Salvador Gascon

Salvador was born July 14, 1926, in Guadalajara, Mexico. He was married to Trinidad Guerrero-Gascon, who he had met in the 5th grade. They were just two months shy of 60 years of marriage, when Trinidad passed away on November 23, 2005. Sal spent most of his early years in San Pedro. After he was married for 6 years, he moved his family to Lomita for 21 years, then to Carson for 34 years.

Family: He is survived by his three children, Rebecca Barber (Tom), Salvador Gascon Jr. (Yolanda), and Teresa Tockstein (Michael). He has 9 grandchildren, Don Graham II, Jennifer Figueroa, Christina Salcedo, Renee Gascon, Salvador Gascon III, Michael Tockstein, Tomas Barber, Elizabeth Hauck, and Jose Barber. He also has 12 great-grandchildren. He is also survived by sister's Vera Rader (Tom), and Alice Baggenstoss (Roger). He was preceded in death by his parents Jose and Maria Jesus Gascon, sister Helen Evangelista and brother Javier Gascon.

Education: He attended Barton Hill Elementary, Dana Junior High, and San Pedro High School, where he lettered in Track and remained on the high school reunion committee for many years. He also graduated from Barber College. Sal was always looking for new adventures and attained his real estate license, as well as attending classes on upholstering.

Clubs: Harbor Area Racing Pigeon club and the Lomita Junior Chamber of Commerce, where he served as President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer several times in both clubs over the years. He was very community oriented and started the annual family picnics at Lomita Park.

Employment: As a child he delivered ice to people for their ice boxes, shined shoes, sold newspapers, worked in an auto shop, and helped clean his father's barber shop. As an adult, he worked as a commercial fisherman, Merchant Marines during WWII, and Real Estate. For most of his adult life he was a Barber and dedicated many hours to patients in hospitals, convalescent homes, and the homebound, offering free haircuts and a shave. He also gave most of his grandchildren their first haircuts. He served as President of the Local Barber's Union and owned his own shop called "The Redquill".

Hobbies: Sal loved to work on cars since the age of 13, and he could take any car engine apart and put it back together without a problem. He enjoyed fishing with his children, going to sporting events of professional teams and his grandchildren's teams, skin diving with Leonard and John Olguin at Cabrillo beach and many road trips with his family. His favorite hobby was watching his homing pigeons fly daily, breeding and training them from far distances, and racing them against other birds from clubs throughout California and other States. Sal would wait for the pigeons to arrive, whistle his special call for them to land, remove the band around their leg, and put the band in a special clock to stamp the time. These clocks were taken to a clubhouse to compare race times and select the winners. If a bird returned home injured, Sal became Dr. Gascon, and would stitch them up with the assistance of his children, who had to restrain the pigeons. Whether he would win or lose, it was a passion for him. Other hobbies consisted of working in his yard and tinkering in his garage, finding new uses for old items, woodworking, and recycling. Sal loved both vegetable and flower gardening, and always had a yard full of fruit trees. At times, he also had chickens, rabbits, dogs, desert tortoises and a goat or two, to help provide food for his family. He was a great cook and made what he called, "The Special". The special was everything he could find in the refrigerator to cut up and throw it in the pan.
Most important: Salvador was a man of integrity, honesty, strength, was dependable, loyal, a man of high moral standards, fought numerous health issues courageously, showed much love and devotion to his family and friends, and was always very passionate with giving to others. He will be deeply missed.

Memorial will be on:
Saturday, May 10, 2014 at 3:00PM
Green Hills Mortuary Memorial Chapel
27501 South Western Avenue
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275
www.greenhillsmortuary.com
(310)831-0311

In Lieu of flowers, please donate to The Alzheimer's Association,


Funeral Home:
Green Hills Mortuary and Memorial Chapel
27501 S.Western Ave.
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA
US 90275