A LOOK BACK:

Last week I received a phone call from Cheryl Gardarian to inform me of the passing of her 95-year-old father.

The name Gardarian may not ring a bell with most long-time residents, but if I told you her maiden name was Bauer, I’m sure many people will recall her father as the man who served as our city attorney from 1950 to 1961, Charles A. Bauer.

Bauer was born Jan. 9, 1913, in the small prairie town of Fredonia in the southeast part of Kansas.

After finishing his studies at Fredonia High School, Charles attended Kansas University and law school in Lawrence, Kan.

To help pay for his studies, Charles played saxophone and clarinet in a local swing bands of the mid-1930s and was hired as a bus boy in a girls’ dormitory — a job most young guys would envy.

Ah, the stories he could tell.

In 1935 Charles received his bachelor’s degree and then his Bachelor of Law degree in 1937.

After graduation from law school, Charles was admitted to the Kansas Bar in February 1938 and went into private practice in Fredonia from 1938 to 1942.

He ran for county attorney in Wilson County, home of Fredonia, and was elected Jan. 9, 1939, by popular vote for a two-year term, the only Democrat elected in the county that year.

Charles ran and was reelected for a second two-year term, but with the bombing of Pearl Harbor and America’s entry into World War II, Charles resigned to enlist as an apprentice seaman in the U.S. Coast Guard.

After being commissioned an ensign in 1942, he was sent for duty in San Francisco.

The city can be a lonely place for a 29-year-old Kansas boy, but luckily he met Darlene E. Hawkins, a registered nurse, and a relationship began.

Darlene was assigned to Long Beach, and in 1943 Charles boarded a plane and flew to be with her, and in that month the two were wed.

In 1944 he would see 12 months in the Southwest Pacific in places like New Guinea, the Philippines and China.

It was during this time while overseas during World War II that Charles received word that his father had died.

Charles was on the first convoy to liberate Shanghai from the Japanese and while in port a huge typhoon struck that kept Charles and the crew under cover.

When the storm let up Charles was ordered out to sea six hours before a second typhoon was to hit the coast.

In November 1945 he returned to the States, and in 1946 he was honorably discharged from the service with the rank of lieutenant.

At first, they lived in Long Beach while Charles studied for the California Bar.

He passed the bar and in 1947 opened a law office in Huntington Beach that lasted until 1961.

Charles was elected as Huntington Beach city attorney in 1950, and the next year their daughter Cheryl was born, followed by the birth of their second daughter, Debbie Lynne, in 1953.

In 1950 and ’51 the Huntington Beach City Council handed Charles the responsibility of pursuing the city’s right to the tidelands and its oil rights.

In 1952 he moved his law office upstairs at 112 ½ Main Street.

In 1957 the Bauers moved into their new home at 1737 Park Street.

He was reelected city attorney in 1954 and again in 1958. Then in 1961 he became a judge of the municipal court serving Huntington Beach-Seal Beach Judicial District, Orange County and served until 1964.

California Gov. Pat Brown appointed Bauer in 1964 to the Superior Court, Orange County, where he served until he retired from the bench in 1976.

Darlene died several years ago, and I would talk with Charles while his friend Kay would pick up their mail at the post office on Olive and Main streets.

Up until a year or so ago his mind was as sharp and alert as ever, even if his body was in its 90s.

Charles died Feb. 10.

JERRY PERSON is the city’s historian and a longtime Huntington Beach resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box 7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.