History of Philanthropy in San Diego

The history of philanthropy in San Diego commences well before 1909, but thanks to Louis J. Wilde and Lena Sefton Wakefield, this was a bellwether year.

The Iowa-born Wilde wintered here in 1903-04, and like so many who preceded and followed him, couldn’t bear to leave. Wilde quickly encountered sufficient success in banking and real estate to contribute the electric fountain that flows to this day in Horton Plaza. Famed architect Irving Gill modeled it after a monument in Athens, Greece, as part of a masterly transformation that upgraded the plaza from a dusty meeting ground to a cozy urban retreat.

Nearly obscured from sight by flowing cascades, a stone plaque on the north side of the fountain (it faces the U.S. Grant Hotel, which was then under construction) reads, “Presented to the city of San Diego by Louis J. Wilde, 1909 A.D.” Cynics suggested the gift wasn’t an act of pure philanthropy, but was perhaps akin to Chicago aldermen buying voters rounds of drinks, since Wilde had mayoral ambitions (he was elected to two terms, in 1917 and 1919). Nonetheless, the fountain surely was a refreshing sight in 1909, and it remains the gift that keeps on giving. Visitors admire the carved likenesses of Juan Cabrillo, Junipero Serra and Alonzo Horton that adorn three of its sides, even as panhandlers rest from the weary labors of the day in the fountain’s dancing, breeze-sculpted shadows.

Lena Sefton Wakefield (later Mrs. Henry B. Clark) is chronicled elsewhere in the Charitable Events Registry, but certainly must be mentioned here. A member of the eminent Sefton family and at times controversial, this formidable lady helped guide San Diego for more than 40 years. A signal contribution was her presentation of the first Charity Ball in 1909. Probably conceived as a one-time event to fund care for sick children, the gala was so successful that another was given in 1910, and others followed one by one, like brilliant-cut diamonds in a J. Jessop bracelet. As a result, the Charity Ball enlivens the calendar to this day. The 100th anniversary ball, titled “A Centennial Celebration,” will be given on February 14, 2009 in the Grand Ballroom of Hotel del Coronado, and among those endowed with “Old San Diego” connections will be committee member Mary Clark, widow of beloved civic leader Dallas Clark and daughter-in-law of the lady who founded this timeless classic. Few would dispute that the Charity Ball helped inspire the construction of Children’s Hospital & Health Center, now named Rady Children’s Hospital due to the beneficence of contemporary San Diego philanthropist Ernest Rady.

The Charity Ball set the stage for the many other annual galas that make the year glamorous a whirl for party faithful. The Candlelight Ball, given for Scripps Memorial Hospital, debuted in 1931, a Great Depression year that might not have seemed auspicious for a fund-raiser. In 1946, immediately following World War II, the Jewel Ball commenced as something of a friends-having-fun party at La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club (supper followed next door at the Marine Room) and became the local powerhouse among fundraisers; August’s event raised well in excess of $1 million. Other lavish and unforgettable parties include the Old Globe Gala, the glamorous Night in Monte Carlo galas at Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, galas for the San Diego Opera and San Diego Symphony, Art Alive at San Diego Museum of Art, the Celebrities Cook for the UCSD Cancer Center gala, the ever-fanciful R.I.T.Z. (Rendezvous in the Zoo) at the San Diego Zoo, the La Jolla Playhouse Gala and the newer but well-established Patrons of the Prado gala given in Balboa Park.

Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore would giggle at the notion that San Diego has old families, yet a tour of our cultural institutions, and of the campuses of our universities and medical centers, makes clear that some of the earliest arrivals repaid the pleasant lives they discovered here by funding some of the city’s treasures. For example, Scripps is a name you might notice here and there around La Jolla, on such internationally famous institutions as Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Scripps Clinic and Scripps Memorial Hospital. The munificent Ellen Browning Scripps retired here from a Midwest publishing career in 1896 and sometimes omitted her name from her philanthropies, such as the Children’s Pool and Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.

San Diego always has been a city of newcomers, and it always amazes that so many of those who prospered in earlier days commenced writing checks as quickly as they could. The phenomenon continues to this day. Gratitude for the sunshine may have much to do with it, but the open-handed way the town welcomes newcomers is a more compelling and charming characteristic of America’s Finest City. John D. Spreckels, a San Francisco tycoon who preferred Coronado and San Diego to his high-stepping hometown, probably did as much to shape the city as Alonzo Horton, whose major gift (very sensibly, and to his own profit) was to move San Diego from dreary Old Town to the sparkling shores of San Diego Bay. Spreckels seems less well remembered than he should be, but among his enduring gifts is the Spreckels Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park.

This park, the largest such urban enclave in the United States, highlights the utterly unselfish philanthropy of another giant of local history. Showing the sort of foresight that sometimes seems rare in these parts, the city fathers in 1868 set aside 1,400 acres for what was then called City Park. Few improvements were made in the first decades, and developers deviously swiped such acreage as they could. In 1902, Wisconsin-born George Marston, who in 1870 moved here at the age of 20 and quickly enough became a wealthy merchant, offered to spend $10,000 on a professional plan to realize the park’s potential. His vision for what became Balboa Park lost out to others, but he more than compensated by gradually purchasing 40 historic acres near Old Town. In time, Marston transformed the site into the Presidio Park we know today, a project that cost him the then enormous sum of $400,000. Another invaluable gift, if one that may not have cost much, was Marston’s formation of the San Diego Historical Society in 1928.

Partly because San Diego often has relied primarily upon real estate transactions and development (and financing both) to generate wealth, the city cycles through boom-and-bust periods as reliably as a washing machine switches from rinse to spin-dry. The need for philanthropy never wanes, however, and understandably intensifies during hard times, which inarguably are the sort of times San Diego is weathering at present. If our history is a guide for the current era, those who love the uniqueness of this place—whether born to pioneer families, or recent transplants from anywhere and everywhere—will follow the city’s admirable traditions of generosity and keep the wheels of charity and culture whirling.

These traditions have been established and maintained by individuals and families whose names are chiseled in stone or cast in bronze on edifices around town, as well as engraved in the hearts of grateful citizens. From early San Diegans to recent arrivals, the lengthy honor roll honors many who have bettered this city, but note that the following list of names does not pretend to include all deserving of mention. Some philanthropists avoid social prominence, but it came with the territory for older families with such names as Frost, Burnham, Lane, Fletcher, Sefton, Bullard, Gildred, Hall, Klauber, Luce, Jessop, Levi, Marston, Golden, Peckham, McColl, Ledford, Showley and Evans. Generosity through the decades has been continued by such families as the Copleys, Cushmans, Geisels, Hahns and Thorntons, and more recently by such benefactors as Donald and Darlene Shiley, Joan Kroc, John and Rebecca Moores and Irwin and Joan Jacobs.

Several individuals who are particularly well acquainted with the past and present of San Diego philanthropy kindly contributed reminiscences and observations. Tommi Lane Adelizzi, whose greatgrandfather, the Reverend Alfred Kingsley Glover, founded the local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (it later merged with the San Diego Humane Society), credits the Charity Ball with creating the local tradition of fund-raising. Thompson Fetter, a former president of the San Diego Zoological Association whose wife, Jane Trevor Fetter, chaired an early R.I.T.Z. gala and a recent Charity Ball, says, “Philanthropy is a challenging concept in San Diego,” but adds that “donor support for our local institutions is growing. Our future is bright.” George Gildred, whose father built the Fox Theater (now Symphony Hall) and was executive director of the epochal 1935 Panama Pacific Exposition, remembers that his father “always revered the generosity and vision of George Marston, who wove the backbone of philanthropy for San Diego.” Dixie Jenkins Unruh, an Idaho native whose many posts have included president of the Old Globe board of directors and chairman of the UCSD board of overseers, notes, “Philanthropy starts from the heart and the desire to help a nonprofit meet its goals,” adding that most institutions “could not survive without charitable giving.” But survive they will, attests former Charity Ball chairman Mari Hamlin Fink, who says, “As in other great cities that have benefited from the strength of generations of volunteers and donors, San Diego benefits from a legacy of the ‘giving ethic.’” Or to use the words of former Jewel Ball and R.I.T.Z chairman Dotti Howe, “It might begin with selling Girl Scout cookies and graduate to bake sales, but the feeling of joy from helping others grows with success.” Let the joy continue!

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