OUR LAGUNA:Stories abound about the Dilleys

The Laguna Canyon Conservancy and Laguna Greenbelt Inc. honored the late Jeanette and James Dilley at the first post-Festival season conservancy dinner.

Laguna Beach is surrounded by 17,000 acres of open space, which many people credit the Dilleys with getting started.

“The LCC, the Greenbelt and the Laguna Canyon Foundation are derived from the Dilleys,” said Harry Huggins, who put together a slide show for the dinner meeting.

Huggins is known as the executive director of the “The Walk,” which in 1989 sparked the city’s successful opposition to the development of Laguna Laurel in the canyon. He said any conversation about the Dilleys would also have to include the late Barbara Stuart, who survived Jim, but predeceased Jeanette.

Stuart was an early supporter of the Dilley’s dream of a greenbelt of open space. She was honored for her contributions to the environment in 1997 as the Patriots Day Parade Citizen of the Year. And that was before she left a significant legacy to help further the dream.

Huggins prefaced his narration of the slides by inviting everyone to contribute information about the Dilleys to fill voids in their history. Many of the slides were taken by Doug Miller, the city’s peripatetic photographer.

Jeanette and James Dilley came to Laguna Beach a year after they married in 1927, thought to have happened in Palo Alto, where he taught at Stanford University. Dilley had earned his doctorate before they married.

“She had master’s degrees in math, science and English — they must have had some good debates,” Huggins said.

Huggins met Dilley on a walk around town with [now-retired county Chief of Harbors, Beaches and Parks] Eric Jessen. Huggins described Dilley as a typical professor-type, wearing an “80- or 90-year-old” sport coat, with a unique button on the lapel and carrying a pipe that had gone out two days earlier.

“Only one other person has that button, which is given to the President of the Greenbelt: Elisabeth Brown.” Huggins said.

The Dilleys opened their first bookstore on Forest Avenue in 1958 and relocated in 1962 to South Coast Highway, where the Sherwood Gallery is today.

Then, as now, June and Art Fong owned an import shop just down the street. The couples became friends.

Art Fong was among the speakers at the dinner.

“We ran one another’s store when we went on vacations,” Fong said. “Mr. Dilley loved to clean our store. He used his boxer shorts to dust, but he always wore a suit.”

Ice cream was another love and Dilley would go to the defunct Jolly Roger for his treats.

“He never used a menu and would say, ‘Please, give me the adequate amount,’ ” Fong said.

Mr. Dilley also loved his dogs. The first collie they had was named Bonnie. When she went missing, the Dilleys called on the Fongs to close their store and help in the search. The second collie, Patrick, could often be found at the Surf & Sand or Emerald Bay.

“These are priceless memories,” Fong said.

The Dilleys owned a home in Three Arch Bay and bought the adjacent lot for a garden, where they hosted parties.

Kel Nelson moved to Three Arch Bay in 1969, two doors from the Dilleys’ home.

“When Patrick got out of the house, my daughters got on their bikes and went looking for him,” Nelson said.

Neighbor James Nelson (no relation to Kel) first met Dilley in 1970 at a Canyon Club meeting.

“He said, if you are a liar and a cheat, you are in the right room,” Nelson recalled. “I thought I am not sure I want to be here.”

The Canyon Club is a refuge for recovering alcoholics who have found a better way to live through mutual support. Dilley donated land in his will that eventually was traded for property in Laguna Canyon where the Canyon Club was built to succor people who have suffered the devastation of alcoholism.

Dilley created Laguna Greenbelt Inc. in 1969.

“Paul Egly, Tom Alexander and I met in 1973 to strategize where the Greenbelt was going,” Ron Chilcote said. “Jim believed in peripheral parking. He even had a model of Laguna Canyon Road running under downtown, with the top being a mall.

“We have an inner greenbelt, as well as an outer greenbelt. The struggle has not ended, but it was inspired by Jim Dilley.”

A part of the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park bears Dilley’s name. Huggins said that Michael Phillips, a former reporter — now the city’s environmental specialist — wrote one of his best pieces about the council’s debate on whether to rename Sycamore Hills the James or the Jim Dilley Reserve.

Dilley died in 1980. His widow continued to run the bookstore for another two years, just selling out the inventory. The last few books were donated to a women’s prison.

In the last months of her life, Jeanette Dilley became fond of the pandas in the San Diego Zoo, where she spent her 92nd birthday. She died earlier this year.

“I know they are both up above looking down and saying, ‘Thank you,’ ” Art Fong said.

CLINIC OPEN HOUSE THRONG

About 200 people attended the open house on Oct. 8 at the Laguna Beach Community Clinic, held to celebrate the success of the “New Face for a Caring Place” renovations.

Board President Debbie Mulligan unveiled a plaque honoring life members of the Friends of the Community Clinic and the 32 donors to the renovation, who contributed almost $50,000 in cash, goods and services.

Money was raised at the open house to repave the driveway. Mark Fleming and Bill Deland each pledged $2,000. Clinic Medical Director Dr. Korey Jorgensen put in $1,000.

Fleming and Deland had already contributed to the renovation.

“They said, you need some art for the walls,” said Jorgensen, who was given his pick from their private collection.

The renovations not only make the clinic more inviting for patients, but also more efficient for staff, which includes paid and volunteer doctors, nurses and nurse practitioners who provide a broad range of medical services and programs.

Patients pay for services on a sliding scale, based on ability to pay. Some government and grant funding is received. Community and private donations cover the gap.

The clinic is at 362 Third St. For more information, visit www.LBClinic.orgor call (949) 494-0761.