Allen Lester Gottlieb Obituary - Visitation & Funeral Information

OBITUARY FOR ALLEN LESTER GOTTLIEB Nov. 13, 1922 Allen Lester Gottlieb died at the age of 91 on August 16, 2014. Les spent the last 18 months of his life at Sunnycrest Assited Living in Fullerton, confined to a wheelchair from the effects of Multiple Systems Atrophy. But it was his heart that placed him in the compassionate care of Hospice, where he died in the presence of his wife, his two daughters, and a granddaughter. Those who knew him at Sunnycrest remember Les for his ready smile and routine assisted walks around the courtyard. Determined to retain a measure of independence, he maintained his strength through exercise classes and devised various techniques of negotiating transfers from recliner to wheelchair. Les was born and raised in Minneapolis, where he was tri-state champion for his high school debate team. During WWII, he served in the Navy as an x-ray technician. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy at the University of Minnesota in 1947. Les co-founded Central Drugs in La Habra in 1953, where he served as a pharmacist until retiring in 1978, when he filled his days with classes at Fullerton College and served his community as a Big Brother. He was a regular at the Fullerton Tennis Center until his illness weakened his legs and attacked his sense of balance. Les was an adventurous traveler, and with his wife, Rose, participated in an archeological dig in Israel, and hiked in the Swiss Alps, the English Cotswolds, and the hills of Tuscany. An enthusiastic bicyclist, he toured the California wine country and the Gulf Islands of British Columbia, and at the age of seventy he took part in a bicycle ride across Iowa, where he rode from 60 to 100 miles a day. Fittingly, on the day his worldly travels ended, his passport expired. Les was devoted to his daughters, Jamie (Vic) Reyes and Leslie Gottlieb, who in his final days returned that devotion in full measure. His wife, Rose, stepdaughters April (Bob) Schultz and September (Jeff) Dunst, and grandchildren Emily and Donald Turner, Spencer Smieten, Gwendolen Dunst, and Adeline Schultz, also survived him. He leaves behind nieces, Marci (Reuven) Gottlieb-Glick and Juli (Claude) Juteau as well as his sister-in-law, Donna Gottlieb, and a number of cousins. He will be deeply missed by all who remember him for his patience, humor, kindness, and pure enjoyment of life. Les's ashes will be placed, with one of his pipes, in his humidor and interred at Memory Garden Park in Brea, CA

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Allen Lester Gottlieb

November 13, 1922 - August 16, 2014