Celebrating Frank Wada: No One Gave More

GELFAND’S WORLD--Last week, the Los Angeles neighborhood council system had to pause from our many endeavors to mourn one of our dead. It's a sobering thought that we've been around long enough to have known people for a goodly part of their lives and for a few of them so far, to see them out. In celebrating Frank Wada's life, we pay tribute to his contributions, and in so doing, we stop and muse over the system he helped create. 

The memorial service last Tuesday, November 24 included spoken tributes by the Los Angeles County Sheriff and by the senior officers of the Hollenbeck Station of the LAPD. This was certainly a bit of a surprise to many of us who only knew Frank through his participation in the neighborhood council system, but the lines of police cars outside the Sacred Heart church in Lincoln Heights were testimony to another aspect of his life that many of us were still to learn. 

Frank Wada was born in Chinatown into a Japanese-American family in the year 1955. He attended Lincoln High School and developed a lifelong friendship with science teacher Ben Wadsworth. Interestingly, Wadsworth and Wada were both instrumental in the formation of the Lincoln Heights Neighborhood Council and continued to serve throughout its existence. 

Frank attended UCI and came back to run a family business. Along the way, he became a reserve officer with the LAPD, and in 2011 was honored as the Reserve Officer of the Year for the Central Traffic Division. This was a side of Frank that many of us neighborhood council people didn't know, because he was the type who didn't brag. 

But one of his admirers was at Hollenbeck in Frank's early days of service, and went on to become the Chief of Police in Long Beach and was recently elected as L.A. County Sheriff. It was this longtime connection that brought Sheriff Jim McDonnell back to the area to pay tribute to an old friend. 

From our neighborhood council ranks, Monica Harmon gave a moving tribute. Many of you will know Monica from her contributions to CityWatch as well as her online newsletters about public safety issues and police affairs. 

Ben Wadsworth, now retired from teaching, told us of Frank's many contributions to his community, ranging from the formation of the neighborhood council to his determination in fighting for and winning at local issues such as the battle to get lights installed at the high school field. In conversation, Wadsworth explained to me that Frank avoided calling attention to himself, but found ways to get important things done. 

My own observations go back to the moment when about two dozen of us from all around the city got together in the realization that neighborhood councils would be more influential if we could learn to speak with a unified voice. Frank was one of those people who recognized this critical unifying principle, and stayed with the process throughout. The organizing group met for well over a year. Frank Wada holds the honor of being one of the founders of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Coalition, and a participant throughout its ensuing years. 

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Out of this and so many other acts, Frank became a friend to many of us, and we will miss him in the future, even as we mourn him now. 

At a time like this, it is appropriate to look back at what we have accomplished, and equally appropriate to look forward to what we may yet accomplish. 

Fifteen years, the amount of time our neighborhood council system has been around, doesn't seem like all that long a time, but it is enough time for many of the neighborhood council pioneers to have retired, a few to have moved out of state, and a few to have passed away. They are, all of them, friends and colleagues to many of us, and they leave as their legacy a system of nearly a hundred local councils that have learned to work together. At the political level, we talk with and talk back to City Hall, even as we are pioneering new organizations to bring citizen participation to such widely diverse areas as emergency preparedness and helping the homeless. 

Much remains to be done, but in noting the passing of our longtime friends, it is also legitimate to recognize what has been accomplished. 

Frank leaves brothers Michael and Richard Wada along with two nephews.

 

(Bob Gelfand writes on culture and politics for CityWatch. He can be reached at [email protected])