Mourners Recall Granville as True Public Servant

On the night before his death, Orange County Clerk-Recorder Gary L. Granville was busy hatching plans to counter the negativity he believed was plaguing county politics, a longtime friend told fellow mourners Tuesday.

“Gary was upset ... with too much phony baloney,” political colleague Stan Oftelie said of his final talk with Granville on Feb. 27. “He wanted us to write a [newspaper] opinion piece about it together. He was competitive to the end.”

More than 500 people crowded into the Salvation Army Church in Tustin to remember the many facets of Granville’s life: journalism, public service, church and family.

All five county supervisors attended, as did County Executive Officer Michael Schumacher, his predecessor Jan Mittermeier and former county Sheriff Brad Gates. Former Supervisor William G. Steiner drove from his home in Arizona to speak about Granville, for whom flags were flown at half staff at county offices on news of his death last Thursday.

“I had to be here; Gary was one of the really, really good guys in government,” Steiner explained.

Schumacher told the audience of Granville’s determination during last summer’s rolling blackouts that they not affect service to the public.

“He set up a card table in the yard outside the office, and when the power went down, he took care of the public out there,” Schumacher said. “He set the pace for innovation and service to his customers, the taxpayers.”

Granville, 72, had served in county government for about 20 years. Before that, he was one of the most respected journalists in Orange County.

Granville had run his own machine shop in Orange for 20 years. But at age 40, with three daughters at home, he got his degree in journalism from Cal State Fullerton to fulfill a lifelong dream to be a writer.

Orange County Register editor and writer Larry Welborn, one of the memorial speakers, told the audience that Granville’s first job was with the Fullerton News-Tribune. “I know it couldn’t have paid much, but to Gary, it was the greatest job in the world,” Welborn said.

Granville moved on to the Daily Pilot and later became city editor at the Register.

Oftelie, a fellow reporter in those years, said he once told Granville in frustration that he found himself having to rewrite his stories three and four times to get them right. Granville replied that he often rewrote his own pieces 30 times.

In the early 1980s, Granville went to work for then-county Supervisor Ralph B. Clark and in 1985 accepted an appointment as county clerk. His first major act was to tell the county supervisors that his job should be eliminated, to save taxpayers money.

Supervisors eventually joined the clerk’s job with the recorder’s office, and Granville won election to that position handily.

Granville also became well known for his charity work. He raised funds for the Salvation Army. He also donated all his fees from performing marriages to local charities aimed at helping troubled youths. Granville often spent lunch hours tutoring some of those same teenagers at Santa Ana’s Youth Guidance Center.

“He quietly chipped away at the problem of literacy,” Schumacher said. “He said getting them to read was the best way to get them straight.”

Father Brad Karelius, rector at the Messiah Episcopal Church in Santa Ana, told of Granville and his wife, Joanne, founding the outreach ministry Heart to Heart for the chronically ill and shut in.

“He always lifted my spirits and reminded me that there is no greater honor than to be a servant,” Karelius said.

Many commented on how appropriate it was that the memorial service came on election day, because Granville was a passionate believer that everyone must vote.

Last year, he announced that he would not seek reelection this year. He recently said he wanted to get past his health problems and spend more time with his eight grandchildren.

Three of them spoke at Tuesday’s service. Kevin Mitchell, a linebacker for the University of Oregon, spoke through tears about his grandfather coming to see the UCLA-Oregon game in a wheelchair, determined not to miss it.

“Everybody has a backbone in the family,” Mitchell said. “He was ours.”