By Mitch Lehman
She was ‘Sandi’ to her friends, ‘Bam’ to her beloved grandkids, and ‘Sunshine’ to generations of local Girl Scouts, and sadly, Sandra Steele Fastnow passed peacefully away on June 11 following several years of stroke related impairment.
“There are many stories about Sandi that should be shared,” said friend and fellow Girl Scout leader Robyn Manzini. “But the two most important areas that I can share are her history as the backbone for decades of the Girl Scouts in San Marino and then as champion of the creation of Hill-Harbison House.”
A memorial service for all three – ‘Sandi,’ ‘Bam’ and ‘Sunshine’ – will be held this Saturday, June 20, at 1:30 p.m. at San Marino Congregational Church with a reception following, most fittingly, at Hill-Harbison House, which is located at 1841 Alhambra Road in San Marino. “Sandi was amazing,” said Sylvia Wikle, for more than 30 years Fastnow’s fellow advocate of Girl Scouting.
“Sandi was the kindest person I know, but could also be very strong and firm when needed.” Fastnow & Wikle dedicated decades to the preservation of Hill-Harbison, but Sylvia freely admitted it was Sandi who did most of the heavy lifting. “The thing I loved about Sandi was her fun with words,” Wikle continued. “When we were determining what needed to be done at Hill-Harbison, it would come out ‘floors and doors, flowers and showers, shutters and gutters.’ She was loved by everyone.”
Sandra Marie Steele was born in 1940 to Horace and Evelyn Steele of Long Beach. She attended Wilson High School and Pomona College where she met her husband to be, Jeff Fastnow, over a dissected frog in Biology class. Sandi withdrew from college to marry Jeff in 1960 and had their first daughter a month prior to her original 1962 graduation date.
Always wanting to complete her degree, Sandi went back to Pomona College alongside her third daughter to finish her Bachelor of Science degree in 1990. Having succeeded at that goal, she decided to tackle her Masters, graduating in 1996 with an MS in Botany from Claremont Graduate School.
Sandi spent much of her adult life raising her four daughters, most of that in the Girl Scout program, serving as troop leader for all her girls, Service Unit Chairman for thousands of San Marino Scouts, leading Day Camp and Twilight Camp at Lacy Park for over 30 years, overseeing the July 4th hot dog and snow-cone stand at Lacy Park and many other concurrent posts.
She received numerous volunteer recognition awards over the years, from the local service unit, Council and National levels, including the Thanks Badge – the highest award an adult Girl Scout Volunteer can earn – in 2005 and the Thanks II Badge in 2007 for her lifelong devotion to Girl Scouting.
The aptly named ‘Sunshine’ loved SongFests and SongShares and remained active in Scouting until illness prevented her from doing so. She was still Registrar of the Service Unit when she suffered her first stroke in 2008. Sandi was also active in San Marino schools and was an Adult Volunteer for the Temple City Assembly of the International Order of Rainbow for Girls.
She was a member of the Las Marianas auxiliary of the Assistance League of Pasadena and worked as manager of Treasure Fair Thrift Shop for several years before accepting a position at PARAID, a precursor to the Pasadena Community Fund. She also found time to enjoy her many creative hobbies, including sewing, gardening and quilting, and rescuing and raising a menagerie of animals over the years.
Mrs. Fastnow’s most notable contribution to the community was her caretaking of the former San Marino Girl Scout House. Under their leadership, the Hill-Harbison House – named for the women who originally had it built in the 1930s – was listed as a historic building, incorporated into a non-profit institution, retrofitted to meet current codes and ADA compliance and will continue to serve the youth and community of the San Gabriel Valley for decades to come. The main meeting room was dedicated as the Fastnow Room in her honor in 2005.
“Through Sandi’s grit and pluck, she saved the San Marino Girl Scout House from certain demise and turned it into Hill-Harbison House, which is a community jewel and continues as a symbol of local pride and as a home for her beloved Girl Scouts,” Gretchen Shepherd Romey said. In 2001, Sandi & Sylvia were honored as Honorary Paul Harris Fellows by the Rotary Club of San Marino in recognition of their “outstanding commitment to the community” for their efforts and dedication to Hill-Harbison House. Sandi and Jeff found a retreat in Lake Arrowhead in 1979, where they created a welcoming home for family and friends and family friends and friends of family “and darn near total strangers” for the last 35 years.
“There’s Always Room for One More” is the guiding principle of the cabin. Sandi is survived by her devoted husband of over 54 years, Jeff, her daughters Kathi Fastnow Dirkse (Mark), Beth DuVall, Peggy Chase (Brent), Chris Fastnow (Greg Adams) and grandchildren Wyatt and Claire DuVall, Lindsey and Holly Chase, Elizabeth and Cammie Dirkse, and Miles and Quinn Fastnow.
She is also survived by her brother Stan Steele, sister-in-law Janet, nephews Rick and Jeff and their families and nephew Brien Cook and his family.
“We will profoundly miss her generosity of spirit, wisdom and boundless love, all of which she shared with us unsparingly,” the family said in a statement to The Tribune, in which they thanked Villa Gardens “for their outstanding care for the past five years.” In lieu of flowers, a donation is appreciated by the family to the Hill-Harbison Foundation (2275 Huntington Dr. PMB 807, San Marino CA 91108) or your favorite charity benefitting children or animals.
Just weeks before her passing, Jeff Fastnow and other family members took Sandi for one final visit to Hill- Harbison, where wheelchair-bound Sandi was able to take advantage of and enjoy the improvements she once championed. The day continued with one last picnic in Lacy Park.
