“I worked with him when he was department head,” said Terry Brandt, who succeeded Scholl. “The things I remember most about him was that he was always very positive, very pragmatic and had a very good sense of humor in dealing with staff and residents.
“He played a very big role in the original reconstruction of Main Beach and in the first [undergrounding] assessment district, which were major improvements for the city.”
In 1977, Scholl took the job of director of general services in Santa Monica, where he worked until 1993, but he continued to live in Laguna Beach.
“We came here when he started working for the city,” said his widow, Polly. “He did a lot for this community.”
Scholl continued to serve the city periodically as a consultant.
“He was very competent and very professional,” City Manager Ken Frank said. “And he was a real gentleman.”
Stan Scholl was born Oct. 21, 1933, in Dixon, Ill., the son of Elton and Ruth Scholl. After graduating from high school, he attended Cornell College in Iowa for one year before joining the Army near the end of the Korean War. He served in Japan, where he learned surveying, which was the start of his engineering career.
When his Army duty ended, Stan Scholl attended the University of Illinois, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering.
The family moved to California in 1963 when Stan Scholl was employed by Cal Poly Pomona to teach civil engineering.
He next worked as city engineer for Glendora, before moving to Laguna.
After retiring in 1993, Stan Scholl served as interim city engineer for Inglewood, Culver City, Hawthorne and Glendora. He was instrumental in rebuilding Santa Clarita, where he was working when a large earthquake hit the city.
