Art Institute Chief John Lottes Dies at 62; Funeral Is Saturday

LAGUNA BEACH —  John W. Lottes, president of the Art Institute of Southern California, died Monday of an inoperable brain tumor, according to his family. He was 62.

Lottes, who had been president of Orange County’s only private four-year art college since 1991, had been on medical leave since Nov. 1, said the institute’s chief financial officer, James D. Godek, who has been its acting president.

Lottes is credited with bringing stability to the 35-year-old art and design school, serving longer than any of eight predecessors over the last decade, increasing the school’s enrollment to a record 166 full-time students and creating closer ties with the county’s art community and the city of Laguna Beach, Godek said.

Lottes helped “increase the stature” of the arts institute, said Bonnie Brittain Hall, executive director of Arts Orange County, a countywide service organization on whose board Lottes served.

Formerly president of similar schools in Oregon, Minneapolis and Kansas City, Mo., “he had such a rich background that he was a teacher to many of us,” Hall said.

Services will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, 1190 Morningside Drive, Laguna Beach. The family suggests that donations be made to the church or the art institute.