Hale Fellow Well Met; DeFranco Goes Platinum

Not a lot of details offered when Blackstone Group’s deal for a majority of Santa Ana-based Stearns Lending came to light late last week, with initial reports offering no price and the description of founder and Chairman Glenn Stearns’ ongoing stake limited to “significant”(see Addendum item, page 15). A bit of extra buzz around OC had the New York-based investor more than happy to have CEO Brian Hale stay on the job with the management team he’s built for the mortgage lender … Orange County School of the Arts Executive Director Ralph Opacic was a freshman at Long Beach State and a long way from home on Thanksgiving Day in 1978 when his friend Michelle invited him to her aunt and uncle’s house. The hosts were Paul and Marybelle Musco, and Opacic didn’t see them again for years. Then he did—at some event or another—and the reunion has rendered the bread they broke together 37 years ago “the most expensive Thanksgiving dinner ever,” according to Paul Musco, who was in the crowd for an Aug. 16 ribbon-cutting at OCSA’s campus in Santa Ana … The latest item on the Thanksgiving tab is the Marybelle Musco Dance Center, part of the 60,000-square-foot addition that includes the Hal and Jeanette Segerstrom Family Music Center, Argyros Science Center, and the Callero Family Foundation Plaza, alongside the Newkirk Family Visual Arts Center … The addition took 65,000 cinder blocks and 625 yards of concrete but just 60 gallons of paint—a ratio that produced a gritty-glam look that fits the school’s urban vibe … Joe DeFranco has palled around with John Wayne and former Rams’ great Bob Waterfield, played golf both with Ben Hogan and Tiger Woods, and served as a founding director of Big Canyon CC. Now he’s poised to go platinum—a distinction he’ll share with his bride, Barbara, on their 70th wedding anniversary on Aug. 29 … Kingston Technology scion and sports entrepreneur Donald Sun got some unusually strong play in the sports sections of the L.A. Times and OC Register last week. The Times had a front-page account of his Association of Volleyball Professional’s Manhattan Beach Open on Aug. 17. The Register made prominent mention of the AVP tour in an Aug. 19 preview piece on the Federation of International Beach Volleyball tourney in Long Beach. Sun reportedly paid $2 million for the struggling AVP four years ago and has since been reworking sponsorships and media deals … A roster of nearly 20 business organizations that range from the Korean American Chamber of Commerce in Garden Grove to the China U.S. Business Association in Anaheim is getting ready for the 5th annual Orange County Asian Business Expo, which still has some booths and sponsorships available for its Sept. 10 run at the Embassy Suites Anaheim South Hotel. Memo to the various Asia-based automotive brands with U.S. headquarters in OC: The hall will accommodate a car for display, a sticking point on potential sponsorships in years past. Visit TheAsianBusinessExpo.com for more info … Concordia U. in Irvine has a booth at the expo as part of a global push spearheaded by School of Business Dean Stephen Christensen, who’s out to forge partnerships with overseas colleges, as well as high schools that might want to send students to OC for Concordia’s annual Teen Entrepreneur Academy.