Longtime Newhall resident John S. Fuller, a cornerstone of Santa Clarita’s civic and cultural development, was born September 7, 1933.

Fuller moved to Newhall in 1964 and quickly became a leader in both business and volunteer service. He was instrumental in the creation of Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital, serving as founding treasurer of the board that raised the funds to build the community’s first nonprofit hospital, which opened in 1975. Fuller remained involved with the hospital for decades, even helping in its volunteer-run gift shop in his later years.

Fuller began in the Santa Clarita Valley in 1962 as manager of Valley Federal Savings in downtown Newhall. In 1984, he returned as an administrator at the California Institute of the Arts, where he later guided the $35 million reconstruction of the campus after the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

His civic engagement stretched across the decades: president of the Newhall-Saugus Chamber of Commerce in 1965, member of the Upper Santa Clara Water Agency board, and longtime YMCA board member. In recognition of his contributions, he was named SCV Man of the Year in 1979.

In interviews, Fuller fondly recalled the small-town character of early Newhall, from knowing everyone on Main Street to shopping at the narrow-aisled Safeway, and witnessing the transformation of Valencia from open land to a master-planned community.

“When you walked down the street in 1962, you knew just about everybody,” he said. “It was a different town… The first stoplight didn’t come to Newhall until about 1965. You could blow through town without stopping.”

Remembered as a humble man who rarely sought the spotlight, Fuller’s legacy lives on in the hospital, the arts, and the civic institutions he helped build.

To read yesterday’s Today in SCV History, click HERE.

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