Dennis Conner changed the pace at the San Diego Yacht Club

La Jolla touchy-feely goes high tech, San Diego critics grill Sam Fuller, psychiatrist Zane Parzen accused of abuse, Lee Grissom knows the big boys, La Jolla poet on the city council

Author

By Jeannette DeWyze, Neal Matthews (RIP)

Publish Date

Oct. 8, 2022

Malin Burnham: "Conner was just so eager." (Rocky Thies)

Dennis Connor's early America' Cup sallies

Conner has brought to this corner of the yacht club a work regimen in which the hours are longer and less relenting than those in any garment district sweatshop; he’s injected a competitiveness that matches that of the most high-powered broker elbowing his way across the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

By Jeannette DeWyze, April 7, 1983 Read full article

Darrell Icenogle, Bob McAndrews. "You forget you’re sitting at a machine." (Alan Decker)

Dick Farson of Esalen and WBSI warms to computers

Carl Rogers filled young Farson with inspiration, and when Farson finally began practicing in San Diego as a psychotherapist in 1957, he eagerly used the novel, and still relatively unknown, group structure. He also stayed in touch with Rogers and in the spring of 1958 Farson helped to organize a psychological workshop which starred Farson’s mentor as one of the workshop leaders.

Sam Fuller: a good name for a heavy

Bogdanovich was supposed to be in that sex shop scene. So was Chabrol, Truffaut, and Godard. Peter called from London and asked me to postpone the scene for a day. I couldn't. We only had the shop for two hours. Chabrol and Truffaut were busy shooting. Godard was mixed up in something which I don't want to get involved in discussing. So I said, well, what the hell.

By Mary Moreau, Jan. 3, 1974 Read full article

Evelyn Walker: “I belong to him. Zane is my arms and my legs. There isn’t any Evelyn.” (Craig Carlson)

The final analysis

Shepherd suggested to the Walkers three names, including that of Parzen, from whom Shepherd had taken an advanced psychiatry class at the San Diego Psychoanalytic Institute. Not only did Parzen possess a glowing reputation, but he had been trained at a psychiatric institute in Chicago noted for its work with people with “borderline features.” Shepherd didn’t tell the Walkers all this; he didn’t single out Parzen.

By Jeannette DeWyze, Jan. 13, 1983 Read full story

Grissom could hardly be better positioned. His links with the Copley press stretch long and deep. (Craig Carlson)

Lee Grissom knows every San Diego leader

Two weeks before the public knew of Councilwoman Susan Golding’s recent job offer to become state deputy assistant secretary of housing, Grissom had fielded a call from his old friend Kirk (West), a member of Governor Deukmejian’s cabinet. Kirk wanted to know Lee’s opinion of Susan as state executive material. Grissom gave her high marks, and she got the job offer

By Neal Matthews, March 3, 1983 Read full story

Mitchell’s happy fatigue was shared by the twenty or so early arrivals to his election night victory party. (Jim Coit)

In search of the metaphysical vote

In the machinery of San Diego politics, Bill Mitchell is a monkey wrench. A fifty-year-old Republican with a passion for the ethereal, Mitchell has been called everything but conventional. Often laughed at and ridiculed behind his back at city hall, he is what one former aide calls “the common man’s thinking politician. He really does have a grasp of the issues, but now he arrives at a decision is a mystery to me.”

By Neal Matthews, March 24, 1983 Read full article