Who was Margo Darling Dodd? Namesake of popular SLO County park had amazing life
Recent storms have damaged blufftop parks in Pismo Beach.
The city recently removed a beloved bench at Margo Dodd Park in Shell Beach via crane that was in danger of falling to the beach below.
“It was becoming an attractive nuisance and posed a danger to the community,” city spokesperson Jorge Garcia told The Tribune via email.
Who was the park’s namesake, Margo Darling Dodd?
The onetime president of the Pismo Beach Chamber of Commerce had a varied and amazing life, especially before she moved to the San Luis Obispo County city in 1962.
She taught physics, operated streetcars and toured the United States in a Model T Ford. among other things.
Dorie Bentley wrote this biography of Dodd, then 73, published in the Telegram-Tribune on Nov. 23, 1972.
She died at the age of 78 on Jan 26, 1978 and the park named after her was dedicated Nov. 8, 1983.
Individualist couldn’t retire
It’s not often anyone forsakes the serenity of the golden years to take over the reins of community work.
And it’s doubtful if there are many like Margo Dodd of Pismo Beach who is putting her senior years to work in fostering the betterment of the beachfront community.
Miss Dodd, who turned 73 this October, recently retired from a two-year term as president of the Shell Beach Woman’s Club. She then picked up dual reins as president of the Pismo Beach Chamber of Commerce and chairman of the Pismo Beach Parks and Recreation commission.
It’s an unlikely, challenging and conflicting situation. Pushing to promote the business community, while at the same time planning to make the best use of the city’s natural environment.
And if the coastal community can keep up with the zeal and energy of Miss Dodd, it may continue to reap some of the benefits which have been showing up in recent years.
A gentle, soft-speaking white-haired woman, Miss Dodd utilizes an eloquent vocabulary and sharp wit and sets a pace which is hard to follow.
She is also an outspoken advocate of better city government and has no qualms on taking city fathers to task.
Miss Dodd’s lifetime portrays a life of rugged individualism and a number of firsts. A native of Iowa, was one of a family of six girls and two boys. She is a graduate of Rockford College in Illinois, and spent four years teaching mathematics and physics at a private college and preparatory schools and two years teaching at Wellesley College.
Her early years vary from the time she decided to tour the country in a Model T Ford, to becoming the first woman in Chicago to sell automobiles.
During World War I, she was the first woman in the country to become a motorman on streetcars. When the flu epidemic started in those days, she was switched from her regular job and transferred to switching freights.
Later, she entered the restaurant business, going from trainee to store manager for a New York restaurant chain.
She also spent five years with a Des Moines, Iowa publishing firm, managing and buying for a test kitchen.
Coming West, she established and equipped a cafeteria for a large San Francisco wholesale house and shortly afterward, she and her sister, Joan, went into business as partners.
The two sisters, who now live together, operated a dinner house in Reno for 10 years and a service station in the desert. Taking a seven-year tour of the states in a trailer, Miss Dodd spent the next four years working in reporting and advertising for Western Trailer News.
Miss Dodd moved to Sunset Palisades in 1962 and shortly afterward, took over secretary-treasurer and then president of the Sunset Palisades Improvement Association, a post she held for 2 1/2 years. While living in the northern section of the city, she devoted her efforts to community betterment.
Moving to Shell Beach, she spent two years as community improvement chairman of the Shell Beach Woman’s club, later taking over the presidency. During this period the club won many awards for its community activities, among them, launching an anti-litter campaign to clean up the coastal cliffs, and helping finance a cliffside park.
Again serving dual roles, Miss Dodd was chairman for both the chamber and club in sponsoring a Congress for Community Improvement, launching many activities. She became chamber president last May.
Miss Dodd became the first woman appointee in the city a year ago with her appointment to the city Parks and Recreation Commission. She was named chairman in mid-September.
A hard-working leader in both capacities, Miss Dodd provided an evenly balanced program which has won the respect of the community.
Her first goal is to promote togetherness between the different factions of the city, in the belief that, essentially, all are seeking the same thing — a better community.
She believes in saving as much of the coastline as the city can afford, but thinks property owners should also be reasonably compensated.
And for the future, she intends to promote the idea that the city should work toward, and plan for, quality, and not necessarily quantity growth.
