When Dr. Sheldon Singer celebrated his 80th birthday in August of 2004, he said, "I am thinking seriously of slowing down." Since then, however he's one of five who began an International Certified Farmers Market open every Sunday on Garden Grove's Historic Main Street. He's also actively involved with Garden Grove Galleria, an eight-story building on three acres of land. This property on Garden Grove Boulevard will house commercial and luxury residential condominiums, the income from which will help underwrite an adjacent Boys and Girls Club Main Branch. He was instrumental in obtaining the land for the Children's Health and Dental Center.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Dr. Singer served in the Navy during WWII, in the Pacific Theater. After the war he returned to Ohio where he graduated from Ohio State University with B.S. and O.D. degrees. Moving to California in1954, he opened his optometric practice in Garden Grove in 1956. He joined the Garden Grove Chamber of Commerce in 1957 and became president in 1965. He was later instrumental in starting the Women's Division of the Chamber. In 1958, he was chair of the committee that proposed the Strawberry Festival to the Chamber. He then served on the Festival board for 15 years and was president in 1965.

Since 1959 Dr. Singer has been continuously involved with the Boys and Girls Club, serving on the board of directors and as president in 1965, the same year he became a charter member of the Valencia Shrine Club. A member of Kiwanis Club of Garden Grove since 1970, he served as president in 1978. For more than 30 years he was a member of the Flying Samaritans of Orange County, a group of health practitioners, who fly to Baja, Mexico one weekend a month to work in a free clinic. He served as president in 1994.

Dr. Singer was on the Garden Grove Sanitary District from 1974-1997, serving as president from 1995-1997. From 1992-1997 he was a board member of the Orange County Sanitation District, and in 1996 was chairman of the Planning, Development and Construction Committee.

He was a member of the Orange County Emergency Medical Services and a first vice president of Independent Special Districts of Orange County. In 2000, he was appointed to two Orange County committees: the Ad hoc Committee and the Blue Ribbon Committee. Since 2001, he as been a member of the Special Needs in Transit Committee for the Orange County Transportation Authority, and the Board of Directors of Orange County Vector Control, representing Garden Grove. Dr. Singer has also been a member of the Planning and Advisory Committee of the Sanitation District, and the citizens Advisory Committee of the OCTA.

In 1998 Dr. Singer was foreman of the Orange County Grand Jury. A member of the Orange County Grand Jurors Assn, he was president in 2004 and 2005. Since 2003, he has been a board member of the Garden Grove Hospital and the Garden Grove Community Forum. In 2004, he was the interviewee for the Garden Grove Unified School District Eli Broad Award; the district received the top award of $500,000.

In 1970 he was named the Garden Grove Chamber's Man of the Year and in 2003, he received the National Medallion from the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. In 2006 he received the President's Volunteer Service Award from the President's Council on Service and civic Participation.

Dr. Singer and his wife Carol continue to reside in the same home in Garden Grove. Their son, David Mark Singer, is chief of police in Whittier. He has two grandsons, Alex and Matthew.

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