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Writer: Bob Rhein
Irene Shaw Broden considers herself a good sister, daughter and Hornet. She attended her oldest brother's graduation at Fullerton Junior College (FJC) on June 9, 1936 – in her mother's womb. "I held on while my mother went to his graduation. I was born almost seven hours later."
Close family ties are the hallmark of Irene's family that began across the sea. "Once upon a time, God dropped a piece of heaven into the Atlantic Ocean, and it became known as Ireland," she says with a smile.
Her parents, James Shaw and Anna Jamison, had immigrated to the United States in the early 1900s. Although living only five miles apart in Ireland, they met in New York, fell in love and married in 1915. James Shaw was athlete. Before leaving Ireland in 1909 James won the Belfast marathon. He was also an accomplished painting contractor, having Andrew Carnegie's home, Ambassador Joseph A. Choate, "Diamond Jim" Brady, British Field Marshall Lord Kitchener among his clients. Shaw had visited Fullerton for six months in 1913 when he worked as a contract painter for Frank Benchley. Years later, Benchley built Fullerton's iconic California Hotel, the Masonic Temple as well as other buildings in town.
In 1921 the Shaws, with their first son, James Crawford, came to settle in Fullerton. James and Anna had considered purchasing the northwest corner of South Spadra Road (now Harbor Boulevard) and Truslow Avenue, but decided on the southeast corner, which had a house and peach grove. Six months later Union Pacific purchased the northwest corner (the station that was built and years later moved. It's now The Old Spaghetti Factory. Their second son, John Clifford, was born in Fullerton in 1922.
James built the first three commercial buildings on South Spadra Road south of the railroad tracks including a corner store for his Standard Paint Store and a grocery market that he and Anna managed. James also built houses on East Union Avenue and on Malvern Avenue.
In 1933 he painted the department store located in the five-story Chapman Building, at the time the tallest building in Orange County. The evening of the day he finished this job the Long Beach earthquake occurred (5:55 p.m., March 10, 1933). He painted many homes in Fullerton; including new apartments, stores and also the dome on the original site of the First Baptist Church of Fullerton.
In 1937 James and Anna bought and lived in the house located between their property and the Allen Hotel on Spadra Road.
During WWII he worked in the World's Fair Buildings in Balboa Park in San Diego getting them ready to house Marines. Also, during that time he on Ruben H. Fleet's Consolidated Aircraft buildings in San Diego, famous for producing the PBY Catalina flying boat and the B-24 Liberator, a heavy bomber. After the war, he painted houses on many of the housing tracts being built in the city of Lakewood.
Prior to their marriage Anna worked at the telephone company. During WWII she worked at a division of Douglas Aircraft in Fullerton, and later at Sears, also in Fullerton.
For about 10 years after James retired at the age of 65, he had a long list of satisfied customers who wanted him to paint their homes. He always obliged. In the late 1960s the City of Fullerton purchased the property on Spadra to build the Harbor Boulevard underpass. That's when the James' moved to their home that they had owned for some years, on North Euclid. At the age of 93, James was still painting and repairing the roof of their home, when needed. He died on July 29, 1981, nine month's after Anna Shaw's death on October 17, 1980.
While at FJC, the oldest son, Crawford, started the amateur radio (Ham) club, and also built the college's electronically controlled scoreboard. During WWII he was in the Merchant Marines and the US Army where he met and married a WAC. They had a daughter and a son who became a medic and was killed in Vietnam. Two of his greatest interests were communications and the sea. One of his last official duties at sea was as a radio operator on an ammunition freighter taking arms to the Gulf War. He died in 2004, several years after retiring from the State of California in the Microwave Communications Division.
The second son, Clifford, was a mathematician gaining his education at FJC and UCLA. While at FJC he was on the staff of the Torch. "During WWII, Clifford enlisted in the Army Air Corps" Irene said. "I'll always remember that because my mom and dad drove him over to the Santa Ana Air Force Base. We watched him climb into a truck with the rest of the young men." Irene remembers her mother saying, "This is no way to celebrate his twenty-first birthday." While in the Air Corps he became an instructor and navigator.
Clifford went on to work at the Rand Corp. in Santa Monica as one of the first computer programmers. He worked on some of the earliest artificial intelligence projects, including programs that proved theorems in logic theory and a chess-playing program. He developed JOSS, one of the first time-sharing systems, and its programming language, which enabled scientists to interact directly with the computer system and write their own programs. He also developed several demonstration programs for the Rand Tablet, one of the first graphical input devices for computers.
While at FJC in 1957, Irene prepared a research paper on the subject of computers. The college library had only three books on the subject, and each of them referenced Clifford's work. Many of Clifford's work papers are now preserved in the Archives Center of the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History. He and his wife had four children. Clifford died suddenly in 1991.
Irene Shaw met Paul Broden while they were both students at FJC. Paul worked part time as an ambulance driver for Crane Ambulance Company. She had seen him on campus but did not know him. That was until her grandmother fell and couldn't get up. Not wanting to hurt the elderly lady, Irene said her mother called for an ambulance. "I told my mother to tell them over the phone, don't send the skinny guy (Paul)! Well, they sent the skinny guy. I joke that Paul picked my grandmother up before he picked me up."
Irene worked as a secretary at the Anaheim Planning Department, and as secretary to the Fullerton Fire Chief. Paul worked as a clinical laboratory scientist at St. Jude Hospital, and as Vice President for an international medical device manufacturer.
Irene's family has been attending First Baptist Church of Fullerton (now Wilshire Avenue Community Church) since 1921. "When people ask me how long I have been going to that church, I say, 'since before I was.' "
Irene and Paul were married in 1963 and have two children, Kevin, and Letitia-Ann, and two grandchildren.