Two of the more colorful and widely known personalities to prominently walk across the Culver City stage in the second half of the 20th century, businessman/philanthropist Sam Paperny and former City Councilman Ron Perkins have died within the past 24 hours.
Mr. Paperny was 87 years old, and Mr. Perkins also was in his upper 80s.
Mr. Paperny’s funeral will be on Sunday at 3 at Hillside Memorial Park. Rites for Mr. Perkins will be at 12 noon on Monday at Wiefels & Son Mortuary, 690 S. Vella Rd., Palm Springs 92264. Telephone: 760.327.1257.
While both had long-running careers and broad influence in Culver City, stylistically the gentlemen were very different.
A Tale of Two Cities
Mr. Perkins, a career member of the Police Dept., as was his wife Barbara, a detective who specialized in juvenile crime, moved to the desert around 20 years ago. He may have been the only policeman in Culver City history to be elected to the City Council.
After running out of the money in a third try for office in 1986, Mr. Perkins was not through with politics.
Known for his classic feistiness and outgoing personality, he was elected twice to the La Quinta City Council after leaving Culver City.
Wheelchair-bound for a period, according to his friend and former Council colleague Richard Brundo, ailing health forced Mr. Perkins to resign before completing his second term.
“When he was going to run for the La Quinta Council the first time,” said Mr. Brundo, “he sent me a flyer from his campaign, and I said ‘I’ll be damned.’”
A Pioneer in Business
Of Mr. Paperny, friend after friend described him as “the most pleasant, the easiest-going, the most congenial” person they have known.
Mr. Paperny, one of the best respected entrepreneurs in the paint industry, began to establish his own mark in business in Culver City 60 years ago when he founded Center Paint. Four years later, in 1952, he moved the store across the street, from the south side to the north side of Washington Boulevard, near Sepulveda.
Through the silky force of his uniquely collegial personality, Mr. Paperny built an enterprise that thrives today as the Cox Paint Center, at the same location, 11153 Washington Blvd.
A Winning Formula
Current store employees such as Buck Sahir, Maurice Trenier and Daniel Price said the blend of his calmly flowing personality combined with his business sense, his commitment to “customer service and to community service,” made him a natural to succeed in a highly competitive field.
Jordan Smith worked for Mr. Paperny for 35 years at Center Paint before buying the business from his boss upon his retirement in 1988.
“Sam was one of the greatest individuals, the softest-spoken, the most likable, the most agreeable I have known,” Mr. Smith said.
He recalled that from a commercial standpoint, Mr. Paperny came along at exactly the right time, in 1948. Mr. Smith said that Culver City was a ripe location for a visionary young entrepreneur in those post-war times “because there still were a lot of bean fields here.”
His father was in the trades, as painting and building contractors are known.
A Family Trait
Commercial longevity on the front line of the business world runs in the family.
Paint Craft Supply, which Mr. Paperny’s father founded in the years before World War II, endures today in the Crenshaw/Adams neighborhood, at 2620 Crenshaw Blvd., the same place where the business was begun. Only now it is known as Paint Craft Supply/Ace Hardware.
Sam Paperny worked for his father before the war, Mr. Smith said.
When he was mustered out of the service, he did not want to continue in the family business. Proud, independent and ambitious, he wanted to establish his own identity in commerce. He did such a good job that the business outlived him.
A Sporting Gentleman
An excellent bowler and decent golfer in his younger years, old friends testified that the hallmarks of doing business that Mr. Paperny started with never changed, never were compromised.
“He was always helpful and polite, and he was a very good businessman who understood the value of customer service,” Mr. Sahir said.
Membership in the Exchange Club was one of the favorite activities of Mr. Paperny’s life for nearly 60 years.
A Strong Resemblance
“There could not have been a nicer man than Sam Paperny,” said Earl Eskridge
Mr. Eskridge founded Culver Center Flowers in Culver City’s earlier days, and he was a close friend and admirer of Mr. Paperny.
One reason may have been that they looked alike.
“People would commonly mistake us,” Mr. Eskridge said this afternoon. “They would ask him how the flower business was. They would ask me how the paint business was.”
In membership, Mr. Eskridge said Mr. Paperny ranked as the third oldest in the Exchange Club, just behind the two surviving charter members, Bill Fecho and Dr. Ray O’Neal.
Mr. Eskridge is right there, too, having joined two months after Mr. Paperny, in 1950.
Mr.Paperny is survived by his wife Charlotte, and two sons, Dr. David of Hawaii and Robert of Lake Arrowhead.
Two Dimensions
When the life and times of Ron Perkins are recalled, two images emerge.
He was a law-and-order police officer who believed the law applied equally to all, and he doggedly pursued that goal.
Bulldog Tenacity
The second was as a two-term member of the City Council, 1974 to 1982. When he believed he was right, friends said, he did not allow anything to impede his path to that objective.
“Ron did not let go easily if he wanted something,” Mr. Brundo said. “At the same time, he had a warm personality. He was very concerned for the welfare of the citizens of Culver City.”
Dale Jones remembers Mr. Perkins.
Now living in retirement in Arizona, the 76-year-old Mr. Jones served as Chief Administrative Officer of Culver City for 24 years before retiring in 1991.
A Firing and a Return
He remembered a landmark time when Mr. Perkins and the fiery Councilman Richard Pachtman successfully sought the ouster of Police Chief Jan Mennig. One issue was they thought that when he spent one hour a week on a professorship at USC, he was neglecting his Police Chief duties.
While it came as a huge disappointment to Mr. Mennig, who ultimately sued and won his job back, the firing, by a friend yet, did not surprise the Chief.
It was the City Council that voted to dump the Chief, but it was Mr. Jones’s responsibility to drop the axe.
“When I called him,” Mr. Jones said this afternoon, “he asked me, ‘Is this the big one?’ I said, ‘Yes, it is. Come on over
How to Survive
The irony is that Mr. Jones and Mr. Mennig became friends nearly a half-century ago when Mr. Jones was hired as a budget officer at City Hall.
Their friendship was so strong that it endured Mr. Mennig’s firing, a relationship powered by each gentleman’s utter devotion to fishing.
Even though both are in retirement and they live 800 miles apart, twice a year they team up for one-week fishing expeditions.
Mr. Perkins is survived by his wife Barbara and his son, Sgt. Ron Perkins of the Culver City Police Dept.
