Philanthropic couple honored as Newport Citizens of the Year
John and Elizabeth Stahr were expecting a quiet lunch with friends at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club on Friday.
But as they walked up the stairs into the club’s library, they realized the lunch was a ruse. The room, with its panoramic views of Newport Harbor, was filled with city and Chamber of Commerce officials and past Newport Beach Citizens of the Year.
Chamber President Steve Rosansky piped up first, telling the couple that instead of a meal, they were being honored as the Citizens of the Year for 2016.
John Stahr, 83, couldn’t believe his ears.
“My goodness,” he said, eyes wide. “What did we do?”
Rosansky laughed and replied that perhaps their roughly 40 years of service to the city had something to do with it.
The chamber’s Citizen of the Year award is presented annually to an individual or couple who has served the Newport Beach community for many years, according to Rosansky.
The Stahrs moved to their Corona del Mar home from Arcadia in 1962. Over the decades, they have taken on leadership roles and raised money to support local arts, cultural, civic and educational nonprofit organizations, including the Newport Beach Public Library, Girl Scouts of Orange County, UC Irvine, Pacific Symphony, South Coast Repertory, Philharmonic Society of Orange County, Arts Orange County, Orange County Museum of Art and Segerstrom Center for the Arts.
In Newport Beach, the couple are known for their efforts to raise funds to help build the Main Library at 1000 Avocado Ave.
In the late 1980s, when the building was in its design phase, city leaders wanted to gauge public interest in the project before spending millions on a new library. The Newport Beach Public Library Foundation was formed to seek donations, and the Stahrs were chosen to lead the committee. They set a goal of raising $1 million and instead raised $2 million.
Elizabeth Stahr, 82, said the library project was especially important to her family, given that the couple’s four now-grown children were influenced heavily by the books they read as youngsters.
Elizabeth said the first words out of her daughter’s mouth when they moved to Newport Beach were about finding the library.
“She was reading about 25 books a week,” Elizabeth said. “I hadn’t even found a grocery store yet, but the first place we went was the Corona del Mar Library.”
A group of former Citizens of the Year recently voted to select the Stahrs for the 2016 honor, noting their record of philanthropy in the city and county.
“The community owes a great deal to them,” said Paul Watkins, the 2015 Citizen of the Year.
The Stahrs will be honored at a dinner presented by the Chamber of Commerce on Nov. 11.
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Hannah Fry, hannah.fry@latimes.com
Twitter: @HannahFryTCN
