Former Huntington Beach Mayor Shirley Dettloff honored at Shipley Nature Center
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Donald Shipley and Shirley Dettloff may have served as mayors of Huntington Beach about three decades apart, but each played key roles in preserving the space now known as the Shipley Nature Center.
Shipley, the center’s namesake, wanted a place to reflect on what California was like 100 years ago when he served on the Huntington Beach City Council in the 1960s and ‘70s.
Shipley Nature Center opened in 1974, but closed in 2002 due to budget cuts. That’s when Dettloff, fresh off serving on City Council, summoned others interested in preserving the nature center. The group, which became the nonprofit Friends of Shipley Nature Center, helped reopen the 18-acre space to the public.
Dettloff, who died in April 2024 at the age of 89, was honored Wednesday at the very space she fought so hard to preserve. A year to the day after her passing, the city held a ceremony to name the interpretive center there as the Shirley Dettloff Interpretive Center.
“She has received a lot of honors … but this one would be special to her,” said Dettloff’s husband, Bob. “I remember on a Sunday morning, she’d say, ‘Oh, I’ve got to go down and open up Shipley.’ Or, ‘I’ve got to go down and close Shipley.’ That was how deep she was involved.”
Dettloff’s work at the Shipley Nature Center was just part of her environmental legacy. She was a founding member and executive director of the Amigos de Bolsa Chica conservation group, staying on that board of directors until she died. She also served on the California Coastal Commission.
Former Huntington Beach Mayor Victor Leipzig, who spoke at Wednesday’s ceremony, remembers serving with Dettloff on the Huntington Beach Planning Commission in the late 1980s. He got a call from her on a February morning in 1990, after the American Trader oil tanker spilled nearly 417,000 gallons of crude oil into the Pacific Ocean off the city’s shore.
Leipzig and Dettloff raced down to the beach, becoming the coordinators for the volunteer response program.
“We were not allowed to clean the beaches,” Leipzig said. “But we were allowed to gather bird life that was injured by the oil spill and bring it to the fledgling rehab center that later became the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center of Huntington Beach, one of the most important wildlife response centers in Southern California.”
Leipzig said Dettloff touched the lives of every Surf City resident with her contributions to preserving the environment.
Friends of Shipley Nature Center President John Scandura and past president Kay Goddard also gave remarks at Wednesday’s ceremony, as did former Huntington Beach director of community and library services Chris Slama, former council member Natalie Moser and Mayor Pat Burns.
Moser, who considered Dettloff a mentor, started tearing up when saying she missed Dettloff’s voice in her ear, and in the community.
“It wasn’t about her, it was always about community,” Moser said. “She didn’t seek headlines, yet she commanded respect.”
Dettloff and fellow former Mayor Ralph Bauer helped form the city’s Declaration of Policy on Human Dignity in 1996, along with the city’s former police chief, Ron Lowenberg and city staff. The policy was created after the 1994 murder of a Black man and the 1996 attempted murder of a Native American, both crimes committed in Huntington Beach by white supremacists.
Two years ago, Dettloff spoke out during public comments before the conservative City Council majority, including Burns, which voted to significantly shorten and alter the policy. The new policy took out any references to hate incidents and hate crimes and added language about genetic differences between males and females.
Burns said at Wednesday’s ceremony that he and his kids spent a lot of time at the nature center.
“We agreed on some things,” he said of his relationship with Dettloff. “Probably disagreed on much more, but we always got along, I felt. I respected the difference of opinions … [but the center] is one area we agreed [on] profoundly.”
Scandura said the center hopes to replace the 50-year-old interpretive center building some day with a state-of-the-art facility including educational areas, interactive exhibits, meeting rooms and a small theater. However, the new building would still bear Dettloff’s name.
Shipley Nature Center will hold a “Community in Bloom” 50th anniversary event on May 16, from 4 to 7 p.m.
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