Point Arena Lighthouse Lecture Series: Point Arena in the 1950s

On Saturday, July 13 at 5pm, Michael Combs will present: “Point Arena in the 1950's - Growing Up in a Beehive of Activity” as part of the Lighthouse Lecture Series.

Tickets are $5 per person and can be purchased at the Gift Store counter on arrival. All seating is first-come, first-served in the Lighthouse Museum (Fog Signal Building). Please join us!

About the Lecture: 
Michael was seven when his family moved from Southern California to Point Arena in 1949. Sleepy Point Arena soon became very busy as the Air Force arrived in 1950, the saw mills grew and flourished, and ranching, farming, and fishing prospered too. He took it all in, as the Baby Boomer flood swamped the four-room elementary school and families lived in abandoned buildings and crammed into tiny apartments. It was a wonderful and exciting time to be alive and young.

About the Presenter: 
Michael's family moved to Point Arena in 1949 when he was in the 2nd Grade. They lived for a while in the old abandoned high school building across from the Catholic Church, and later built their own home behind the Elementary School. His younger brother Ron and he helped build their home, using a borrowed plow horse and Fresno scraper to dig a full sized basement. After graduation from Point Arena High in 1960, Michael went to Humboldt State a year, Santa Rosa Junior College a year, then the Air Force for 21.5 years - married his high school sweetheart Marilynn (they had three sons) - and attended five other colleges while in the Air Force. He started as a Russian linguist, then became a Budget and Finance Officer and Internal Auditor. After 14 moves, an MBA and CPA, he retired from the Air Force and worked at Lockheed, Sunnyvale, for ten years, then on to some other jobs including Kaiser Permanente, Oakland, and Nummi, Fremont. Marilynn died of breast cancer in 1988 just after their 25th anniversary, and he chose his current wife Alice from a book and they married in 1989. He retired in 1998 and he and Alice moved to Gualala, which they love over all places, while traveling quite a bit and loving coming home. Every day they play ball with their doggie Radar on Cook's Beach and remind themselves not to take their wonderful lives here on the coast for granted.