Alvin R. Stitch

Alvin R. Stitch was born on October 4, 1919 in Los Angeles. He was raised in an area near Beverly Blvd. and Western on Rosewood Ave. He went to Cahuenga Elementary School, attended Virgil Junior High, class of 1934 and Fairfax High School class of 1937. He then went to business school. He couldn’t afford the tuition but was able to attend for a few semesters by bartering the tuition for his service as the school’s janitor. During WWII, he tried to enlist in the armed forces but was classified 4-F. He married Alice Potapenko on May 31, 1942 in Yuma Arizona.

After WWII, Alvin became involved in real estate. He hooked up with a gentleman who introduced him to the mortgage business. One of the things he did was help raise private money for homebuilders. Banks at that time didn’t lend the builders enough money to make it work for them, only lending about 60-65% of the value of the end product. He was responsible for raising the other 15-20. Alvin started building single family homes for sale in 1953. The first tract was in Orange County near Disneyland. It was a 100 home tract. No advertising was needed because there was a nearby new developer of new homes that advertised heavily in the Los Angeles Times. If you went to see those new homes you would see my Dad’s tract. This was the start of a storied career in homebuilding. In all, well over 1000 homes were built over the years.

Alvin loved flying his Cessna 210. He was licensed as a VFR, IFR and Commercial pilot. He logged over 3000 hours. He was also an avid fisherman.

He is survived by his son Ronald (Deidra) and granddaughter Shaina. He will be missed by his many loved ones including his beloved partner Joan Dunkle and niece Carol who has cared for him during his illness.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the City of Hope at http://www.cityofhope.org/giving in his loving memory.

Services will be held at Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Griffin Memorial Park, 5600 Lindero Canyon Rd, Westlake Village, CA on Sunday November 17th at 2pm.