It is with sorrow that we announce the recent passing of former L.A. City Ocean Lifeguard, Bill Kendall (1948 - 1952). Born August 23, 1929. Died May 7, 2018 at the age of 88.
Previously, this blog featured Bill Kendall at least twice, as follows:
(note: photo of Bill and his wife of many years, Pam, at end of this blog post).
Bill met Pam at Will Rogers State Beach while he was also attending UCLA, where they found themselves in the same UCLA class.
Anecdotally, during these college days, Bill had a substantial acting role in a student film called, Teenage Devils Dolls, where he plays a bad boy motorcyclist, the same motorcycle he rode to UCLA and the beach. This movie is available on YouTube:
Bill appears at the 5:58 and 13:25 time check and is easy to recognize as a very tall and lanky blond haired motorcyclist.
It was during this time period as well that Bill would often free dive at the foot of Sunset Blvd for lobster and abalone and I recall him telling how he would free dive on his workout while guarding at Will Rogers in one of the old L.A. City two story towers just west of Temescal when there were some rock formations just inside the surf line and which always had some lobsters and abalone, etc. Then he would cook them up on a hot plate in the tower... Those were definitely the days!
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From the book, Our Lifeguard Family, by Richard Mark (R.I.P.), a short biography of Bill's career as an L.A. City Ocean Lifeguard is recounted, as follows:
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Bill Kendall also happened to be the father of a very good friend, namely, Mark Kendall, that I grew up with and swam with at the Palisades YMCA and at Pali High, where we both swam for L.A. City OL, Dave Anderson (Ret.). Bill, aka, Mr. Kendall, was also a volunteer leader for our Boy Scout Troop and I will never forget the trip to the wilderness area in the mountains east of Ojai where we hiked back about 10 miles and got pounded by 1 - 2 inches of rain overnite. The small creek we had crossed on Saturday was a raging river on Sunday when we hiked back out. Arm in arm we crossed the raging torrent and half across my sleeping bag (all cotton), which was already heavy with rain water and very heavy, got loose and fell into the river and I looked left WITH RELIEF as it rolled down the river... My relief lasted perhaps one second until Bill Kendall bounded down the river in his t-shirt, shorts and hiking boots and rescued my errant sleeping bag which now weighed probably 60 - 70 pounds. He hiked back up through the deluge and handed me said water soaked and horribly heavy sleeping bag and said something to the effect of securing my sleeping bag more carefully. All I could think of to say was "Thank you, Mr. Kendall"... Carrying that load in my arms for the next 5 - 7 miles was not fun, to say the least... :-)
Several years ago I recounted this story to him at a Lifeguard Fundraiser at the Jonathan Club on the beach in Santa Monica (see photo below):
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Postscript, June 17, 2018...
At a recent memorial in celebration of Bill's life, his family displayed his U.S. Navy uniform and his L.A. City lifeguard uniform... here are a few pics. Check out the khaki long sleeve Reeves buttoned shirt with the L.A. City Recreation Park Dept. shoulder patches!...
I also got to hear another lifeguard story about Bill and (Retired) LACoFD Lifeguard Div. Section Chief John Moryl's dad, who went to UCLA with Bill and was also an L.A. City beach lifeguard with Bill at Will Rogers State Beach, circa 1948 - 1952. Bill's future wife, Pam, had a younger brother, Steve, who told of them heading out to Castle Rock at Will Rogers during the summer of 1950 when Bill and Pam were dating and not yet married, and Steve tells of him, his sister and others driving out in their car from their family home in Santa Monica Canyon just below Will Rogers State Park... and when they would get out to Castle Rock, Bill and the other guards including J.D. Moryl's dad, would have already dove for lobsters and abalone before their shifts and that they would cook all this up back at their house after Bill and the other guards got off duty. Back in those days, Steve also mentioned that Bill's 3 months of pay during the summers as a beach lifeguard paid for his school tuition and books at UCLA... those were the days, eh?!... Finally, Steve mentioned that JD's dad, Bill, Steve and the other guards went down to the L.A. Coliseum pool around this same time to play paddleboard water polo and that JD's dad volunteered to play goalie and agreed to switch out from playing goalie to give the field players some rest... Steve said that the paddleboarding was exhausting... meanwhile the goalie basically rested... turns out Moryl never gave up his spot at goalie and Steve remembers Bill commenting after the game that Moryl never did leave the goalie position. No hard feelings, though, with Moryl serving as best man at Bill and Pam's wedding, and vice versa (I understand) and they both joined the Navy after finishing up at UCLA where they were part of the ROTC program. For Bill and Pam, now married, their first posting was Hawaii!... where their first child, Mark, was born. True story!...
And check out the neck label featuring a couple of "trademarks"!...
in the final photo below, Bill's son, Mark, holding his Dad's L.A. City uniform shirt!...
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L.A.
City Beach Guards, 1951; First Aid certifications with The American
National Red Cross. Two separate certs earned by Bill Kendall as part
of his training with the L.A. City Beach Lifeguards.
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Rest in peace, Bill.
Respectfully submitted,
Will Maguire, Editor
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