Gordon Hahn; Longtime L.A. Political Figure

Gordon Hahn, a former Los Angeles city councilman and state assemblyman who held office from the late 1940s to the early 1960s, died Thursday in Torrance of respiratory failure from pneumonia. He was 81.

He was the older brother of the late Kenneth Hahn, the former Los Angeles County supervisor who was one of Los Angeles’ most beloved politicians, and the uncle of City Atty. James K. Hahn, who is running for mayor.

Hahn served in the Assembly from 1947 to 1953, then succeeded his brother on the City Council, where he remained until 1963.

James Hahn said Friday that his uncle had cast the key vote on two landmark actions in the history of the city. He was instrumental in the appointment of Gilbert Lindsay as the first African American member of the City Council, and he provided the decisive vote that brought the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles.

Born in Kindersley in Canada’s Saskatchewan province, he was one of seven sons of John and Hattie Hahn.

His father died when Gordon was an infant, leaving his mother to raise her large family on a widow’s pension of $60 a month. She moved the family to a small house on Flower Street in Los Angeles in 1920.

Like his brother Kenneth, Hahn worked his way through Pepperdine College (now Pepperdine University), which was then located near downtown. He became a cadet in the Naval Reserve in 1942, graduated from Kings Point Merchant Marine Academy in 1944 and served as a Naval Reserve officer. He returned to Pepperdine to earn a bachelor’s degree in 1950.

In 1946, while a student at Pepperdine, he won election in the 66th Assembly District, becoming at age 27 the second-youngest legislator in California history.

It was Kenneth Hahn who originally intended to win that seat, but he knocked himself out of the race when he filed to run for both the Republican and Democratic nominations and lost his own party’s nomination. Such cross-filing was allowed in those days.

In need of a candidate for a runoff, Republican Party officials turned to Kenneth’s older brother, who won in the November showdown.

Kenneth Hahn subsequently won a seat on the City Council. In 1952, when he vacated his 8th District council post to begin a 40-year tenure as a county supervisor, Gordon won the appointment to complete the two years remaining in Kenneth’s term and went on to serve for 10 years.

In 1957 Gordon Hahn was on vacation in Canada when he read newspaper reports that several of his council colleagues opposed efforts to bring the Dodgers to town.

“I was surprised to learn that the deal was not already wrapped up,” Hahn said in The Times. He cut short his trip, returning in time to cast the 10th vote needed to clinch the move.

After leaving the council, he explored election to other offices without success and turned to the real estate business.

He made a final bid for public office in 1986 when, at 67, he ran for county assessor. He lost to John J. Lynch despite a high-visibility campaign that touted the familiar Hahn name.

After Kenneth suffered a stroke in 1987, Gordon filled in as a field deputy, serving until his brother’s retirement in 1992. Kenneth Hahn died in 1997.

Hahn is survived by his wife of 40 years, Donna, son David, daughter Debra and five grandchildren.

Services will be held at University Christian Church in Los Angeles on April 7 at 10 a.m.