‘Powerhouse of Laguna’ scales back a bit

A special spring sale could be the harbinger of a new phase in Harry Lawrence’s life.

“I am in good health, but I have been told to cut back a little, and it’s time to let go,” said Lawrence, 91, an icon of the city’s business community and cultural organizations.

Lawrence has been a force in the community since he and his late first wife, Maxine, bought Warren Imports in 1946 and built it from a one-room gift shop into a multimillion-dollar enterprise. On May 13, Lawrence began to sell off the antiques and imports for which the store has become famous.

The Chamber of Commerce honored him in 2003 by creating the Harry Lawrence Community Service Award, of which he was the first recipient.

“His company has always been a model for new businesses in town, but he is also what I call a great corporate citizen, one who is not just looking for money, but is looking to help the community,” chamber President Dave Sanford said. “Harry is always looking for the win-win, and he has a wealth of knowledge that pertains to the business community.”

It is Lawrence’s successful juggling of business with community service that inspires Sande St. John, the 2005 recipient of the chamber award.

“I have so much respect for him, because he has done so much for Laguna,” St. John said. “He is the powerhouse of Laguna.”

Lawrence’s influence has been vital to many civic and cultural achievements, according to a biography written by Jack Smith of the Exchange Club of Laguna Beach.

In the late 1940s, he served first as treasurer and then as president of the Laguna Playhouse and helped raise funds to construct the Laguna Moulton Playhouse, designed by architect William Perera on Broadway.

While serving as vice president of the chamber in 1950, Lawrence founded the Beautification Council, on which he still serves. After the Korean War, Lawrence founded the Holiday Bureau, which promoted winter tourism to make up for economic losses caused by the exodus of the military and the failure of many of the pottery studios.

In the following decade, Lawrence became involved in the acquisition of Main Beach Park ? which he dubbed the Window to the Sea ? and chaired a committee to reduce the clutter of signs in town.

One of his proudest accomplishments was bringing opera to southern Orange County. He was a founder of Lyric Opera, which sponsored performances at Irvine Bowl and was later incorporated as Pacific Opera, presenter of an annual season at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. He also was a participant in the community effort to build South Coast Hospital (now South Coast Medical Center) and a member of the World Affairs Council and the Century Travel Club.

In the 1970s, Lawrence was elected to the board of the Laguna Art Museum and twice served as vice president. He chaired the “Confidential Committee” to resolve problems related to drug sales and use in town. The ‘70s also was a decade of expansion for Warren Imports, which took him around the world.

Lawrence created a tour company to share with others his love of Asia. He has conducted 155 trips just to China. His last planned trip, to Katmandu, was canceled due to unrest in the region. The tour company will be sold, Lawrence said Monday.

He was recognized in London’s “Who’s Who of Oriental Art” in 1980.

Lawrence also has been active in the Rotary Club, the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and served on the advisory board of Woodbury University.

He has been honored with Rotary’s Paul Perris Fellowship Award and was inducted into the Long Beach City College Hall of Fame in 2001.

“I have lived the impossible dream,” Lawrence said.

Lawrence was born in San Bernardino and spent his early years traveling on the family’s railroad employee pass. He visited 42 states.

His family moved to Long Beach when he was 12. He graduated from Wilson High School in 1932 with five letters for athletics. He continued his athletic and academic career at Long Beach City College. He was elected president of the college YMCA, a group that aided the evacuation of earthquake victims in March 1933.

Lawrence took his first trip to Asia on the old Dollar Line and came home entranced by what he had seen and was filled with the desire to buy Asian ? then called Oriental ? treasures. He changed his college major from art to “international trade of the Far East” and enrolled in special classes at Woodbury. He also studied business accounting and law. He was a member of a scholarship fraternity, elected school president and graduated with honors.

Lawrence took a job with Oceanic and Oriental Steamship Lines in 1937, founded the Junior Foreign Trade group and launched a program to support a trade agreement that would lower tariffs.

He worked until World War II claimed his services.

Lawrence joined the U.S. Navy as an intelligence yeoman. He completed his service as an officer in the navy’s Amphibious Force and returned to the job force in 1945.

A short year later, he and his bride wandered into Warren Imports, then just a small cubby in the Art Center owned by the French family. They ended up buying the shop. The Lawrences later bought the building at 1910 S. Coast Highway and moved the business there.

“I can’t believe it has been 60 years,” Lawrence said.

Lawrence declined to say what the sale portends for his future, but said he and his wife, Zihide, are planning it together.

“I have so many projects, when I have the time for them, you wouldn’t believe,” Lawrence said.

Sure we would.