JERRY PERSON -- A Look Back

This week, we’ll look at the life of Harold M. Hepburn, manager of the

old Curran Lumber Yard that was located for many years on Lake Street.

“Hep,” as he was known to his many friends in town, was born in

Plainfield, N.J., on April 4, 1888. When Hep was 14, his family moved to

sunny California, where they resided in Riverside.

Hep’s father went into the agricultural business when he purchased a

local orange orchard. While attending school in Riverside, Hepburn worked

at the now-historic Mission Inn. When Hepburn was 17, his father sold the

orange grove and the family moved to Tucson, where Hepburn enrolled at

the University of Arizona.

Hepburn left school and worked as a lineman for the local telephone

company and later the Southern Pacific Railroad.

In 1911, the family moved back to California and settled in Los Angeles,

where Hepburn worked for the Hollenbeck hotel as a heating engineer. He

then moved to San Francisco, where he took a job as stationary engineer

at the Fairmont hotel.

In 1923, while in Los Angeles, Hepburn took a job with the E.K. Wood

Lumber Co., and this led him down to Huntington Beach to manage its

lumber yard on Lake Street.

He joined our Rotary Club in 1925 and later became its oldest member.

When E.K. Wood sold the yard to Frank Curran in 1935, Hepburn continued

on as its manager. And a year later, in 1936, Hepburn was made president

of the Rotary Club.

On Dec. 12, 1940, he married Bonnie Harper, and the two lived here at 516

7th St.

Hepburn was a director in the Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce and in

1944 was elected its president.

The lumber yard transferred Hepburn to its Santa Ana yard in 1954 as its

pricing accountant, where he remained until he retired in 1965.

In retirement, Hep worked on his large, 20-volume stamp collection. He

found time to travel and watch baseball and football.

But he didn’t get to enjoy his retirement for long. On Dec. 11, 1968, he

died at the age of 77.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach

resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box

7182, Huntington Beach 92615.