Raymond Arbuthnot, 89; Grower, Official of County Fair Assn.

Raymond Arbuthnot, 89, a citrus grower and a director of the Los Angeles County Fair Assn. for 27 years, five of them as president, died Thursday of heart failure at his home in Rancho Cucamonga.

Arbuthnot, a fixture in the association that operates the Fairplex in Pomona and governs the largest annual county fair in the United States, was named to the fair’s hall of fame on Sept. 6. He had been associated with the fair since 1922 when, as a young boy, he won a ribbon for exhibiting a calf.

Educated at USC, Arbuthnot later served on its board of trustees and was president of its alumni association. He went into the family citrus farming business and owned ranches in the Inland Valley and Nevada.

He was a director of Pomona Valley Hospital and president of the La Verne Fruit Exchange and the La Verne Orange Assn. He also was active in the Rancheros Vistadores horseback riding group.