OBITUARY: Doris Shields, art patron, dies at 93

Laguna Beach has lost one of its treasures, a revered contributor to the arts.

Doris Shields, founder of the Music in the Park concert series and a longtime member of the Arts Commission, died Sunday. She was 93.

“She was so, so gracious and had a wealth of information and talent,� said Sian Poeschl, city arts manager. “Anyone who worked on Music in the Park did it because of Doris.�

Poeschl worked with Shields on the concert series until she retired from the Arts Commission in 1995.

“I continued to work with Doris on the concerts until 1999, when she passed the baton to me,� Poeschl said.

Music was the great joy in Shields’ life, and she strove to share that joy with the world, and specifically with the residents of Laguna Beach, her adopted home.

Her contributions were recognized by the Laguna Beach Woman’s Club, who named Shields the Woman of the Year in 2000 and Patriots Day Parade Committee, which honored her as the Patriot of the Year in 2004.

The last public event Shields attended before her death was the 2008 Woman of the Year Luncheon.

Doris Ann Asher was born Oct. 18, 1915, in Buffalo, N.Y. Five years later, the family moved to the Los Angeles area. She began spending summers in Laguna in 1937 and caught the eye of lifeguard Bill Shields, whose family had owned Shields Hardware on Forest Avenue since 1924.

The couple married in 1937.

In a biography published in the Patriot’s Day Parade Program, Shields recalled her early days in Laguna.

“You could take in a baseball game on the high school field or at Boat Canyon, and then take a walk on the pier that ran out of the gazebo in Heisler Park over the offshore rocks. You could dance in a good hall with a name band. I was surprised that many of the young men danced barefoot. You could even take a boat from the end of the pier to a large barge three miles offshore to gamble in international waters.�

The pier was destroyed in September 1939 and never rebuilt.

But Shields built up an impressive portfolio of accomplishments.

She taught music, which she had studied at Santa Ana College and USC. She founded the Pageant of the Master Chorale to accompany the popular attraction.

It later matured into the Saddleback Master Chorale.

She was a cofounder of Opera Pacific, a patron of the Orange County Philharmonic Association and the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

Her contributions were not limited to music.

Shields also directed plays, as well as musicals, at the Pasadena Playhouse and at the Laguna Playhouse when it was on Ocean Avenue and after it moved to it present location.

Her first production in Laguna was “John Brown’s Body,� an epic poem set to music.

The play featured a 24-year-old actor/carpenter named Harrison Ford.

Shields also was a longtime supporter of the Laguna Art Museum and the Laguna Art School, which became the Art Institute of Southern California, now known as the Laguna College of Art & Design.

A memorial service will be held for Shields at 1 p.m, Sept. 21, at the rocky ledge in Heisler Park, at the end of Myrtle Street, the site of the bench she commissioned in her late husband’s name.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Doris R. Shields Benefit for the Arts account at Wells Fargo Bank.

Shields is survived by her son, Don, and his wife, Jean; daughter-in-law Christine, widow of son, Bob; grandchildren Melissa, Erin, Joshua, Jay and William; and grandchildren Christopher, Cameron and Aaron.

BARBARA DIAMOND can be reached at (949) 494-4321 or [email protected].