Former local water official Ed Dunn Jr., who served on the governing board for both the former Newhall County Water District and the now-defunct Castaic Lake Water Agency — and then acted as a watchdog for local ratepayers in retirement — died Wednesday. He was 92.
Dunn was a longtime aerospace engineer who also knew what a precious resource water was for the region, according to his wife of more than 60 years, Joan Dunn.
“Well, he was pretty well bent on having the truth and knowing what was happening, and he didn’t like people lying,” she said Thursday in a phone interview.
Friday would have been the couple’s 66th anniversary, she added.
Born in Taunton, Massachusetts, on Feb. 8, 1932, Ed Dunn Jr. and his wife, Joan, moved to the Santa Clarita Valley in 1969 to be closer to Ed’s job at the time, she said, which was at Edwards Air Force Base.
He liked people and he loved to tell jokes, she said, adding that he learned how to fix watches as a kid and worked in instrumentation for the U.S. Air Force after his service.
His work on temperature gauges in aircraft garnered awards.
Joan Dunn also said her husband’s family roots connected with the Kennedy’s through ties to Taunton: Ed’s grandmother, Ellen Dunn, was a first cousin to Mary Josephine Hannon Fitzgerald, the maternal grandmother of 35th U.S. President, John F. Kennedy.
Joan came from an agricultural family, she said, and while Ed did not, they both began attending local water board meetings after moving out to the SCV.
The service became a natural progression — after attending so many together, both of them were asked to run, said Joan Dunn.
“And I’ve been attending the water meetings in this community for, now, nearly 20 years,” Ed Dunn Jr. was quoted as saying in a 2004 campaign interview with The Signal. “And when I say the meetings, it’s not just the monthly board meetings; (it’s) also the committee meetings.”
Ed Dunn Jr. served on the board for the Castaic Lake Water Agency from 1999 to 2002, and the Newhall district before that.
The family also owned and operated Clocks, Watches and Jewelry, which they later renamed Valencia Jewelers.
Prior to the creation of the SCV Water Agency in 2018, the CLWA managed the purchase of water wholesale from the State Water Project and then its distribution, which was primarily to a handful of local retail agencies.
Those agencies, including the Newhall County Water District, were consolidated into one by Senate Bill 634. The Dunns opposed the bill in an editorial letter to The Signal back in 2017 due to what they described as its reduction in local representation.
Ed Dunn Jr. is survived by his wife, Joan, and three of their children, Edwin G. Dunn, Maureen Dunn-Dockus and Michele (Dunn) Ross. He had 10 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
A viewing is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 15 at Eternal Valley Memorial Park and Mortuary at 23287 Sierra Highway. A Rosary and Mass will be held May 16 starting at 10:30 a.m. at St. Clare Catholic Church, with a procession at noon to Eternal Valley.
