Lillian Pierson Lovelace: September 9, 1927 – January 16, 2024

Lillian Pierson Lovelace, 96, wife, mother, and gracious philanthropist, died at her home in Montecito on Tuesday, January 16, her
family announced. 

Born September 9, 1927, in Los Angeles, CA, Lillian Claire Pierson grew up in Santa Monica, the youngest child of George Mercer Pierson and Rena Waltz Pierson. She attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, from 1946-48, and then UCLA, studying psychology. In 1950, she married Jon B. Lovelace, who would go on to become Chairman of Capital Research and Management in 1964. The couple had four children, moving to Whittier, CA, in 1956 and Montecito in 1972. Her husband died in 2011.

Lillian was involved with multiple organizations, starting with the League of Women Voters, of whose Whittier chapter she was president from 1968-72. In the Los Angeles area, she actively supported the Museum of Contemporary Arts, of which she was a charter founder, Idyllwild Arts Foundation, the Los Angeles Master Chorale (whose director Grant Gershon called her “a legend”), and many individual artists and causes.

In her early 60s, Lillian returned to Antioch (its Santa Barbara university campus), graduating in 1989. As a pivotal board member, Lillian used her quiet diplomatic skills to help facilitate the new structure between the university and the college. 

Lillian played an important role in many organizations in Santa Barbara, including UCSB Foundation, Foundation for SBCC, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Lobero Theatre, Granada Theatre, Ensemble Theater, Camerata Pacifica, Casa Serena, New Beginnings, Santa Barbara Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, and Cottage Hospital. 

Lillian long retained a residence in Los Angeles. Her home, however, was in Montecito where there was a garden the Lovelaces built – full of native and drought-resistant plants, and with a legendary freeform pool designed to resemble a natural outcropping that one scholar called “unquestionably among the finest examples of western garden art of the late twentieth century.” Lillian also long supported the iconic 26-acre La Casa de Maria retreat center, and as late as 2023 attended meetings about the continuing rebuild project following the Montecito mudslides.

“If you pass an institution making a difference and see a donor plaque with the listing ‘anonymous,’ chances are it was Lillian and Jon,” said Dr. Kurt Ransohoff, Sansum Clinic CEO and Chief Medical Officer. While preferring anonymity, in recent years Lillian, finally convinced that listing her name could empower others to donate, began to allow it – as with the Sansum Clinic’s Lovelace Fund for Medical Excellence and Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center at UCLA.

Lillian Pierson Lovelace is survived by her four children, Carey, Jim, Jeff, and Rob; seven grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. A public memorial will be held in Los Angeles at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to one of the many organizations that Lillian so dearly loved.