Henry Powers Lopez

Henry P. Lopez was a loving husband, father, and teacher. Growing up in the Great Depression with hunger and poverty as his daily companions, he sought refuge in schools, libraries, and in education in general. Enlisting in the United States Army at the end of World War II was his ticket to a better life. He served for six years as an Army Corporal in war-weary Berlin, Frankfurt, Paris, Livorno, and Rome, as a translator and accountant. Back in the U.S., he received a Master's Degree from USC and started teaching German, French, and Spanish for five years at L.A. Fremont High School and five years at Westchester High School. He then received a community college lifetime teaching credential and taught Spanish, Italian, French, German, and Humanities for 45 years at L.A. Pierce College; full time from 1966 to 1999, and part time from 1999-2011. It was common for him to teach three languages in one year, and took it in stride since he had a mixed bag as a high school teacher of languages. Looking to widen his teaching repertoire to include Russian, which he had learned in the U.S. Army, Henry won an IREX Scholarship teacher summer exchange to Moscow University in the Summer of 1983, during the Cold War. In 1985, Henry received a full year Fulbright-sponsored exchange to Limoges, France. Concurrently, he had taught ESL evening classes at Belmont Adult School, Virgil Adult School, and Reseda Adult School for 27 years. It was at Belmont where he met the love of his life, a Cuban general contractor from Havana, Leticia Gomez. They wed in 1972 and were happily married for 42 years until his passing. Of all his successes, Henry is proudest of his two daughters: Dr. Leticia P. Lopez-Zabaleta, Professor of Spanish at San Diego Mesa College, and Lieutenant Colonel Rose P. Lopez-Keravuori, U.S. Army. Both daughters attended L.A. Pierce College, and graduated from UC Santa Barbara and the United States Military Academy at West Point & the University of Oxford, respectively.

A private niche side memorial service will take place at Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills, on Thursday October 23, 2014 at 10:00am. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be sent to the L.A. Pierce College Foundation to support student achievement scholarships (contact 818-710-4206 or foundation@piercecollege.edu), or donate to one of Henry's favorite charities: The Salvation Army, Rotary International, or The American Red Cross.