Former Huntington Beach mayor and longtime civic leader Shirley Dettloff, who successfully fought to preserve the Bolsa Chica wetlands and wrote the city’s 1996 statement on human dignity, died on Tuesday at age 88.

Her husband, Bob Dettloff, 91, said she died of a heart attack Tuesday morning. Dettloff had been engaged in Huntington Beach politics for decades and was most known for her work on environmental issues around the city.

“I love this town and I want the very best for it,” Dettloff said in a 2021 video posted by the city, “and what I can do I’m going to do. When things come along that I think require a voice, I’m going to be that voice.”

Dettloff was engaged in Huntington Beach issues for more than six decades, and remained involved until her death. She advocated for the city’s parks, wetlands and libraries and asked people to better Huntington Beach by volunteering.

Councilmember Natalie Moser said Dettloff was a tireless advocate and a pillar of the Huntington Beach community.

“She was not just a leader, but a beacon of hope and love for all of us,” Moser said.

Bob Dettloff, whom Dettloff was married to for 67 years, said her drive in her later years was to help Huntington Beach be a wonderful place to live.

Dettloff was born in Glendale on June 12, 1935. She attended John Burroughs High School in Burbank and graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a teaching degree in 1957.

She moved with her family to Huntington Beach in September of 1964 when the city was undergoing dramatic population growth. She was a teacher and owned an educational publishing business.

Dettloff got involved with the League of Women Voters and was a founding member of the environmental group Amigos de Bolsa Chica in 1976, Bob Dettloff said.

One of Dettloff’s most enduring victories was working with others to prevent a developer from turning the Bolsa Chica wetlands into a marina with thousands of homes.

“It was a very large area that needed to be saved,” Dettloff said in the 2021 interview. “Most of us when we moved here it was just an open area with some water, and when we learned the value of the wetlands. It became important to save that.”

“Her commitment to the environment here I would classify as legendary,” said city archivist Kathie Schey.

Dettloff served on several boards including the California Coastal Commission, the City Council and the city’s Planning Commission. She was the chair of the Governing Board of Directors of Fountain Valley Regional Hospital; a board member of the Boys and Girls Club of Huntington Valley; and was involved with Homeless United Huntington Beach.

Dettloff was a councilmember from 1994 to 2000 and served as mayor in 1997, the seventh woman to have the title.

Her tenure on the council focused on improving the city’s infrastructure, said Ray Silver, a former city administrator.

Friends said Dettloff often referred to her hand in crafting the city’s statement on Human Dignity, which she wrote with former Mayor Ralph Bauer, as her most proud achievement.

Former Huntington Beach mayors Shirley Dettloff and Ralph Bauer speak about racism a community get together in 2021. Dettloff and Bauer put together a city proclamation addressing racism back in 1996. (Photo by Michael Fernandez, Contributing Photographer)

The motivation behind the human dignity statement, which championed diversity and condemned hate crimes, was in response to the 1994 murder of a Black man and the attempted killing of a Native American in 1996 on the beach and the city’s growing reputation at the time as a magnet for skinheads.

The human dignity statement, Moser said, was an anchor to guide the city and to say “that we stand against hate.”

Along with scores of other residents, Dettloff spoke out last year against the current City Council’s new policy on human dignity that substantially differed from the 1996 version and removed references to eliminating hate crimes.

Silver called Dettloff a legend in the city’s history and always acted with integrity and class.

“Shirley is one of the all-time greatest councilmembers that I had the pleasure to work with, both with how she did business and what she accomplished,” Silver said.

Elaine Keeley, the daughter of Bauer, said Dettloff was able to work in tandem with others on the City Council, even if they had different ideologies, and was a great mentor to many in Huntington Beach.

“She really had the ability to listen to all sides,” Keeley said, “thoughtfully ask questions and come up with solutions that were viable and acceptable to the greater good.”

Dettloff is survived by her husband and her three children, Susan Bohannan, Julie Snider and Rob W. Dettloff, and granddaughter Anna.

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