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"Mr. Democrat"
Joe Fulford could be very exasperating. What other word would you use to
describe a man in his eighties who could disappear from his own birthday
party, only to be discovered smoking somewhere outside?
He was set in his ways. How else do you describe a man who insists on
getting his mail at Box 512, Pacifica, decade after decade, when all
sensible folk have theirs delivered right to their homes?
He was one of a kind. What other description could there be of a man
ultimately responsible for 55 years of success for the political club now
known as the Pacifica-Coastside Democrats, admired, respected, active for a
half-century, yet never President of the club?
There's good reason to think him the key element when the Pacifica
Historical Society was revived after laying dormant for half a decade in
the late seventies to the early eighties. Yet someone writing a history of
the society might easily overlook his role. After thinking about it, Lydia
and I realized he was the catalyst who got things going again. Without his
initiative, it's likely the group would simply not have revived.
Joe's sense of justice and fairness was massive. He felt strongly about
women's rights. He was active in the ACLU. Though I knew him 40 years, I'm
aware of only a fraction of his good work and his concern for the welfare
and the rights of others.
He was "Mr. Democrat", but the oldest newspaper clipping I've seen about
him was a front page story in the Coastside Tribune from the mid-fifties,
about a doozy of an argument he had with the imperial founder of the
Coastside Democratic Forum, Edna Laurel Calhan. It's been one of the
frustrations of my life we could never get the county Democratic
organization to fully honor him for his service. He deserved the full
"Roast" treatment, complete with plaques, satirical comments, videos, and
celebrity politicians playing "This is your life, Joe Fulford!" But he
probably would have disappeared half way through the event to indulge his
tobacco habit.
Lydia and I arrived in Pacifica Sept. 30, 1963. On October 19, there was a
knock on our door. Ken Strom, who we shortly learned was President of the
Pacifica Democrats, was registering voters. Lydia and I each claim to have
yelled to the other, "They've found us!" Ken invited us to the club meeting
where we first met Joe.
Before long I was a volunteer deputy registrar of voters. In a community
expanding as rapidly as was Pacifica, and before the days of registering by
mail, it made sense to go door to door. Joe and I were a team. He almost
ran. He did the hard work. He accepted all the rejections. When he found a
prospect he'd alert me. My energy was conserved for the job of actually
registering folks.
By 1966 I was president of the club. That February Joe drove me in his
little yellow station wagon to the Bakersfield convention of the California
Democratic Council. With two small kids, a pregnant wife and busy at my
job, I might well have skipped it, but Joe's kind offer made the
difference. On my return, I was interviewed for a story about the
convention by Tribune publisher Bill Drake. At the end of that phone call,
Bill asked what I did for a living. I told him I sold newspaper
advertising. He needed a salesman. I hated commuting. To sum it up, I
finally retired from the Tribune decades later. In his quiet way, Joe had
changed my life as he did the lives of so many others. He was a teacher.
The best teachers are like that.
Paul Azevedo's e mail address is Paul@thereactor.net
Check The Reactor's website at www.thereactor.net.
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