Elia PowersWhen he was 5 years old,...

Elia Powers

When he was 5 years old, playing by the water and trampling on piles

of dirt, Rollo McClellan had no idea he was walking on Newport Beach

history.

“I was just the boss’ kid running around,” said McClellan, a

lifelong Orange County resident.

Eighty years later, McClellan enjoys looking at black-and-white

photos of an undeveloped Newport Bay and thinking about his father’s

legacy in the community.

Rollo McClellan Sr. and his brother-in-law, Albert Sparkes,

started Sparkes & McClellan contracting company in 1919. Six years

later, they were called on to mold Harbor Island and develop much of

the surrounding area.

The entire project took more than a year to complete, McClellan

Jr. said. His father had the idea to use mules to carry goods on

land. While on the water, the company used dredges to transport dirt

and sculpt the land.

Sparkes and McClellan’s workers cleared a path for the channel,

built a bridge and paved a sidewalk that circumvented the island.

The process was arduous, McClellan Jr. remembered.

“We were living full-time in Anaheim, but while the dredging took

place, most of the workers stayed in tents not far from the water,”

he said. “I remember getting sick one time after eating the food in

the cooking tent.”

The company received a constant stream of assignments after

finishing its first major project. The most prominent included

developing a stretch of what now is Pacific Coast Highway and

constructing the Newport Harbor Yacht Basin.

Using a dredge they named “Little Aggie,” the company also played

a major role in developing Shark Island, later named Linda Isle.

Shortly after McClellan Jr. turned 21, he went into business with

his father. The two formed R.W. McClellan and Sons, a company that

survived until 1976.

McClellan Sr. died in 1989.

“He was quite an entrepreneur,” McClellan Jr. said. “He built the

company from nothing, and by the end he had the largest payroll in

the Harbor area. Even during the Great Depression, he kept things

going.”

McClellan Jr.’s brother, Sparks McClellan, is still alive.

Rollo, a Newport Beach resident and Newport Harbor High School

graduate, has been retired for more than 20 years. But he remains

involved in the community through the Costa Mesa-Newport Harbor Lions

Club, in which he is the longest active member.

“It’s a way to give back to the community,” he said. “It’s hard to

live up to my father’s name.”

* THE GOOD OLD DAYS runs Sundays. Do you know of a person, place

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