Hank Panian, longtime Costa Mesa volunteer and historian, dies at 89

Henry “Hank” Panian — a Costa Mesa community volunteer and longtime local historian — died Saturday, according to his family. He was 89.

Panian, a California resident by way of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Hawaii, settled in Costa Mesa in 1956 with his wife, Barbara.

The pair lived together in the same College Park home until Barbara’s death in late March.

“He loved my mom dearly. When she passed, his health suffered,” said Loren Panian Linquist, one of the couple’s three children. “He just wanted to be with her.”

Panian Linquist said her father had gone to stay with her in Camarillo on Thursday and was surrounded by family when he died.

She described him as a humble man of boundless curiosity who had a deep passion for his community.

“He loved to talk with people and hear what they were about and what they were doing,” she said. “He loved to learn; he was a lifelong learner. He was in public as he was in private.”

Panian taught history for 34 years at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, retiring in 1990.

He was a founding member of the Costa Mesa Historical Society and served on its board of directors. He also co-authored the society’s quarterly publication for a time.

The grandfather of five also “contributed his wit and wisdom to innumerable society meetings and celebrations” and “provided expert review of the society’s two pictorial history books,” the group wrote in a statement Monday.

“His knowledge of U.S. and especially California history gave the society credibility in those formative years,” said Art Goddard, a lead volunteer for the Historical Society. “He never hesitated to share his wealth of knowledge with the Historical Society and to make sure that we got off on a good footing. He was a very fine gentleman — always polite, always respectful, always knowledgeable.”

Panian also was a board member for the Mesa Water District from 1977 to 1998, including stints as president from 1981 to 1985 and 1989 to 1991. A meeting room at the district’s Costa Mesa headquarters is named in his honor.

Current board President Jim Atkinson, who knew Panian for about 30 years, described him as a mentor, not only for himself but for many others.

“He was an amazing person that cared about the community very much, and enough so that he was willing to get involved and speak his mind,” Atkinson said Monday.

“There were a ton of people that loved Hank,” he added.

Panian also participated in the Costa Mesa city charter committees in 1971 and 2013 and led the Orange Coast Civic Assn., which helped lead the push to combine three school systems into what is now the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

Throughout his life, Panian received awards and recognitions — including the Man of the Year award from the Costa Mesa Chamber of Commerce, the Historical Society’s Living Memorial Award, a Lifetime Water Achievement Award from Mesa Water and the Costa Mesa Mayor’s Award.

“Community service is not a one-person job … it’s a culmination, collaboration, cooperation of hundreds of people,” Panian said during the Mayor’s Award ceremony in May 2016. “And if I were to mention all the names of those men and women who helped me along that way, we’d be here until midnight. I share this award with all those people.”

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