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WILLIAM T. DAWSON, 69
(veteran)
Services were Saturday, April 6 at the Church of Religious Science in Seal Beach for William T. Dawson, who died in Los Angeles of cancer April 1, 1996.
William T. Dawson was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Clarence O. Dawson, who ran the Blair Canning Factory in the late 1930s. He attended Blair Community Schools for at least six years.
His interest in acting extended back to those school days when he appeared in at least one leading role in a school production.
He made his professional acting debut in the 1940 film, “A Dispatch from Reuters.” During the 1940s, he also appeared in films with Claudette Colbert and Ginger Rogers, before ending his acting career in 1944 with a role in “Lady in the Dark.”
After serving in World War II, he went into banking. By 1963, he was president and chief executive officer of the independent National Bank of Commerce, which he sold in 1965.
He served as president of the Hollywood advertising agency, Holzer, Taylor, McTighe & Dawson and from 1967 – 69, he was chairman, president and chief executive of Golden West Airlines.
In 1969, he founded Dawson Development Co., headquartered in Seal Beach and launched the waterfront Marina Pacifica - - a development of condominiums, a shopping center and boat slips at the Long Beach Marina.
He also formed AFCOM, a word coined from “affordable communities” in 1977. With that company he developed Sunnycove at Compton. He donated land, invested funds on literature and fund-raising, and persuaded Chicago educator Marva Collins to create the school he dreamed of for the community of Compton, which was economically stressed. The school effort was abandoned in 1988 after funding from the city or other sources other than his own could not be found.
He also developed mobile home parks in Seal Beach and Palm Springs and other housing projects in Compton and south Orange County.
He is survived by his wife, Sam; a daughter, Kathy Susa; a sister, Jeannie Foote and two grandchildren.
Memorials may be directed to the John Wayne Cancer Institute, 2200 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, California 90404.
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