Manuel D. Flores
Sunrise : May 15, 1927
Sunset : April 12, 2017
Manuel D. Flores, former City of San Fernando Mayor and Councilman, entered to eternal rest on April 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, California. Manuel was the second of six children born to Cleofas (Daniel) and Adan Flores in San Fernando on May 15, 1927.
He was educated at San Fernando Elementary and High Schools, graduating high school at age 16. He was inducted into the U.S. Army Special Training Reserve Program, sent to the University of Idaho School of Engineering in Moscow, Idaho, and then was assigned to the Army Medical Corps at the end of the war. He attended to injured vets returning home from war to military hospitals in Denver, Colorado, Menlo Park, California, and Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
Manuel was married 66 years to Sally Morales, of San Fernando. Together they raised four children: Janet of Las Cruces, NM, Gail Dorta (preceding her father in death), Larry, of Santa Clarita, CA, and Manny (Gary) Flores of Lancaster, CA.
Manuel received training in Plastics Engineering from the California West Coast
Plastics Institute in 1950, and worked 37 years for Lockheed Aircraft Corporation in Burbank first as a Plastics Fabricator, then in the Advanced Engineering Division on a NASA project that sent chimpanzees into space, and another project for the U.S. Air Force to improve combat helicopter propeller features. One of Manuel’s last positions with Lockheed was as a representative for the Burbank Plant Affirmative Action Office.
Manuel Flores was a firm believer in the political power of the vote to improve
opportunities, living conditions, and quality of life for local Latinos. He was responsible for obtaining the first San Fernando club charter of the California Democrat Council, later known as the San Fernando Democrat Club. He spearheaded many voter-registration
campaigns in minority neighborhoods in San Fernando. His civic and church
involvements were many, including the Mexican American Political Association and the Santa Rosa Catholic Parish Advisory Council, and the creation of first credit union, an affordable day-care center, a bi-lingual education center, U.S. citizenship classes, the first all-Latino Boy Scout Troop, educational scholarships, and the groundwork for establishing the North Valley Occupational Center in San Fernando. In the mid-1960s Manuel Flores was elected to the San Fernando City Council, and later to the Office of the Mayor.
His leadership brought long-needed infrastructure and safety improvements to the geographic area of San Fernando known as the “Barrio”, including paved roads, street lighting, sidewalks, safer railroad crossings, a westside fire station, and a city park. Manuel’s civic leadership also helped to establish the first Hispanic- managed Camino Real Savings and Loan and Cabrillo Banks in the City of San Fernando.
Manuel Flores leaves behind a brother, Pete Flores, a sister, Eva Santiago, and seven grandchildren: Erik Flores, Salina Flores, Alexandra Bowers, Abigail Apple, Alyssa Dorta, Marissa Flores, Adrian Flores, and one great granddaughter, Laila. The family of Manuel D. Flores wishes to extend our sincerest thanks to those who helped care for our father at home (Maricela and Larry Flores, Alexandra Bowers and Robin from QualCare Caregivers), and the skilled nursing and hospice staff of Villa Scalabrini Retirement Center.