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George C. Page, who hitchhiked to Los Angeles as a teenager with $2.30 in his pocket, made a fortune with his Mission Pak holiday fruit gift boxes and land development and then donated millions to house treasures of the La Brea Tar Pits, which fascinated him, has died. He was 99.
The founder of the George C. Page Museum of La Brea Discoveries in Hancock Park, he was also a major benefactor of Childrens Hospital, Pepperdine University and other institutions that aid young people. He died Tuesday night in Carpinteria, Pepperdine spokesman Jerry Derloshon said Wednesday.
An eighth-grade dropout whose two children died as infants, Page, along with his late wife, Julliete, vowed to use what he earned to help children, first to survive and then to get an education.
He gave his money and name to the $9-million George C. Page Building at Childrens Hospital; the George C. Page Youth Center in Hawthorne; the George C. Page Stadium at Loyola Marymount University; numerous buildings at Pepperdine, including two residence halls and a conference room; and programs at the USC School of Fine Arts, as well as the $4-million La Brea museum.
But it was the museum, which opened April 15, 1977, that captured Page's passion and became his permanent monument.
"This is so living, so immediate," he told The Times in 1981, stretching his arms wide to indicate the distinctive burial-mound structure. "It's like giving flowers that I can smell while I'm still here."
The saga of George C. Page, how he wound up in Los Angeles and how he made the money to put his name on those donations, all started with an orange.
The piece of fruit was given to him by his teacher when he was a 12-year-old schoolboy in his native Fremont, Neb.
"I was so awed by the beauty of that piece of fruit that I said, 'I hope someday I can live where that came from,' " he recalled.
So at 16, he...