Obituary: Fran Ursini, proprietor and patriarch of Newport Rib Co., lived ‘Big’
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Francis Albert Ursini wasn’t particularly large in stature, but everyone who knew and loved the longtime Newport Beach resident and original proprietor of Costa Mesa’s family-owned Newport Rib Co. called him Big Fran, or sometimes just Big.
That was just the way he lived, says eldest son John Ursini who, like other members of the close-knit Italian family, started working alongside the family patriarch as a youth and now puts in full-time hours at the Harbor Boulevard restaurant, which turned 40 last September.
Whether tossing out drunken roustabouts who came around after bar sessions, or guarding the Kiwanis’ fireworks stand overnight each July 3 with a baseball bat in hand, serving as a CIF football referee for more than 50 years or restricting excess napkin usage at the annual AYSO Pancake Breakfast, his modest 5-foot-5-inch physical frame belied the enormity of his social stature.
“As small as he was, he acted big,” his son recalled Wednesday. “People would say, ‘Don’t mess with Big.’”
Last Friday, while recovering at Hoag Hospital from emergency surgery to repair an aortic dissection and seeming to be on the mend, the elder Ursini’s heart simply stopped, his son reported Wednesday. He was 86.
Since then, family members’ phones have been ringing off the hook as friends and associates from Big Fran’s many intersecting social circles call to offer condolences or share memories.
“‘One of a kind’ is something that’s coming up a lot in phone calls,” said John Ursini, the eldest of three children Fran had with wife Karen, whom he met in junior high and married in 1962.
“My dad, he ran his own show — he was his own guy. He just operated from such an old-school simplicity, I guess.”
Born on May 21, 1938 in Chicago, Fran Ursini lived and worked in Illinois before moving to Costa Mesa with Karen and a young John in 1965 to escape harsh Midwest winters and to be nearer with his parents, who’d previously moved to Southern California.
When his father, Nick Ursini, purchased the Surfer, a hamburger stand at the corner of 22nd Street and West Oceanfront in Newport Beach, he took a job there and ran the place from 1965 to 1978, offering work to local youth and his own children.
“He quietly and unassumingly loved hiring kids,” John Ursini said, recalling his father both at work and in volunteer roles with youth sports organizations and the Kiwanis Club.
He would go on to run other local businesses, including Hadley’s (which is now Pipeline, run by daughter Laura and son-in-law Jerry), a roller skate rental shop, a Togo’s, Pizza Station, the Sub Station and the Patio Cafe.
But in the 1980s, after crossing paths with an old friend with whom he used to sell Johnson’s Wax, Fran Ursini partnered with fellow entrepreneur Rich Penjoyan in 1984 to open the business that would become a beloved institution — the Newport Rib Co.
Originally located on Newport Boulevard, the restaurant was joined in 1992 by the Naples Rib Co. in Long Beach. Seven years later, the flagship restaurant moved to its current location at 2196 Harbor Blvd. in Costa Mesa, where it went on to support numerous organizations philanthropically.
John Ursini said the business, and the life his father built around it, represented the realization of a dream to live and work with loved ones and give back to the community members who, through their patronage, kept the whole thing running.
“This is what he wanted to do — he wanted to work with his kids,” he said. “And if there was no reason to sell, I think maybe he’d fulfilled his destiny.”
Fran Ursini is survived by his wife, Karen; sister Alvera Morgan; son John and his wife, Kathy; son David and his wife, Krista; daughter Laura Marroquin and her husband, Jerry; and grandchildren Allie Luna, Maddie, Emily, Angelo, Nicholas, Amber Reyes, Jessica and Justin.
A memorial service will take place April 5, at 11 am, at Lutheran Church of the Resurrection, at 9812 Hamilton Ave. in Huntington Beach with a memorial reception to follow at the Costa Mesa Golf Course, 1701 Golf Course Drive. RSVP at bit.ly/FranCelebrationOfLife. The family has requested island attire and no ties.
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