Glendale Woodturners Association History 20th Anniversary 1993 – 2013
The genesis of the Glendale Woodturners Guild goes back to the early 1990s. At that time, there was a Los Angeles Woodturners organization that met at Howard Lewin’s shop. The club had been formed by Howard Lewin, Jerry Glaser, Ron Goldman and Dick Lukes in 1988 and the club existed into the first five months of 1993. Bill Hrnjak attended a few of the last meetings and while car-pooling with Dick Lukes they discussed the idea of forming a new club closer to their homes. About that time, Bill attended an exhibition at the Los Angeles Craft and Folk Art Museum, where Brenda Behrens was conducting a woodturning demonstration, and she invited him to the recently established Inland Woodturners.
The Inland Woodturners meetings were originally held at Pomona and then Norco locations. Bob DeVoe, and Steve D’Arc carpooled with Bill to a few of those meetings, which was a long drive from the Los Angeles or the Glendale area, and challenging to make in rush-hour traffic on Thursday evening when the Inland Woodturners met.
At this point, it became obvious that a woodturning club in the Los Angeles area would make so much more sense. Local woodturners were contacted using the American Association of Woodturners Directory. Enough interest was found, and a meeting was held at Bill Hrnjak’s Glendale home and shop on Sunday, June 13, 1993. In attendance at that very first GWG meeting were:
- Bill Hrnjak
- Leslie Parsons (Bill's wife)
- Steve D'Arc (deceased)
- Bob DeVoe (deceased)
- Dick Lukes (deceased)
- Daniel Flores
- Stephen Mines
- Herb Harder
- Harry Meyer (deceased)
- Bob Colberd (deceased)
- Robbie Roth
- Lee Riggin
- J. Paul Ransom
The club name, Glendale Woodturners Guild was agreed to, By-Laws were established, and Bill and Leslie hand carried a Chapter Application with By-Laws to the American Association of Woodturners Symposium at SUNY in Purchase, New York. The Glendale Woodturners Guild was chartered there on June 16, 1993 as chapter #60.
Bill Hrnjak was the president, Leslie Parsons the secretary and newsletter editor, Dick Lukes the vice-president, and Steve D’Arc the treasurer. After a few years, attendance grew to 40 plus people in Bill’s shop and driveway. A larger meeting facility was obviously needed. The Crescenta Valley Regional Park in the city of La Crescenta had a meeting room in which a woodcarving club was meeting. Bill Hrnjak made arrangements for the GWG to meet there also.
Looking back over the GWG’s first 33 years, the following were the club’s presidents and leaders:
- 1993-1997 Bill Hrnjak
- 1998-2000 Bill Haskell
- 2001 Linda Emery
- 2002-2003 Don Comer
- 2004-2005 Jim O'Conner
- 2006-2011 Carey Caires
- 2012-2017 Bill Loitz
- 2018-2020 Kim Acuna
- 2021- present Thomas Cassidy
