Samanda Kunze Guyan

Raised on a farm in Iowa, and relocated in the 1960s to California, Samanda Guyan (“Sam, Sam the bicycle ma’am”) was a local Whittier icon. She will be fondly remembered for her impeccable pie crust, her colorful vocabulary (‘bilge’, ‘bunk’, ‘croup’), her community leader advocacy, and her ever-present sunglasses with rear-view mirror.

Sam was one of 10 siblings, captain of her high school basketball team, and the first to graduate college with a BA in Botany/Horticulture from Iowa State University. Introduced by a professor friend, this is also where she met fellow student, Robert J. Guyan. He proposed on New Year’s Eve 1955 with an engagement ring from North Africa, which was bought during his service there with the Air Force.

As a mathematician and soon to be aerospace engineer, Bob was recruited by NASA/Rockwell International to work at their Downey location. In 1963 he moved to the area first, and Sam, now with two young girls in tow and pregnant with number three, made the trip on her own. She was intrepid always.

Entering the city via the beautiful pine tree lined Beverely Blvd, Sam and Bob were inspired to found the Whittier Wheelman, a group which met each Sunday morning for bike rides that often ended at a popular bakery. Her bicycle columns, featured in the Whittier Daily News, would offer routes and restaurant recommendations.

Sam volunteered on numerous committees, including the League of Women Voters, the Historical Society, the Fair Housing Council, the Save the Hills campaign, and the Cultural Arts Commission. She could often be seen taking notes at various City Hall meetings. On the Sundays that it rained, and bike riding not possible, Sam would sing in the Hillcrest Church choir as a soprano.

She earned a master’s degree in business administration from Whittier College in 1989. Her rhubarb pie was legendary, as were the oatmeal cookies she would let her children eat for breakfast. She hiked Mount Baldy, rode her bike all the way to Phoenix, and traveled 6 times a year, including to interior Alaska in January, to be with her grandchildren on their birthdays. She liked to iron while watching The Rockford Files or listening to banjo music.

Sam is survived by an older brother and sister-in-law, four daughters and their husbands, seven grandchildren, and many favorite cousins, nieces, and nephews. Husband Bob passed in March of 2021.

A memorial service will be held on what would have been her 91st birthday, at 11am on Saturday, October 19th, 2024, at Hillcrest Congregational Church in La Habra Heights. A lunch reception catered by Lascari’s will be held afterward at Barwick Hall.