Gordon Alper, 1942-2015
Longtime Mammoth Lakes resident, business owner and community leader Gordon Alper died on Saturday. He had just celebrated a brithday on August 15. He was 73.
Alper was born in Chicago and was a graduate of the University of Illinois. He met his wife Sharon when he was in college and she was still in high school. They were married fifty years and raised a daughter, Jennifer, in Mammoth.
According to Sharon, Gordon started his career in the finance industry with Bache, a brokerage firm.
He worked on Wall Street as well as in Chicago and Milwaukee before being transferred to Beverly Hills.
From there, the couple discovered and fell in love with Mammoth, initially buying a second home (a condo) and then moving here permanently in the late 1970s.
The idea of starting his own business, Country Glass, stemmed from a 10th birthday party accident where a window was broken in the condominium complex rec room and it took approximately three months to fix.
Gordon didn’t know anything about glass, but he figured he was handy and that his suppliers could help him figure out whatever it was he didn’t know.
So he opened Country Glass with his wife and both worked in the business together ever since.
From the outset, Alper was civically engaged and served on Mammoth’s Town Council as well as the Mammoth Community Water District Board. He was also an active member of the Mammoth Lakes Lions Club.
“He backed up his words with actions,” said Sharon. “He was true to himself, and he put himself out there. He was honest and spoke his mind.”
She forever admired the way Gordon could think his way through things and be precise.
She also said that both of them would never let more than a few days go by without expressing their love and affection for each other.
And he was fun. He liked to laugh, and liked to make others laugh.
Daughter Jennifer recalled that “Anytime I asked him for anything, for a favor, etc., the price was always tallied in batches of cookies [she’d need to bake].”
“And he loved his dogs so much he referred to them as my brothers,” she added.
“He loved the outdoors and he loved life,” she concluded.
While heart issues cropped up beginning 10 years ago, Gordon remained positive. “He never let it get to him,” said Sharon. “As Gordon used to say, ‘If I can’t do the 10-minute mile, I’ll do the 15-minute mile.’”
Mammoth local Gary Ochman said he met Gordon and Sharon in L.A. in 1969 before either he or they relocated to Mammoth.
As Ochman said, “Gordon was special because he was so bright. He understood everything. He was non-judgmental, fair, mellow, easygoing … he loved life every day.”
And what made him a rarity in the public/political realm was that he was a combination of outspoken and soft-spoken. He could say his piece without a raised voice and a lot of fist-shaking.
As a fellow former Mayor, Kathy Cage confirmed Gordon was responsible for locking in the town perimeter as Mayor. “He was a champion of urban limits,” she said.
As Cage’s husband Tom added, “Gordon was dedicated to this community in a way few others have been and served this community in many ways over the last 35 years.
You never know how much someone is missed until you find yourself asking what would Gordon have said, suggested, thought or made sense of during a time of dispute and confusion.”
Alper is survived by his wife Sharon, daughter Jennifer, Jennifer’s fiance Lou LaGuardia (they are getting married next April), sister Judi and brother-in-law Mort Markovitz, brother Sanford “Sandy” Alper and numerous nieces and nephews.
Memorial services will likely occur during the first week of October.
