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    By On 5 October 2021 In Member Profiles Tags , ,

    In Memoriam Robert (Bob) Aran


    CSA Legal Counsel Emeritus, Robert (Bob) Aran
    November 3, 1929 – October 5, 2021

    Bob Aran passed away on October 5, 2021. Bob was born in Detroit, Michigan and moved to Santa Monica with his family when he was 14 years old. He attended Pepperdine University, majoring in interpersonal relationships and served two years in the military (Korea). After graduation, Bob married, started a family and began his law career. Approximately 17-years later, he “signed on” with the California Sign Association (then the California Electric Sign Association), an integral part of the on-premise sign industry, and a friend to many. Bob, we are forever grateful for all that was accomplished over your thirty years as Legal Counsel for the California Sign Association!


    Following his military service in Korea, Bob finished law studies at Southwestern University in late 1954. During law school, he became deeply involved with the US Constitution, particularly the First & Fourteenth Amendments and began to follow signage issues where governmental activities and intrusions might affect First Amendment rights. Bob became a licensed California lawyer in early 1955; but didn’t handle a First Amendment sign case until 1966. His activity in the Discount Duds case brought him together with CESA.

    Following that case, Bob built a following within the Coachella Valley business community of Southern California, which included such cities as Indio, Indian Wells, Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, Cathedral City and Palm Springs, ultimately suing most of them, and either had their ordinances declared unconstitutional, or they backed off enforcement against Bob’s clients.

    In early 1972, Bob was retained by CESA. At first, approximately 5% of his work directly related to signs and 95% to other matters. As of Bob’s retirement 30+ years later, 95% was sign related, and 5% was other concerns.

    In 1983, Bob drafted a legislative enactment, designated as Chapter 2.5, Sections 5490 through 5499 of the California Business and Professions Code, which provided the first important (and first in the nation) legal protection for on-premise sign users and the California sign industry (subsequent amendments followed in 1986). Much of it addressed just compensation, amortization, etc., but Section 5491.1 uniquely required cities to inventory all illegal/abandoned signs before any new restrictive code could be enforced. Plus, the city had to hold a public hearing to see if the removal of all illegal/abandoned signs would satisfy the needs the new code would attempt to address.

    During an interview with Signs of the Times in 2006, Bob expressed gratitude to a number of prominent individuals who influenced his career for their sign industry guidance and insight, including, but not limited to, Kozell Boren, Leo March*, Kirk Brimley*, Bill Moore*, Frank Montroy*, Jeff Tanielian*, Roy Flahive, Mark Gastineau*, Noel Yarger, Jerry Jackson* and Kevin Stotmeister. Bob stated that he also admired his son, Jeffrey Aran, who became CSA’s legal counsel, effective January 1, 2004, and was confident that Jeff would bring to CSA great legal ability, competency, maturity, knowledge, legislative skill and the desire to relentlessly fight for industry needs.

    In addition to Bob Aran’s legacy to the on-premise sign industry, Jeff Aran shared beautiful thoughts of his dad at a memorial in Arizona on October 8, 2021, that began:

    On behalf of my brother, Keith, and myself, our dad was many things to many people. It’s hard to capture all his life in just a few moments. Dad held many interests and was passionate about everything from golf to travel, sports, antique card collecting, and for some years smoking a pipe. Standing here today, I can still remember as a kid the smell of that pipe and recall digging tobacco out from the car seats. He also loved to dance; he loved to shop for clothes, and in retirement enjoyed many hours at Costco. If there’s a Costco in heaven, you’ll find him there. He was a huge sports fan and a Lakers season ticket holder til the end, for over 50 years. Like several of you here today, he lived through the Great Depression, being born just after the market crash in 1929, WWII, and of course Korea, color TV, space travel, the moon landing. He was a Star Trek fan, and he told me once he had a crush on Rita Hayworth.

    He was also a provocateur and antagonist; he knew how to push your buttons, especially us kids. But he was a good lawyer, husband, father and grandfather. He wasn’t perfect, but he did his best. His professional legacy to me was the opportunity to serve as legal counsel for the California Sign Assn, which I still do today. His larger legacy to Keith and me as a father, and to many of us perhaps, was his passion for getting things done and undertaking a call to action against injustice.

    As Bob’s wife, Natalie, said, just two months short of their 50th wedding anniversary: “Bob, this is not good-bye; but rather, ‘until we meet again’”.

    Bob was interred with military honors at the VA Cemetery in Scottsdale, AZ.
    *deceased

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