Four Newspapers and a Passion for Public Service
For most Riviera residents, mornings begin with coffee and maybe one newspaper. Jean Adelsman starts her day with four. The Daily Breeze, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and The Washington Post all get a careful read — because once a newspaper person, always a newspaper person.
Jean Adelsman may be retired from the newsroom, but she is anything but retired from public life.
A Riviera resident since 1987, Jean Adelsman spent decades shaping journalism at some of the country’s most respected news organizations. Her career includes reporting at The Detroit Free Press, assistant managing editor at The Chicago Sun-Times, and managing editor of the Daily Breeze for more than 17 years. What was supposed to be a two-year California stopover when she took the Daily Breeze job turned into a 40-year love affair with the South Bay.
Along the way, Jean Adelsman helped train the next generation of journalists, teaching editing at Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism (where she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees) and newswriting, reporting, and editing at the USC Annenberg School of Communication. She also served as board president of the California Society of Newspaper Editors and the Los Angeles chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
But if you ask Jean Adelsman what keeps her busiest today, the answer isn’t journalism – it’s civic service and nonprofits.
Jean Adelsman is currently a Torrance Civil Service Commissioner, a role she has held for six years and one she enthusiastically encourages others to consider.
“Serving on a city commission is one of the best ways to learn how city government works,” Jean says. “You see the process up close, including how decisions are made, how policies are applied, and how important it is to have thoughtful, engaged residents at the table.”
For nearly four decades, she has volunteered with the Volunteer Center of the South Bay/Harbor/Long Beach, where she sits on the board and played a role in a $1.2 million capital campaign to refurbish its headquarters. She also chairs the college scholarship program.
She has spent more than 25 years with the Torrance Cultural Arts Foundation, where she sits on the board and helped transform its annual fundraiser from a formal gala into the free, widely loved TOCApalooza, the South Bay Festival of the Arts. And she serves on the board of Temple Menorah in Redondo Beach.
Jean Adelsman also writes a bi-weekly civic newsletter, Take Back Torrance, designed to help residents understand what’s happening at City Hall (www.TakeBackTorrance.com), and ran for Torrance City Council in 2022.
Her commitment hasn’t gone unnoticed. In 2022, Torrance City Council honored Jean Adelsman for outstanding community service — part of a tradition recognizing seniors who quietly power the city forward year after year.
Somewhere between board meetings and commission hearings, Jean Adelsman still finds time for a book club that’s been meeting monthly since 1985, and for her favorite form of relaxation: rubber-stamping handmade greeting cards.
“It’s an excuse to watch TV,” she says, sounding every bit like someone who has earned the downtime.
Born and raised in Indiana, Jean came west expecting to leave. Instead, she stayed, put down roots in the Riviera, and never stopped giving back. Though she has left the newsroom, Jean Adelsman remains deeply engaged in the civic life of Torrance, bringing a journalist’s rigor and a volunteer’s heart to everything she does.