John Richard Deats

John Deats, a lifelong Long Beach resident whose interests ranged from physics and freeway construction to hot rods, classic Ford rear ends and neighborhood politics, died Sept. 9 in Long Beach. He was 83.

Deats was born Nov. 1, 1942, in Long Beach and remained closely connected to the city throughout his life. Friends remembered him as an intensely private man who nevertheless had a strong sense of community and a desire to help whenever he could.

“He loved his community and wanted to help in any way,” said his sister Paulaine Dummit. “He did a lot of things to help people.”

He was particularly involved in public safety and neighborhood affairs. Deats served on the Long Beach Police Commission and the Public Safety Advisory Commission and was active in neighborhood politics in the Bixby Knolls area. He was a strong supporter of the Long Beach Police Department and took a particular interest in police and public-safety issues.

His civic interests reflected a lifelong fascination with how things worked.

Deats graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School, class of 1960, and attended Occidental College in Eagle Rock where he earned a bachelor’s degree in physics in 1964. He was a member of Alpha Tau Omega.

During his college years, he spent summers working for the Griffith Company, helping with freeway construction projects. His work took him to projects involving the 10 Freeway, the Ventura Freeway and work in Bakersfield.

He later attended Long Beach State, seeking a master’s degree in mechanical engineering when Texas Instruments hired him. He spent approximately five or six years working for the company in Dallas. But engineering was only part of Deats’ mechanical interests.

He was an avid hot-rod and classic-car enthusiast, particularly fascinated by the mechanics beneath the cars. He owned several 1932 Fords and participated in automotive events at Veterans Memorial Stadium and the Rose Bowl.

More recently, he operated a small classic-car-parts business out of his garage on Pacific Avenue, specializing in rear ends for classic Fords, including Columbia rear ends, according to an acquaintance, Pattie Renning-Hall.

Another interest was aviation, and more specifically, the Spruce Goose. “After Howard Hughes died, the original plan was to cut it up and give it to various air museums in the country,” Deats recalled. An Aero Club member, Jack Wrather, made a pledge to construct the dome if the Aero Club would provide maintenance. It took a couple of years to build the dome and move in the Spruce Goose in 1980.” While photographing the airplane, Deats was allowed to sit in the pilot’s seat.

“He was a loner,” John’s sister recalled. “He had difficulty letting go of things.” Renning-Hall described John as “a deep thinker with a quick wit.”

After John’s father, an orphaned 17-year-old Paul Deats saw a postcard of Long Beach with palm trees and he departed his home state of Kentucky on a bus in search of those trees. As recalled by John’s sister, when the bus pulled in downtown Long Beach, there were no palm trees.

A cab driver drove him to the palm trees of Belmont Shore, which he made his home. Paul Deats graduated from Wilson High School in 1936. He owned various grocery stores and served on the city council between 1966 to 1972, championing expanded commercial air travel and supporting the acquisition of the Queen Mary.

Asked if his father should get credit for opening up the airport to jet traffic, John Deats replied “’credit or blame, depending on your point of view,’ he said with a laugh.”.

John met Amy Janet Johnson of Comer, Georgia while residing in Dallas and they were married on March 23, 1969. By June 1970, they had purchased and moved into their house in the Los Cerritos neighborhood. They had no children. She died of cancer in November 22, 2009. After her passing, Deats became part of her family, visiting his Georgia in-laws at least yearly.

Unlike his father, Deats had little apparent interest in pursuing a political career, but he often showed up for the monthly Wilson High School lunch bunch of 1960 graduates, which most recently meets at Hof’s Hut in Los Alamitos. In the early 2000s, John would often appear before the city council during the public comment period in a time frame rich with gadflies.

Deats’ later years were affected by dementia, with the illness becoming more pronounced beginning in early March. He died in Long Beach on Sept. 9. Plans are for Deats to be interred in Georgia.

John is survived by his sister, Paulaine Dummit, her husband, Dennis, and their children, Dillon, and Lauren.”