By Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO, Calif. —I winced when I read the cover article by Iris H. W. Engstrand in the Summer/ Fall 2005 edition of the Journal of San Diego History which, despite the issue date, only recently hit local mail boxes. The involuntary reaction had really nothing to do with author Engstrand, who is a premiere historian of San Diego, nor with the estimable Goulds or their kinfolk the Klaubers. Rather it was because as I was reading the story of the Gould family, I remembered my own family recounting rather bitterly the story of my great aunt, Florence Powers.

In 1909, my grandfather Meyer and great grandfather Velvel, hoping for my grandfather to be a successful architect in New York, decided to change the family name from Harowitz to Harrison. Furthermore, Velvel became known as William Harrison, while Meyer became known as M. Joseph Harrison.   When my father, Martin, was born the following year, it was as a Harrison.  

However much they Anglicized their names, and became assimilated Americans in their customs, the Harowitz/ Harrisons remained Jewish.  The exception was my grandfather's sister, Florence, who not only converted to Catholicism but disowned her Jewish past. Wanting to fit into her new world, she avoided all contact with her family.  It was reported that she and Mr. Powers had two children, but beyond that I cannot tell you what became of her.  Who my father's cousins might be, I haven't the slightest idea.  And they probably are or were unaware that they had Jewish cousins.  Such was one of the prices paid not only by my family, but by countless others, as people, faced with anti-Semitism, decided to simply opt out.

Engstrand's article, The Gould Family of San Diego: Pioneers in Business, Recreation and Community Service, deals with a family that has been in San Diego six generations, and came to the United States six generations before that in 1635 when Jarvis Gould immigrated from England to Massachusetts aboard the Elizabeth.  

Hiram Gould, who in the 1880s built the Gould Hotel in what was known as Horton's Addition of San Diego (today downtown), was the first San Diegan in the family.  His son Elwyn managed his real estate assets.  Elwyn's son, Elwyn Blaine (E.B.) Gould, a ran the Gould Hardware & Machinery Company and the Lyon Van & Storage Co..  He was a charter member of the downtown Rotary Club as well as its ninth president from 1919-1920.  He also served as president of the San Diego Chamber of Commerce, president of the San Diego Museum of Man, chaired the board of the Old Globe Theatre, was president of the San Diego Boy Scouts Council and president of the San Diego Rowing Club.   Another of Elwyn's son was Leslie Herman Gould,  who joined his brother at Gould Hardware and Machinery, and later in life was a member of the board of the San Diego Club, where he was known as a handball and tennis enthusiast.  

The fourth generation of Goulds on the mainline, San Diego,  Episcopalian side included E.B's son,  Elwyn Gartzmann Gould, or "Gartz" who worked at Gould Hardware & Machinery, served as the 1945-46 San Diego Yacht Club, the 1950 Southern California Yachting Association, and the 1959 Pacific Coast Yachting Association. Another of E.B's sons was Gordon Reeve Gould, an architect whose practice took him to Berkeley.   Gartz's son, Gary Gartzman Gould, represents the 5th generation of the Goulds, following in the family tradition of joining the downtown Rotary and serving as the 1979 Commodore of the San Diego Yacht Club.  In addition he served as a director of the San Diego Maritime Association, the Linda Vista Boys Club and the San Diego Employers Association.

If you wind back the genealogy to the second generation Gould in San Diego, Elwyn, you find that in addition to sons E.B. and Leslie, he had a daughter named Grace. She  married Laurence Monroe Klauber, who was the son of Abraham Klauber, a pioneer San Diego Jew who arrived in this city in 1869, owned a general store that brought supplies to miners in Julian and farmers in other outlying areas; served on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, and owned and developed various areas of San Diego, including City Heights, and Encanto.  In fact, it was Ella Klauber, daughter of Abraham and sister of Laurence Monroe Klauber, who suggested the name Encanto (enchanted) for that neighborhood.



Laurence Monroe Klauber had been a member of  Grace Gould's 1903 graduating class at Russ High School, and obtained an engineering degree from Stanford University before the couple was married Nov. 29, 1911. He worked as a salesman for San Diego Consolidated Gas & Electric Co., eventually rising to the presidency of the renamed San Diego Gas & Electric Co. According to historian Engstrand, he also achieved an international reputation in herpetology.  He lived to the age of 84.  Grace, like her brothers, was active in San Diego civic life, and for many years was a living treasure at the San Diego Historical Society, where she helped identify people and places in historic photos.  She lived to the age of 106 before passing on December 27, 1990.

Abraham Klauber is buried on "Pioneer Hill" at the Home of Peace Cemetery, which became San Diego's oldest Jewish cemetery after all the bodies were exhumed from one that had been erected in the 1860s in the Point Loma area of San Diego, and reburied at the Home of Peace..  Besides for Abraham and his wife, the former Therese Epstein, there are memorial stones at the Home of Peace Cemetery for Laurence and Grace Klauber alongside the monument for Laurence's parents.

Nevertheless, it was from the time of Grace and Laurence Klauber that this accomplished family became Christian.  Their daughter, Alice Gould Klauber, served as president of the San Diego Junior League in 1939, marrying David Means Miller three years later.  Grace and Laurence Klauber's grandchildren  were Grace Louise Miller, David Miller Jr, and Alice Klauber Miller.  Another child of Grace and Laurence was Philip Monroe Klauber, who, like his father, received an engineering degree at Stanford University, eventually joining San Diego Gas & Electric where he rose to the vice presidency for customer service.  

Philip carried on many Gould family traditions, including joining the downtown Rotary (and serving as its president for the 1960-61 term) and  participating in numerous civic activities, including service as president of the Combined Arts & Education Council of San Diego (COMBO),  the San Diego Symphony, United Way, San Diego Community Foundation, LEAD San Diego, San Diego Historical Society and the Executive Service Corps of San Diego.  The Rotary named him as Mr. San Diego, the Boy Scouts honored him as a National Distinguished Eagle Scout; the Gaslamp Quarter Association presented him its Lifetime Achievement Award, the Historical Society conferred its George W. Marston Award for Distinction in Civic Leadership, and the Lions Club named him a Volunteer of the Year.

Phillip Klauber and his wife, Detty June, had one son, Timothy, and two daughters, Janet and Laurie.  Timothy has a son Max.  Janet, the development director for the Timken Art Museum, married Lee Oliver, and they have one son, Philip Allan Oliver. Laurie married Neal Wasserman and they have two children, Eleanor Mae and Timothy.

Every one has the right to choose his own religion, and every couple has the right to bring up their children in whatever religion better suits them. I admire the Goulds and the Klaubers who have contributed so much to San Diego.  I wish my Great Aunt Florence had known them so she could have seen how one could marry into another faith tradition while still respecting and associating with one's own family.