Glenn Stallings; Made Gavels for Governors, Judges

Glenn E. Stallings, a 68-year resident of Ventura whose handmade gavels rang out in local city hall meetings as well as the U.S. Supreme Court, died Saturday after a brief illness. He was 84.

Stallings was born June 10, 1913, in Smith County, Tenn.

When he was 17, Stallings and a friend drove 2,400 miles to California in a Model A. With gas prices a dime a gallon, the trip cost the pair $31.

Once in Ventura, the youths took a $7.50-a-week room in a boarding house on Meta Street and they soon accepted an offer to run the place in exchange for free rent. Within weeks, Stallings was asked to tear down the remains of an American Legion hall that had burned down. Although the job didn’t pay, he was free to sell the remaining materials. Stallings took the salvaged lumber, nails and fixtures to Ventura Avenue, and what was to become G&S; Building Supply was born.

On July 4, 1937, Stallings married Doris Manning. The couple, who were married until Doris’ death in 1990, had four children.

Stallings served in the Seabees, the Navy’s construction battalion, during World War II. He was injured during a mission, spent two years in hospitals and was fitted with an artificial knee.

Upon his return to Ventura, former customers persuaded him to reopen his building supply store. Stallings set up shop in an orchard at 1335 N. Ventura Ave. by putting a chair under an avocado tree.

“He was a great man,” said John Allen McWherter, Stallings’ longtime friend and a former mayor of Ventura. “We owe a great deal of our present quality of life in Ventura to Glenn Stallings.”

If someone trying to build a home or a business couldn’t afford lumber, Stallings often pretended he had some off-quality goods he could sell cheaply, McWherter said.

“They would get a good price, and it would turn out to be new materials,” he said. “He always did this behind the scenes. I don’t think anyone ever really knew how much Glenn did for this community.”

Stallings soon became known for the handcrafted gavels he gave to those who led local civic and governmental bodies. California Govs. Goodwin Knight and Pat Brown received Stallings’ gavels, as did Earl Warren, a California governor appointed to the Supreme Court in the 1950s. He also gave gag gavels made of termite-riddled wood to clubs that were losing membership.

Stallings’ last gavel, made from a solid piece of oak, went to Ventura Mayor Jim Friedman in December.

“He was sitting in a wheelchair, and he came up . . . and unwrapped the box and gave a little ceremonial speech,” Friedman said. “It was very touching, very moving. I will always have very, very fond memories of that gavel.”

Stallings is survived by sons James and Glenn of Ventura; daughters Dorothy Croson of Ventura and Norma Hooper of Poway; 12 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Lions Dennison Club Foundation, P.O. Box 1478, Ventura, 93002.