January 7, 1885 – November 26, 1975. Judge. Veteran. Advocate. Gagalene's third husband; Gramp's stepfather.
Born in Glen Elder, Kansas, in 1885, he came west — a degree at Stanford around 1912, then Calipatria, a young attorney “seeking a beginning to practice his profession.” The previous local lawyer, Louis Pat Phillips, had just died — and his law office, books, and equipment were for sale. Elmer bought all of it. Then he spent some months in Washington and came back to court the widow. They married in 1922 in San Diego County and stayed together 53 years.
The symmetry is hard to miss: he acquired both the law practice and the widow of the man who had owned it.
He had gone to France as a lieutenant in the First World War, and he kept turning up wherever the Valley’s future was being decided. He lobbied in Washington for the Hoover Dam and Imperial Valley water rights — the difference between farmland and dust. He advocated for WWI veterans. And, notably for an Imperial County official of that era, he advocated for Japanese Americans during the WWII internment. He rose from attorney to District Attorney of Imperial County to Superior Court Judge; the photograph that survives in the family records is captioned simply, “Elmer W. Heald — Retired Superior Court Judge.”
Home was heavier. He and Gagalene were both strong, demanding personalities, and their son Elmer Jr., born in 1923, was brain-damaged at birth and needed care all his life. Gramp grew up a stepchild in that household — Gagalene never came to his games or his plays, but Elmer Sr., at least, showed up for his debates.
He died November 26, 1975, in San Diego — fifteen years before Gagalene.