Malibu resident Mario C. Quiros died on Jan. 7. Born on May 13, 1919, in San Jose, Costa Rica, he was the second-born in a family of seven children.
His father, Roberto, was a boilermaker until he fell through a catwalk and died three days later, when Mario was 11. His mother, Marta, had clear title to a house, a cow and an adjacent vacant lot. She raised all her children, as well as two orphans, with income as a seamstress.
Upon completion of school, Quiros began his career in surveying on a crew staking the alignment of railroad tracks for the Standard Fruit Company in southern Costa Rica, and later the national border in Panama. Then he contracted malaria, which nearly ended his life.
He came to the United States in 1941 and traveled from coast to coast. With limited English, but proficient in math and surveying, he was given a foreman position in the construction of the Liberty ships in Richmond, Calif. He began working in the Los Angeles area in the offices of engineers George Adams and Gerald Fitzgerald. He first worked in Malibu in 1947 with Fitzgerald’s crew, which was often called upon by local resident Rhoda Adamson to check the encroachments of her neighbors.
He met and soon married Lavonia Robinson in June 1949, with whom he would spend the rest of his life.
Quiros obtained his license as a California land surveyor in 1952, working the greater Los Angeles area. He established an office in Malibu in 1958, and moved his family of three children to the Broad Beach vicinity of West Malibu in 1963.
At age 44 he learned to surf, and was quickly a master of “turn and burn” in the beach breaks of Zuma and Trancas.
His son, Mario J., and son-in-law, Patrick Morrill, joined Quiros in the surveying profession. He suffered very few lawsuits in his half century of practice, the most irritating exception being a suit brought against him by the City of Malibu. He continued his passion of surveying up until the day of his peaceful death.
He is survived by his wife, Lavonia; children Mario, Elena and Marta; grandchildren Nora, Xia, Zarrina, Ariel and Matthew; and his beloved pugs.
A memorial service will take place on the Adamson House grounds at Malibu Lagoon Friday, Jan. 17, at 3:30 p.m. In lieu of flowers, please contribute to the scholarship fund of the California Land Surveyors Association; phone, 707.578.6016; e-mail, clsa@ca-surveyors.org.