corps. After the war, he earned a bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley, attended Chicago Lutheran Theological Seminary, and earned a master’s of divinity degree in the first graduating class of Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in 1953. On Aug. 30 of heart failure at Kaiser Hospital in Hollywood.