Donald H. Harrison

    By Donald H. Harrison   SAN DIEGO–Outside the Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park stand two large, fanciful sculptures by Niki de Saint Phalle, an internationally celebrated sculptor who lived in La Jolla in the final years of her life. One created in 1998 from glass, stones, mirrors and polyester, called “Poet and […]

By Donald H. Harrison LA MESA, California—Between La Mesa Boulevard in the heart of this city’s business district and the Allison Avenue Municipal Parking Lot which serves as a venue for Farmers Markets held on Friday afternoons is an innovative walkway in which murals celebrate volunteerism and stars on the sidewalk honor local volunteers. This

  By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Adjacent to the U.S. Grant School in the Mission Hills neighborhood of San Diego is the remnant of a Catholic cemetery containing the headstones of some pioneer San Diegans who knew the American President for whom the school is named. Among those who lie buried in the

By Donald H. Harrison   MOUNT ISRAEL, California—This foothill in San Diego County has been “partitioned. ” Approaching it from Lake Hodges on its south and east, it still is known as Mount Israel. However, its more-rural northeastern slope overlooking Olivenhain Dam and Reservoir is described today as part of the Elfin Forest Recreational Area.

  By Donald H. Harrison   JULIAN, California – Whites who had been slaveholders and blacks who had been slaves contributed to the early history of Julian.  Today, in the colorful mountain town of gold mines, apples and antiques, both groups of people as well as other ethnic groups  are remembered and honored. One of

  By Donald H. Harrison CARLSBAD, Calif—Although Leo Carrillo had become a fairly well known star on Broadway, it wasn’t until after Sam Warner talked him into becoming a movie actor that his fame became international. With earnings from the movies, Carrillo was able to purchase in 1937 a large ranch in the hills of

By Donald H. Harrison NATIONAL CITY, California—In the mid 1980s, San Diego’s Acting Mayor Bill Cleator organized the San Diego Cruise Industry Consortium – an association of private and public entities that all shared an interest in attracting cruise ships to this city.  Thirty years later, thanks to a sustained marketing follow-up by the Port

  By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO—Miramar National Cemetery was dedicated Saturday, January 30,  2010, by two members of Congress and ranking officials of the military and Veterans Administration with promises that San Diego will once again be able to bury the bodies of its veterans—and not only their ashes—before the end of the year.