Alice Menas

Alice E. Menas passed away on November 29, 2023, from pneumonia after a courageous two year battle with lung cancer at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego, CA. She was 88. Alice was the daughter of Clarence & Beatrice Ely and was born on April 7, 1935, in San Diego, CA. Her father was a foreman for Western Electric Company (now known as AT&T), and her mother was a homemaker. Alice had a younger sister, Diane.Alice married her first husband, who had just returned from the Korean War. She was a smitten 17-year-old who had almost completed her junior year in high school. As Alice told the story, she ran away from home with Tom and married him in Greeley, CO. She became pregnant with her first son, Steven, who was born in 1952. She returned home with her infant Steve to San Diego after they divorced. Alice completed her high school degree, and she went to secretarial school to learn to type and take shorthand in hopes of becoming a bookkeeper, clerk-typist, receptionist, and then secretary. One of Alice's textbooks was "Secretarial Training for Educated Women" by Katharine Gibbs. Alice took classes learning how to dress appropriately, serving tea & coffee, and other social refinements accompanying her introductory courses.In 1956, Alice met her second husband, Andrew N. "Donnie" Menas, Sr., a young, handsome aerospace engineer at General Dynamics Convair Division in Kearny Mesa. Alice married Donnie and had a child, Andrew Jr., in 1957.Around 1960, Alice began working as a clerk-typist for the Willis M. Allen Company, a residential real estate firm in La Jolla, CA. She worked part-time for $1.00 per hour. Living in a University City neighborhood, Alice's second marriage sadly ended. In 1963, at 28 years of age and a single mother of two small boys, Alice went to work for Mr. Allen's son-in-law, Harry A. Collins, who started Collins Development Company, a residential contractor and home builder in La Jolla. Alice was a knowledgeable, hard-working woman with a charming personality. She climbed the corporate ladder to become Executive Secretary to Mr. Collins and his La Jolla Development Company partner, Jack W. Thornton, Jr. Alice worked for the Collins organization from 1963 through 1976. She did her part in creating over 60 commercial, industrial, and apartment properties totaling more than 4 million square feet throughout California.At 42, Alice embarked on a new chapter, joining William C. Winter, Jr., MD, of La Jolla to form The Chisholm Company, a real estate firm specializing in apartment investments in Solana Beach, CA. Her role encompassed reception work, secretarial support, bookkeeping, and property management for many apartment units in San Diego, Texas, and Colorado. Her dedication and expertise led her to become a partner in the firm. Alice also administered estate trusts as an Executor. In the mid-1990s, after The Chisholm Company was dissolved, she returned to the Collins Companies for three years as a Leasing Secretary before retiring to her modest apartment portfolio for the next 27 years.Alice's legacy lives on through her two sons, Steve (and Linda) Ely of Scripps Ranch and Andrew N. Menas, Jr. of San Diego, and her grandsons, David of Redondo Beach, CA, and Benjamin of Santa Cruz, CA. Her love and care extended beyond her immediate family, touching the lives of her nieces, Karen Kay from Prescott, AZ, and Yvonne Wallace from Belville, NC. She was preceded in death by her parents and her sister, Diane L. Kay, leaving behind a family that cherishes her memory.Private family memorial services were held, and a celebration of Life is planned later this summer.