Julian John Preimesberger

Julian John Preimesberger, a longtime employee of the City of Los Angeles, a U.S. Army veteran and a former semi-pro basketball player, died May 30 in Pearblossom, Calif., of natural causes. He was 86. Mr. Preimesberger, born in Pierz, Minn., in 1928, moved with his family to Van Nuys, Calif. in 1942 as a teenager and attended Van Nuys High School, where he was graduated in 1946. While in high school he was a classmate of Norma Jean Mortensen Baker, later known as Marilyn Monroe. During the war he often worked after school in the Lockheed Aircraft factory in Burbank along with his parents, Frank and Elizabeth Preimesberger, as part of the war effort. Folowing graduation, Mr. Preimesberger joined the U.S. Army and was stationed in Tokyo as a military policeman during the postwar reconfiguration of Japan. One of his assignments was as part of a detail to protect the wife and only son of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the Commander of the Allied forces in the Pacific, on a 24/7 basis. After his service years in 1946-47, Mr. Preimesberger went to work for the New Home Sewing Machine Co. in Beverly Hills, where also played and starred on a semi-pro basketball team representing the company. He averaged about 10 points per game as a shooting guard for several years. Later, Mr. Preimesberger worked for more than 10 years with the City of Los Angeles, where he ran senior citizen programs and served as an LAPD administrator. In retirement, he enjoyed the quiet and solitude of his ranch in the Antelope Valley high desert, located in Pearblossom, Calif. Mr. Preimesberger was a longtime member of St. Elisabeth Church in Van Nuys, where he taught catechism classes to high school and junior high school students. Mr. Preimesberger loved to play sports games, including basketball, baseball, football, and whiffleball with his sons, nephews and friends. The Preimesberger household in Van Nuys was the site of many summer games and barbecues during the 1960s and 1970s. He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Cecilia Ruth Earley Preimesberger, seven children, 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by a son, Paul Preimesberger, who died in 2014.

Funeral services will be held Friday, June 5, at 10:30 a.m. at the Mission San Fernando Rey de Espana Church, 15151 San Fernando Mission Blvd., Mission Hills, Calif. Interment will be at San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Mission Hills.

The family requests that memorials be donations in Mr. Preimesberger's name to St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, 262 Danny Thomas Place, Memphis, TN 38105.