OUR LAGUNA:Familiar face will be missed

A familiar face has been missing from City Council meetings for the past 18 months. It will be seen no more.

Dr. Eugene R. Atherton died Feb. 19 in a Santa Ana hospital. He was 80.

Arrangements are being made to hold a celebration next week of Gene’s life at St. Mary’s Guild Hall, to be followed by a procession to Main Beach where his ashes will be cast into the ocean. For the time and date, call (949) 646-2330.

“It was his last wish to be in Laguna,” said close friend Tom Birch, who provided information for publication about Gene.

It was about a month before most of us learned of Gene’s death, although his close friends knew in November that he didn’t have much time left.

Sadly, his last years were not spent in the city he loved. After years of speaking and acting on the behalf of the downtrodden and homeless, he became one of them. Even so, he resisted leaving Laguna and only reluctantly moved into a facility in Santa Ana in 2005.

“He didn’t want to leave,” Deputy City Clerk Mindy La Tendresse said. “Martha Anderson [City Clerk] and I contacted several county agencies and representatives met with him and evaluated him.

“They declared him capable of caring for himself, but he was paralyzed with fear at being on the streets.”

Anderson has in her office a photograph Gene gave her of himself and another man in front of a panoramic view of the ocean. Although still fiery, his decline was evident in his last years in Laguna.

Once the nattiest of dressers, he was reduced to carrying all his belongings in a knapsack given to him by the Laguna Beach Resource Center, which was later stolen and replaced with a plastic bag.

Still, he balked at leaving Laguna, despite the coaxing of Sande St. John, who is rarely refused.

“I told him he had to stop being so ornery, that we only wanted to help him,” La Tendresse said. “I said these are your choices.”

Choices included the facility in Santa Ana, one of three shown him by the county.

“He feared he couldn’t afford it, but we reassured him that his income would cover the rent and he would still have money for food and medications,” La Tendresse said.

In one of his last appearances before the City Council, Gene said in June 2005 that he was outraged that after all he had done for the city, that it couldn’t find him affordable housing in town.

Gene’s contributions to the city included founding the Laguna Beach Free Clinic, now the Community Clinic. His interest in the environment was legendary.

He pleaded for stiffer bluff-top standards than required by the California Coastal Commission for the redevelopment of Treasure Island at the 1999 council meeting at which the resolution approving the project was heard.

He loved parks and the ocean as much as the downtrodden for whom he fought from the time he moved to Laguna in 1946.

“He was honored in December 2004 by Alan Beek, director of the Frank & Frances Robinson Environmental Fund for writing and passing initiatives requiring park dedications in several cities,” Birch said.

“I was there.”

Gene was born March 10, 1925 in Washington D.C. and educated at Princeton University, John Hopkins University and Harvard under the U.S. Navy V-12 program, according to Birch. He served as a Navy doctor in the final years of World War II.

After moving to Laguna, Gene practiced medicine in association with Dr. Louis Cella, who had a Santa Ana inner city clinic.

“His primary interest was in serving the poor and the homeless at little or no cost,” Birch said.

Gene was predeceased by his sister, Mitzi Puliesi of Washington D. C. He is survived by his brothers James and Fairfax, who both visited him before his death; five nephews and one niece, as well as Birch, his son, Byron, and daughter, Serena.

“We considered him our family,” said Birch, who had offered to serve as Gene’s conservator.

“He refused, which made it hard for me to take him on visits to Laguna — I had to get permission every time,” Birch said.

Many learned of Gene’s death when local historian Anne Frank announced it at the March 20 council meeting.

“Perhaps a city council meeting is the appropriate place to remember him as he frequently appeared before the council and often gave it a hard time,” Frank said.

“Although he came from a privileged background...his mission in life was to help the poor, homeless and mentally ill.

“He felt strongly about issues and sometimes ruffled more than a few feathers in trying to achieve his objectives. However, we need people like Dr. Atherton to bring issues to our attention that we may not want to face. He will be missed.”