Cedric E. Sanders; Housing Builder

Cedric E. Sanders, a developer and builder of thousands of homes and military housing units at sites ranging from Air Force bases in South Dakota to coastal lands in Southern California, has died at 75.

Sanders died in Rancho Santa Fe on Dec. 2 of cancer.

Grandson of William Alen, an Englishman who established a ranch on land now occupied by USC, Sanders founded his real estate development business in 1936 and became a pioneer in tract housing, where he was among the first to build homes with concrete slab floors and drywall interiors to hold down costs.

He served in the Army Air Corps during World War II and was a past president and lifetime director of the Building Industry Assn. of Orange County, a director and member of the executive committee for the Building Industry of California, and a former officer of the Home Builders Assn. of Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties.