A religious cornerstone in Surf City

Michele Marr

Much of Noble and Beverly Waite’s home in south Huntington Beach is

like a small museum documenting the life-long service he has given to

his country, his community and his church during his 78 years.

Mementos -- photographs, plaques, awards and medals -- cover walls

and shelves. A fruitwood grandfather clock bearing a brass

commemorative plate graces one wall. It is a gift from the Huntington

Beach South Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

where Waite served as the president’s first counselor for 11 years.

Thirty-three years ago, Waite was the first bishop on the

then-newly-formed Huntington Beach congregation, or ward. He has

watched it grow “from practically nothing” into two stakes, each

stake a group of six to 10 wards, each ward with 300 to 800 members.

Waite has been motivated in his service by the Twelfth Article of

Faith of his church, which says, “We believe in being subject to

kings, presidents, rulers, magistrates, in obeying, honoring and

sustaining the law.” For Waite, that has always meant trying to leave

his country and community a better place than he found it.

In 1942, during World War II, Waite entered the Army Air Force

while he was still in his teens. He flew B-17s over Germany for three

and a half years, completing 21 bombing missions and two food-drop

missions over Holland.

“I got five air medals,” he said. “Luckily, I never got a purple

heart. The Lord was very happy, I guess, with me because I came

through with never getting a scratch.”

When he returned home in 1945, he married his sweetheart Lenore

and two months later, using his benefits under the GI Bill of Rights,

he enrolled in the University of Southern California.

“I picked out the school with the highest tuition,” Waite said.

“Since someone was paying for it, I got the best.”

He had intended to study electrical engineering, seeing it as the

thing of the future, but changed his mind when he saw the line of

enrolling students wrapping around the engineering building three

times.

“I’d stood in so many lines in the service, I never wanted to

stand in a line again,” Waite said. “I sez to the guy at the end of

the line, ‘When d’ya think you’re goin’ to get to the head of the

line?’ and he sez, ‘Oh, about three days,’ and I sez, ‘That’s not for

me.’”

So when he looked over at another building and saw only two people

in a line, he walked over and asked them what they were in line for.

“Pharmacy,” they said.

Waite, who joined them and became a pharmacist. He recalls it all

as good fortune -- the best thing that could have happened to him. It

gave him the opportunity to have a profession, a business and still

be involved in local politics.

When he and Lenore moved to Huntington Beach in 1949, he worked

for two years at a pharmacy Downtown, then bought a pharmacy of his

own. Before long he owned three, each called Waite’s Pharmacy, one

Downtown and two on Beach Boulevard, which was known simply as “the

highway” back then.

He joined the Chamber of Commerce and served as its director for

eight years. In 1956, Waite was appointed to a vacant seat on the

Huntington Beach High School Board of Trustees, which he held for

three years. In 1958, he was elected to the Huntington Beach City

Council.

By 1970, the Chamber of Commerce had voted him its Man of the Year

and a year later Waite joined the Orange County Water District Board

where he enjoyed matching wits with politicians for 21 years.

Waite retired in 1989, the same year Lenore died in an automobile

accident in Utah.

A year later, he married his second wife Beverly, who he had know

for close to 20 years.

In retirement, Waite found he couldn’t sit still so he became

active with the Greater Huntington Beach Interfaith Council and,

through it, with the Coordinating Council of Huntington Beach, which

helps synchronize the various special events of service clubs and

organizations in the city to help avoid conflicts in scheduling and

it also helps organizations get the word out about their events.

Waite will finish a two-year term as its president this month.

“I’ll still attend meetings to represent the Interfaith Council

and my church, until they want to get someone else,” he said.

Celia Wight, a fellow member of the Church of Jesus Christ of the

Latter-day Saints, said, “Noble believes that when he is serving his

fellow man he is actually serving our Heavenly Father and Savior.”

Waite will tell you his service is its own reward.