Aloha!
Robert James Cayton, Sr. (Jim) set sail on the final cruise
of his life at mid-day Saturday, May 23, 2003, embarking from St. John’s
Hospital after heart failure. An
avid cruiser, together Jim and Lucille had made over 150 voyages visiting over
200 countries in their 59 years of marriage.
Jim’s first cruise was April 21, 1915, one week after he
was born in Honolulu and sailed back to his home on the big island of Hawaii.
Later, Jim moved back to Honolulu where grew up as the quintessential
island boy attending Punahou School, surfing with the early wave pioneers, and
honing his laid back personality. In
1932, with his first pair of shoes and his duffle bag, Jim attended Stanford
University. In 1937, unable to
return to Hawaii due to a shipping strike, Jim settled in Los Angeles.
While waiting for the shipping strike to end, Jim was
invited to invest in a Venetian blind company.
With about $1000 in borrowed funds, Jim launched Vogue Venetian Blinds.
Jim, being ever curious and a tinkerer, heard about the complaints of
Venetian blinds, “They are a pain to clean!”.
In 1943, while serving as the first President of the Venetian Blind
Association of America, he had a conversation with a gentleman who held the
patent for a “Vertical Blind”. “Ahhh,
no dust!”, Jim thought to himself. The
rest is history. Jim renamed his
company Louver Drape and in 1971 he had built a 70,000 square foot factory in
Santa Monica. When Jim sold the
company in 1981, Loever Drape’s facilities included more than ½ million
square feet, 700 employees, and over 100 distributors in 100 countries
world-wide. Despite this success,
Jim maintained his Hawaiian lifestyle playing sand volleyball three days a week
well into his seventies.
In 1944, Jim married Lucille Ferderber of Chicago.
The inseparable couple built not only a successful business, but a family
and community of close friends. Jim
and Lucille were coaches and scout leaders, active in PTA, and well known at the
old Sand and Sea Beach Club. Jim
was a devoted father teaching and sharing with his four children everything,
from swimming, volleyball and surfing, to his invaluable life lessons of values
and wisdom. A very close family,
the Caytons worked, played and traveled together.
Jim is survived by Lucille and his four children, sons Bob,
wife Amy, and John, wife Pam, of Santa Cruz, daughters, Kiki of San Diego, Lori
of Madison, WI, and 6 grandchildren, Ami, Meagan, Kelsey, Jhana, Arya and Kelden.
Jim was also involved in a wide variety of community
activities and humanitarian concerns. Jim
is a past president of both the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club
of Santa Monica, and continued to be an active member in both of these
organizations. True
philanthropists, Jim and Lucille have demonstrated their generosity and
compassion by sponsoring scholarships at Stanford University and Santa Monica
College, buildings at Santa Monica College and the Desert Rehabilitation
Services, the pool at the YMCA of Santa Monica, The Center for Healthy Aging,
The Wellness Community of West Los Angeles, The Boys and Girls Club of Santa
Monica, the Betty Ford Center and many more.
Despite Jim’s love of people and playful nature, Jim felt it an unnecessary burden to have a Bon Voyage party for this final cruise. Therefore, there will not be a memorial service. Keeping in spirit of Jim’s commitment to helping others, he would like you to offer your donations, in his name to any of his favored charities: The Wellness Community of West Los Angeles, The Center for Healthy Aging, Santa Monica College, the YMCA of Santa Monica, or the Rotary Club of Santa Monica.
Bon Voyage Jim!
...Los Angeles Times Thursday May 29, 2003
Jim was an active and fun loving Rotarian as the pictures from our archives below show. We will all miss you Jim. Our condolences go out to his wife Lucille and his other family and friends.
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| "Mr. Vacation" Jim Cayton was declared the 2nd annual Con Oyler Wild Shirt Contest Winner on 8/2/02. Second place winner was Phil Whitting on the left and third place winner shown is Lionel Ruhman on the right. |
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| On 10/2/00 Jim spoke to us about one of his fascinating trips. He provided us with slides and commentary of his trip to the Amazon. Standing next to Jim is PP John Bohn. I can't tell you how many times Jim talked to us about his extensive travels. |
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| Past president Jim Cayton cracks up outgoing vice president Graham Pope, outgoing president Jack Siegal and past president Lou Turner with an old golf joke at joint board meeting on June 21,2000. I know personally about Jim's love of golf and great sense of humor. In October of 1996 Jim attended the club's annual golf tournament held at Malibu Country Club. That day Jim about brought the house down when he told his joke that earned him first place for the best golf joke. |