James N. Gamble, 81; Pasadena Civic Leader

James Neare Gamble, 81, a Pasadena philanthropist and civic leader whose family built Procter & Gamble Co. and the architecturally prized Gamble House, died Monday at Huntington Memorial Hospital after a long illness.

Gamble was a third-generation member of the family that created Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati. The youngest of six children of Cecil and Louise Gamble, he grew up in Cincinnati and attended Princeton and Harvard universities. After serving in France and Germany as a battalion commander during World War II, he moved to Pasadena in 1948.

In 1956 he founded the investment firm Gamble, Jones, Morphy & Bent. He was chairman of the board of Huntington Memorial for more than 30 years, as well as co-founder of the nonprofit group Pasadena Area Residential Aid.

He also headed the board of advisors of the Gamble House, which his grandparents, David and Mary Gamble, built as a retirement home in 1908.

Designed by architects Charles and Henry Greene, the house is considered one of the finest and best-preserved examples of the Craftsman style, which strongly influenced California residential architecture at the beginning of the 20th century.

James Gamble lived in the house for a short time as a child when his parents sent him to Southern California to recuperate from pneumonia. In 1966, he and his siblings donated the house to the city of Pasadena and the USC School of Architecture.

His first wife, Harriet Seaton, died in 1995. In 1997 he married Helen Lee Wall, who survives him along with two daughters, Tracy Hirrel and Terry Boyer; two stepsons, Jim and Peter Lichtman; four grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.