Producers’ Shehadey dies at 102

Published online on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2009

Larry A. Shehadey, iconic Fresno dairyman, civic leader and namesake of the Save Mart Center tower at Fresno State, died Saturday morning at Saint Agnes Medical Center. He was 102.

Mr. Shehadey's sons, John and Richard Shehadey, said their father remained active until his health began to fail recently.

"He was in a wheelchair, but he was still going to church until a month ago" to hear one of his grandsons play in the band at The Bridge church, Richard Shehadey said.

Mr. Shehadey was a man who worked hard but played hard, his sons said. He valued fairness, persevered through hard times, loved his family and prayed for them daily.

Mr. Shehadey was a salesman in San Francisco when he bought a controlling interest in Producers Delivery Dairy Co. in Fresno. He moved his wife, Elayne, and his sons to Fresno in 1951.

Elayne Shehadey died in 1995.

John and Richard Shehadey worked in the business as boys. "My brother and I swept the sidewalks, and he paid us 25 cents," John Shehadey said. "He was tough on my brother and me, but he was fair. He realized to survive, you had to be strong."

Producers was a small business at first. "We just had a few little home deliveries."

By 1954, Producers was the top dairy in Fresno because Mr. Shehadey "got to know this guy named Hopalong Cassidy," John Shehadey said. The movie and television cowboy star, played by William Boyd, became the dairy's mascot.

"Hopalong Cassidy was a big success, and kids wanted to drink Hoppy's milk," said Charlie Chitchjian who owned the Mars Drive-In across the street from the Producers plant at Belmont and Palm avenues.

Not long after Mr. Shehadey bought into the dairy, "he came over and introduced himself," Chitchjian said.

"We became very good friends over time."

They both joined the new San Joaquin Country Club around 1961. "We shared a locker, but he never saw the inside of that locker," Chitchjian recalled with a laugh. "He was a workaholic."

Mr. Shehadey's sons were part of the family business.

"Work was his work, but work was his hobby," Richard Shehadey said. "He was always a salesman and he enjoyed people, so it was fun. He was my boss, my father and my best friend."

He and his father were "car guys," Richard Shehadey said. His father bought a Dodge Viper in 1997 -- at age 90. "He drove it until he was 95," his son said.

Mr. Shehadey married June Lattanzio in 2001. His care became the subject of a court fight after his family complained to the Fresno County Public Guardian's Office, which alleged in 2007 that Lattanzio isolated him from friends and family and discontinued his physical therapy. She denied those allegations.

In August 2007, a Fresno County Superior Court judge granted the agency's request to become Mr. Shehadey's temporary conservator. He was moved out of the home he shared with Lattanzio, and the agency took responsibility for his daily care.

About a year ago, Mr. Shehadey's two sons and Lattanzio agreed to let the guardian's office be his permanent conservator. The decision avoided a potentially ugly court battle over his care.

Richard Shehadey's wife, Sue, called Mr. Shehadey "a wonderful grandfather," to his eight grandchildren. "He was a mentor to each of them." He also had 14 great-grandchildren, "with one on the way," Sue Shehadey said.

Giving back to the community was part of doing business from the beginning, John Shehadey said. "At first we couldn't afford to give much, because we didn't have much. He always told me, you can't just take; you have to give back."

Mr. Shehadey was a benefactor to California State University, Fresno; Fresno Pacific University; Fresno City College; the Boys and Girls Club; the Boy Scouts; Children's Hospital Central California; Community Regional Medical Center; and Saint Agnes Medical Center, where an educational wing is named for him.

Mr. Shehadey's $3 million donation to the Save Mart Center in 2000 was the largest personal gift to the project, said Peter Smits, vice president for university advancement at Fresno State.

"He was a giant in the community. His generosity really changed the community," Smits said.

Howard DeMera was Mr. Shehadey's certified public accountant since 1962. "His fairness in all his dealings was something that most impressed me," DeMera said. "More so than anything else, I've lost a dear friend."