Steve William Fraijo

My father, Steve William Fraijo was born March 6, 1941 in Los Angeles, CA. He went to live with our Lord on December 24, 2016 in Chula Vista, CA. He is survived by his wife Sandra Ann Fraijo(Forsyth), five children, Francesca Papadopoulos, Steven Fraijo, Stephanie Fraijo, Claudia Reynolds and Michael Fraijo. He has fourteen grand children and five great grand children.

Steve was the first born child to William Claude Fraijo and Hemillia Fraijo (Gonzales). His siblings are Enid Pimental, Robert Fraijo, Concheta Ogan, Desiree DeQuardo, Marjorie Lemmon, Beverly Wirsgalla, Denise Rolfe and Lillian “Dianne” Nessman.

Steve was a Mexican American who spoke Spanish and English. His ancestor Gregorio Fraijo was the first settler of the city of Irwindale. He was also Native American. His blood line included Cherokee and Camanche (on his mother’side) and Cahuilla “Mud River Indians” from the hills of Palm springs (fathers side).

Steve lived a majority of his childhood in Selma, CA. According to him, he was a calm, well mannered child. However by his own account his grandmother used to whip him with tree branches, so I can’t be sure. This brings me to a story, forgive me great grandmother. My father told me that his grandmother would tend to shoplift. And if she got caught she would pretend not to speak English and he would have to do the talking. Another memory from his childhood was swimming. I’ve seen the pictures and it wasn’t a pool, it seemed to be a levy or aqueduct. He also told me that he and his friends would place metal poles across the train tracks to make the traffic bars go down. Then they would run from the transit police. Sorry, just a couple more stories. The next one was when his father came to spend the day with him. By this time his father was married to grandma Norma. My dad describes a place that sounds like Azusa Canyon. He is so happy that his dad came to get him. They go out for this picnic type event. Everything is going great. It’s time to go home and my dad makes it back to where the car should be, but it’s gone. They left him. He starts walking down the road. Now starting to cry. Then the car pulls up. When he told me this story he wasn’t sure if they accidentally left him or if my grandpa Bill was teasing him. OK, last one that I can remember. My dad is in love. His first job, I think he said 14 years old but don’t quote me. He working quick service. He has to go to work and his girlfriend dumps him. He’s so broken up that instead of pouring ice cream into the shake machine he pours a chemical. Which destroyed the whole product and he gets sent home. I thought that one was funny.

My father entered the Marine Corps in 1958 he was 17 years old. The first record I found said he served with the 1st Amphibian Tractor BN, 3rd Marine Division however I found evidence that he also served with the 2nd and 3rd Marine as well. His first combat related duty is to be sent off the coast of Cuba during the “Cuba Missile Crisis”. He then did two tours in Vietnam. He made the rank of Gunnery Sargent on June 1st, 1968. He was Honorably discharged from the Marine Corp on February 18th, 1969.

Steve spent his civilian career in law enforcement. He worked for Los Angeles county Safety Police for 23 years. For most of his career he patrolled the areas of San Dimas. He also patrolled by the Santa Fe dam, Castaic, downtown Los Angeles and the UCLA Medical Center. During the Los Angeles riots of 1992 he was sent to Guard the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. He was also a reserve officer with Ontario Police Department.

My father also worked a part time job as security for Sears in Pomona and Montclair. There was an incident at Sears in 1975 where a customer was having a cardiac arrest. My father performed CPR on the customer which saved his life. President Ford sent my father the National Red Cross Award for selfless and humane action.

After retirement my father stayed active doing several different entrepreneur activities. He sold swords and collectables at Fort Irwin Army Base. He taught CPR classes. He also did home inspections and taught classes for home day cares.

Steve was a born again Christian who attended Ontario Brethren Christ as an early believer. He then attended Victor Valley Christian Church when he moved to Hesperia, CA. Finally, he attended Eastlake Christian in Chula Vista, CA. My father had a strong faith in the Lord.

Im not sure what high school my father attended but I believe it was in the Selma, CA area. He attended Mount San Antonio college, where he earned an Associates Degree in Political Science.

Steve was married twice. He was married to Claudia Vitela from April 2nd, 1961 to 1973. Then he was married to my mother Sandra Ann Fraijo from March 10th, 1973 to his passing on December 24th, 2016. My dad was so classy, he proposed to my mother in the parking lot of the In-N-Out Burger on San Bernardino Rd in the city of West Covina. Ironically, I end up working for In-N-Out Burger for the past 28years. Maybe he knew something we didn’t. My parents had a loving relationship and did everything together. My mom called him “Brown eyes” and my dad called her “Barbie”.

My dad loved family very much. We used to go to grandma Ida's house every week to play cards. Every summer we would go camping at El Capitan. Family get togethers were a regular occurrence. He also enjoyed fishing and going to the movies. As he got older he spent much of his time painting and many of those paintings are displayed in his families homes. The past few years I was lucky to get the opportunity to spend a lot of time with him shooting. He would always tell me to stop showing off because I would out shoot him. I couldn’t take much credit. You see my dad was basically blind in his right eye and was still hitting a four inch target at 100 yards. He loved doing errands with my mom. My wife and I laugh because his idea of errands was sitting in Target, reading the newspaper while my mom window shopped.

Steve was a man of high character. Doing what was right was super important to him. He was a very structured person who made grafts and charts for everything. My dad was a natural born leader and people gravitated towards him. He was proud, but loving and had a great humor about him. He loved to tease and had a little sarcastic side. He was protective of his family and was a great friend to others. He continually told me how proud he was of my brother and I. He loved his daughters and grand children. He loved his wife above all others and dedicated his life to the Lord.

I love pop, until we meet again, love Mikey Mouse