Albert Leo Vendouris

The family lived throughout Los Angeles. After divorcing Edna, Emmanuel returned to the little Greek island of Kimolos, leaving the family of three on their own when Albert was 3 years old.

As a child, they attended the old Wadsworth SDA Church and then the University Church in downtown Los Angeles, where they became friends with the Perriman family. They had a son known to all as Little Richard. The two families sat in adjoining rows together for several years.

Albert attended Manual Arts High School, graduating in June of 1944. It was during this time that he really started growing as an artist and developing his creative skills. He also developed a lifelong love of sports, especially football and track and field.

Shortly after graduating, Al enlisted in the army. His enlistment began that Fall and he would serve for four years, working in the medical corps at Letterman General Hospital in San Francisco. During his time in the service, he enjoyed being an entertainer as well as an artist, a singer, and an actor. He also developed a lifelong friendship with George Homsey, one of his platoon members. He was honorably discharged in 1949 and was immensely proud of his service time in the US military.

He attended La Sierra College for two years. He then enrolled in nurses training at Paradise School of Nursing near San Diego. While there, he met a beautiful young lady from Illinois name Bess. They dated but the relationship ended when Al left nurses training in 1954. He bounced around Los Angeles for the next few years still trying to figure out his life’s calling. One area of work for him was doing radio, including voice overs, something he enjoyed until his passing.

Al was a very handsome man, and many thought he looked like movie star Clark Gable. In fact, sometimes while walking around Hollywood and Los Angeles, people would come up to him and call him Clark, asking him to pose for pictures and even sign the occasional autograph for fans. He thoroughly enjoyed this.

In late 1957 he found himself wondering about that young lady from Paradise and finally found her in Bakersfield. A phone call reconnected them, and he drove up to see her. It was a magical moment and a short time later they decided to marry. They were wed on a Saturday night in March, 1958, and then moved to Santa Barbara. Their first son Craig was born in February of 1960, and their second son Dean was born in May of 1962. Bess worked as a nurse at Cottage Hospital, while Al worked in medical sales and hospital purchasing. They moved to Lawndale, CA for a brief time and then Al was hired to be the director of purchasing at the brand new Kettering Hospital in Kettering, Ohio. They stayed for a year in Ohio before returning to California and the San Fernando Valley. In 1965 they moved to Hawthorne, CA just two blocks away from his brother Harold and his family. It was a good place to live, and the two families enjoyed spending time together.

Unfortunately, the marriage didn’t last, and Al and Bess divorced in 1972, but Al continued to live in the area to be close to his sons. He tried several different jobs, including a stint as a security guard and actively being involved in country music, serving two years as a director-at-large on the Country Music Board of Directors. He continued working on artistic things and had a particular passion for writing music. He would compose just over 100 songs, mostly country tunes with a few gospel songs thrown in as well. He even had one of his country songs recorded by country artist Patsy Montana.

In 1979 Al was hired to be the director of purchasing at St. Francis Hospital in San Francisco. It was a good move for him because Craig was a student nearby at Pacific Union College, and this was a chance for Al to be able to see him more often. Dean also moved up to PUC in 1980, and Al gave the boys his car since he had no garage and monthly parking fees in San Francisco were too expensive.

During his time in San Francisco, Al developed a love for tutoring local Chinese immigrants in speaking conversational English. He did so well at this that a local businessman suggested Al go to a special school in Taiwan where they would train him to become a certified teacher of English as a second language. So in 1985, Al moved to Taiwan. While there, he attended classes for a few months but was hired privately by several students who wanted to improve their English proficiency. Though he didn’t complete the training, he was eventually hired to teach classes at several universities, and he taught conversational English language classes to students in Taiwan from 1985-1999. Many of his students affectionately referred to him as Professor Al.

While in Taiwan, he joined the local chapter of Toastmasters International, a public speaking organization, which ended up being a very good decision for him. Here he met a beautiful young lady named Leana. They became friends over the course of their time together in Toastmasters.

In 1999, the lure of being back in the US was increasingly strong, so Al relocated to Santa Barbara once again. Shortly after arriving back in the states, his only grandchild was born, a happy little girl named Carlie. He and Leana kept in contact and talked often on the phone. Finally, he proposed marriage and she said yes. She moved to Santa Barbara, and they were married in 2000. Leana found a job at Cottage Hospital as an x-ray tech while Al started working on a wide variety of artistic and creative projects at home.

As his health issues started to build, he and Leana decided it would be better to move somewhere closer to a VA facility. They purchased a home – actually two homes – here in Loma Linda and moved here in 2009. Leana continued to work at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, commuting back and forth from Loma Linda for a couple of years, while Al continued to pursue creative adventures at home, authoring a couple of humorous books, working on creating different artistic fonts, designing projects to build at home (which he and Leana often made into something real), writing poetry, and other diverse ideas. He even toyed earlier this year with starting a restaurant that sold stew – and only stew.

His health continued to decline, however. He broke a hip in early 2016, and then broke his other hip in 2018. There were several stays in the VA for various health issues, along with several stays in local rehab centers. But things continued to decline for him. An accidental fall in late May this year seemed to be a final straw for him, and in the early morning hours of June 12, Al passed to his rest at the age of 92. Coincidentally, this also happened to be the age at which his brother Harold passed.

Al is survived by his wife Leana, his two sons Craig and Dean, his daughter-in-law Cherie, his only grandchild, Carlie, his ex-wife Bess, and his three nieces, Donna, Cheryl, and Debbie, and their families.

He loved Jesus, and rests now at Riverside National Cemetery, awaiting the Trumpet Call of Jesus on that resurrection morning. His greatest desire is that all of his family and friends will join him at the feet of Jesus on that great and mighty day.