Donald D. Lorenzen

Donald D. Lorenzen, or Don Lorenzen, (1920–80) was a San Fernando Valley funeral director who was a member of the Los Angeles City Council from 1969 to 1977.

Lorenzen was born on January 22, 1920, in Elgin, North Dakota, the son of Dr. and Mrs. Frederick C. Lorenzen. His father was a Danish immigrant and was a medical doctor. The younger Lorenzen attended Elgin High School, Jamestown College, Glendale City College and the California College of Mortuary Science. He and Virginia Laux of San Antonio, Texas, were married on October 2, 1940. They had two sons, David Carl and Jon Robert.

Lorenzen was in the U.S. Air Force during World War II; he and his wife moved to the San Fernando Valley in 1946 and to Reseda in 1952. He operated his own mortuary and founded a bank. His hobbies were flying his light airplane and motion-picture photography.

He died in May 1980 at the age of sixty.

Lorenzen was a president of the Reseda Chamber of Commerce in 1957–58 and of the San Fernando Valley Associated Chambers of Commerce in 1961–62. He was president of the Valley-Wide Better Government Committee and was founder and first chairman of the West Valley Little League. He was president of the San Fernando chapter of Project Hope. He won the Valleywide Fernando Award in 1963.

Lorenzen came from second place in the 1969 primary municipal election to win the Los Angeles City Council District 3 seat in the final vote over Howard W. Speer by 32,387 to 23,888. He beat Joy Picus in 1973 in a tight election that demanded a recount; the vote was 27,575 for Lorenzen and 27,027 for Picus. The latter, however, beat Lorenzen in an extremely light vote in 1977, by a vote of 1,148 to 993. Picus said that voters turned against Lorenzen because of the way that the councilman had forced streetlights—and the resulting taxes—upon certain residential districts that did not want them.

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