This page previously contained Victor McVey drawings ca 1935-42; those have been moved to a separate page.
It is now devoted to other Victor material; some of it will migrate from elsewhere in the McVey Hardware pages. Other Victor photographs can be found — and will remain — on the Ruth page.
The following three photographs were scanned from a scrapbook relating in part to a hunting trip.
mid-late 1940s. desert hunting trip?
Steven and Victor, late 1940s. hunting camp?
Victor?, mid-late 1940s. whose car?
Victor McVey, 1923-2010
Victor Warren McVey, hardware man, cyclist, enthusiast in a variety of realms, died on Thursday, 18 November 2010, in Pasadena. He was 87.
He was born in Los Angeles in 1923 and lived in Eagle Rock his entire life, enjoying his home and its view of his beloved San Gabriel mountains for many years.
He was a graduate of St Dominic’s elementary school and Eagle Rock High School (after three years at Cathedral). At ERHS he took a drafting course that led to drafting work at Lear Avia in Hollywood, where he drew actuators and other aircraft components. He was always good with the pencil (it earned him some deferments). He later served in the U.S. Army in England and Germany, and finally the Philippines as a prison camp guard. He returned to earn a business degree at Loyola University, and then worked for some years as a salesman for wholesaler Union Hardware. He married Patricia Ronayne in 1950, with whom he raised a family of four children. In the mid 1950s, he joined his brothers Steve and Phil, and his own parents, in taking over Miner’s Hardware in Culver City; they moved the business to Temple City in 1964. McVey Hardware was a well-loved business in that community for many years, until finally closing its doors in 2006.
He enjoyed his family and working around the house (and his yard) on his Wednesdays off. He loved cooking (barbecue-ing, cooking with his wok, making tacos, etc.). He built his own smoker (used mainly for fish caught by his own father); had sourdough starter going for a few years; treated his family to lamb and Yorkshire Pudding on Christmas. He enjoyed camping, backpacking, dayhikes, Sunday drives to San Pedro, Terminal Island. He infectuously loved the desert and mountains, and developed a significant collection of Mount Lowe materials that he displayed at his hardware store and later donated to the Mount Lowe Preservation Society. He loved railroads, in particular steam, and rode the UP 3985 Challenger on a one-day outing over the Cajon Pass into the Mohave. He loved cowboy
and Cajun music, played guitar, banjo (for a while) and, later, harmonicas that he’d bring with him for jam sessions at music festivals. He loved his yard
(garden) and trees (avocado, kumquat, etc.), and in younger years took on some ambitious (Sunset Magazine inspired) building projects (most memorably a hut on stilts, for his children). He enjoyed reading John Birch Society and other right-wing political literature and complaining about the Los Angeles Times (to which he reluctantly subscribed after the Herald-Express disappeared).
He was a serious bike rider (in pre-composite, sew-up
-tire days), who outlived his cycling buddies.
He was a wonderful, complicated father who may never have known quite what to make of his children. They, however, derived from him spirits of independence and curiosity: all four pursued adventures in different lands and realms. He enjoyed seeing and keeping up with his grandchildren.
His wife Patricia died in 1969. He is survived by his children John (Cambridge, Mass.), Margaret Thomas (Pasadena), Catherine Heinlein (Covina) and Tom (San Diego), and his grandchildren Victor, Kelly, Euan, Emily, Sarah, Jenny and Chisaku. He is also survived by his sister Lois Johnson and brother Steven.
Los Angeles Times, December 1, 1950