Barbara Pagen, 87; Philanthropist, Board Member, Community Activist

Barbara Jean McHenry Pauley Pagen, who served on the boards of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Los Angeles Orphanage Guild and the John Douglas French Foundation for Alzheimer’s Disease and was a charter member of the Music Center’s Blue Ribbon 400, has died. She was 87.

Pagen died Monday at her home in Beverly Hills.

Born Bobette Jean McHenry in Modesto, Pagen earned a bachelor’s degree at UC Berkeley, where she served as president of the Class of 1936.

A year later she married Edwin W. Pauley, who became one of the nation’s wealthiest oilmen, an advisor to presidents and a longtime member of the UC Board of Regents.

He donated $1 million to help develop the UCLA basketball arena that bears his name. He died in 1981.

In 1985, Barbara Pauley married William R. Pagen, an executive with Pauley Petroleum; he died in 1993.

In 1988, the Pagens donated $5 million to UCLA to establish graduate student fellowships in the College of Letters and Sciences.

In addition to her community work and philanthropic endeavors, Barbara Pagen was on the boards of Pauley Petroleum and Bayou Oil.

She is survived by three children, Susan Pauley French, Stephen McHenry Pauley and Robert Van Petten Pauley; six grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held today at 3 p.m. at All Saint’s Church, 504 N. Camden Drive, Beverly Hills.

The family suggests that memorial donations be made to the McHenry Mansion Foundation or the John Douglas French Foundation for Alzheimer’s Disease.