The board and volunteers of the San Pedro Bay Historical Society are deeply saddened by the loss of Angela Romero. Someone so talented and knowledgeable about our town, youthful and full of ideas for sharing local history, should still be with us. This is the sentiment we continue to hear and express.
Readers of Angela’s articles and online posts will know that she spent countless hours in the society’s archives. Before the digitization of the old San Pedro newspapers, she could regularly be found in a small back room of the archives, winding through reel after reel of the microfilmed newspapers. She seemed to absorb everything of San Pedro history—the big events as well as the small and sometimes humorous details. Her gift was the ability to translate what she learned into programs, talks and experiences that brought San Pedro’s past alive and kindled in others an interest for its history.
Researching and sharing San Pedro’s history became Angela’s profession, and in the last few years she earned a B.A. in history at CSU Long Beach. However, she wasn’t always peering into the past. She was, in fact, a documentarian of the contemporary local scene and its gentle critic. Her last column for San Pedro Today (January 2022) was entitled “The Promise of Pacific Avenue.” There she urged a reinvestment in the historic commercial stretch of Pacific and a restoration of the older buildings between 3rd and 14th streets. What a wonderful tribute to her it would be if that promise were realized.
We are grateful for the time she spent with us, for her contributions in the archives and to the historical society itself.
– Mona Dallas Reddick
President, SPBHS